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Highlights
- The care industry, which comprises an umbrella of human-centric caregiving and care-receiving services in education, health, and lifestyle, is a fragmented one.
- Care services, even though scattered, are interdependent. There are gaps in the caregiving loop and, therefore, a need for a care ecosystem.
- An integrated care network powered by smart technology is envisioned by way of a resilient digital platform as a one-stop solution to enhance user experience under a single ecosystem.
In this article
Putting the spotlight on care
Gaps in care services affect consumers and the economy. Here’s how and why.
Care is a universal need and should be accessible and affordable to all to live safely and well. Today, a caregiver’s role is multifaceted, from medical assistance in the form of personalized caregiving at home or in a hospice to in-classroom assistance in schools.
Despite this, the industry remains fragmented, with no end-to-end service loop. The integration of business and technology has opened a wide range of opportunities across the care spectrum, from caring for the elderly and children to workplace wellness, healthcare, disability care, and financial care.
Therefore, integrating industries such as retail, manufacturing, banking and insurance, transport and logistics, travel and tourism, communication, healthcare, and technology, is needed to create an ecosystem that serves to strengthen a care economy.
Caregiving: Gaps and limitations
Building an ecosystem to nurture a care economy
A digital integration of business and societal networks.
Care networks have traditionally focused on developing isolated services, with only a few service providers incorporating smart technology. Organizations must collaborate to provide better integrated and user-centric services.
This digital integration conceptually involves developing, designing, and delivering care through products and services within an ecosystem.
It is an interdependent network comprising industry care providers, government bodies that frame care policies, regulators to monitor the implementation of these policies, and care receivers in society.
All stakeholders in the ecosystem have a role to play in creating a resilient and responsible future of care. Since one cannot predict the entry of macro forces, technology disruptions, regulatory changes, or other emergencies can change the equation of care requirements. This underlines the need for a resilient architecture that brings together all aspects of caregiving under one umbrella in sketching the future of care.
Understanding a care ecosystem
A care ecosystem comprises regulators, policy-makers, industry, and society and is powered by a technology platform. The platform enhances the care experience for receivers and manages resources for care providers.
A care ecosystem provides competitive advantage as it facilitates end-to-end services through a digital platform. This platform is envisaged as a one-stop solution—a ‘universe of care’—equipped with meeting care needs comprehensively that in turn translates to a seamless and smart care experience that consumers can subscribe to.
The platform gives care seekers the freedom and opportunity to search for their needs, filter or select products or services that match these needs, and negotiate on the price, size, or other product specifications with service providers. The result is a personalized care ‘menu’ that improves the overall care experience.
A digital platform as a one-stop solution to facilitate comprehensive care services in an ecosystem
This digital environment aims to enhance the experience for both the caregiver and the receiver by creating awareness about products and services available in the market as well as helping a manufacturer accurately identify a customer’s need. It also helps facilitate the human resources and logistics required for care and device operation. The thread of events and responses creates a value chain in the market, with care receivers consuming products and services that caregivers produce.
The availability of data along with cognitive AI enables digitally guided, real-time personalized updates and insights, and also allows for care to be continually improved and remain proactive.
All of this results in the strengthening and nurturing of the care economy at large.
Smart caregiving
Technology to transform the way care is provided and received.
The one-stop solution is designed to culminate into a smart care experience with connected smart homes, wearables (from smartwatches and exosuits to smart canes or walking sticks), and digital assistants or robotics.
All of these are powered by the internet of things, conversational AI, emotional AI, embodied AI, unobtrusive sensing, the metaverse, augmented and virtual reality, and metasurfaces.
What a smart care environment looks like; (inset) alerts sent to caregivers/receivers via a smartphone
Today, technology enablement allows wearables to track physiological parameters and can alert doctors on a patient’s behalf. Smart homes and workplaces that have sensors and cameras embedded in their surrounding physicality can detect accidents—such as an elderly person falling—and can alert a first responder. Smart bands can detect a child’s emotional state and inform parents at the workplace.
Likewise, when it comes to institutionalized medical care, electronic health records (EHRs) make it easier to track and monitor patients over time. EHRs not only help caregivers shape more accurate, efficient, and safer routes to care, but also reduce medical errors and minimize cost.
WHY CARE ABOUT CARE
With the demand for care services on the rise, the future calls for a robust care ecosystem.
Caregiving is a need everywhere on account of macro socioeconomic forces at play, and global disruptions such as the pandemic, geopolitical conflict, and ecological disasters.
A growing elderly population, rapid urbanization, and an increasing workforce are all factors contributing to this, taking a toll on existing care infrastructure. Furthermore, COVID-19 put the spotlight on not just the need for robust healthcare facilities but also the need for holistic care infrastructure across communities.
The future of care must therefore be ambient (transparent, reliable, and addressing security and privacy concerns); affective (embedded with emotional AI to instill and enhance empathy); and active (making it personalized and proactive with better training, awareness, and efficient delivery of care).
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