Tag Archive for: aging in place

Grandcare to be showcased at Florida Homecare Conference

GrandCare Systems will be exhibiting at the biggest trade show in the Florida home health industry. The Home Care Association of Florida is celebrating its 25th anniversary and GrandCare will be there. Visit us to see how our industry-leading technology can rocket your business forward and blow away your competition.

HCAF Vector Logo

The HCAF Annual Conference & Trade Show will feature numerous for-credit continuing education sessions presented by leading experts in home health from across the nation. Home health care has changed a lot over the last 25 years, but that’s nothing compared to the changes that will be coming our way. Organizations and professionals will have to adapt during this period in order to thrive.

This year’s conference is about transforming the industry with the important steps home health must take as we move into a new phase of healthcare in America. Learn from industry experts what it takes to hit your own “silver anniversaries” and beyond as we continue providing the best care possible to patients in their preferred setting: their own home.

Booth 417

Stop by our GrandCare booth and receive a free gift card from Starbucks. Even better, set up a short meeting with us to enter a drawing for a free Kindle. Contact info@grandcare.com to set up your meeting. Space is limited!

When: July 23-24, 2014

Where: Buena Vista Palace and Spa   Φ   Orlando, FL 

To reserve a room for the Home Care Association of Florida Conference click here.

 

What is GrandCare?

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Industry pioneer GrandCare Systems provides the most trusted and comprehensive caregiving technology on the market. Since 2005, GrandCare has enabled individuals to remain healthier, happier, and more independent.

GrandCare is a complete communication, cognition, and monitoring technology that is designed to keep individuals safe, healthy, happy, and independent at home. Using a series of wireless sensors that monitor activity (door, temperature, motion, bed, etc.) and telewellness (blood pressure, weight), a care partner can automatically be notified if anything is amiss. Family can connect via two way video chat AND send pictures, messages, emails, videos, and other communications to an easy-to-use touch monitor in the loved one’s home. Loved ones need ZERO technical experience.

 

To read more about GrandCare Systems and get access to the store CLICK HERE.

 

GrandCare chosen as featured speaker at June 3 InControl Wisconsin event

GrandCare Systems’ Laura Mitchell has been selected to lead a discussion exploring how digital health technologies (activity, medication management, telehealth, socialization) can enable seniors to remain safer, happier and healthier wherever home is. It also engages multiple levels of caregivers, who can better and more efficiently care for an aging client or loved one.

Stop by GrandCare’s booth to experience why GrandCare is a leader and pioneer in the digital health and wellness industry.

 

Laura Mitchell, VP Business Development, GrandCare Systems Topic: Senior Cyborgs & Technology powered “digital caregivers”

This course is an exploration of how digital health technologies (video chat, activity, telehealth and medication monitoring) will empower the aging and chronic disease mgmt population while providing caregivers and health providers with BETTER information, eliminating the “noise” and enabling proactive, predictive and preventative care.  With the backdrop of the affordable care act, health providers are being penalized for cost of readmissions within 30 days.  Meanwhile, this society is faced with a huge disruptive demographic: the aging population. One can hardly discuss the aging tsunami without addressing the rising cost of healthcare, typically more is spent in the later years in life.  Everyone is looking to provide more cost-effective care where we turn caregivers into “zone players” vs. old school man on man.

Living a Self-Determined Life: A Conference on Empowerment for Older Adults

June 3, 2014

8:45 am – 4:00 pm

Glacier Canyon Lodge Conference Center at the Wilderness Resort Wisconsin Dells

The Living a Self Determined Life conference brings together people who are committed to the notion that older people should be empowered to live the life they choose.

Who should attend:

 – Senior Population

 – Professional Caregivers

 – Geriatric Care Managers

 – Long Term Care communities

 – Healthcare Providers

Register Now

 

GrandCare Systems is featured in the New York Times and Yahoo News!

NY TIMES: Smartphones, Smartwatches and, Now, Smart Toothbrushes

By Eric A. Taub | May 7, 2014 | New York Times

IN the last few years, sensors have become small and inexpensive enough to make the monitoring of practically everything possible.

“Sensors also are helping caregivers see and respond to what is happening while patients are on their own. GrandCare Systems and other companies make devices to monitor a person’s home. If the patient, say, walks out the front door at 2 a.m. or opens the refrigerator 15 times an hour, the caregiver will get a phone call or a text message.”

