Tag Archive for: telehealth

GrandCare Systems® Wins 2012 Frost & Sullivan Best Practices Award

Frost & Sullivan Presents GrandCare Systems® as a 2012 Best Practices Award Winner, North American Elderly Health and Wellness Customer Value Enhancement

GrandCare-Systems-LLC.

West Bend, WI – (December 12, 2012) – GrandCare Systems® has received the prestigious 2012 Frost & Sullivan, North American Elderly Health and Wellness Customer Value Enhancement Award. This award recognizes GrandCare Systems for offering an extensive, cutting-edge, elderly health and wellness solution.

“GrandCare has recognized the opportunity presented by the convergence of healthcare and wellness. The company has designed and launched a complete and vetted elderly solution that successfully addresses the needs of being happy and healthy,” said Frost & Sullivan Senior Industry Analyst Zachary Bujnoch.

GrandCare offers a system that allows communication between various devices to a central interactive touchscreen hub, which then relays that information into a reviewable format. The core of customer value with elderly care is not in the technology itself, but in the effective design of the system, and in the deployment and ongoing service of such a system. The elderly population has unique needs and desires for home health and wellness systems. These needs must be taken into account during the initial design and ongoing improvements of the offering. It is becoming increasingly evident that wellness activities for the elderly, such as social interactions, are important to healthcare, and they might be necessary for success in some aspects of healthcare outcomes. To achieve greater customer value in elderly health and wellness, each of these needs must be addressed. Since 2005, GrandCare has set the highest standard for value in this market by designing and providing both a health offering and a wellness offering in the same system.

“The world of telehealth is most impactful when it is addressing the elderly population, but unfortunately, elderly care and wellness remains one of the most undeserved needs in healthcare,” reported Bujnoch. “GrandCare continues to show exceptional insight within elderly health and wellness by understanding the complex needs of the elderly and offers a unique, high-value solution in response.”

GrandCare’s offering takes on two roles. First, it acts as an interactive communication platform that can receive data from various activity and digital health devices. The GrandCare platform is malleable and customizable to the specific needs of an elderly home or community setting. It integrates with health-focused peripherals, such as scales, glucometers and blood pressure devices, as well as smart home sensors that can monitor activity and wellness. The second role of the system is as a direct and interactive communication touchscreen for the aged. Through this highly functional hub, the elderly persons can interact with various passive monitoring devices by reviewing data, and they can also engage in a wealth of social and day-to-day activities, such as video chatting with family and maintaining a shared social calendar. The system itself is extremely flexible, as it can be utilized for many diverse tasks facing the elderly, such as keeping up with a complex medication regimen, prompting them with voice and written reminders, and providing stimulating brain exercises. Best of all, no computer knowledge is needed to operate the system, fulfilling the critical need for ease of use. By properly addressing all of these factors, GrandCare’s solution clearly proves a value for the elderly care market. GrandCare will be exhibiting in the Digital Health Pavilion at the upcoming Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Jan. 8–11, LVCC South Hall, Booth # 26629

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GrandCare Systems on FOXBusinesses’, “Gadgets Every Boomer Needs”

Dr. Alexis Abramson gives “The Boomer” insights on the technology and gadgets available to boomers and provides information on how we can best take advantage of them. This interview covers an array of tech from medication reminders, portable PCs, and eReaders, to innovative products (including GrandCare) which allow seniors to remain independent and healthy at home.

“Gadgets Every Boomer Needs”

 Published June 21, 2012 – FOXBusiness
by Casey Dowd – The Boomer 

Most baby boomers remember watching the animated show The Jetsons wondering if we were getting a glimpse of our future.

Well, we haven’t quite made the transition to flying cars (but driverless cars are hitting the road), and we don’t have talking robot maids (but we do have Rombas that vacuum on their own), but our society is full of technology that I am sure the creators of the show never imagined.

We have smartphones that can answer all our questions, and laptops thinner than most children’s books. As technology continues to advance, boomers are working to keep up with all the changes, and many companies are taking note and catering to our tech vitality…

… 

Boomer: What technology is available for boomers that live alone and need to reach help in an emergency?

