According to Statistics Denmark1 the number of the elderly will grow considerably over the next ten years. The number of people aged 80 years is expected to grow by 150,000 persons over the next ten years, whereas the group of people aged between 65-79 will have grown by 58,000 persons by 2028. If you look further into the future, one in ten inhabitants is expected to have reached the age of 80 in 2053.
Increasing demand for medical care
The aging populations challenge our healthcare systems. As aging affects the human body, an increasing number of people will come to require medical care. Unfortunately, the number of young people is not growing as fast as the number of the elderly. Therefore, healthcare staff will fall short in numbers – unable to assist the large group of aging people in society. This causes new applications and new technology to become essential factors if everyone should continue to receive the proper care and attention.
New types of care
Fortunately, many organizations focus on the development of new products to assist the elderly and to ease the work for healthcare staff. However, this will not mean less care! On the contrary, the care will just be performed differently. More assistive devices will prompt a higher level of efficiency for healthcare staff and give rise to more independent and self-sufficient elderly residents.
As mentioned in the description of trend no. 2, ‘dignity and independence’ are also becoming more important. The elderly wish to remain independent and remain in their own home as long as possible. They are willing to invest in assistive devices that make them require less assistance from healthcare staff.
Data offers valuable insights
One of the technologies that can make a difference in helping the large group of the elderly is the ‘Internet of Things’ (trend no. 1). By connecting healthcare applications to the Internet, it is for instance possible to collect data on patient conditions or application service status. In this way, the necessary care can be efficiently planned, and assistive devices can be serviced before they break.
LINAK cooperates with several of the companies that develop innovative and useful products for the elderly. In addition, we have developed a data collecting tool to be used with various healthcare products to make care more efficient.
1) Danish governmental organization under the Ministry for Economic and Interior Affairs