Read the full Article

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Yahoo! We have the technology to reinvent aging, so why aren’t we using it?  

By Jeneen Interlandi | May 7, 2014 | Yahoo News

[..] The key to that, he [Charlie Hilman, Founder and CTO, GrandCare Systems] says, is to keep the interfaces simple and to integrate health and safety features with ones that facilitate connectivity. “We put a lot of stuff into Facebook feeds and Skype,” he says. “And the tablet era has really helped a lot because seniors love tablets: big, bright, backlit screen; no keyboard; no buttons.” In fact, tablets have become so popular among seniors that Hillman credits the devices with transforming the way they view sensor technology. “It took a while for them to get over the Big Brother aspect,” he says. “But now it’s, ‘Well, I don’t want to move to assisted living, and I don’t want somebody I don’t know coming into my home every day to deliver care.’ So this becomes a best option.”

Read the full article

GrandCare slated to speak at LeadingAge Missouri May 2nd

May 2nd 2014
From 8:00 AM until 6:30 PM

Hampton Inn & Suites
1225 Fellows Place
Columbia, MO 65201

2014 LeadingAge Missouri’s first-ever Technology Summit. Let us help you get up to speed on new technology, innovations and emerging trends to help you in the Long Term Care realm.

Contact: Christy Stretz
christystretz@leadingagemissouri.org
Phone: 573-635-6244

“The Empowered Caregiver: Long Term Care goes Digital” Presented by Laura Mitchell, VP of Business Development, GrandCare Systems

Laura Mitchell, VP Business Development, GrandCare Systems

Laura Mitchell, VP Business Development, GrandCare Systems

Digital health, social engagement and remote monitoring technologies are designed to not only create a better care experience for seniors and their families, but perhaps more importantly, to enhance the way professionals can manage the daily care needs of their clients. The aging population is continuing to rise while the number of care providers and brick and mortar cannot keep up. Armed with enabling remote monitoring technology tools, professional caregiving staff will be turned into “SUPER CAREGIVERS”, being privy to more predictive, proactive and preventative information for clients within a community or beyond, in their own homes. In this session, you will learn about available technology solutions, best practices for better client outcomes and new revenue opportunities!

More Information …

Digital Health & Professional Care: What’s the ROI?

Learn about how one GrandCare HomeCare provider successfully utilizes the GrandCare technology as a tool for clients to provide better, more cost-effective and visionary care. GrandCare & Knute Nelson co-presented at the AgeTech West Conference in Pasadena, November 2013. The audience: long term care and in-home care providers, looking to utilize activity and digital health telemonitoring and socialization technologies for a competitive edge and to improve their bottom line!!

Realizing the Value of Care Technologies through Implementation at Scale:
“The New Care Professional: Powered by Digital Health Technology”

PRESENTERS: Laura Mitchell, VP Business Development, GrandCare Systems and Daphne Karpan, Palliative Care Manager, KnuteNelson Home Care
Digital health, social engagement and remote monitoring technologies are designed to not only create a better care experience for seniors and their families, but equally important is enhancing the way professionals can manage the care needs of their clients. This session discusses how an easy-to-use, convenient technology platform has been integrated into a home care organization, empowering and transforming Professional Care Managers into efficient, more knowledgeable purveyors of care and support. Learn how integrating technology with hands-on services can change the way we care for those in need in the most efficient and cost-effective manner without compromising quality.

Join us for a FREE online GrandCare Sales Presentation

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GrandCare is the most comprehensive digital health and remote monitoring technology on the market.  Combining Activity of daily living and digital health monitoring, medication management, event reminders and prompting, remote caregiver coordination, smart home automation, social media and touch-based connectivity, GrandCare offers an easy-to-use, affordable and intuitive solution for individuals that want to remain safe, happy and healthy at home.

Event Details:

GrandCare’s VP of Business Development, Laura Mitchell will deliver an hour long presentation describing the market need, showcasing GrandCare’s rich features, applications for private home settings, long term care, in-home care providers and post-acute hospital transitions.  Join us for this hour long informative and entertaining session on how and why technology can play an important role in mitigating long term care & health care costs, empower professional and familial caregivers and reduce hospital readmissions.

Join:

Wednesday, February 12, 2014
2:00 pm Eastern Standard Time
1:00 pm Central Standard TimeWhere: GrandCare Systems on Webex

Who should Attend:

Consumers looking to keep a loved one at home, in-home care providers, long term care providers, nursing staff & hospital providers, anyone interested in technology tools that can help individuals remain at home, improving outcomes and saving costs.

