Startup company Care Angel won the 2016 Aging in Place $50K Challenge on Wednesday.
The AARP Foundation competition recognizes entrepreneurs who are developing solutions to help low-income adults aged 50 or more years live safely, independently and comfortably as they age. Using Care Angel’s patent-pending artificially intelligent voice response technology, older adults answer questions — about medications, appetite, sleep quality, and blood pressure and glucose readings — via a landline every day. Their responses are turned into dashboard notifications, alerts, care insights and reports on the Care Angel Caregiver App. If the answers indicate that something isn’t right or that they need anything, then the app immediately notifies the older adult’s care circle.
With the $50,000 prize from the competition, Care Angel plans to launch a Care it Forward program to provide free check-in care calls, including one year of free services for 5,000 low-income seniors who do not own smartphones.
The AARP Foundation, in collaboration with Aging 2.0, invited startups from across the United States to submit proposals for innovative solutions to aging in place. A panel of judges from the public, nonprofit and private sectors with venture capital, startup and innovation expertise chose the winner of the 2016 Aging in Place $50K Challenge.
Home for Life Design and CareAcademy were named finalists.
