Jan 7 2019
For attendees looking for developments in personal healthcare at CES 2019, MobileHelp®, a leader in mobile Personal Emergency Response Systems (mPERS) and healthcare solutions, and LifePod Solutions, will be launching a proactive voice service optimized with emergency response, for both older adults aging at home as well as healthcare patients and their caregivers.
Smart speakers are getting smarter: Meet LifePod, the virtual caregiver, equipped with MobileHelp emergency response. (Credit: MobileHelp)
The new solution leverages common smart home speakers to offer users with access to LifePod’s proactive voice dialog management platform—presently improved with the MobileHelp emergency response system.
By incorporating the MobileHelp pendant or wrist button to a LifePod subscription, users will be able to call the help they need—be it a family member or emergency responders—by engaging immediately with the LifePod voice-enhanced caregiving platform. When a user hits their emergency button, for instance, the LifePod service will ask the user if they require help. In the event of an affirmative answer, or if the user cannot answer, they will be connected to a MobileHelp emergency response center.
We know that more than 34 million US adults serve as unpaid caregivers to an adult over the age of 50—and more than half of those receiving care reside in their own home. LifePod’s platform allows us to deliver the first fully-integrated, voice-enhanced emergency response system in a ‘virtual caregiver,’ designed to empower people who want to age in place and to provide peace of mind to their caregivers.
Rob Flippo, CEO, MobileHelp.
To help people to keep their independence at home for as long as possible, LifePod expands the features of popular smart speakers with proactive voice user interface technology that makes it easy for caregivers to configure modified voice dialogs for their patients and family, with the following advantages:
- A natural, two-way voice interface—both proactive and reactive;
- Caregiver-configured check-ins and healthy-behavior reminders; and
- Friendly, tailored voice-based dialogs.
According to Laurie Orlov, founder of Aging in Place Technology Watch, “LifePod takes voice-first services a step further. It will allow users to engage with the device, much like Alexa, but LifePod will also periodically and proactively check-in with them independent of a wake word or voice prompt, at preprogrammed intervals saying, for example: ‘Good morning, Nancy. Did you take your medication?’”
We are excited to bring the first-ever, proactive-voice, virtual caregiver to market to address the needs of aging adults aging-in-place and other patients and their caregivers, whether they be remote family members or healthcare professionals. Millions of paid and unpaid caregivers are in desperate need of this type of easy-to-use yet powerful service to help them monitor and care for their clients and loved ones when they can't be there in person.
Stuart Patterson, CEO, LifePod.
In Q2 of 2019, the first version of the MobileHelp emergency response-enabled LifePod service will be available.