Laura Mitchell, VP Business Development, GrandCare Systems

Laura Mitchell, VP Business Development, GrandCare Systems

Laura Mitchell is a founding member of GrandCare Systems, a software technology that combines aspects of Activity of Daily living & Telehealth remote monitoring, Video Chat, Medication Management, and family social connectivity into one comprehensive platform. Laura was responsible for bringing the product to market in 2006, while educating the industry on the importance of technology tools for the aging population. Laura specializes in Social Media and non-traditional, guerilla marketing. She was featured in Forbes for her social media strategies and was a 2011 recipient of the Flame Award for Excellence in Leadership and Innovation from Silicon Valley’s Boomer Awards. She was featured as a “Young Turk of CE” by Custom Retailer Magazine and was awarded the 2012 Dealerscope’s 40 under 40 award.

Laura speaks throughout the country at industry events, radio shows and internet publications on Digital Health, Mitigating Hospital Readmissions using Technology, Social Media and Go-to-market Strategies in the Aging Industry including at AARP, Connected Health Symposium, CES, CEDIA, AHIMA, etc. She has authored various magazine articles for online readers and magazine publications. Laura has consulted for major cable providers, in-home care providers as well as fellow innovators. She has been a key organizer for the EHX and CEDIA Future Home Pavilions and Educational Tracks, and in 2008, created the industry-wide, well attended Thursday GrandCare Aging and Technology webinars (these continued for 4 years).

GrandCare Systems’ Laura Mitchell to speak on AT&T’s panel at mHealth

Register Now

AT&T Presents:
Independent Living Thru Technology

Session Overview

With the challenges facing the U.S. healthcare system – increasing demand, spiraling costs and limited resources – it’s not surprising that providers and consumers alike are feeling the pressure to use resources more efficiently and cost effectively. The good news is that technology and emerging care delivery models now make it possible to have care delivered in the home or on the go. This discussion will center on aging in place technologies and the future of the digital home. We’ll explore how the use of smartphones, tablets and other mobile, connected technologies can play a central role in enabling the patient centered medical home, improve quality of life, enhance peace of mind, and ultimately create the framework for independent living and patient self-management.

Session Objectives

  • Explore emerging care delivery models as healthcare moves away from volume-based to value-based care.
  • Discuss the role the digital home can play in patient centered medical homes.
  • Learn how mobile technologies can empower patient self-management and independent living.

Speakers 

Nasrin Dayani, Executive Director, AT&T ForHealth℠, AT&T Advanced Business

Nick Martin, Vice President, Innovation and R&D, UnitedHealth Group

James Mault, Vice President & Chief Medical Officer, Qualcomm Life, Inc.

Laura Mitchell, Vice President Business Development, GrandCare Systems

Bill Walsh, Senior Advisor, AARP

Learn More at http://www.mhealthsummit.org/program-details/att.

GrandCare featured in Star Tribune article on aging and technology

We wanted to share the recent article by the Minneapolis Star Tribune on how enabling technologies are helping individuals to live independently, safely and happily at home.

GrandCare could not agree more with Andy Carle’s point of view on the acceptance of technology. When technology makes the quality of life better, it is accepted. When it makes life confusing and difficult, it is not. These seniors that we are discussing are the same folks that went from walking to flying and first put a man on the moon. They are not tech-phobic. We simply need to make the interface and user experience pain free and helpful.  At GrandCare, that has been a vision since day one. How can we bridge the generations and connect grandchildren and great grandchildren with their senior family members?  How can we find a middle ground when both generations prefer different methods of communication?

Note: As a clarification in the Star Tribune article, the GrandCare System is not an emergency response system.  Instead, GrandCare relies on a series of activity and telehealth devices to provide an overview of information on a loved one. The caregivers can set parameters to receive specified alert (unusual activity, doesn’t get out of bed, didn’t access medications, etc.). Designated caregivers can also log in to GrandCare’s web portal to add reminders, medication schedules and even video chat directly to the loved one through a simple and intuitive touchscreen appliance in the loved one’s home. Thanks again for shedding light on this emerging and innovative industry.

The new retirement: Technology

  • Article by: PAUL DUNCAN , Star Tribune
  • Updated: August 7, 2013 – 9:48 AM

It’s such a cliché: grandpa fiddling with the buttons on the cellphone he barely knows how to use, grandma struggling to remember how to switch the computer on. But is it true that older people don’t like technology and don’t use it?

