After age 65 as many as 75% of Americans suffer from one chronic disease such as heart disease, hypertension, high cholesterol, infections, diabetes, arthritis and osteoporosis, to name just a few common afflictions. Additionally, recent statistics indicate that 50% of elderly people have two or more chronic health problems. And, the older people get, the more likely they have to consider the question of relocating from the home they love to an institutional setting where someone can watch over them in the event of a health crisis, no matter how infrequent such an event may be. (What they worry about )

But this may be about to change for the better (Learn more). With the adaptation of blood pressure monitors, electrocardiogram devices, blood/oxygen concentration readers and defibrillators to make them usable at home, people can measure their own vital signs to see if there are changes taking place that a doctor should know about. These home-adapted devices even contain software that graphs and performs analyses of the readings taken to optimize their usefulness to a physician. Finally, a specially programmed laptop computer now available (Learn More) to store personal information in the user