Health IT, Startups

Senior care: AARP finalist ambitions include DIY hearing test, automated accident reporting

An annual AARP startup competition to support senior care highlighted some ambitious products in development from digital stroke rehabilitation to automated car accident reporting device.

Contact lenses that transmit data on glucose levels to mobile devices (Medella Health), a device that transmits data emergency services when it detects the car’s been in an accident (Splitsecnd) and a medical device business that aspires to change the way hearing tests are conducted (Audicus). Those were just a few of the startups seeking to improve senior care who presented at AARP’s Innovation@50+ LivePitch.

The passiveness of some of the devices would eliminate the need for seniors to interact with the technology. They reflected a move by organizers to shake things up and take risks in the senior care market at the annual competition. Some also reflected goals the AARP association hopes to meet as part of its Project Catalyst initiative with UnitedHealth and Pfizer — which seeks to make patients a central consideration in product design.

Splitsecnd, which bested the other competing companies, got the venture investor judges’ vote. At five years old it was also one of  the most mature.  Splitsecnd developed a device (shown above) that plugs into a car’s cigarette lighter to convey crash data to first responders. Although some will see it as a useful tool for new drivers, it’s just as relevant for seniors. CEO Mel Smith noted that 33 million drivers are aged 65 and older and account for 500 accidents a day in the U.S. It’s set to benefit from a change in EU law requiring cars to be fitted with tracking devices to alert emergency services and prevent road deaths in car accidents. It is supposed to go into effect within three years.

Medella CEO Harry Gandhi co-founded the business in 2013. Although the company acknowledged that its approach does not have the realtime accuracy of blood-glucose meters, Medella’s founders see it as a way to passively track trends over time in a way that sidesteps the question of patient adherence. Its go to market strategy will involve looking for strategic partners.

Although it faces a rival application under development by Google, Medella has an earlier start. At least one of the judges advised the co-founders to have a robust dialogue with the FDA to ensure it doesn’t suffer any unanticipated setbacks with the regulator. “Don’t fall in love with your technology,” he said. “You need to think about what patients want and what they will pay for.”

Audicus has a long-range goal of disrupting the audiologist space. Currently it produces hearing aids designed to be more subtle and less clunky than older models. But in the future, instead of going to see an audiologist and getting a hearing test, it wants consumers to be able to download an app and take it on their computer. This week it launched a preliminary version of the test on Apple’s app store for consumers to try out but makes no claim to be a substitute for the currently administered test.

Constant Therapy, which was an audience favorite alongside Audicus, developed a digital rehab service for people recovering from a stroke or traumatic brain injury that uses digitized cognitive-communication therapy. The therapy design comes out of aphasia research done at Boston University. It evaluates users responses to a baseline test and provides them with personalized exercises and goals to complete. Users can check their progress as well as physicians.

Photo: Getty Images

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKVAWpTHiwc

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