Keren Etkin - The AgeTech Revolution: A Book about the Intersection of Aging and Technology

When Jakes grandfather passed away, his eighty-seven-year-old grandmother found herself living alone in a big home she didnt really need and couldnt afford to maintain. For many older people looking to downsize and move to a smaller home while having the option to make new social connections, a retirement community is the go-to solution. Jakes grandmother, however, decided to move into a smaller apartment in the same neighborhood that she knew and loved, and Jake was there to assist with everything she neededfrom moving arrangements to helping her with rides to the doctor and grocery shopping. He soon realized there must be many other older adults just like his grandmotherpeople who are physically and cognitively fully able to take care of themselves, who wish to downsize, but dont want to be alone. Thus, he created UpsideHom, a fully managed apartment service for people fifty-five and older who are looking for an alternative to senior living with companionship built in.

The concept of UpsideHom is powerful because it taps into an important trend in agingaging in place, which means that most older adults prefer to continue living in the community they know and love, rather than move to a retirement community. The reality is we probably need millions of UpsideHom units to support the millions of adults who will reach old age in unprecedented numbers over the next few decades. As a gerontologist working in start-ups and writing about tech for older adults, I wondered how technology was poised to solve some of the biggest challenges and opportunities in aging, and what I have found gives me hope that technology offers a powerful future as we age.

I started my career in the aging industry working in the nonprofit sector. I worked with older adults from different socioeconomic backgrounds to tackle the different challenges they were facing in their everyday lives, from the most basic needs of food and medications to social engagement and recreational activities. There was really no time to discuss technology because there was always something more urgent to tend to.

That all changed for me when I was recruited as the first employee to an early-stage ambitious startup called Intuition Robotics.