Abramson:  New and improved technologies emphasize wellness, mobility, autonomy and social connectivity.   These innovative products and services are promoting health and independence for aging baby boomers.  Here are a few of my favorite examples of new technology in the fall prevention and emergency monitoring space:

ActiveCare Personal Assistant Link: This one-touch system looks like a small cell phone with large buttons. With the push of a button boomers are connected to ActiveCare’s call center with specialists that can help with everything from calling an ambulance to calling a physician or family members. GPS is integral to the PAL system, allowing users’ locations to be tracked at all times, and can detect if an individual has fallen.

 eNeighbor Monitoring System: This system is programmed to detect unusual activity in the home. A shower left running or a fridge that goes unopened for a day could trigger a phone call to the end user or a caregiver.    

GrandCare: This system offers a comprehensive communication and monitoring system  for active seniors combining aspects of home automation, online communications and healthcare (telehealth) in one flexible and user-friendly package.

BeClose: The device tracks your loved one’s daily routine by receiving information from discreet wireless sensors that are placed in various locations around the home (as well as a wearable alert button).  Caregivers have the freedom of knowing their aging loved one is safe because they are able to check on them at any time using a secure, private web page.  If there are any disruptions to daily life, the primary caregiver will be alerted immediately by phone, email or text message…

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“The Boomer” is a column written for adults nearing retirement age and those already in their “golden years.” It will also promote reader interaction by posting e-mail responses and answering reader questions. E-mail your questions or topic ideas to thefoxboomer@gmail.com.

Healing in Place: How Technology Can Come to the Rescue of Caregivers!

Free Webinar Thursday, June 28th Presented by eCare Diary
2:00PM EST

Featuring Laura Mitchell, GrandCare Systems and Erick Eiting, MD, MPH, MMM

 

There is a huge sense of relief for caregivers when elderly loved ones are allowed to go home after being in a hospital. In this Webinar, we will discuss causes of hospital readmissions and provide a prevention plan including health technology tools and in-home caregiving services to keep seniors safe and connected, at home. Join Laura Mitchell, founding member of GrandCare Systems and expert in technology for medical management and Dr. Erick Eiting, MD, MPH, MMM, expert in Emergency Medicine, for the FREE 30 minute Webinar followed by a 15 minute question and answer session.

 

Register Here

eCareDiary.com

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EHX TeleHealth & Digital Home Health Technology Session

Collaboration: The Integrator’s Role in TeleHealth & Digital Home Health Technology 

You’ve heard all about Digital Home Health Technology and why it’s going to be the way of the future, but where do integrators come in?

With recent healthcare legislation, hospital systems and payers are being forced to become accountable for improving patient outcomes, while reducing the cost of care delivery. The care delivery network is focusing on telehealth & remote monitoring technologies to help care for the highest risk population in the lowest cost setting – the patient’s home.

However, hospitals and payer systems are tuned for executing today’s care delivery model, but who will focus on technology and services needed for tomorrow? This session will explore the opportunities and role of the solutions integrator as an integral piece of the care transition puzzle.

Presented by:


Instructor:Alex Go, Virtual Health


Instructor:Jeffrey Makowka, AARP


Instructor:Laura Mitchell, GrandCare Systems

Course Code
CE Pro #115
Schedule
Friday, March 16, 2012
10:30 AM – 11:15 AM
Room CI Stage

More Information available at www.ehxweb.com/classes/ce-pro-115

LifeWise Renovations

Just ran across this great blog recommendation on GrandCare that we thought we would share.

Two Technologies For Aging In Place

By Katy Dodd

See the whole post by LifeWise Renovations

A team of my constituents and I were recently asked to look at the emerging technologies in aging in place and assess their feasibility for long-term use in the home.  There were two technologies that caught our eye: GrandCare Systems and the Care-O-Bot.

