Word: dishman
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...refuse heaps?will learn everything from tidying beds to scrambling eggs. Shinta Mani's 50 full-time staff will also be giving the students on-the-job training. "Seeing the living standard of many of the residents of Siem Reap, you naturally want to try to help," says Martin Dishman, the hotel's general manager...
...Eric Dishman is wound up about incontinence. That's not a typical concern around Intel's Portland, Ore., campus, where most of the 14,500 employees are preoccupied with building smaller and faster computer chips. But Dishman, 35, a vibrant sociologist with tight tufts of light brown hair, heads Intel's Proactive Health Lab. His mission is to use technology to assist people with the "activities of daily living"--getting dressed, making meals and so forth--so that we can all age with dignity and stay home with loved ones as long as possible...
...Computers help us do just about everything else. Shouldn't they also make our lives easier in our golden years? The concept has far-reaching implications. "Did you know that almost two-thirds of all people enter nursing homes because of falls and incontinence?" asks Dishman, his mind whirling, "and about 80% of incontinence cases could be solved with timed voiding [that is, encouraging someone to use the toilet before a problem occurs]. The big question"--the question Dishman is hoping to answer--"is, How do you design intelligent reminders that don't embarrass people and that help them live...
...Dishman is also racing to come up with sophisticated technologies to help keep us from overtaxing the medical system. With the number of people over age 65 set to double in the next 25 years, our already overburdened health-care system is at risk of toppling entirely. Potential products range from vibrating shoes that aid with balance to talking pillboxes that remind you when it's time for your next dose. "You get these horrifying statistics, like the cost of health care will go up five times in the next seven years unless you can keep people out of those...
...that brings us back to Dishman at Intel, who doesn't necessarily favor a fully automated health-care system devoid of the doctor-patient bond. He's not a technocrat by training or by nature. He's a sociologist who studies people--their needs and desires. "People didn't really embrace hearing aids until they became small enough not to be embarrassing," he says. That's even more the case with something as sensitive as incontinence--a problem, like so many, that technology can help solve, but only once we're willing to accept the cure...