Sunday, September 26, 2010

Things They Should Invent: technology to mitigate cognitive decline

The following is a scene from Strangers In Death by J.D. Robb. Relevant to understanding this scene but not relevant to the blog post as a whole: the book is set in the year 2060, Mr. Anders is lying dead in his bed, and Eve is the detective investigating his murder. We join the scene already in progress.

Behind her, over a gas fireplace where flames simmered gold and red, the view screen popped on.

"Good morning, Mr. Anders!"

Narrow-eyed, Eve turned to stare at the screen. The computerized female voice struck her as annoyingly perky, and the sunrise colors bleeding onto the screen wouldn’t have been her choice of wake-up call.

"It’s now seven-fifteen on Tuesday, March eighteenth, twenty-sixty. You have a ten o’clock tee time at the club, with Edmond Luce."

As the computer chirpily reminded Anders what he’d ordered for breakfast, Eve thought: "No egg-white omelette for you this morning, Tom."

Across the room in an ornate sitting area, a miniAutoChef with bright brass fittings beeped twice.

"Your coffee’s ready! Enjoy your day!"

“Not so much,” Eve murmured.

The screen flipped to the morning’s headline news, anchored by a woman only slightly less perky than the computer. Eve tuned her out.


So, if Mr. Anders weren't dead, the computer would wake him up, tell him when and where he is and why it's waking him up, and provide him with breakfast. That would be so helpful to elders in the early stages of cognitive decline!

We already have some of that. I wake up to light, radio, and coffee. We have electronic calendars that will give us pop-up alerts a set time before an appointment. It just needs better coordination. When you enter an appointment into your schedule, that should alert your wakeup system that you need to be awoken, say, 2 hours before the appointment. If you're prescribed a new medication, not only does the pharmacist put it in your pill sorter thing, but you get an alert when it's time to take it (and additional alerts to get you to eat or not eat or whatever the medication requires). People who might not be remembering to eat proper could have a standing order from Grocery Gateway of ready-to-eat/microwavable foods that meet their tastes and nutritional needs. People who are inclined to wander could have the GPS on their phone lead them back to where they need to be.

The biggest concern about the aging population is the cost of caring for elders. One of the biggest reasons for putting elders in expensive, residential care is cognitive decline. If you ask any elder, they'll tell you that they want to stay in their own home as long as possible. This technology is within reach. Someone needs to make it happen.

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