“It’s a potential growth area for us,” Hulander told BusinessWeek. “A lot of things traditionally done in the doctor’s office might soon be done at home.”
Best Buy has not finalized its product lineup yet but according to the BusinessWeek report it may include blood-pressure monitors, pedometers, and fitness watches. Hulander also plugged the potential for these devices to wirelessly transmit data to websites like Microsoft’s HealthVault so they could be shared with medical professionals.
HealthVault is where much of Best Buy’s recent interest in wireless health began:
"Under federal rules, most people with disabilities who are younger than 65 aren't eligible for Medicare until more than two years after they qualify for Social Security disability income.
A coalition of more than 65 organizations led by the Medicare Rights Center has been pushing Congress to do away with the waiting period. But the effort has stalled because of the high cost to the federal government - an estimated $113 billion over 10 years, according to the Congressional Budget Office" (Kaiser Health News). Read the entire article. Watch the related slideshow.
A bipartisan group of 136 members of Congress recently requested that the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) disclose the list of homecare providers whose bids were used to calculate home medical equipment reimbursement rates under the Medicare "competitive" bidding program. See letter here."Without knowing the identity, as well as the appropriate overall qualifications of these providers, we cannot evaluate the program's impact in terms of quality and access to care for seniors we represent," states the congressional letter to CMS Administrator Donald Berwick, M.D.
Dr. Doraiswamy, with social worker Lisa Gwyther, who directs Duke’s Alzheimer’s family support program, and science writer Tina Adler, intend for their book, “The Alzheimer’s Action Plan,” to fill a gap. “It’s essentially a book about the early stage of the disease,” Dr. Doraiswamy said.
These authors dispute the notion that since there’s no cure for Alzheimer’s, diagnosis and treatment are pointless. “Studies suggest that people who start treatment early usually remain better off than those who start treatment months later,” they write. So they’ve mapped out strategies for seeking a diagnosis and maximizing the usefulness of a doctor’s appointment. They explain conditions that can masquerade as Alzheimer’s but aren’t. They offer very specific advice on medications, not only Alzheimer’s drugs but antidepressants and antipsychotics.
Potentially inappropriate medications
These drugs either have more side effects or dangerously different side effects when used by older people
To read more about the studies which appear in a special section of the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, visit the Journal's homepage at www.j-alz.com and click on "Therapeutic Opportunities for Caffeine..."
NPR continued its series on seniors aging at home.
Part two examined a company called Adaptive Home, "one of a growing number of startups that use monitoring technology to revolutionize elder care. These companies are also betting on a big market as the baby boomers enter old age. Chris Bridgers says a basic package includes about a dozen motion sensors placed strategically around a house. They can provide adult children with a stunningly detailed rundown of a parent's day" (Ludden, 8/23).
Part three continued looking at "wired homes," with an example of a older couple in Georgia monitored via live video hookup to a company in Indiana
A number of controlled clinical trials -- these are carefully designed and conducted scientific studies done in humans -- have concluded that cranberry juice really is effective for preventing urinary tract infections," said Terri Anne Camesano, Ph.D., who led the study. "That has important implications, considering the size of the problem and the health care costs involved.
"Katrina taught us a harsh lesson about the plight of vulnerable people in times of disaster and national emergency," said the journal's editor, Timothy Elliott, PhD, of Texas A&M University. "Solutions to these problems won't be provided by any single profession or service, which is why this special section brings together colleagues from psychology, special education and rehabilitation administration to provide information that will help us find solutions."In a study looking at Hurricane Katrina victims, researchers focused on survivors with a wide range of disabilities. Nearly two years after the storm, they surveyed and interviewed disaster case managers and supervisors who provided services to 2,047 individuals with disabilities and their families through the Katrina Aid Today project. They found that considerable barriers to housing, transportation and disaster services were still present two years after the storm. For example, they found that survivors with disabilities were less likely to own homes than survivors without disabilities. This meant that some of the Federal Emergency Management Agency homeowner programs did not help them or, in the case of FEMA trailers, were not accessible to them.
People who are afraid of falling down have a higher risk of experiencing subsequent falls, compared to individuals who do not have that fear, says a new report published in the BMJ (British Medical Journal). The authors say that both actual and perceived fall risk should be included in fall risk assessment in order to help protect elderly people from falls.