GrandCare Systems is a company based out of Wisconsin that has integrated all the different telehealth technologies into one system. The system connects to any internet connection and communicates with “wireless” sensors throughout the residence. Caregivers can log into the GrandCare website to send communications to a loved one, view activity and tele-wellness sensor information (blood pressure, heart, weight) and customize the automatic caregiver alerts. You can also use GrandCare for socialization, entertainment and communication purposes. Family can send pictures, emails, calendar appointments, voice messages, family videos and more right to the GrandCare System.  You can also play brain bender games, watch the news, listen to the weather, etc. See video.

As with most things, this technology is not for everyone. It does come with a higher price tag than most other systems on the market.  GrandCare does, however, come with more options than any other we have come across thus far.  It is also user friendly and does not require computer experience to operate.

The other technology that caught our eye is the Care-O-Bot.  I think it will be a few more years before we see service robots in the home, but they do offer a solution to the growing problem of not having enough workers to meet the need as well helping to alleviate some of the many issues faced by long term caregivers. The Care-O-Bot can help with dish washing, the lifting of objects, walking, getting up from a chair or bed, the fetching of items, and other basic tasks. See video.  

In a perfect world, I would like to see the two technologies come together and integrate themselves into one easy to use, affordable system (I will speak more on this later).  The reason I mention affordable is because both are relatively high priced. The likelihood that people will be able to afford these luxuries outright is relatively slim.  My suggestion would be to set up a leasing office where customers could apply a monthly payment (similar to a car leasing structure).  If you ask me, this beats paying the monthly cost of assisted living.  People go from owning a home outright to essentially having a mortgage again. This would be much less than a mortgage payment and would allow for one to maintain their independence longer.  It will be interesting to see how this market changes and grows over time, given it is still in its infancy.

GrandCare Systems and CoroHealth Announce a Harmonious Collaboration

West Bend, WI – November 2, 2011 – GrandCare Systems and Coro Health today announced a strategic collaboration to integrate Coro Health’s Streaming Music into GrandCare’s fully-featured remote activity of daily living monitoring, telehealth and socialization system.  The result is a harmonious experience: giving the GrandCare customer a deeper level of musical entertainment, passion and familial communication.

“It’s a natural fit” states GrandCare Systems Founder and CEO, Charles Hillman.  “GrandCare Systems has always embraced a holistic approach by considering the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual aspects of wellness. We are excited to collaborate with Coro Health, one of the pioneers in therapeutic music.”

“Music is much more than a series of notes” remarks David Schofman, Founder of Coro Health.  “It can reach deep into the human spirit and change a mood in an instant. GrandCare’s platform provides a perfect home for Coro Health’s therapeutic music and will help to enable Loved Ones to remain connected and happy in their homes.”

GrandCare Systems and Coro Health will be showcasing the Digital Home Health and music partnership at the upcoming AgeTech California Technology Conference & Exposition on November 15th at the Hilton Hotel in Pasadena, CA.

About GrandCare Systems: On the market since 2006, GrandCare Systems is a pioneer in the aging and technology digital home health industry.  GrandCare offers a senior friendly, Internet-enabled, private home touch screen system aimed at maintaining independence, enabling full family socialization, controlling chronic conditions, and reducing hospital readmissions. It combines the technologies of smart home, activity monitoring, wellness monitoring, and social connectivity. The wellness aspect includes wireless physiological readings (weight, blood pressure, oximeter, glucometer), self- assessment, and medication compliance with associated rule sets, alerts, and congregate analytics. The social aspect includes one button Skype, Coro Health music, wellness videos, reminders, and other standard social media content aimed at reducing isolation, educating the resident, and influencing them to better self-manage his/her own health.

About Coro Health: Coro Health is a new media healthcare company. We create, design and distribute therapeutic media to support individuals within a wide range of healthcare settings. Our flagship products include MusicFirst and CoroFaith. Both programs are individually designed for users and delivered via a cloud-based and device agnostic network. Our customers include long-term care communities, hospitals, rehabilitation agencies, home health companies and end consumers.

