This sponsored post is produced in association with AARP.
According to Jeff Makowka, Director of Thought Leadership at AARP, 80 percent of all healthcare assets and activities are focused on people over 50. Chronic disease as well as declining mobility, hearing, and eyesight all play huge factors in why delivery of health care is so skewed towards this older demographic.
It’s also why AARP estimates that over the next five years, there will a market of $30 billion in innovative products and services that will serve a boomer population highly motivated to keep living the way they always have.
He also has some thoughts about who’s doing the innovation. “A lot of people forget that the technology boom started in the 70s and some of those inventors, investors and venture capitalists back then are still in the game,” he says. “There’s a fair amount of wisdom out there with people who have launched more than one company, more than one set of devices or hardware, and people overlook that when they tend towards the stereotype of the hoodie-wearer.”
AARP still remains a champion of people over 50, but it’s now moved towards also being a partner in providing solutions for its constituency. And that means courting innovators, entrepreneurs and VC’s to capitalize on the enormous market opportunities in the two categories they call ‘care navigation’ and ‘aging with vitality’.
Hear more from Jeff as he talked to VentureBeat during last month’s HealthBeat.
Sponsored posts are content that has been produced by a company that is either paying for the post or has a business relationship with VentureBeat, and they’re always clearly marked. The content of news stories produced by our editorial team is never influenced by advertisers or sponsors in any way. For more information, contact sales@venturebeat.com.