Smart homes making life easier, especially for older residents
Fifteen years ago, a friend of Sam Palermo’s showed the Henderson resident a comic strip of a person getting a medical exam through their television.
A joke at the time, Palermo told his friend the idea wouldn’t be so laughable in the future. And he was right.
“You know what, we walked in here and we just saw it come to life here today,” Palmero said last week as he toured a technology-filled model smart home in North Las Vegas.
The model home is a partnership between builder KB Home and Cox Communications, which provides cable TV, telecommunications and home automation services. The model was filled with technology to make living easier, especially for older people.
Palermo and his wife, Jan, who live in Sun City Anthem, the age 55-plus community, toured the smart home and saw a lot of features they liked.
“As we get older, we’ve seen a lot of things that could benefit us in the future,” Jan Palermo said. “We’re already looking at staying in our home long-term.”
One feature that stood out for the couple was technology allowing a patient to consult with a doctor remotely from home. “The interactive health care — that was exciting,” Jan Palermo said.
Telemedicine
Trapollo, a division of Cox Communications focused on health care, showed off its telemedicine program, which includes devices to monitor and send blood pressure, heart rate, oxygen readings and other information to a doctor via the internet. Patients can then use a tablet to have a face-to-face video consultation with the physician.
Doug Rowe, senior telehealth territory manager for Trapollo, said the firm helped match the patient with the best in-home technology, based on medical conditions. “It can be as simple as setting up a scale in their home ... or we can put in a whole range of devices,” he said.
Travel via virtual reality
As a person ages, travel can become burdensome.