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A 2026 survey by the Pew Research Center found 60% of older adults would prefer to stay in their homes as they age and have someone care for them if they were no longer able to live independently. However, only 37% of that group thought this was extremely or very likely to happen, a gap a connected care ecosystem aging place model is now working to close.
Why This Connected Care Ecosystem Matters for Families
For many families, that gap between preference and the realities of aging in place presents a significant challenge. Adult children and other caregivers balance concern for a loved one’s safety with a desire to respect their independence. Concerns about falls, medication management, social isolation and access to care can create ongoing stress, particularly when family members cannot provide daily support.
A Growing Population Aging Alone
Those concerns become even more pronounced as more older adults choose to live alone. 2025 numbers from AARP showed that 21% of U.S. adults aged 50 and older are now living on their own, and the percentage rises to more than half for those aged 75 and above.
The Core Challenges Facing a Connected Care Ecosystem for Aging in Place
While the desire to age in place is strong, remaining independent presents a distinct set of challenges, especially for those living alone. Falls remain one of the most significant threats: according to the CDC, one in four adults 65 and older reports a fall each year, and these incidents are a leading cause of fatal injury.
Additional Risk Factors Beyond Falls
Managing medications becomes increasingly complex with age, leading to missed doses, incorrect usage, increased fall risk and preventable health complications. Social isolation, home safety risks like poor lighting or loose fixtures, and subtle changes in sleep, eating, or daily routines round out the list of challenges that connected technology aims to address.
How the Home Becomes a Connected Care Ecosystem
Technology solutions offer meaningful ways to address the risks of aging in place, particularly when they work together within a connected care ecosystem. Rather than relying on a single device, this approach combines wearable and in-home technologies to create a more complete picture of a person’s health, safety, mobility, and daily well-being.
The Smartwatch as the First Layer of Connected Care
For many older adults, a smartwatch serves as the first layer of connected care. These familiar, user-friendly devices can continuously collect important health data, including heart rate, blood oxygen levels and other wellness indicators, while also providing fall detection, location tracking, and two-way communication capabilities.
In-Home Sensing Within This Connected Care Ecosystem
Within the home, intelligent sensing technology can help understand activity patterns and daily routines, helping identify changes that may signal emerging health or safety concerns. Data collected through smartwatch solutions extends that visibility by creating a more complete view of an individual’s well-being.
Why Gait Speed Matters as a Health Biomarker
These insights can help caregivers better understand changes in mobility, including gait speed, a key biomarker of overall health, including fall risk. When a safety event occurs, they provide greater context for what happened and what support may be needed.
How Care Teams Scale This Connected Care Ecosystem
Aging in place doesn’t scale without equipping care teams in the field. As clinicians and care teams move between homes, mobile devices are their primary workstation, providing real-time access to patient records, care plans and documentation.
Four Capabilities Enabling Coordinated Home-Based Care
Real-time access at the point of care improves documentation accuracy while reducing administrative time. Secure, continuous communication keeps care teams aligned as they coordinate with specialists. AI-assisted workflows help streamline documentation and summarize visits, freeing clinicians to focus more on patient care. Rugged, purpose-built devices with long battery life ensure clinicians can work without interruption across a full day of visits.
Scaling This Connected Care Ecosystem for Health Systems
When technologies are connected, they do more than support individual patients; they create a scalable care model that enables health systems to operate more efficiently while giving families greater confidence and visibility into daily care.
What This Means for Families of Older Adults
Families of older adults aging in place can rest a little easier, knowing their loved ones are not entirely alone or disconnected from critical medical support. Aging-in-place technology enables families to assist with care through alerts, shared applications and timely updates, helping them play a more active role in supporting a safer home.
What This Connected Care Ecosystem Means Going Forward
As caregivers and medical teams continue adding new devices and capabilities, particularly with the increasing integration of AI, this connected care ecosystem aging place approach is likely to keep expanding beyond its current smartwatch-and-sensor foundation. Given the persistent gap Pew Research identified between older adults’ preference to age at home and their confidence that it will actually happen, technology alone won’t close that gap without continued investment in the care-team infrastructure needed to act on the data these devices generate.
What to Watch Going Forward
As more health systems and families adopt connected aging-in-place technologies, industry observers will likely watch whether measurable outcomes, fewer unaddressed falls, better medication adherence, reduced social isolation, begin to close the confidence gap Pew Research identified between what older adults want and what they currently believe is achievable. Given the fast-developing market for AI-integrated aging-in-place tools, families and care teams may find an expanding range of options to build out their own version of this connected care ecosystem in the coming years.
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