Introducing the Aging Technology Alliance: A Home Care Resource

Last Thursday, I attended a seminar that I helped to organize entitled "Emerging Technologies for the Silver Tsunami" which was presented by the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council (www.masstlc.org).  It was a fantastic program with a keynote address by Laurie Orlov from the Aging in Place Technology Watch (www.ageinplacetech.com).  The event started with Laurie's keynote, then had presentations and a panel discussion with Judy Willett from Beacon Hill Village and Andrea Cohen from Houseworks.  The latter portion of the meeting was a panel of Aging in Place Entrepreneurs including big company representation such as Philips Home Care, and small companies like BeClose (see related posts here and here). 

I will have several forthcoming blog posts based on this session, but today's post in particular was inspired by a question asked by attendee Lisa Fuller from VNA Home Care and Hospice (affiliated with Mercy Health System of Maine).  Lisa asked, "With all of these technologies emerging, how can I even find out what's out there?"

Two answers were offered:

1. Read Laurie Orlov's Blog (www.ageinplacetech.org),
   
   and
2. Check out the Aging Technology Alliance (www.agetek.org)

We've featured Laurie and her blog numerous times here at the Ankota blog, such as here, but the Aging Technology Alliance is something new that might be a good resource for you... 

In a nutshell, AgeTek is a consortium of providers of Aging in Place Technologies.  They offer a listing of such vendors here and benefits to their members such as discounted booths at tradeshows and events.  They are also starting to have an impact on getting the word out about the industry and have been behind several recent high profile stories, including the ones you can see at these links:

• The CBS Early Show: here
• ABC News: here
• The ABC "Gotta Know Show": here
• New york Times: here

We hope that this alliance will provide valuable information and visibility to benefit the home care community!

Ankota provides software to improve the delivery of care outside the hospital.  Today Ankota services home health, private duty care, DME Delivery, RT, Physical Therapy and Home Infusion organizations, and is interested in helping to efficiently manage other forms of care.  To learn more, please visit www.ankota.com or contact Ankota.