Smart Care to Improve Health Care for the Elderly

Smart care technology which has made strides is recognized vital in the aging society. This study was intended to examine trends and outlook of smart care by type of elderly and situation to spur improvement in health management for the elderly. Smart cares by type of elderly and situation were elderly-friendly smart home, smart care for management of chronic diseases in the elderly, and smart care for the elderly living alone. Smart care is needed to be implemented actively not only to reduce medical costs and improve the quality of medical services but also to ensure safety and quality of life for the elderly. However, multi-faceted efforts need to be made to help overcome the difficulties arising from degraded cognitive function of the elderly, considering the basic orientation of smart care such as mobile, smart, cloud computing, IoT, etc. For that, it would be necessary to develop elderly-friendly devices suited for characteristics of the elderly group and to actively deploy professional manpower, in parallel with active support from related organizations, who can provide instant support to the elderly encountering difficulty with the use, so as to stimulate the smart care service in the period ahead. Furthermore, as health information and privacy information generated in connection with individuals are sensitive data, it would be the most important to ensure that strict security is maintained for safe data transmission and that only necessary part of information is shared selectively.