GrandCare Media Contact:
Laura Mitchell
VP of Marketing
262-338-6147
laura@grandcare.com
www.grandcare.com
Press kit: https://www.grandcare.com/presskit/docs/PressKit.pdf

Coro Health Media Contact:
Leanne J. Flask
Chief Content Officer
512-553-6482
leanne@corohealth.com
www.corohealth.com

LA Home Care Makes An Impact on the Lives of Area Residents With Technology (GRANDCARE SYSTEMS)

View the article in full from Benton County, MN News

LA Home Care, a home care provider, located in Sauk Rapids, is making an impact on area residents through use of The GrandCare System, a combination of Smart Home Technologies, Activities of Daily Living monitoring, Internet communications and Tele-Wellness, which supports an entire network of caregivers providing greater security and less social isolation.

Last fall, after partnering with Cybermation, Inc located in Waite Park, LA Home Care www.mylahomecare.com received $16,000 in funding from the Living Connected in Benton County Steering Committeewww.bentoncountyconnected.org to help make this technology available to area residents.

“Technology has been such a growing force in our health care system. Now is the time to make the technology affordable, easy to understand and easy to use for all of us,” said Leslie Ann, owner of LA Home Care. “The GrandCare System, I believe, has done just that.”

This technology, which is currently in five homes, serves three main purposes:

  1. Assists seniors to stay in their homes longer. Client’s are more productive and able to remain connected to community and family through favorite websites set up by the client and caregiver as well as SKYPE, a scrolling alert/message system, brain bending exercises and more.
  2. Enables caregivers to assess a client’s abilities and helps monitor activities of daily living to keep them safe. They are able to accommodate a client’s needs and coordinate with doctors. This technology provides a number of wellness devices to fill the need of many different health issues including a blood pressure device, a weight scale, and a pill dispenser which all use a wireless bluetooth device to record results in the computer and route them directly to a nurse or other care provider.
  3. Gives family members peace of mind. Family members and caregivers are able to remotely upload pictures and send messages in real time, post daily reminders, create calendar appointments and events for the client. Family members are able to monitor their loved ones health concerns and stay in touch with caregivers.

LA Home Care cites Dorothy O. as an example of someone who is benefiting from this technology and who has been able to stay in her home longer. Without this technology Dorothy O. would likely be in an assisted living facility. “We have used Skype to see her newest great-grandchild in Hawaii,” says Leslie Ann. “She has some medical issues that have greatly improved while using the GrandCare system. She likes the fact that if she is in need of a nurse she only has to push a button and I would receive a message saying she needed help. Of course for emergencies she continues to have the Lifeline pendant. I can monitor all movement in the apartment and that can be reassuring to family members who are only hearing part of the issue over the phone. Family members can also log into Dorothy’s computer and see the same information that I do. This makes a well rounded caring atmosphere.”

For more information about LA Home Care, Leslie Ann or this technology visitwww.mylahomecare.com or call 320-828-0802.

Living Connected in Benton County www.bentoncountyconnected.org is a project partner in the Minnesota Intelligent Rural Communities Initiative (MIRC). MIRC is a coalition of 19 statewide partners and 11 demonstration communities funded in large part through an American Recovery and Reinvestment Act grant. The work of the coalition focuses on bringing the full promise of broadband technologies to rural Minnesota communities, businesses and people. Blandin Foundation serves as the project administrator. More about MIRC is available at www.blandinfoundation.org.

Read the article <a href = “http://www.co.benton.mn.us/News_Item.php?NewsID=59“> HERE </a>

Thursday July 29th VA’s Technology & Teamwork: An Overview

JOIN US!! On GrandCare’s weekly aging & technology industry call! OPEN TO ALL

Thursday July 29th, 1p Central Daylight Time
where: http://my.dimdim.com/grandcare
Speaker – Rita Kobb, MN, APRN-BC
Training Center Director
Education Program Specialist
VHA Telehealth Services.
Biosketch: Mrs. Rita Kobb has been with the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) for twenty-one years. She has been a Gerontological nurse practitioner for the past 14 years. Prior to that she worked as a Gerontological clinical nurse specialist. Mrs. Kobb holds Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Nursing from the University of Florida.
In 1999 she was part of a conceptual planning team to develop a new model of care for high-risk, high-use, and high-cost veterans in the Sunshine Network (Florida-Puerto Rico) using care coordination and home telehealth technologies. From February 2000 until January 2004 she was the Lead Care Coordinator for a care coordination and home telehealth program, located in Lake City, Florida. Currently Mrs. Kobb is the Education Program Specialist and Director of the only national training center for care coordination and home Telehealth for the Office of Telehealth Services. The Sunshine Training Center is located in Lake City, Florida.
Mrs. Kobb has spoken all over the country about care coordination and home telehealth in VHA. .She has consulted with several healthcare organizations and government agencies from around the world about telehealth implementation. She has been recognized as an expert consultant in care coordination and home telehealth and has served as Chair of the American Telemedicine Association’s Home Telehealth and Remote Monitoring Special Interest Group.

