A handful of startups are offering solutions for a growing healthcare need that isn’t going away: transporting elderly, frail patients to nonemergency medical appointments.
As the New York Times points out, American baby boomers are hitting age 65 at a rate of 10,000 per day. With life expectancies rising and people wishing to stay in their homes as long as possible, there’s a demand for rides to and from doctor visits.
But it’s not as simple as hailing an Uber. These patients might need oxygen tanks or wheelchairs, or have cognitive problems that makes it ideal to have a driver with some experience in dealing with these challenges.
“It’s going to become a massive phenomena,” predicted Ken Dychtwald, PhD, founder and CEO of Age Wave, a consulting firm specializing in age-related issues. “This is an unmet need that’s going to be in the tens of millions of people.”
The 65 and older population is expected to grow to 73.1 million by 2030, according to the Pew Research Center. About 21 percent of people that age don’t drive, according to the Times, and many can’t rely on children or spouses to transport them to medical appointments—resulting in skipped visits, delays in treatment and unused physician time slots, costing the healthcare industry billions per year.
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Daniel joined TriMed’s Chicago editorial team in 2017 as a Cardiovascular Business writer. He previously worked as a writer for daily newspapers in North Dakota and Indiana.