GE buying Living Independently Group doesn't matter. While a bit of noise is being made, this has no significance in the near term and I suspect little money was spent on this compared to the sizable sum that must have been spent to market LIG's offering since its launch in 2003, first unsuccessfully to consumers, then to senior housing organizations after that failed. And while QuietCare is certainly used in some independent living facilities, there are a number of issues associated with it and in general with the category, which is a very early market, requiring much improvement that perhaps GE will eventually fund as part of their 'health care' focus:
- No over-time pattern analysis. First of all, unless there is pattern analysis reporting about behavioral change compared to baseline, which to my knowledge QuietCare doesn't have, the product is little more than an alert mechanism on motion or absence of motion in a room. That puts it into the same questionable category as traditional PERS devices like Lifeline, for example. It must be tuned for false positives that arise for various reasons (vacation? a cat? what about roommates moving around?). It provides a false sense of reassurance, when a frail elderly person can still slide out of a wheelchair or bed onto the floor in the middle of the night -- then QuietCare (or Lifeline if it's not worn or worn but not activated) are both useless.
- Start with an alarm system. It's great that QuietCare can alert for environmental factors like extreme temperature changes, but an alarm system may be far more useful -- and can even respond to break-ins, making it the most fundamental of technologies for seniors living alone. Without a configurable baseline of patterns to monitor and interpretation and analysis of deviation from those patterns, seniors would be better off with an alarm system.
- Communication trumps monitoring. QuietCare is not integrated with any communications technology to help a frail senior, for whom it is intended, to connect with family members -- other than for risk avoidance/alerts. Perhaps even a television with the near-defunct WebTV -- would be better than nothing for a senior to communicate with family members (something QuietCare competitors GrandCare and Healthsense provide) as well as offering monitoring for absence or presence of motion.
- Combine with wearable -- now you have something. Far more interesting would be a combination of wearable fall detection with environmental sensing and communication devices and/or cameras-- monitoring a person (fall detection like Halo Monitoring with changes in body temperature that can be affected by fear or fever) and then monitoring the environment, like HealthSense, QuietCare, WellAWARE or GrandCare Systems.
- Maybe someday be able to go for a walk or a ride. Even more interesting will be the eventual usefulness of wearable tracking capabilities that remember the baseline patterns and follow an individual more than the traditional Personal Emergency Response System (PERS) 500 feet away from the house -- like GPS cell phones.
And there is no point in dwelling on the fact that senior housing organizations, not known for being technology early adopters, still represent a small percentage of seniors (3 million units in total compared to 39 million over the age of 65).
Until Remote Monitoring 2.0 emerges (I am not holding my breath) which combines wearable, mobile and environmental monitoring solutions that really improve safety and well-being, GE has done little more than end a long, slow ride for Living Independently Group.
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Criticisms of PERS Industry
Your criticism is well taken. Though this kind of product has been around for quite a while, there hasn't been a lot of advancement until recently. But a lot of companies are coming out with variations/improvements on the basic "push button to notify central station." Just in the last few months we've had product announcements for fall detection, GPS, etc. I think the size of the market is going to drive considerable competition and technical advancement.
Andy
LIG and GE
I agree with the general thrust of the article.
Any tech' solution should be engaging for the end-user, and promote a positive interaction besides the utility aspect of health and safety.
WellAWARE versus QuietCare
So GE quietly acquires QuietCare for an undisclosed sum -- not such a happy exit for LIG. WellAWARE in the same market category gets $7.5 million in VC funding. That is significant sum -- it will be very interesting to observe their progress!
WellAWARE Financing announced.
Ho-Hum GE - wandering
Hi Laurie,
Are you aware of "ComfortZone" now recently being promoted by the Alzheimer's Association to its nationwide Chapters and members? It is a personal GPS device evidently carried in-pocket, and backed by a 24/7 server to send an alert to pre-programmed addresses or cell phones when out-zonal wandering is detected.
Same subject, different product: Do you expect those GPS shoes are on track for market intro Q1 2010?
Thanks.
DB
Over time pattern analysis for QuietCare & other comments
Having been associated with QuietCare (as VP Marketing 2006 to this spring), QuietCare is in fact built on baseline pattern analysis for certain behaviors, as a combination of algorithms and in some cases rules. This is tracked on a rolling pattern of approximately two weeks, and data is stored and graphed. It's built on change of certain patterns that are aggregated and tracked: morning bedroom exit (rules), overall bathroom usage, night bathroom usage (entry/exit), feeding/hydration (based on refrigerator open/close), overall activity, interaction with medications (in one area), temperature (rules again), optional entry/exit of room (rules based motion thru door)and optional night motion (exit from bed, again rules based). On the last, if this sensor by the bed is not set up then the fall out in the middle of the night is NOT detected.
I'd agree with the following: pets such as cats climbing on surfaces can throw off a sensor (generally the meds), it took a very large dog to throw off the wall-mounted motion sensors, and two people constantly in the room would confuse the tracking. It was designed for someone living alone and without a Great Dane.
QuietCare, to my knowledge, tried to but has not yet solved the 'holy grail' of universal fall detection through the residence. In fact, no system has achieved that yet. Halo's getting there, but the chest strap is for this observer not quite acceptable, especially for women; the belt clip and vest are better ideas. We've both written about wearable sensors, like what Blue Highway and 24/Eight are working on--a far better way.
I think there needs to be an appreciation that QuietCare was the pioneer in the telecare category and was there when no other systems were: 2002-3. It was conceived by the founders and the patent holders as an alternative to assisted living. The drawback was that the system requires custom installation. In order to market it as a consumer product (yes, there was a lot of money spent in that direction, not all of it wisely) a reliable, regional or nationwide installer network needed to be in place. That failed with ADT (I was on board at the tail end of that) and failed with another company. It's a lesson learned by others; the only other system in the home space is GrandCare, and they are carefully building and supporting a real installer/marketing network. QuietCare was actually operating on two tracks--marketing into the consumer/independent living market, and meeting with more success in ALFs, where staff could take care of the installation. The latter is what won in the end.
I agree that the market is taking systems into areas where QuietCare is not: integration with alarm-based systems and PERS (which WellAWARE is tackling, and Healthsense sort of has, basic vital signs monitoring, and the 'connectedness' that GrandCare has. Universal fall detection is another. And none of these systems work ex home, either.
Perhaps there are improvements and upgrades in store now that GEHC owns QuietCare. (Otherwise, why would they purchase it?) The puzzling thing is that during the 15 months of the GE/LIG co-development agreement, with R&D highly touted, there were no 'big leaps' in technology and even smaller improvements like ZigBee were not publicized. This provided a window--competition gained funding, improved their systems, marketing and increased distribution. But we shall see.
AFrame Digital
Are you familiar with AFrame Digital? They have a wearable monitoring on the wrist for fall detection that is more fashionable looking than clinical. It integrates with all nurse call systems and blue tooth devices. The inference engine allows for pattern changes over time against the senior themselves as well as the population as a whole in the senior center they reside in if applicable. Other sensors can be added to the system to augment if desired, like door sensor and motion sensors. The great thing about this company is that alerts can go to family members and/or caregivers. No button is necessary in severe alert situations, like falls, but a call button is necessary if needed as well.
Not familiar, but now I am!
I looked at the site -- can't find price or sales channel. Please provide more info for readers. Thanks.