Archive for the ‘Alzheimer’s GPS Personal Location Services’ tag
Forget Me Not
Every 7 seconds someone, somewhere turns 50. Of that number, hundreds of thousands of loving fathers, mothers, sons and daughters are realizing that they may become a victim of Alzhiemer’s.
The journey to the golden years will mark more than twice as many women as men with the as yet incurable curse of dementia…why women? Statistically they live longer and so have more years to contract the disease. More over, their 9.8 million family and unpaid care givers will provide 8.4 billion hours of care. Can you calculate what those numbers will be over the course of the next decade as the millions of baby boomers reach 65?
The Technology Pavilion at the Life@50+ National AARP Event & Expo Washington, DC, September 4–6, 2008 will include a “Nana” Technology© booth, hosted by Andrew Carle, a national expert on senior care and technology, and an Assistant Professor in the College of Health and Human Services at George Mason University. Professor Carle acts as an advisor to GTX Corp, specifically targeting the development of applications for location aware devices to assist the home bound elderly who are memory impaired. He has coined the term “Nana” to describe helpful technologies for older adults and the role such technologies will play in meeting the needs of aging Baby Boomers.
We will become ghosts of our former selves
For most of us,100,000 deaths in an incomprehensible number. Put the face of a person we know on those numbers and that changes everything. Ronald Reagan is a face among those thousands as was Ralph Waldo Emerson, Jonathan Swift, and Frederick Law Olmstead. Each a victim of Alzheimer’s disease… an affliction more feared than cancer or heart disease… because the only hope is that we won’t be the one in five that succumbs while a treatment is researched for the next generation.
As Alzheimer’s progresses, the disease will promote “wandering.” Once out of home and out of the sight of care givers it is more than likely than unfortunate circumstances will befall them. Locating wanderers is stressful, dangerous and costly.
Tracking technology exists that will present their location on Google maps from cell phones and PDA’s in real time directly to the care giver allowing municipal services to be available to address more serious situation. To learn mmore about the potential of GPS and Personal Location Services visit; www.GTXCorp.com