TECHnically Speaking: Caregiving Apps
Welcome back to the Age Assured blog! We are starting a new series called TECHnically Speaking where we will be talking about a variety of topics related to technology and aging. We will be highlighting trends and products that can help seniors stay at home longer. First up: caregiving apps!
Caregiving is HARD! On top of the emotional and financial burden, it can be mentally draining to handle all of the tasks associated with caregiving. Caregivers have so much information to manage — medications, items on a to-do list, appointments, medical information, schedules, transportation details, service providers… the list goes on and on. But today’s world is full of technology to help us manage our day-to-day tasks. It seems like there is an app for everything, including caregiving! We have put together a list of our top 5 caregiving apps that help caregivers manage all the ‘jobs’ a caregiver takes on, from storing important information, to providing updates to family and friends, to keeping track of appointments and events.
1. CareZone is one of the most comprehensive apps we tried. Caregivers can keep track of medications by taking a picture of a medication list or entering medications manually. The CareZone Pharmacy Service is a unique feature that allows for medications to be refilled and delivered through the app, even giving users the option to choose between bottles and pill packs. Caregivers can also track manually-entered health information, like glucose levels, blood pressure, and weight. Health conditions can be entered into the app so caregivers can easily access a list of the care recipient’s diagnoses.
CareZone helps caregivers stay organized by offering a calendar, to-do list, notes to store information for quick reference, and a journal to record observations about the care recipient. There is also a contacts section within the app so information for doctors, clinics, and emergency contacts can be found easily. The photos and files feature lets the caregiver store important documents like a completed health care proxy form or power of attorney.
One of our favorite features of this app is the Community. The Community is divided into topics like diabetes, heart health, caregiving, religion & spirituality and healthy living. Users are able to communicate with other caregivers and share information in a forum setting. Users can share their CareZone profile with family and friends, but cannot build and communicate with a “team” the way many of the other caregiving apps allow.
2. Caring Village helps caregivers coordinate activities and improve communication among their “Caring Village.” The app allows caregivers to create a “village” of family and friends, who can view updates and volunteer to help with things like transportation, meal delivery, running errands, and companion care. Caregivers can post journal updates for everyone to see and exchange private messages among their village.
Within the app, caregivers can also store a medication list, important documents, and relevant contacts. There is a calendar where caregivers can enter appointments and events, set reminders, and assign tasks to other village members. To help caregivers stay organized, there is a to-do list and a checklist. Caregivers can also create a care plan for the care recipient and enter recurring questions for village members to answer, like, “Did Mary take her medication today?”
Caring Village includes a library of articles that can be tailored to the care recipient’s medical conditions. Other features of the Caring Village website (not in the app) are the marketplace and service locator. The marketplace includes products like GPS tracking devices, medication management systems, and meal delivery kits. The service locator helps caregivers find options for in-home care and senior housing.
3. IanaCare focuses on improving communication between caregivers and other friends and family who may be assisting with care. Caregivers can build a team of friends and family within the app. When they need assistance with something like meals, transportation, visits, or errands, they can put in a request for team members to fill. The requests are entered on a calendar so everyone can see upcoming events, and whether the caregiver still needs assistance. Instead of having to individually notify friends and family of changes, caregivers can also post updates on a feed for their team view.
4. Kincare helps caregivers coordinate caregiving tasks and invite others to help. Caregivers can add events from a pre-set list, which includes things like social events, doctor appointments, phone check-ins, and meals. Invitations and reminders can be sent to other community members as a request for assistance with that task from the caregiver. The status of each event is color-coded so caregivers can easily view whether the event has been assigned or accepted. The caregiver can also send notes to other community members individually, although there is no feature for caregivers to post updates that all community members can view.
In addition to facilitating communication, Kincare also allows caregivers to store medical information, like medication lists, procedures, manually entered vitals, diagnoses, symptoms, and doctors’ information, so that this information is easily accessible to the community members. For example, if the caregiver has assigned another family member to take the care recipient to a doctor’s appointment that the caregiver cannot attend, that family member will easily be able to pull up medical information they may not know on their own, but the doctor will ask about.
5. LivPact stands out as being the most comprehensive app on this list. It is unique in its ability to sync with other devices, like a heart monitor, glucose meter, a vital signs monitor, or even Alexa! Livpact can send alerts connected to the monitors. There is also Wellness Library (through a partnership with UC Berkeley School of Public Health) and the ability to search for support services.
Caregivers can complete a comprehensive assessment about the care recipient, which helps identify needs around daily routines, finances, insurance, health conditions, safety, living situation, etc. For each of the topics on the assessment, suggestions and resources are available to the caregiver depending on how they answer the questions.
LivPact allows caregivers to build their team of personal contacts, as well as doctors, pharmacies, and service providers, and adjust what information each team member can see. Events can be added to the calendar, and can be assigned to specific team members. There is a team checklist for everyone to view and caregivers can enter requests for team members to view and fulfill. There is also a separate personal checklist for the caregiver.
The document storage section has a checklist that includes documents the caregiver should consider uploading, as well as links to resources, like Cake (an online advance planning tool), to help caregivers learn more about those documents. This section also includes ideas and action items for the caregiver around advance planning, like a suggestion to communicate advance directives to family and doctors.
The health record in LivPact is the most extensive of all the caregiving apps we tried out. There is an overview section, as well as a detailed profile. LivPact has the ability to sync with existing online medical records. There are separate sections in LivPact for medications, medical history (immunizations, procedures, etc.), diagnoses, lab results, image attachments, and doctors’ visits. Within each doctor’s visit, the user can enter who was there, vitals, notes, and documents from the appointment.
RecAPPed…
If a caregiver isn’t sure which of these apps is right for them, they should start by thinking about what they most want from a support tool. For caregivers who are primarily looking for a way to improve communication with friends and other family members, I would recommend IanaCare or Kincare. If a caregiver is mostly looking to track medical information, CareZone is a good option. Caring Village is a nice balance between managing members of a “care team” and easily storing and accessing medical information. For the technologically savvy caregiver who wants to sync monitoring devices, integrate existing electronic medical records, and search for resources within the app, I would recommend LivPact.
There is no right or wrong decision when choosing from this list. Caregivers can also try multiple platforms to see which will be the best fit. The decision should be based on what will work best for the individual caregiver based on his or her own unique set of needs and preferences.