Various Models & Applications of GrandCare Systems & How it works!!!

There are various models of the GrandCare System to choose from. Ranging from independent home use, to nursing/in-home care staff member use to group homes to hospice/hospice care.

1. A mobile staff tablet to take to multiple resident’s homes/rooms so you can wirelessly record & assess bp, weight, pulse ox, glucose levels as well as record care notes about each resident. This can be accessed remotely by specified care-partners/family members.

2. A multi-resident wellness kiosk for residents to visit and take their vitals with the BP Device, Weight Scale, Glucometer or Pulse Oxygen. These vitals are automatically and wirelessly recorded to the system with allowances for the residents & staff members to jot down carenotes about the resident.

3. Community Room Entertainment Kiosk: Multiple Residents can also use the touchscreen system to play card games, see personal pictures, do trivia, receive incoming communications from family, see facility calendar events, view dining room menu options and more.

4. Multi-resident monitoring system. For multiple resident rooms or group homes. Monitors each resident’s door openings, bed, general motion and potential wellness information. One central TV can display communications, pictures, trivia, etc.

5. Individual (in the home model). There are two options for the in-the-home model. The interactive or passive model. Both will be placed into the independent home/residence and allows for family/care-partners to assess wellness information and be assured that all is well (got out of bed, accessed meds, accessed fridge, normal activity patterns, normal door activity, etc.). Care-partners can customize the GrandCare plan and determine which sensors are necessary for each individual installation. Sensors can EASILY be added or removed at ANY time, no wiring necessary.
A. Passive Model – allows family to send personalized pictures, messages, emails, reminders, family videos, etc to a dedicated TV monitor in the home. Resident needs ZERO technical know-how to use this. They simply watch the TV and the incoming communications.
B. Interactive “On-Demand” Model – allows family to send personalized pictures, messages, emails, reminders, family videos, etc to the easy-to-use, atm-like interactive touchmonitor in the home. The resident simply presses the buttons (pictures, messages, calendar, video, etc.) and chooses what they want to see and when!

6. Hospice/Hospital Model. A simple communication device goes into the room of the resident and plugs into any TV. Family and friends of the resident can go online to the GrandCare website and easily send “i love you” notes, messages, emails, family photos, inspirational words, calendar events and more. The system can also display spiritual offerings, trivia, weather reports, news headlines, nostalgia, stock photos, etc. The resident ONLY has to watch as new communications come in!!!

HOW IT WORKS:
The smart GrandCare System talks quietly and wirelessly with the chosen activity & telehealth sensors. Options range from motion, inside temperature, door, call-me buttons, bed/chair, caller-id on TV, blood pressure, weight, glucometer, pulse oxygen, etc.

Caregivers can log into our secured website from any remote location and check the sensor activity. They can also set up automated alerts. For example, they might want to receive an email if medications were not accessed and a phone call if there is a significant weight gain in a short period of time. Alerts are easy to set-up and can be customized to reflect ANYTHING you need to know. Of course, we walk you through all of this to ensure success!

There is a social/connectivity aspect to GrandCare, which separates us from other remote monitoring systems. It’s called the Communication Station. Caregivers and Family can go to our website and easily send pictures, messages, emails, reminders, calendar appointments, videos, music and more right to a dedicated TV monitor or to an interactive touchscreen. The loved one can also play card games, trivia, see news/weather reports and more using an easy-to-use ATM-like TOUCHSCREEN.