Companies are launching new education benefits such as college coaching and student loan repayments to recruit employees, reports the Wall Street Journal . For example, Kroger has rolled out a program offering up to $3,500 in education expenses annually to workers, including those who bag groceries part-time. Meanwhile, HCA Healthcare plans to spend up to $300 million on worker benefits, mostly education-related, including a student loan repayment program slated for launch in 2019. In addition, Home Depot, which has already invested about $136 million on tuition reimbursement over the past 13 years, has expanded employee eligibility for funding and removed a 90-day waiting period for tapping those funds. Texas A&M University, Corpus Christi Professor Deniz Gevrek notes that raising salaries would be more expensive, and education incentives make "employees feel appreciated." The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) estimates that about 50 percent of U.S. employers offer to help fund undergraduate education for employees, up to $5,250 of which can be excluded from taxable income each year. SHRM's Chatrane Birbal is expecting more companies to boost spending on education perks due to the labor market. The portion of employers offering college selection and referral programs has more than doubled since 2014, to 10 percent now.

The latest Federal Reserve Bank of New York Survey of Consumer Expectations observed that employees who lack a bachelor's degree are switching jobs at the highest rate since the poll began in 2014. However, the Washington Post reports, their salaries have declined slightly in the past year. It would logically follow that with less-educated workers more in demand, employers would have to raise wages to poach outsiders and retain employees in the face of competing offers. This is happening with employees who have bachelor's or advanced degrees, and the unemployment rate for workers 25 and older with at least a bachelor's degree was 2.1 percent in August. Intensifying competition has caused the average full-time salary for college-educated workers to climb about $5,800 over the past year. Concurrently, the comparable salary for less-educated workers in the poll has slipped by about $4,700. Respondents with a bachelor's degree or higher said it would take an average annual salary of about $81,900 to prompt them to switch jobs, up from about $76,600 a year earlier. Meanwhile, seasoned workers with less than a bachelor's degree said they would leave their job for about $47,300 on average, which is virtually unchanged from a year earlier. "Less-educated workers might be finally moving to firms with higher productivity and with better opportunities for themselves," suggests New York Fed analyst Gizem Kosar.

Studies published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society have demonstrated the need for an innovative healthcare approach for older adults with complex health challenges to be integrated into a real-world clinical practice, reports YaleNews . The strategy helps doctors and their customers focus decision-making and healthcare on older adults' own health priorities, which could improve healthcare and outcomes for persons with multiple chronic medical conditions. The collaborators developed a novel method to help older adults recognize their health priorities and help doctors render them as decision-making and care options. At a primary care practice in Connecticut, the team trained facilitators to elicit detailed health information from participating recipients in one or two structured dialogues. Such information included recipients' values, health goals, helpful versus burdensome care, perceptions of health trajectory, as well as a particular problem the older adults deemed most critical to achieving the health priorities that they most wanted doctors to concentrate on. After these priorities were documented, facilitators relayed the information via the electronic health record (EHR) to primary care providers, who used them to align care and treatment with what matters most to recipients. The researchers and members of the primary care practice cooperated to embed priorities care into the EHR and the clinical workflow. At the conclusion, the researchers determined the process of identifying, transmitting, and acting on priorities can be realized in a busy primary care practice.

A study presented at the annual meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes warns seniors with both diabetes and dementia are at a much higher risk of dying from seriously low blood sugar than diabetics alone, reports HealthDay News . The researchers analyzed data from some 20,000 men and women aged 65 and older with type 1 or type 2 diabetes who were monitored for up to five years after their first recorded low blood sugar episode. Individuals with both diabetes and dementia had a 67 percent higher risk of death from hypoglycemia compared to those with diabetes alone. "Hypoglycemia is an under-recognized risk factor for death in older adults with diabetes and dementia," notes the Norwich Medical School's Katharina Mattishent. "In this vulnerable group, clinicians and patients should move away from relentless pursuit of strict glucose-lowering targets. The focus must be directed at rigorous detection of hypoglycemia using continuous glucose monitoring devices."

Submissions for the Improving Care for People with Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementias Using Technology (iCare-AD/ADRD) Challenge opened on Oct. 1, reports the National Institute on Aging (NIA). This is NIA's first Eureka prize competition, which is part of the 21st Century Cures Act. The goal of the competition is to encourage and reward development of computer-based technology applications to improve dementia care coordination and/or care navigation, with up to $250,000 in cash prizes offered. The iCare-AD/ADRD Challenge spurs connections and collaborations between stakeholders by exploiting technology to apply these connections for enhancing dementia care. The Eureka prize format is seen as a faster means for cultivating such innovations than conventional National Institutes of Health funding mechanisms, while also offering an incentive for disparate entities to work together. Among suggested advancements is collaboration between a technology firm, an electronic health record (EHR) vendor, and nursing community chain to develop EHR-based methods for improving care coordination. Other solutions could entail behavioral "nudges" for care providers or recipients with smartphone technology, which could also be designed for use by people with dementia and their caregivers. The challenge was designed to appeal to stakeholders that include small businesses, individuals, midsize to large technology companies, health insurance firms, EHR vendors, students collaborating across multiple disciplines, health systems, states, and/or counties deploying care coordination programs.

