Caregivers Use Technology to Help Faraway Family

Bashor sits down at her computer and signs on to AttentiveCare, an Internet-based service that connects caregivers with their loved ones. She can initiate a videoconference with her mother or just watch unnoticed.

"I can see in an instant how she's feeling," Bashor said. "One evening, I noticed she was limping around her place, and I asked her why. If I had simply called her, she might not have mentioned she had fallen."

As Americans struggle to look after a growing older population coping with the chronic illnesses and frailties of advanced age, they're turning more to new technology -- including Web cameras, pillbox monitors, bathroom sensors and fall detectors -- to complement their hands-on care.

Baby boomers' longtime fascination with high-tech gadgets has merged with their elder care responsibilities and created a burgeoning market for such in-home devices and services.

"The technology revolution that's already transformed our lives in many ways, from e-mail to cell phones, is about to transform aging, too," said Majd Alwan, director of the Center for Aging Services Technologies, a national coalition of technology companies, senior care providers and universities.

The technology has moved well beyond "I've fallen and I can't get up" buttons.

Today, sensors can collect information about eating, medication use, sleeping and toilet habits and transmit it to the adult children or professional caregivers via the Web.

Other systems detect nighttime wandering and check blood pressure, body temperature and pulse. Bed sensors can even measure whether someone has gained or lost weight.

The systems raise inevitable questions about privacy, but Bashor's mother, at least, welcomes the videoconferences with her daughter and doesn't mind the camera in her living room.

"The fact that my family can see me and how I'm doing gives me a sense of security," said Esther Coker, who's 86.

Giant companies such as Honeywell International Inc., Intel Corp. and Philips are entering the market, but much of the technology has come from entrepreneurs and start-up companies.

The AttentiveCare system, developed by Caregiver Technologies Inc. of Oklahoma City, provides a virtual window into seniors' homes. It also lets family members post photos of grandchildren and reminders about doctor appointments on the senior's video screen. Caregiver Technologies charges $200 for the setup and $60 a month after that.

Ken Nixon, president of the privately held company, designed the computer software to help with his mother, who was in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease at the time. He has since marketed AttentiveCare over the Internet and by word-of-mouth to about 100 other long-distance caregivers, mostly in the Southwest.

Bashor's home is in Lawrenceburg, Ind.; her mother lives in Fort Smith, Ark. When Bashor initiates their videoconferences, a bell rings in her mother's home, and the older woman sits down by the webcam.

"The beauty of this system is that it doesn't require the senior to do anything," Nixon said. "Most caregivers like to observe unannounced, besides doing videoconferences. You might say they're spying, but they do it out of love."

Another entrepreneur, Vestu Brue of San Antonio, heard friends fret that their aging parents weren't remembering to take their medications. Her answer was a "smart pillbox" called MedSignals that beeps at the appropriate times, dispenses the prescriptions, tracks the use and sends the information to a Web site.

Caregivers then can check whether their loved ones have taken their pills. Clinical trials have found that patients using the device are less likely to miss their medication than those who rely on memory.

Brue's company, LifeTechniques Inc., will ship the first pillboxes to