Four aging challenges for entrepreneurs designing elder tech
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Four aging challenges for entrepreneurs designing elder tech

A conversation with Peter Ross, CEO and Co-Founder of Senior Helpers and President of the Home Care Association of America

America is running out of family caregivers just when it needs them most, a recent Wall Street Journal article proclaimed. “The silver tsunami hasn’t hit yet,” said Peter Ross, CEO and Co-Founder of Senior Helpers, an in-home care provider. 

By all accounts we are in the midst of a sea change that demands we change how we think about retirement, healthy aging, and living well – at any age. In Massachusetts we are well positioned to shape a new vision for aging – with world-class healthcare, well-funded entrepreneurs in a vibrant tech community, and a Baker-Polito administration that is committed to promoting healthy aging.

Boston start-ups are designing, funding and testing elder technology to solve some of the aging services sector’s most pressing challenges. To say that Peter Ross knows a thing or two about these challenges would be a gross understatement. 

Peter co-founded Senior Helpers nearly 15 years ago after his firsthand experience as a family caregiver. Today, Senior Helpers has 300+ locations and 25,000 caregivers nationwide. Peter is also a member of the Healthcare Leadership Council and President of the Home Care Association of America.

I asked Peter what he believes are the most pressing problems in aging and caregiving. 

Enable better in-home caregiving

“How do we provide better in-home care?” Peter asked. “A caregiver may be at a home for 4 to 8 hours each day, what happens when they are not there?”

In-home caregiving can supplement family caregivers. It isn’t always a complete solution to caring for a loved one’s daily needs though. Peter urges entrepreneurs to address senior needs when a caregiver is not at the home. For example, socialization, he said, remains a persistent challenge. Nowhere is this more evident than with elder orphans – seniors aging alone.

Re-connect elder orphans to a community

A recent Forbes article, Millions of Baby Boomers will Retire and Age Solo, cited that almost 20% of boomers do not have children. This aging solo trend isn’t limited to the United States. 

In Japan, Peter said, there are no children to care for aging parents. “You can provide home care for private pay situations but many folks can’t afford that home care.” Affordable in-home care for seniors aging alone is a big problem. So is re-connecting seniors aging solo to a community, said Peter. “It’s about socialization.”

Caregiving often addresses homemaking and personal hygiene. But what of isolation, loneliness and depression? As a firsthand family caregiver I am keenly aware of the burden to make sure that I take care of the health and financial needs and also the emotional and spiritual well-being of my loved one.

Empower seniors to live at home, in any “home”, with dignity

I don’t know what I would do without the fantastic caregivers who help me. Danielle and Donna connect my Aunt with a church community and deliver a vital one-on-one socialization that, I’ve come to realize, wouldn’t exist by relying solely on the staff at the residence.


“The vision of the Home Care Association is to empower people to live at home with dignity, wherever you call home,” said Peter. “Typically care to patient staffing ratios are 14:1 in a residence. When you think of care, home care is 1:1.”


Senior Helpers works at single family homes and facilities to provide one to one care. Caregivers work with the family, the individual and the facility.

Here’s the rub: how do we provide a seamless continuity of care from the family to individual to caregiver to healthcare provider?

Provide continuity of care from caregiver to the healthcare system

“The HIPPA law is outdated,” Peter said. “There’s no reason why we can’t be sharing records between systems.” HIPPA dates to 1996 he said, and governs the protection of patient medical information, which makes it hard to share information between systems.

“The challenge with healthcare and aging is how to tell a bad day from a really bad day and understand what you need to know before there is an issue such as with a drug interaction.” Connectivity, Peter believes, is the underlying challenge in the aging services sector – the need to seamlessly share critical information between caregivers, doctors and other healthcare providers.

Even the simple act of sharing information about future doctor appointments between multiple family caregivers can be burdensome. Boston start-up Kinto has developed an app for family caregivers to communicate, organize and manage everything related to caring for a loved one that it hopes will help family caregivers.

Calling All Innovators

There is no shortage of challenges to address in the aging services sector. Fortunately, entrepreneurs such as @Kinto, Rendever, LifePod, Care Academy and many others are taking up the challenge.

The bringing together of healthcare providers with these innovators is part and parcel of the Aging2.0 mission. Peter will be one of four expert panelists at Aging & Caregiving Digital Health Reverse Pitches, presented by Aging2.0 in collaboration with the Massachusetts eHealth Institute (MeHI). He'll be discussing challenges for entrepreneurs designing elder technology. Other panelists include AARP’s Andy Miller, Chetan Parekh from Procter and Gamble, and Benchmark Senior Living’s Leigh Anne Capello.  


Tags: #aging, #eldertech, #seniorliving, #caregiving, #caregivers, @Aging2.0

Kay Corry Aubrey

User Experience Researcher and Trainer

5y

Great interview Cynthia and Peter. HIPPA needs to change to make it easier for caregivers to share information on their loved one

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Keith Lanzilotti

Co-Founder and Owner Well-Being Total Home Care

5y

It's important to understand the breadth of what's happening in homes today to understand where we need to go.  This is getting very large.  We need to get in front of the continuity of care.  Great insight Peter.

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Dave McCaughan

Storytelling is what i do, from Speaker to brand strategist, researching brand narratives, developing marketing comms

5y

And I hope all these organisations are hiring taking on interns and training over 65s for new roles as innovators

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