A 26-year study of 12,102 individuals published in the Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry found that 48.2 percent of women and 36.2 percent of men older than 45 are likely to develop either dementia, stroke, or Parkinson's in their lifetime, reports CNN . From 1990 to 2016, 1,489 subjects were diagnosed with dementia, 1,285 with stroke, and 263 with Parkinson's, while 438 people were diagnosed with multiple diseases. Women had a greater risk of developing dementia and stroke, with a 31.4 percent chance of dementia after 45 years old versus an 18.6 percent chance among men. Women also had a 21.6 percent chance of developing stroke versus 19.3 percent of men. The odds of developing Parkinson's were almost identical for men and women, with women having a 4.3 percent risk to men's 4.9 percent risk. Between 45 and 65 years of age, women have a 2.6 percent chance and men a 3.2 percent chance of developing one of the three conditions. The study's authors stress that if any of the three conditions are delayed by one, two, or three years, the potential risk of developing the disease falls 20 percent to 50 percent.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has announced a multi-year project to empower beneficiaries and update Medicare resources to fulfill their need for a more personalized customer experience. The eMedicare initiative aims to modernize how beneficiaries receive information about Medicare and establish new ways to help them make the best decisions for themselves and their loved ones. The initiative seeks to set up a seamless online healthcare experience via consumer data integration and Web product development to bring Medicare.gov up to date and enhance access to personal healthcare data. The program plans to improve opportunities to digitize, provide more self-serve options, and implement a frictionless multi-channel customer service process. CMS is launching several eMedicare solutions in advance of Medicare Open Enrollment, including an upgraded coverage wizard to help beneficiaries compare Original Medicare and Medicare Advantage options; a mobile-optimized out-of-pocket cost calculator to provide information on overall costs and prescription drug costs; a streamlined login for the Medicare Plan Finder; a webchat option in the Medicare Plan Finder; and easy-to-use surveys on Medicare.gov. The eMedicare initiative will expand and improve on current consumer service options.

A study published in EBioMedicine demonstrates that treating aged mice with the natural product Fisetin, found in many fruits and vegetables, can positively impact health and lifespan by mitigating the burden of senescent cells, reports Medical Xpress . The investigators determined Fisetin reduces the level of senescent cells in the body, suggesting "that we can extend the period of health, termed 'healthspan,' even towards the end of life," according to the University of Minnesota Medical School's Paul D. Robbins. "But there are still many questions to address, including the right dosage, for example." The team employed mass cytometry technology and applied it for the first time in aging research. "This is the first demonstration that shows the effects of the drug on specific subsets of these damaged cells within a given tissue." Robbins notes. It is only now that researchers have found a means of identifying if a treatment was actually attacking the particular cells that are senescent.

Scientists at the University of Southern California's (USC) 2018 Body Computing Conference demonstrated how unlimited free Lyft rides can improve quality of life for seniors, reports Fast Company . In conjunction with UnitedHealthcare, the AARP Foundation allocated $1 million to USC Keck School of Medicine to test the effect of free Lyft rides on the health of senior USC beneficiaries within the greater Los Angeles area. Lyft gave 150 participants wearable devices to track behavior patterns as well as offered app-use training, while a concierge-style phone number was provided for pickups, in case subjects were uncomfortable with smartphones. Subjects had unlimited Lyft ride access to whatever they needed, with a strong emphasis on doctor's appointments. Forty-nine percent of participants needed access to internal medicine specialists, while 26 percent needed access to surgery or surgical followups. Others visited pain management therapists, cancer specialists, and psychiatrists. By tracking 4,806 free Lyft rides, researchers found that subjects took an average of one ride a day, ranging at about $20 for an average of 14 miles. Preliminary findings noted a 35 percent increase in activity from baseline to ride access. Ninety percent of participants said the free rides had a "positive impact" on their quality of life, and they also started going out more.

Three European retirement communities are using a robot called ENRICHME, created by researchers at the University of Lincoln in the United Kingdom, to remind older residents where they have put things and help them exercise, reports Horizon . The university's Nicola Bellotto says the robot was developed as part of a project designed "to assist and monitor people with cognitive impairments and offer basic interactions to help a person maintain their cognitive abilities for longer." During trials at retirement communities in the U.K., Greece, and Poland, the robot traveled around providing reminders about medication and offering regular physical and mental exercise. In each community where it was deployed, the robot was connected to sensors installed throughout buildings to monitor the movements and activities of participants. "All this information was used by the robot," Bellotto says. "If a person was in the bedroom or kitchen, the robot could rely on the sensors to know where the person is." The robot also was equipped with a thermal camera to measure the temperature of a person in real time, and calculate their respiration and heartbeat to determine whether they were experiencing high levels of stress related to a particular activity. Bellotto and his team are currently applying for funding for new projects to solve lingering technical problems in order to bring the robot one step closer to commercialization.