Home health devices and services for seniors: The Canadian Press has a worthwhile article on devices that aim to help keep seniors living comfortably at home longer in an effort to enable them to stay out of care facilities. The article includes a rundown of GE's recent efforts, including its work with the recently acquired QuietCare technology, but it also includes a brief note from the AARP: "But many people would like to see the technology become more mainstream, added Elinor Ginzler, senior vice-president for livable communities for AARP, which recently surveyed seniors about their interest in the products. Seniors are willing to use the technology if it's affordable, she said -- 'We're at the beginning of the wave,' she said. 'Money is an issue.'" More

Canadian Baby Boomers begin to retire in 2010: Canadians will see their first Baby Boomer turn 65 next year -- the Urban Futures Institute estimates 425,000 Canadians will retire annually beginning next year. By 2013, there will be an estimated 8 percent drop in demand for goods and services for people under 20 and an estimated 101 percent rise in demand for goods and services for Canadians over 65 years old. More

Health reform spells the end for wireless health? At least one columnist at The American Spectator thinks so: "Today's pacemakers include wireless computer chips that enable doctors to go online at their offices or other locations to monitor exactly what is happening with their patient's heart at home or elsewhere. A doctor can send a message for the pacemaker to jolt a stopped heart back to life, or the pacemaker can be programmed to do that on its own. In one case, the heart of a senior citizen who had suffered four heart attacks over 17 years stopped three times on the way to the hospital after his doctor warned him of the danger from a remote location, and each time the pacemaker jolted him back to life. The man is still alive today, and just enjoyed Christmas with his family. But under the Obamacare socialized medicine system that the Democrats have now whooped through both houses of Congress, you can forget about the investment in both physical and human capital that was necessary for this modern medical miracle." More