Intel wants you to age gracefully, at home - BusinessWeek

For three months early this year, 63-year-old Ronald Lang was one of the most plugged-in patients in America. Lang, who suffers from congestive heart failure and multiple sclerosis, was pilot-testing the Intel Health Guide, a device that let doctors monitor his health remotely. Each day after he woke up, he'd step on a scale and strap on a blood-pressure cuff that were attached to the Health Guide. The device collected his vitals and zapped them to his doctor's office. From there, nurse Marie DiCola scoured the data, and if she noticed anything amiss, she dialed up Lang and chatted with him over Health Guide's videophone.

Health Guide is at the leading edge of a new technology trend called "aging in place" that's designed to help seniors stay longer where they're most comfortable—at home—rather than having to move into nursing or assisted-living facilities. Aging-in-place equipment is placed in a person's home, monitors symptoms on the spot, and sends reports to doctors and family members in real time. Companies developing these products, just now being deployed by a handful of health plans and home care agencies, believe aging-in-place tech can drastically cut the rate of medical complications that force seniors into hospitals and other intensive-care facilities. That, in turn, could shave millions of dollars a year from U.S. health-care bills—a tantalizing proposition at a time when health reform is at the top of the political agenda...