This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will prototype a new class of assistive technologies to improve quality of life and wellbeing of the elderly and to reduce overall burden of aging costs on social and private health systems. Today's telehealth solutions focus on medical aspects and ignore social and psychological needs. Research has shown that social isolation significantly increases health risks. If successful, the proposed innovation research will result in the commercialization a social and emotional connectedness platform designed to help elderly, their caregivers, and their friends and family stay actively in touch and involved in their care, as well as providing emotional and physical support for the caregivers. The feasibility study will prove the efficacy of the approach through a series of in-vivo ethnographic field studies.
This proposed approach to geriatric care has the potential to shift the context from medicine and monitoring to fulfilling core emotional and social needs. The company believes there is a significant market for consumer-oriented, social-based, self-care solutions that can integrate with professional medical monitoring solutions. To validate the strategy, the company has held discussions with potential strategic partners to pilot test the solution at the end of Phase I to gauge marketability and impact. The company believes that commercial success could kick start a marketplace for similar, emotional-connectedness solutions and technologies that would benefit the lives of the elderly, and other groups as well.
