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Intel's Eric Dishman: "No One Is Building Apps For Seniors"

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The last time I spoke to Eric Dishman, general manager at Intel Health Strategy & Solutions Group, was in 2004. He was embarking on a project to track the lifestyle of early stage Alzheimer’s patients by deploying wireless sensors around their homes. The sensors prompted them to call someone, reminded them to eat their breakfast, or take their medicine. That work led to products that were spun off in 2010 as part of a joint venture between Intel and General Electric into a new company called Care Innovations, where Dishman also serves as director of health policy.

Last time I spoke to you social media, such as Facebook, didn’t exist. How are you integrating it into your technology?

I look at aging issues, and the whole range of computing we need. With Care Innovations, building social networking tools was a key part of the offering. We tested prototypes in Oregon and Ireland at long term care facilities, and folded them into a new product called Connect. It’s like a walled garden for seniors. We found that people 80 and above could use PCs, but were not comfortable using Facebook. We offered social networking tools to help families fill out profiles—like “banker for 25 years.” When we did that, people discovered others on campus they’ve never met. It created mini-networks for matchmaking skills; someone could exchange mowing a lawn for balancing a checkbook. Connect is now sold by Care Innovations. Your Mom can wake up with a simple-to-use touch tablet, look at the screen to check the weather; the device asks how she’s doing, reminds her to take medication. A caregiver or nurse is alerted to needs, since they’re on the social network.

The aging demographics should be a market opportunity for tech companies, yet there’s a general lack of interest in Silicon Valley at what you call “gray” technology; how do you explain that?

The U.S. is a youth culture. We associate social networking with youth, with college students creating these tools. They don’t have the need for it, they don’t yet have the experience of older people. Today’s generation of younger people doesn’t live close to its grandparents. No one is building apps for seniors. We’ve been building them for 12 years at Intel. Look at the number of seniors and disposable income. We don’t like to think about getting old. It’s changed a bit in the last couple of years with baby boomers. There were no conferences on technology in aging 12 years ago. Now there are more conferences, but in the U.S. it’s still academic, it hasn’t crossed over to VCs.

Europe and China are ahead of the U.S. when it comes to planning for their aging population.  Is Intel involved?

The European Union has a Czar for aging. It set up the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Aging with companies and governments in the EU to develop and sell technologies. It has an initiative to add two years of quality life to everyone in the EU by the end of the decade. The government played a leadership role, but got out of the way. There’s venture capital funding. They’re ahead of us on the age wave curve, a third of the population is over 65, and they have shrinking tax base. Necessity is breeding innovation. You don’t have to reach critical mass before you go “oh, oh!” In China, the one-child policy is coming back to haunt them. It is contributing to population aging challenges; one couple has no siblings to help care for four aging parents, for example.  In 2020, China will surpass the U.S. in having more people over the age of 65. As part of its latest five-year plan, they’re building age-friendly cities. They’re designing whole new cities from the ground up: a health care grid, a transportation grid. Intel is helping with health care IT.

How is Intel capitalizing on your work?

A lot of this. From Care Innovations' Connect to its tele-health technology in homes and in workplaces, to tablets and smartphones, demand for computing creates business demand for Intel. We’re working with the Chinese government on age-friendly cities. We're looking to move 80% of care to homes. There’s a time and a place for nursing homes. We put a lot of people in these institutions, but with a little help, they can stay in their homes. We want to help people age in place with the home of their choice. If they chose to age in their homes, we have the technology, but it needs to be configured the right way. The business model is changing, and accountable care organizations will have an impact. They have to achieve savings by taking care of end-to-end needs. You kill people moving from hospitals to nursing homes and back. There has to be transition of care; suddenly the economic incentive is in place to sync up.

Is there a product that you’re most excited about?

One of the products Care Innovations has put out, where we’ve seen an impact is the Guide tele-health product. It lets seniors with chronic conditions visit their doctor through video, instead of getting in a car. We have a sensor network called Quietcare to track daily living, and alert caregivers when an emergency happens.  If someone is going to the bathroom ten times at night, there’s a high correlation with falling. It sounds like science fiction, and a lot of people don’t know that this stuff exists.