Last week, Healthsense announced a partnership with Verizon to bring cost-effective wellness and health monitoring services to senior-living communities across the nation. The new services will be installed and managed by Healthsense, a national leader in home healthcare solutions, and run over Verizon’s fiber-optic broadband network, FiOS. In addition, Healthsense will run the services over its private high-speed Wi-Fi network, providing additional security to ease the fear that some seniors face when it comes to technology-related health solutions.

Initiatives like this will improve senior care in America while also providing older adults with a renewed sense of independence and safety. Whether living at home or in a larger senior care community, Healthsense provides services and applications that enable “aging in place” through the use of wireless pendants, pull-cords, and non-intrusive sensors. Remote monitoring of weight, blood pressure, and other physiological measurements is also a regular service. Incorporating Verizon’s high-speed network will simply broaden, magnify, and amplify the life-enhancing health IT offerings of Healthsense. Together, the companies hope to expand and improve the care and wellness of America’s seniors via advanced broadband technologies and tools.

This is just one of many ways that broadband can change the lives of America’s senior citizens. By providing affordable access to in-home healthcare systems, seniors are able to lead increasingly independent lives without the added worries of making regular hospital visits or not being able to reach medical emergency response teams. Equally as important, though, increased exposure to these types of tools could help to bolster utilization of broadband generally among senior citizens. This is critical since this technology provides older adults with the unique ability to engage politically, socialize, and connect with their families in ways that might otherwise be difficult or impossible. Increased engagement and mental stimulation could bolster mental health and delay the onset of certain types of chronic diseases. Ultimately, broadband is a tool that can be used to deliver a range of affordable, convenient, and effective services while also enabling a number of social, economic, and health-related benefits.

Going forward, policymakers at the local, state, and federal levels must recognize these facts and continue to support partnerships like the one forged by Healthsense and Verizon that are aimed at increasing senior access and exposure to broadband. However, additional efforts and partnerships are needed to help increase the senior broadband adoption rate, which is significantly lower than the overall adoption rate. Moreover, new and inexperienced users will require training to be able to access and effectively utilize new broadband-enabled healthcare tools. Only such a multifaceted approach will help to ensure that our nation’s rapidly growing population of older adults has sufficient access to the best and most affordable healthcare solutions available, which will help to ensure that they are able to live longer, more fruitful, and more independent lives.