Search Results for unaliwear

Connect America acquires Philips’ Aging and Caregiving, including Lifeline

...divestiture tear, especially in North America. The news hasn’t exactly made the headlines that it would have only a few years ago. One could say that the parade has passed traditional PERS pendants and home units. Replacing them are mobile and smartphones tied to assistance–GreatCall’s 5 Star services. There are bands and wristwatch forms, such as Buddi in the UK and UnaliWear’s Kanega, The latter haven’t yet the market penetration in the US but all three have in common one selling factor–none of them scream ‘old and frail at risk’ like a white pendant around the neck does. Classified now... Continue Reading

Vote now for finalists in the Aging 2.0 Global Innovation Search (to 31 July)

...opportunity to virtually pitch at an event in August (date TBD). Some familiar US names in this group are a very old friend from this Editor’s QuietCare days, GrandCare, and UnaliWear [TTA features here]. Many are from the US, but a sample of international semifinalists are: Canada–AltumView, Sirona.tv, Famli.net, Anna, Tamaduni Connect, Tochtech Technologies, Virtual Coffee House 55+ Spain–Oroi Sweden–Camanio Care Israel–BaldPhone Brazil–Eu Vô, Cerebrar – Cérebro Ativo UK–Joy, Buddy Hub, eargym Ltd (interesting to this Editor as it addresses age-related hearing loss and cognition through auditory training) Australia–Feros Care Hat tip to Jean Anne Booth, CEO of UnaliWear, via... Continue Reading

Technology will help ease, but not replace, rising workforce demand in long-term care: UCSF study

...bit of an exaggeration, but the pool of interest is shallow nonetheless The overall conclusion struck this Editor as less than enthusiastic, perhaps because We’re Not There Yet and it’s still so far away. The appendix lists the 13 companies surveyed with summaries of each health tech company interviewed: Alma’s House (Sweden), Arena (staffing/recruitment), Canary Health (education/caregiver education), CarePredict (wearables/alert monitoring), Clear Care (management). Embodied Labs (education), Intuition Robotics (ElliQ), GrandCare (monitoring/client engagement), Honor (staffing), La Valeriane (documentation), LifePod (voicetech/monitoring), UnaliWear (wearables/monitoring), VisibleHand (documentation/EHR). The study was supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the US Department... Continue Reading

Unaliwear’s model/muse, Joan Hall, passes at 85

Joan Hall, the mother who inspired the creation of the stylish wearable PERS, Unaliwear’s Kanega watch, has died aged 85. Jean Anne Booth, Unaliwear’s CEO, founder, and Mrs. Hall’s daughter, wrote her memorable bio on the company’s website. Your Editor met Jean Anne in 2014 or 2015 at the mHealth Summit and in showing me the design, she explained that she wanted a wrist-worn emergency alert device/fall detection/assistant device that was stylishly designed to her mother’s exacting standards–and that didn’t require tethering to a smartphone. Mrs. Hall was also her chief style guide and model. Joan Frances Goss Hall was... Continue Reading

Successful Aging 2030: how far we haven’t come, how far we have to go

...care facility. I also see technology improving the working conditions for those who care for them. My question is; How does the aged care/ home care industry propose that adds life to years for older people? Jean Anne Booth Even if you've done tons of design work with the aging demographic - as UnaliWear has done with focus groups involving over 400 folks across the US, primarily 75-95 years of age - the controller for all innovation is still access to capital. All of those other factors mentioned in the summary above (incentives, reimbursement, ROI) are the "considerations" that limit... Continue Reading

UnaliWear’s Kanega PERS watch nears US launch

[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/531571-unaliwear-kanega-watch.jpg” thumb_width=”175″ /]Catching up with UnaliWear’s Kanega watch, which (unbelievably) we haven’t written about since 2015 but have noticed in the Austin tech news, we are cheered to hear that the company is nearing a market launch. This is after two 2016 raises: a November $3.5 million Series A at a $15 million valuation and a February $3.4 million seed round (CrunchBase). This Editor spoke with founder/developer Jean Anne Booth at the 2015 HIMSS Connected Health Conference/mHealth Summit (now PCHA Connected Health Conference) after seeing it in 2014, and was impressed by the design and workmanship of the watches... Continue Reading

ATA announces award winners, Strategic Summit companies

ATA announced the six winners of their Annual Awards recognizing innovators in telemedicine and telehealth for significant contributions, along with six new members of the ATA College of Fellows. One of the more intriguing winners (Innovation in Remote Care) is the US/UK company Sentrian which has built intelligent predictive data models (‘Remote Patient Intelligence’) that can monitor disease and co-morbidity in thousands of patients with the goal of preventing hospitalization and readmissions. Release. ATA has also selected 30 emerging companies to participate in the Telemedicine Investor and Strategic Summit on Monday 4 May, including UnaliWear, designer of the Kanega assistance... Continue Reading

A telecare device that may solve the ‘soft fall’ and unconscious problems (UK)

...heart and/or other problems, need a way that they are reachable and can alert if there's a problem. Smartwatches like UnaliWear are another alternative, which may work for some (and be hard to use by those with motor difficulties). 5) Guy Dewsbury is a well-respected UK consultant in the telecare field, and before publishing I questioned him on the findings. You will note that his commission is disclosed and also his comparison only extends to features. He is yet to trial the unit. However the website seems to bend over backwards with feature disclosure. Notably, the website is not flashy... Continue Reading

UnaliWear Kanega assistance watch makes Kickstarter goal

[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Unali-Kanega-new-iteration.jpg” thumb_width=”175″ /]The UnaliWear Kanega assistance watch [TTA 18 Feb] on Wednesday closed its Kickstarter crowdfunding over the top at $110,154. It has several features to promote safety for older people or the disabled, with fall detection, GPS and stand-alone cellular/Wi-Fi connectivity, but the most unique is voice recognition and command/response. Its latest prototype is half the case size as previously, with a more attractive analog watch face, which makes it a lot more MAYA (most advanced yet acceptable–Raymond Loewy), and a major improvement in form over your typical PERS or most GPS watches. With our usual caveat (if... Continue Reading

‘Rotting In Place’

...enabled care support (TECS), a term I really like rather than arguing over what is telehealth, telemedicine etc. We should be looking at what GreatCall does right. That is why I am so cheered by the UnaliWear Kanega and buddi, and so disappointed that Apple is concentrating on the young and wealthy with the Apple Watch. Yes, there’s personal responsibility and planfulness. There is also a right to want to hang on to what is familiar (and the consequences, often devastating, of the emotional wrench when one can’t) and yes, to be cussedly stubborn. We also have the right to... Continue Reading