What do these companies have in common – American Well, Cisco, Comcast Independence Blue Cross? They all are looking to the television sets in people’s homes as a health care delivery platforms.
96 percent of American house holds have TV that accounts to over 120 million American households – [Nielsen estimates for year 2019-2020]. US Bureau of Labour Statistics estimates that 80.2 percent of people ages 65 and older are not employed and this group watches TV for an average of 4 and a half hours per day.
Seeing the ubiquity of TV in American household and love of the Television by seniors, no wonder companies like American Well, Cisco, Comcast Independence Blue Cross are looking to the television sets in people’s home as a healthcare delivery method.
But the number of Televisions is not the only reason why TV is a preferred way to reach the older population. For any product to have a high adoption with seniors it must meet these necessary criteria– product must be easy to learn, must be easy to use, must be available at all times, must be cost effective, must be friendly and engaging and must not have senior device stigma.
TVs are easy to use; TV’s large screens are easier to see. TV fits the bills on all these requirements.
Not only that, as we age our mobility and dexterity decreases and some of the things we can do when younger are difficult when we get older. Using smart phones and tablets are some such things. Realizing this difficulty of use by seniors a few companies have designed and developed devices specially for seniors, such as Grandpad a tablet for seniors from Consumer Cellular, Jitterbug Smart 2 a smartphone for seniors from Great call and Sirona.TV a smart TV for seniors from Safety Labs.
Tablets for very senior people have some inherent issues which a product using a television set circumvent. These issues includes; high costs – tablets are expensive and associated services charges are high, lower ease of use – although tablets are easier than smart phones for seniors to use, they can still be challenging for the very old, lower availability – a tablet or a smart device must be kept charged and upgraded all the time for it to function and provide continued services and finally tablets have do not support some services essential for many seniors – these are – monitoring of health and safety, providing companionship etc.
Safety Labs’ recognising a need for an easy to use, cost effective and always available system developed an Apple TV like set top box which connects to a TV using the HDMI cable called Sirona.tv. Sirona.tv support all the basic functions of Grand pad a tablet for seniors, Jitterbug Smart 2 a smart phone for seniors and Alexa’s features for Seniors.
Is TV the new tablet for Seniors?
The set top box like Amazon’s Alexa or like Google Home has a built-in personal voice assistant bug specially designed for the seniors. Realizing the top killer apps for voice, Sirona voice assistant in Sirona.tv support the top known killer voice apps: Ask a Question, Play Music, Check Weather, Check Time and Set Alarms voice applications out-of-the-box.
If you know of an elderly loved one who would benefit from Sirona.tv, share information about Sirona.tv with them.
