CS3 - CareKit Health Dementia

Inspiration

CareKit Health was founded by a team of experienced entrepreneurs from the healthcare and IT spaces. We founded the company because our experience in the healthcare industry showed us that the current model for healthcare is not sustainable as the population ages and as the prevalence of conditions such as dementia steadily increases. With our backgrounds in IT, we saw an opportunity to use cutting edge technology (iBeacons, voice technology, secure communications, tablets and mobile apps) to deliver high quality care to patients at home in a cost-effective, scalable way. Our team feels strongly that there is a need to fundamentally change the way complex continuing care patients are treated, which in turn can reduce the overall cost to the healthcare system, improve health outcomes and increase patient and family satisfaction.

What it does

The CareKit Health Guidance app helps dementia patients maintain their independence and autonomy, while also ensuring their safety. The app:

Monitors patients for falls and wandering
Allows family members to record video reminders to help cue patients to perform everyday tasks, and alert them if they are leaving the home or caregiver/family-defined geofenced area
Provides alerts to family members if the patient forgets to take their medication, falls, leaves the designated area or does not move for a caregiver/family-specified period of time
Tracks and charts trends over time of patient falls, wandering and activity levels in the home or on the ward

How I built it

The CareKit Health Guidance platform uses and combines unique sensor technology and our expertise in app development for the healthcare IT market.

Challenges I ran into

The biggest challenge we faced in developing the concept for CareKit Health Guidance was finding an approach that would protect dementia patients and alleviate their families’ anxieties, while still being respectful of these patients as autonomous adults. We wanted to ensure that we could develop a solution that would:

Prevent wandering but without making patients feel like prisoners in their own homes or on a ward
Provide cueing for everyday tasks without making patients feel as if they are being treated like children
Allow dementia patients to remain independent and autonomous, while also providing family members and other caregivers with peace of mind knowing that they will be alerted in the event of a fall or wandering

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

Our founders have previously started numerous successful IT companies in the health and wellness space including Shift Alerts, SmartMED, VitalHub, Novoconn and SoFit. We are proud of our track record of bringing innovative IT solutions to patients and health-conscious consumers.

What I learned

In preparing for the Dementia Hack we spoke to clinicians, patients and families of patients with dementia to try to understand their unique challenges and concerns. We learned a lot about the frustrations patients feel at being treated like children, and the anxieties the families face while trying to help patients retain their autonomy and independence.