Smart Home Tech is needed for ‘underdeveloped’ senior care needs

Much of her work is aimed at senior populations in rural and disadvantaged areas. She also works on connecting a variety of areas – including the reverse mortgage industry – to tackle the gap in technology for the needs of health care.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Neil Pierson: Surveys have shown that the vast majority of seniors want to age in place. What do you think of how we continue as a country to help people achieve that goal?

Jing Wang: That number never goes down. It always goes up. Who doesn’t want to stay in their own house and get older in their own house? But you have seen the markets where these traditional pension homes are, such as guided living and independent living. Then you have 55-plus communities. Perhaps there are more choices for people with a lower socio -economic status in urban areas.

I think the US is generally underdeveloped to achieve the senior care needs for aging, which is a spectrum. If you are talking about your age of 55 and think of aging in place, it is different than when you are age and think of aging in place. The needs vary from wellness topics to serious health care at home. And I would say that the wellness side is better prepared in the US, versus senior care for the older adults whose needs require more intensive medical care-for example at home-based dialysis care. Then you are talking about how good this house is ready for this intensive medical care in the house.

I think the space is much less prepared. Many of the current pension homes naturally take welfare into account and some of the functions they can make are simple, such as autumn prevention. And there are aging technologists and aging designers who match individual needs to design a bar here, a handle here, for the stairs, for your bathroom.

NP: A follow -up question is there, are there other countries that can serve as a good model for how this can be done better?

JW: Every country is different. For example, Japan is a kind of country that is best known for older care, but their house is a small small room, versus our house for a senior here, it can be a house that sometimes has two floors.

Countries such as Japan, South Korea or even some European countries grow much faster in the smart-home market. And there are figures that project the Smart-Home Market is going to grow rapidly. That market also drives Smart Home for Healthcare or Smart Home for senior aging in place. You have people who are getting older who are actually dependent on technologies, and when they become that older group, they will want all these smart technologies to be with them, because they are used to it and they want to take advantage of it in their house.

NP: How are housing builders and developers who want to take on these challenges in the new building?

JW: You will see a very limited acceptance of Smart Home functions in new construction. But we actually worked very closely with builders, actually, In our initiative – the FSU, Margaritaville Holdings And Samsung Partnership. We work together with one of the largest 55-plus communities. There is a long waiting list for those houses and there is a large master plan. We work together with the builder and the economic development company for that area.

For our pilot model house there are many pragmatic concerns that they are very interested in – that’s why they want to work with us. But they should pay attention to this if more a retrofit function for seniors to buy it after they have bought the house. They hesitate to place more expensive smart-home technologies before the residents actually withdraw. But if it is part of a contract for a new house, you need that a bit.

I just learn more and more from these communities about the best way to really place these technologies. From the perspective of a home structure there are parts such as lighting, where you place plugs to empower internet or electric backup.

Samsung works together with us and other pension communities to have these model homes. When you buy a new house, go to a model house and you can choose which map you like, which color you like. I think you will see more of these showrooms that will place the current Smart Home technologies in the places where people build new houses or where people want their house afterwards afterwards. You will see that trending, but it is not the mainstream that takes place in the current new builds.

NP: You have touched partnerships, but when it comes to the people who can finance these types of projects, who do you need help to make the money flow?

JW: We actually just have one Global Alliance for Smart Health HomesBecause we recognize the professionals involved in this area, are distributed everywhere. We see this as the more professionals who specialize in providing care, the better. And when I say that, it is further than just nursing care or medical care – it can be the mortgage professionals who try to support them in the financing to find a place to live.

Our entire goal of creating this global alliance is to help us bring all the people in this space together so that we can have concentrated efforts. At the moment there are thousands of different bags of people who do similar things, but it does not move the field ahead. These seniors need holistic support.

I want to see that more professionals from different sectors come together to create some standards and make it easy for consumers to understand: “Ok, here are my options.” That is a kind of my big goal in how I would like to see the field go together.