Intel provides tech for elderly care in Ireland

[After those few posts about Google, I'm getting back to wireless technology with clinical applications.]

From eWeek, comes the story "Intel to Create Technologies for Elderly Health in Ireland."

This is a 3-year, $30 million dollar collaboration between Intel and Industrial Development Agency of Ireland to create the Technology Research for Independent Living (TRIL)

Intel has been touting its work for at-home health services for years now. It has produced demos ranging from video screens for elderly patients to communicate with caregivers to sophisticated coordination tests that track symptoms of Parkinson's disease and detect when medications should be changed. Other technologies include cell phones that could detect quavers and other changes in an elderly person's voice, warning the person to see a doctor and thereby address a potential neurological disorder in its early stages.

Intel has also provided the Oregon Health Science University with a $1 million grant "to develop technologies that detect 'behavioral markers' that can sense when an elderly person needs help." It seems that similar telehealth initiatives have suffered from the lack of a robust business model, since both insurers and private individuals have been reluctant to pay for the devices and the associated services.

Technorati Tags: telemedicine, wireless monitoring, Intel, Ireland, OHSU