October 15, 2021
Best Buy Canada is one of Canada’s largest and most successful omnichannel retailers, operating the Best Buy, Best Buy Mobile, and Geek Squad brands. With over 160 Best Buy and Best Buy Mobile stores across Canada and an expanded assortment of lifestyle products offered through BestBuy.ca, Best Buy is a leader in total retail, catering to customers how, when, and where they want to shop. Over the past three years, Best Buy Canada has made a strategic investment in products and services to support tech-enabled support and care models in our communities, including the creation of a new department called Best Buy Health. Best Buy Health has been working towards identifying ways to support older adults and their caregivers/partners with technology and services. For more information, visit BestBuy.ca.
Health Cities is a Canadian not-for-profit corporation that works with clinicians, innovators, philanthropic organizations, and companies to develop new models of care that can drive better health outcomes and economic growth in the health sector. Our focus is on transforming innovations from our health sector into solutions that have commercial application and global relevance, adopting them for impact locally and scaling them for export to global markets.
On October 14th, a virtual round table event was held in partnership with Best Buy and Health Cities. Stakeholders from government, industry, service providers and patient groups were invited to brainstorm and answer the above questions and discuss how to create and implement a helpful home to support aging in place.
Evidence shows that technology can play a meaningful role in helping older adults remain safe, independent, and connected to their communities. In light of decreasing ratio of caregivers, and care spaces to care recipients in supporting older adults, aging at home is a priority for all entities involved.
A helpful home should provide convenience, connection, and security. The ultimate goal is supporting independence and empowerment for older adults to live healthily and safely at home, supplementing the work of care and providers.
Outcomes in the session resulted in identifying barriers, required partners and actions to support aging at home with technology. The next steps involve working with Best Buy to see how these lessons can translate to the smart condo (unit purchased at Maple) and the Continuing Care Unit of the Future at Cambridge Manor.
