Blake Huegel is a Vancouver, Washington, entrepreneur who owns and operates a network of assisted living facilities through Belamour Care and Cedar Highlands Care, part of Premier Residential Living. Blake Huegel founded Cedar Highlands Care in 2012 to provide memory and assisted living care for seniors, later expanding into Belamour Care, which today spans a half-dozen facilities offering services that include end-of-life hospice care.
Before entering senior care, he spent four years as a foreman overseeing contracted commercial projects, including tiny house and modular home construction. Active in his professional community, he is a member of the BNI Networking Group, which connects entrepreneurs throughout the region. His recognitions include the Park College Rising Star Award and the Business Entrepreneurship Award. Blake Huegel’s caregivers work around the clock to support residents, an approach closely tied to how emerging technology is now transforming the elderly care industry he has spent over a decade building.
The global population is aging rapidly, and experts predict that the number of adults above 65 years of age will continue growing in most developed countries for the foreseeable future. This means that the demand for elder care, also known as geriatric care, will rise significantly, placing pressure on healthcare systems.
Technology is emerging as a viable solution to manage this challenge, transforming care delivery processes, empowering independence among seniors, enhancing the safety and quality of care, and increasing life expectancy. Wearable devices, telemedicine, and artificial intelligence (AI) are popular innovations influencing geriatric care.
Wearable devices offer noninvasive options to monitor vital signs in older patients, including heart rate, oxygen levels, and blood pressure, in real time. For patients with diabetes or heart disease, these technologies can help healthcare professionals detect early signs of complications and intervene promptly.
Wearable devices also encourage patients to participate in their health management. Patients receive instant feedback on important health metrics, including daily physical activity levels and sleep patterns. This information allows seniors to improve their lifestyles and track progress to avoid aggravating their health conditions.
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Older patients can also set reminders on these technological devices, such as smartwatches, to ensure they take their medication, drink enough water, and attend appointments with health professionals.
Some wearable devices have fall-detection features that notify caregivers when such incidents occur. Falls are common among older patients, and are linked to the risk of injury, hospitalization, and death. The fall detection feature sends automatic alerts to a patient’s emergency contacts, ensuring that help arrives quickly.
Telemedicine, on the other hand, facilitates real-time communications between older patients and healthcare professionals. Through this innovation, practitioners can remotely provide timely medical advice, manage chronic illnesses, and perform routine check-ups on older patients, minimizing queues at facilities.
Additionally, healthcare professionals can integrate this technology with electronic health records (EHRs), enabling easy sharing of data with patients. Integration with EHRs also enables the sharing of patients’ medical information among healthcare professionals.
Older patients with multiple chronic conditions may require the expertise and collaboration of specialists, caregivers, and other professionals. These experts can leverage this technology and host virtual meetings to discuss care plans and interventions.
Telemedicine has also minimized the need for in-person visits, greatly enhancing access to safe and quality care for those residing in rural areas. Moreover, since patients do not visit facilities, the technology minimizes the risk of exposure to potential health risks and healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) that reside within hospitals.
AI is enabling the provision of personalized and predictive care to improve older patients’ quality of life. This resource can analyze vast amounts of data that wearable devices and EHRs collect, identifying important patterns that professionals may overlook.
AI analysis helps in the early detection of health issues by caregivers and practitioners, enabling them to make better informed decisions when designing interventions and treatment plans. For instance, AI-powered resources can detect early signs of cognitive decline by analyzing changes in patients’ speech and daily activities. Using these insights, healthcare providers can intervene and promptly take steps to slow the progression of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.
Despite its importance, technology faces several challenges in its implementation within geriatric care. One such problem is technological illiteracy among older patients. Some of these patients cannot operate digital devices, while others have negative perceptions about modern innovation. Education, training, and using user-friendly designs of these technologies can reduce this barrier and encourage older patients to adopt technology.
Lastly, data privacy and security are concerns when using modern technology in geriatric care. Sensitive patient information is collected, stored, and shared, creating avenues for potential cyberattacks. To counter this, facilities should implement robust cybersecurity measures, such as data encryption and system updates, to restrict unauthorized access to patient information in storage or when transferred.
About Blake Huegel
Blake Huegel is a Vancouver, Washington, entrepreneur who owns and operates Belamour Care and Cedar Highlands Care, part of Premier Residential Living, providing memory and assisted living services across the Vancouver area. He founded Cedar Highlands Care in 2012 before expanding into Belamour Care’s network of facilities. Previously a foreman overseeing commercial construction projects, he now focuses on elder care and is an active member of the BNI Networking Group in his community.
