Addison Care is changing the way providers, caregivers, and patients manage health remotely
LAS CRUCES, N.M., April 3, 2023 – Electronic Caregiver, a national health technology company, today announced the launch of several new avatars and features on its groundbreaking digital health care management platform, Addison Care.
Addison Care, released to the public in January of this year, is an all-in-one telecare solution that connects the patient with primary care, emergency response, friends, and family. The platform features a 3D-animated Virtual Caregiver, named Addison, who helps monitor the health of aging and chronically ill clients of all ages via a dedicated Lenovo all-in-one computer or tablet. Clients can interact with Addison and the surrounding environment through voice and touch while staying engaged in their health care plan. The newly launched features are part of continuous updates planned for Addison Care with the goal of making the platform the best possible system for customers in terms of 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. “With 33 percent of our doctors at or past average retirement age, alongside rising demand with the chronically ill and aging, Addison fills the gaps in care, improves treatment adherence, and helps early-identify changes in health status. Addison helps doctors fine tune and personalize treatment plans in real time and empowers health providers to deliver more services to more patients. This results in better outcomes, lower mortalities, and extended quality lifespan.”
Originally released with just one flagship character, Addison Care will now include four additional living avatars, representing diverse cultural ethnicities.
“Representation matters,” said Addison Product Owner Samuel Blake. “Electronic Caregiver’s art team identified a long time ago that one type of avatar may not best reflect our end user, and we’ve found that people are more willing to use a system if they feel they’re represented in that system in meaningful and personal fashion.”
Other newly released features include the integration of dynamic reminders, the option to put Addison in sleep mode, and the ability to have familiar, 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, creating a home environment that is unique to them.
The addition of a sleep mode will allow users to temporarily shut down and darken Addison’s screen, such as during the night hours or any other time of day they see fit. While the Virtual Caregiver will not communicate with the user in sleep mode, she will come alive if there is an emergency call placed, a reminder comes in, or the client brings Addison out of sleep mode by tapping the screen or saying, “Addison, wake up.” Addison will also now perform customizable, automated, interactive health surveys and assessments, along with health network integration to report actionable data points.
Holiday décor is one of the more fun and unique features implemented into Addison Care and 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.
The new features set Addison Care far above the health care apps and technology on the market today, creating 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.”
Additionally, 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 that while health apps could help older adults better track health goals and manage chronic illness, “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 reminds users to take prescribed medications, conducts interactive health assessments, delivers dosing compliance verification to caregivers and providers, and assists patients in recording vital sign measurements to monitor specific conditions. The Addison Care system can be paired with various Bluetooth devices, such as a glucometer, blood pressure monitor, oximeter, non-contact thermometer, and spirometer. Addison tracks medication adherence and vital sign trends over time, allowing 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.
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, physical and mental health routines, and video televisits with health care professionals. On the clinical side, Addison configurations are being created for bedside patient management in hospitals, such as intake and discharge processes.
“Our company has invested more than a decade interacting with health professionals, patients, and caregivers,” Dohrmann said. “We have continued to iterate and advance our solutions to meet the real world demands of the market, taking a more wholistic approach to serving the needs of the entire care circle.”
About Electronic Caregiver
Founded in 2009, Electronic Caregiver is a privately held digital health technology and services company headquartered in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Electronic Caregiver’s mission is to design and deliver innovative, impactful telehealth products and services that bridge the chasm between the doctor’s office and patient’s home to improve outcomes, expand access, and optimize resource allocation. Electronic Caregiver has been qualified as a technology solution provider in the AWS Partner Network (APN). The company’s solutions are available to individual customers, as well as through health care organizations, physician practices, care management firms, homecare agencies, and senior housing providers to deliver hospital-at-home, chronic care management, and remote patient monitoring programs.