The Future of Health Care for Patients, Providers, and Caregivers
This month Electronic Caregiver announced the launch of new avatars and features on its health care management platform, Addison Care. Addison Care is changing the way patients manage their health. At the same time, it is changing the way caregivers and providers stay connected with their patient or loved one.
What is Addison Care?
Addison Care, released to the public in January of this year, is an all-in-one telecare solution. It connects the patient with primary care, emergency response, caregivers, and family. The platform features a 3D-animated Virtual Caregiver, named Addison. Addison helps monitor the health of the aging and those with chronic illness via a dedicated Lenovo computer or tablet. Clients can interact with Addison and the surrounding environment through voice and touch while staying engaged in their care plan. The newly launched features are part of continuous updates planned for Addison Care. Ultimately, the goal is to make Addison Care the best possible system for customers in both health care and companionship.
“Addison Care will revolutionize how we support, monitor, and coordinate care for patients, caregivers, and older adults at home,” said Electronic Caregiver founder and CEO Anthony Dohrmann. “Thirty-three percent of our doctors are at or past average retirement age. This, in addition to rising demand among those with chronic illness and the aging, Addison fills the gaps in care. Moreover, Addison improves treatment adherence and helps early-identify changes in health status. Addison also helps doctors fine tune and personalize treatment plans in real time. Addison empowers health providers to deliver more services to more patients. This results in better outcomes, lower mortalities, and extended quality lifespan.”
New Features and Updates Customers and Their Caregivers Will Love
Addison Care has more to offer the aging and those with chronic illness than ever before. The new features make interacting with the Virtual Caregiver an even more enjoyable, beneficial, and customizable experience. From new avatars to dynamic reminders, there’s so much to love about Addison.
New Avatars
Originally, the Addison Care platform featured just one flagship character. But now, Addison Care includes four additional living avatars, representing diverse cultural ethnicities.
“Representation matters,” said Addison Product Owner Samuel Blake. “Electronic Caregiver’s art team identified long ago that one type of avatar may not best reflect our end user. We’ve found that people are more willing to use a system if they feel they’re represented in that system. Especially, if it is in meaningful and personal fashion.”
Dynamic Reminders
Other newly released features include the integration of dynamic reminders and the option to put Addison in sleep mode. Another new feature is the ability to have festive décor appear within the Virtual Caregiver’s living space around various holidays.
Along with medication reminders, clients now have the option to set dynamic reminders based on their specific goals and needs. Customers can personalize these reminders by choosing the style of alarm clock that appears in the platform. This helps create a virtual home environment that is unique to them.
Sleep Mode
The addition of a sleep mode will allow users to temporarily shut down and darken Addison’s screen. This feature can be used during the nighttime hours or any other time of day. The Virtual Caregiver will not communicate with the user in sleep mode. However, Addison will come alive if there is an emergency call placed or a reminder comes in. Alternatively, the user can bring Addison out of sleep mode by tapping the screen. They can also say, “Addison, wake up.” In addition to these features, Addison will now perform customizable, automated, interactive health surveys and assessments. This information, paired along with health network integration, allows the system to report actionable data points.
Holiday Décor
Holiday décor is one of the more fun and unique features added into Addison Care. It ties in with the atmospheric mirroring that already takes place within Addison’s world. The weather outside and time of day is the same for both the user and Addison. And now, holidays can be shared with the Virtual Caregiver as well. Holiday décor options include Christmas, Hanukkah, Ramadan, New Year’s, birthdays, Halloween, St. Patrick’s Day, and more.
Addison Care keeps the aging and those with chronic illness engaged
The new features set Addison Care far above the health care apps and technology on the market today. This is because Addison creates a more captivating, user friendly, engaging, and inviting system.
“There are so many products out there that meet the acceptable standard for a health and wellness product. But they’re not fun to use,” Blake said. “So, if you can make something entertaining, easy, and fun, then people will want to actually use your product.”
Keeping clients engaged in their health care is vital. According to an article published by The Permanente Journal, “nonadherence to prescribed treatment is thought to cause at least 100,000 preventable deaths and $100 billion in preventable medical costs per year.”
The Virtual Caregiver takes users beyond the app
Addison moves health care beyond the mobile health app and is designed with the elderly in mind. A survey from the University of Michigan showed health apps could help older adults better track health goals and manage chronic illness. However, “less than 1 in 3 people over 50 currently use them for any purpose, and only 28 percent of people with diabetes use them to track blood sugar levels.”
Addison Care keeps patients grounded in their care plan by making health management an easy and enjoyable experience. Addison Care reminds users to take prescribed medications, conducts interactive health assessments, and delivers dosing compliance verification to caregivers and providers. Also, the Virtual Caregiver assists patients in recording vital sign measurements to monitor specific conditions. The Addison Care system can be paired with various Bluetooth devices. These include a glucometer, blood pressure monitor, oximeter, non-contact thermometer, and spirometer. Addison tracks medication adherence and vital sign trends over time. This allows clients, their caregivers, and providers to catch any escalations before they become problematic. The Virtual Caregiver also offers emergency response, telehealth services, and Care Coaching.
Addison Care connects patients with providers, caregivers, and family
Other engaging features include personalized home environments, locations, fonts, tones, colors, and customizable apparel. Clients can also interact with objects, animals, musical instruments, media, and characters in Addison’s world.
Future updates in store for the Virtual Caregiver include the addition of an even wider selection of avatars. New features will also include physical and mental health routines and video televisits with health care professionals. Clinically, Addison will have configurations for bedside patient management in hospitals, such as intake and discharge processes.
In conclusion, Dohrmann said, “Our company has invested more than a decade interacting with health professionals, patients, and caregivers. We have continued to iterate and advance our solutions to meet the real world demands of the market. This allows us to take a more wholistic approach to serving the needs of the entire care circle.”