Saturday, 30 April 2011

Questions for the future of home automation in health care

Zorgcongres

Next thursday I will be member of a panel (together with Joachim De Vos from Living Tomorrow & Philip Minnaert from Care Home Carpentier) discussing about the future of home automation in health care.
It will be a very interactive discussing with an audience filled with health care professionals (link to the event, in dutch, here: http://www.facilitynights.com/zorgcongres/).

Looking forward to the answers they will be giving to following questions:

  1. Is home automation (or technology in general) for elderly "comfort"or "necessity"? (responding to attractiveness, progress, HR deficit)
  2. How will a nursing home -through technology- 'take care' of a region? (through linked houses)
  3. Is home automation a violation of privacy?
  4. Will residential care evolve into houses of mourning? (because technology enables the elderly to stay home longer and more independently)
  5. Will residential care be organised solely by large institutions ... or only through local (linked) initiatives?
  6. Given the labor shortage, deploying robots is inevitable - or should we import "guest workers" in large quantities?
  7. How much will automation technology blur the boundaries between skilled medical professionals and unskilled manpower?
  8. What happens to human contact when communication with the outside world is done via screens (and / or augmented reality)?
  9. If a multitude of devices and software are used, how important will the "openness" of health systems be?
  10. Will the developments of home automation move from a permanent place in the house to the bodies of care consumers?
If you would like to see other questions answered, ... your suggestions are welcome!

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