PCL Health is expanding its digital footprint with wearables designed to increase and improve remote health monitoring for aging-in-place solutions.
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PCL Health has created a remote monitoring and analytics platform which drives health and wellbeing for elders using new technologies.
An AI-driven health score is combined with wearable technology and an app, to help patients, carers and families monitor their own health. The company has successfully completed two pilots in India that demonstrated the utility of its platform and is engaged with the NHS in the UK; however, not one to rest on its laurels, the company is actively improving its interface and expanding its wearables tech.
Longevity.Technology: When it comes to apps for aging-in-place, companies need to be mindful not to prioritise style over substance. Sure, a smart clean interface is aesthetically pleasing, but is it intuitive to use, especially for those in the population who are digital immigrants, rather than natives?
PCL is responding to the demands of the market; listening to feedback, engaging with customers and responding to the needs of the customer base – a refined, improved product should be better for outcomes and balance sheets.
PCL is on a mission to help people lead longer, more independent and healthier lives. Acknowledging the burden on the increasingly-squeezed sandwich generation (those aged between 40 and 60), the company wants to empower people to monitor their loved-ones’ healthcare quickly, efficiently, intelligently and securely.
PCL’s range of technology is designed to bring about medical-grade healthcare monitoring to the comfort of home, and its innovative, predictive algorithm aims to discover unknown health conditions and pick up problems before they become severe.
Obviously, the COVID-19 pandemic has thrown a spotlight on remote healthcare options, but PCL has longer-term solutions in its sights; with the Silver Tsunami fast approaching, and predictions that the aging population will outnumber the under-18s by 2035 in the US, the demand for technology that will foster independent living will only increase – and it’s a demand that PCL wants to meet.
We reached out to Tornike Asatiani, PCL’s Chief Operating Officer to find out more about the expansion of their technology and what it could mean for the aging-in-place marketplace.
“After talking to various customers, we realised that even though we created a wonderful solution for those looking for a remote health monitoring solution for their elderly relatives, the solution itself was not that great for the elderly people themselves,” Asatiani told Longevity.Technology, referring to the wearable in PCL’s system, he said:
“In order to motivate our senior citizens to actively use the watch to share vital health measurements, we needed to add an attractive, easy-to-use solution for them as well. That’s how we came up with an idea of creating a separate Tablet App with large buttons that’s limited to essential functionality. Features that the elderly really need: Tap-to-Call, Notifications and Reminders, Photo/Video sharing and easy Vital Measurement collection. This completes our Connected Care platform and lowers the barriers for new customer acquisition. Everyone loves the new app.”
Although an aging population may be digital immigrants, many of them are tech-savvy, meaning competition can be fierce and companies need to listen to their customers, or risk losing them to the competition. And the market shows that wearables are a popular way of tracking health and wellbeing.
“We decided to integrate the wearable technology because of the feedback on our earlier used multi-sensor tool,” explained Asatiani. “Elderly patients found it difficult to use the multi-sensor tool on their own so we had to come up with something that they can wear and easily interact with. We already received amazing feedback from potential customers and are soon starting a paid trial with a large Domiciliary Care Software organisation.
“Our smart watch is not the only wearable though. As a device-agnostic platform, we are planning to integrate with iWatch, Galaxy Watch, Fitbit and any other mainstream devices to allow our users to sync their health data from any available device. We always look for opportunities to enhance our ecosystem and bring high-end devices to our platform as part of our technology-driven mindset.”
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