Extract from article in e-Health Europe
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The German association of the electronics industry, VDE, has called for politicians and insurance companies to increase their engagement in IT projects on ambient assisted living (AAL).
VDE says there is massive potential for growth in the AAL market, if the right financial incentives are put in place and regulatory and political measures taken to encourage development.
According to VDE, IT solutions that help elderly people to stay in their homes longer will be a key to reduce the medical and financial burdens of an ageing society.
The title of the new position paper is ‘Intelligent Assistance Systems for a mature society’. In the paper, VDE proposes to build up a Europe-wide AAL community to foster research projects and to promote technical standards for interoperable homecare technology.
VDE describes such technology as covering both communication technology for surveillance and electronic homecare equipment like telemonitoring for improving medical care.
To ensure broader availability of these technologies in the homes of the elderly, VDE advocates offering tax relief or other financial incentives to home owners or construction companies. The goal of the incentives would be to make it more attractive to equip new buildings with the sensors and basic IT-infrastructure components that are needed for efficient home surveillance and home monitoring.
Last edited on Saturday Jul 19th, 2008 09:29 am by
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