A new virtual caregiver from technology developer Electronic Caregiver interacts with people through a patient's voice and touch via a Lenovo IdeaCentre All-in-One computer or Yoga convertible tablet. The new approach to remote patient monitoring could be a big help for seniors aging in place.

WHY IT MATTERS

For patients with complex medication regimens, regular physical therapy or daily vitals monitoring programs, a 3D virtual care assistant can offer on-demand healthcare services. The new RPM assistant, called Addison, aims to do just that.

"Addison provides a dynamic, ever-changing, emotionally stimulating, personalized experience to the user. Addison can educate, demonstrate, inquire and connect," said Anthony Dohrmann, CEO of Las Cruces, New Mexico-based Electronic Caregiver, in a statement.

People who have impaired vision or unsteady hands struggle with small screens and buttons and can become overwhelmed or lose interest, according to the company. Addison can be personalized by language, gender, ethnicity, decor, location, tone, color, clothing and language. Users can interact with objects, animals, musical instruments and media in the virtual care system.

"You know [Addison's] not human, but it's nice to have a person there, and it's fun to watch her," said Coralee Armstrong, 82, an Addison Care client living in Greenville, Pennsylvania, in a statement. "It's kind of like an extra person in the house. It's kind of like company."

The company says the HIPAA-compliant system can help patients avoid the skyrocketing costs of assisted living and in-home care and help address caregiver shortages. It claims the virtual caregiver offers better oversight and care coordination.

The Addison Care system, which runs on AWS and Intel, can: 

• Remind users to take prescribed medications.
• Conduct interactive health assessments.
• Deliver dosing-compliance verification to caregivers and providers.
• Assist patients in recording vital sign measurements when monitoring specific conditions.
• Provide additional support for managing behavioral health conditions.
• Connect to emergency response services, caregivers, family and friends.

The system can also be paired with various Bluetooth devices, such as a glucometer for patients with diabetes or a weight scale and blood pressure cuff for patients who have or are managing heart disease.

The company also says physical and mental health routines and video telemedicine capabilities are in development. It maintains that the technology will evolve to offer third-party service integrations for needs like grocery delivery, ride sharing and connected-home solutions.

THE LARGER TREND

Electronic Caregiver debuted the Addison virtual caregiver system at HIMSS22. 

The system can mirror client lighting and weather automatically as it leads patients through the steps of recording vitals and then shares that information in real time with designated caregivers and providers.

The need for remote patient monitoring grew rapidly during the pandemic as it helps providers treat chronic conditions and ease overburdened hospitals. 

Healthcare systems are looking to RPM to provide more robust, timely and cost-efficient care moving forward, said Sarah Carroll, senior director of the Center for Care Transformation at AVIA, a healthcare digital transformation technology and services company.

"Within the next 10 years, there will be more older adults than kids. And of this aging population, two in five adults will have three or more chronic conditions. Seniors want to avoid costly nursing homes, and will need help living independently," Carroll told Healthcare IT News in June 2022.

ON THE RECORD

"Addison is the most transformational and engaging interface for human interaction with technology ever created," Dohrmann said in the announcement.

Andrea Fox is senior editor of Healthcare IT News.
Email: afox@himss.org
Healthcare IT News is a HIMSS publication.