SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 29, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The number of people over the age of 55 will double by the year 2050. During that same time period the number of potential caregivers and retirement community workers will shrink. Add in the effects of the pandemic and you have a workforce crisis in the making.
The answer: Technology. With a new investment from WV Ventures, Caspar.AI will be at the forefront of solutions for the impending crisis. WV Ventures is a partnership among Advocate Aurora Health, Foxconn, Johnson Controls International and Northwestern Mutual. Together with other investors including Ron Conway and Third Act Ventures, Caspar.AI has raised over $12 million. "At WV Ventures we are investing in Caspar.AI because of a combination of their advanced level of technology as well as the ability to put their science to practical use in the retirement community setting. We are particularly impressed with their ability to provide operators with data on memory care residents who may not be able to verbalize important information," said Jason Franklin, Managing Director at WV Ventures.
Senior Living and The Pandemic
It is unclear at this time what challenges will continue with the Covid-19 virus and its derivatives. Community staff positions are hard to fill during these times and the important face-to-face contact between staff and residents is lessened. This situation provides an opportunity for leading technology companies to bridge the gap to provide data on wellness and resident health that can be shared with the resident, staff and family members.
There are millions of residents living in senior living communities, from residential living to higher levels of care like assisted living and memory care. The senior living business is currently experiencing several pain points that have been heightened by the pandemic, including:
- Harder to find and retain qualified staff
- Continuing isolation of residents
- Pressure to manage expenses in light of declining revenue
- Ability to re-engage family members of residents
Caspar.AI technology provides solutions towards these problems and is being implemented in senior living communities throughout the US with Revel Communities, Bridge Senior Living, Simpson Communities, and Lutheran Life.
Dr. David Cheriton, Co-Founder and Chief Scientist of Caspar.AI said: "Residents will feel their apartment home has been enhanced by Caspar.AI as we make their daily lives easier and provide them with health and wellness data. At the same time, we extend the reach of a limited community staff to maintain awareness and safety of residents in their care."
Artificial Intelligence and Privacy-Preserving Technology
Caspar AI uses ambient home sensing - with the sensors in the devices like switches and thermostats and each device having more than 5 sensors. The deep learning models this data in the context of home geometry and human behaviors - which it has learnt over the years. This AI is privacy-preserving in that it does not send sensitive data to the cloud, and yet is able to improve with learning as it gets deployed in more communities.
This technology drives a variety of analytics like sleep quality, activity level of residents, alerts about unexpected activity, fall incident alerts - in a fully passive environment, without requiring resident to use wearables.
Said Co-Founder and CEO, Dr. Ashutosh Saxena: "Our patented AI technology will enhance and extend the capabilities of community staff; it will support managers in control of operating costs; and - most importantly - it will enhance the daily lives of residents with comfort and safety enhancements."
Press contact: Dr. Ashutosh Saxena, ashutosh@caspar.ai
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