The reality, says expert Andrew Carle, is completely different from the perception. Carle, director of the Program in Senior Housing Administration at George Mason University and a consultant on aging issues, coined the term “Nana Technology” for innovations that not only help our aging population, but actually can save their lives.

Carle was in Minnesota in June to give a talk to Aging Services of Minnesota in Brooklyn Center on “Nana Technology: Is There A Robot In Your Future?” This is a summary of his presentation:  

Why technology is important

In two words: Global aging, says Carle. The first of 78 million baby boomers turned 65 on January 1, 2011, and the population aged 85 and older is expected to more than triple from 5.7 million in 2010 to 19 million in 2050. And it’s not an American phenomenon; on the list of countries with the highest percentage of people over 60, the U.S. comes 43rd. The outcome, says Carle, is that global aging will affect us long before global warming. “Individuals who in 1968 thought they would change the world,” Carle says, “by 2028 actually will.” So how will we take care of all these seniors? The answer is: Technology…

Carle highlights these useful and potentially life-saving technologies for seniors…

 

Sandys Screen

GrandCare Systems (grandcare.com): An integrated system that uses sensors around the home to monitor health and wellness, and establishes a baseline of normal activities. Reports emergencies, and allows communication with the senior via an open TV channel or available touch screen unit

 

…

To read the full article: http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle/goodlife/218580541.html

Knute Nelson awarded a grant to distribute GrandCare technology throughout palliative and hospice care homes

The Blandin Foundation awarded the Knute Nelson Foundation a $50,000 grant to introduce GrandCare technology to palliative care and hospice patients throughout a 25-county west central Minnesota region where Knute Nelson services.  Knute Nelson is being supported by GrandCare’s distribution partner, Cybermation.

GrandCare is a technology that supports aging & healing in place.

Since 2005, GrandCare Systems has provided the most comprehensive caregiving technology on the market, enabling individuals to remain safe, healthy and happy at home. GrandCare’s simple, touch platform enables a Resident to view pictures, receive incoming messages, watch videos, video chat with family, listen to music and play fun games. Using a series of wireless activity and telehealth devices, GrandCare can alert designated caregivers by phone, email or text if anything seems amiss (medications not accessed, glucose levels not taken, abnormal activity, etc.).

GrandCare starts with a large touchscreen in the patient’s room where both patients and their families can access health and wellness information, bereavement support and chronic disease education.

GrandCare allows patients, caregivers and nursing professionals the ability to access essential patient information to monitor and ensure proactive health care interventions.

GrandCare enables medication management (prompting a patient when medications should be accessed) as well as a social connection to family through video chat, messaging and other social media type features.

For information on Knute Nelson Home Care and Hospice, visit www.knutenelson.org or call (320) 759-1273.

http://www.echopress.com/event/article/id/106416/group/Business/

“Livable Cities”: What it takes for today’s cities to cater to our aging population!!

Technologies & Requirements to Enable Independence for Seniors in Cities

A musing by GrandCare founder, Charlie Hillman

GrandCare creates technology to empower the elderly to age and heal in place.  Our mission is to reduce the societal cost of long term, post acute, chronic condition, and hospice care while providing a safer, healthier, and happier life for seniors.  The notion of livable cities is of particular importance to our aging population.  Many cities, particularly those in nicer climates have seen large increases in their senior populations. Certainly part of this is the natural aging demographic of the first world, but there is clearly a movement of seniors from rural and suburban venues into the cities.

And it makes sense – cities have a number of big advantages for seniors.

  • They can walk to products and services.
  • There is mass transportation, often with senior discounts
  • There are downsized accommodations without lawn work.
  • There is easy access to senior services.
  • There is good access to healthcare, a particularly important need of seniors.

And, seniors are good for cities – they pay their taxes, they represent considerable wealth, they require services, they volunteer, they provide the wisdom of the ages, and of course, they have a pretty low crime rate.  Given all of this, a larger senior population also presents challenges to cities. Many of these seniors are the recipients of some sort of government assistance. While the federal or state government may be the ultimate payer, the Cities are often responsible for the actual frontline provision of services. Clearly the goal is to provide these services in a compassionate and yet efficient manner.

It is my contention that technology can play a vital component to meet these challenges.

Allow me to muse for a bit and describe what that technology might look like.

Read more