Innovation for elderly with dementia – localization technology transfer

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the discussion of transferring modern technology from industries such as logistics to the life of elderly in a way that they can understand, accept and make use of it.

This is a conceptual discussion based on findings from a series of projects in healthcare, IT development and consultancy. The key methodologies considered include technology assessment, scenario development, listening to people with dementia and their caregivers and non-participant observation, as well as reviews of good practice, policy and literature.

The transfer considerations showed unreasonable price differences of similar hardware used for localization between the logistics and the elderly market. Bluetooth low energy (BLE) was identified as a promising localization technique. A gap in the marketing of technology for the elderly was identified, virtually fencing the elderly market.

A lack of transparency fosters market skimming, resulting in deadweight loss for society and technology being restrained from less-solvent consumers. Corrective actions like entrepreneurship facilitation and consumer education should be considered to overcome this market failure. To persevere in a consequently more competitive market, changes in marketing should be considered.

The work assesses the presence of the innovativeness–needs paradox of Everett Rogers in the field of innovation for the elderly on the basis of an example and identifies the resulting market failure. It suggests a market-entry mode and briefly lays out the marketing modes for market penetration.