Best Buy tests the senior monitoring market

Best Buy sells wireless cameras, cell phones and security devices, but now the electronics giant is betting baby boomers will spend plenty to be able to monitor their aging loved ones remotely.

The company has launched a pilot project, dubbed Assured Living, that uses security cameras, remote data collection and cell phone technology to create a smart home that can be controlled—and monitored—via a network of devices and cloud-based apps.

The project, being tested in Denver and the Twin Cities, uses a one-stop-shopping electronic monitoring package that costs about $390 with an optional monitoring service for $29 per month. Full installation services are also available, if needed. The system can be configured to capture everything from who is ringing the doorbell to how well someone slept, as well as providing medical-alert sensors and emergency communications in case of a fall.

The company partnered with UnitedHealth to add healthcare expertise and additional wellness services to the smart home mix at the Denver Assured Living pilot for an additional $59 a month.

Best Buy CEO Hubert Joly is betting baby boomers will be willing to buy into the “living at home but monitored” model for aging parents. Remote monitoring technology makes family caregivers’ jobs easier and allows older adults to stay in their own homes as long as possible.  

The senior remote monitoring sector—possibly a $50 billion market—is “white space waiting to be captured,” Joly says in a Bloomberg.com article. Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Samsung are all jumping into the smart home market, and many of those products can be adapted to serve seniors customers and their families.

Pamela Tabar

Pamela Tabar was editor-in-chief of I Advance Senior Care from 2013-2018. She has worked as a writer and editor for healthcare business media since 1998, including as News Editor of Healthcare Informatics. She has a master’s degree in journalism from Kent State University and a master’s degree in English from the University of York, England.