Metaverse for Elder Care

Ask not for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee.. John Donne

A little bit of a background about the famous line of John Donne's poem.The idea of tolling of the bell comes from the practice people would indulge in of going to the village/town church to ring the bell to announce that someone had died. So, the tolling of the bell would likely evoke the question: "Who died?" That is the context in which the poet is writing. So Donne is saying, that we are all interconnected and are all affected by what happens to someone else; hence, you need not ask for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for you, since you too are affected by the passing of another human being.

This famous line of John Donne got me thinking. that we all are aging, and we are aging every moment. But we as a community, we don’t have a long term strategy in place to make the lives of aging population enjoy the twilight years.

World over, the number of nuclear family is increasing exponentially so IoT and other new wave technologies,Blockchain, AI, NFT, Web3 have the capability in their arsenal to improve the quality of life of the aging population.

Ageing Demographical distribution

There are?nearly 138 million elderly persons in India in 2021, including 67 million men and 71 million women, according to the report. An increase of nearly 34 million elderly persons was seen in 2021 over the population census of 2011. This number is expected to increase by 56 million by 2031.

While the population of elderly men is projected to have risen by 26.5% from the 2011 census, the number of elderly women rose 39.1%. By 2031, while the elderly male population is projected to rise by 39% from 2021, the number of elderly females is expected to rise by 41.9%.

Today, there are?more than 46 million older adults age 65 and older living in the U.S.; by 2050, that number is expected to grow to almost 90 million. Between 2020 and 2030 alone, the time the last of the baby boom cohorts reach age 65, the number of older adults is projected to increase by almost 18 million.

?In 2021, more than one fifth (20.8 %) of the EU population was aged 65 and over. The share of people aged 80 years or above in the EU's population is projected to have a two and a half fold increase between 2021 and 2100, from 6.0 % to 14.6 %

China has been hard-pressed to address its rapidly ageing population in recent years.?People aged 60 and older totalled 264 million, or 18.7 per cent of China's population, according to the 2020 census released this year, and people aged 65 and above accounted for 13.5 per cent.

In some countries, the sheer number of people entering older ages will challenge national infrastructures, particularly health systems. This numeric surge in older people is dramatically illustrated in the world’s two most populous countries: China and India . China’s older population – those over age 65 – will likely swell to 330 million by 2050 from 110 million today.?India’s current older population of 60 million is projected to exceed 227 million in 2050, an increase of nearly 280 percent from today.?

The healthcare industry in India and most parts of the World is undergoing a huge transformation in a bid to move towards affordable, accessible, and quality care. New applications such as remote monitoring, a result of cutting edge technology innovations, are being developed to address the changing industry needs.

This model of healthcare, which heavily relies on patient participation, and subsequent data analysis by microprocessors and microcontrollers, is changing the way health services are delivered. The connectivity between sensors and devices enables healthcare organizations to streamline their clinical operations and workflow management, and aids real-time patient care, even from remote locations.

IoT, in conjunction with cloud computing and big data, is creating lucrative opportunities in the healthcare sector. The reduced cost of care, improved healthcare outcomes, and development of high speed networking technologies are likely to drive the growth of IoT in healthcare.

Old age people have major share of health issues, what makes them more vulnerable is the cognitive impairment hence they are unable to report things that they would likely have reported if they had no cognitive impairment.

Dementia is an illness syndrome, characterized by cognitive and behavioral disturbances. memory loss is the main symptom of dementia although other areas of functioning are also affected. Mainly early stage dementia and this is where it becomes both interesting and challenging how IoT may be applied.

These include: attention, orientation, language, mood, personality, judgment, and visual spatial performance. Dementia progresses at an individual rate, but the first sign is often a gradual decline in memory. Despite memory decline, early stage dementia includes mild impairment in verbal expression, executive functioning, judgement, and physical abilities.

In the early stages of dementia, person with dementia have the best response to the therapeutic interventions and as a result, many people are living longer with milder symptoms. Person with dementia in the early stages are often able to remain active, but their personal identity may change due to the changes in their memory perceptions and ability. Due to the rapidly growing population of older adults and people affected with dementia, the cost of dementia care and the burden of the family will dramatically increase.

?Taking some useful strategies in the early stage of dementia may decline cognitive function decline and I believe this is were?IoT?has a major role to play.

Researchers around the world are searching for ways to prevent or cure dementia, and with pharmacological therapies offering only modest hope, non-pharmacological therapies that stimulate mental activity have emerged as a more promising therapeutic method

Cognitive training shows promise for improving cognitive abilities or person with dementia in the early stages who are at high risk for continued cognitive decline.

Computerized cognitive training and virtual reality cognitive training along with IoT can help in assessing and training cognition. Cognitive training usually involves guided practice on a set of standardized tasks involving specific cognitive functioning including memory, attention, or problem solving. Computerized cognitive training can tailor task difficulty based on individual performance level and offer through individual or in groups. I earnestly believe eventually human behavior will co-evolve with the technology that we have and change the landscape of health and care.?

Metaverse will change the entire Care Landscape

We are bullish about Metaverse, we think it will transform healthcare in the future. While some aspects of the metaverse are already present in video games and virtual/augmented reality devices, we still have a long way to go before we can have real-world interactions in the metaverse.?

We'll need to know how to create lifelike avatars of ourselves if we wish to have lifelike social interactions with others who are geographically distant.

There are several ways in which this could benefit senior citizens. First and foremost, improved, more lifelike communication will significantly improve telehealth. When a doctor can see you in 3D, the statement "the doctor will see you now" takes on a whole new meaning. This also means you can receive a second opinion from a doctor anywhere on the planet.

The metaverse's possibilities are limitless. From leaving a legacy to exploring the world in a holodeck and playing tennis with Roger Federer, the possibilities are endless.

But loneliness and social isolation are the most pressing issues that the metaverse could address

Meta could be a game changer if it delivers on its promise and provides a world where people can have realistic social interactions independent of their actual location.

We have the potential to design the metaverse in a way that adds value to our lives and improves society because it is still a work in progress. If we choose to, we can make the metaverse a truly age-inclusive space. It's up to us as a community whether it becomes that or not.