Problem: By 2050, there will be 370 million people in China over the age of 65, with an increased life expectancy and a resulting increasing burden on existing infrastructure. Many elderly people live alone or with others who are less capable of assisting them with their increasing medical needs, and access to such services is burdensome and logistically challenging to those with mobility hindrances.

Solution: mHealth – the use of communication technology to deliver medical attention and information.

Article: Can China find a solution for the world’s aging population? 

• Elderly people with restricted mobility can go through the process of “visiting a doctor” without leaving their homes.
• Numerous companies are providing platforms for this, including Chunuyisheng.com, Ali Health, iCarbonx and the Ningbo Cloud Hospital.
• Wearable technology is becoming incorporated rapidly to provide real-time data inputs, which has value beyond patient care in a sample group as large as China, where data on this scale can be used for genomic medical studies, and population-wide health management.
• Data mining combined with machine learning can bring new levels of insight to topics such as disease, aging, and treatment adoption, as well as provide tailored healthcare solutions to individuals based on a variety of lifestyle indicators.

Stakeholders: 

• This is an unquantified investment opportunity for a number of stakeholders, including medical care providers, pharmaceutical companies, online medical retailers, medical transport services.
• Department of Heath
• Private Healthcare Companies
• Patients (specifically the elderly)

Step to Deployment: 

• With significant scale, the adoption of these smart health systems can be incentivized or even mandated throughout elderly healthcare facilities, to begin to develop the necessary database and sample data.
• Government adoption of the technology and subsidization, through an elderly support program, may help to reach elderly citizens who are more financially restricted.
• Training for both users of the technology and well as the sales force who will be distributing it.