How Something As Simple As Taking The Right Medication At The Right Time Can Change Senior Care
After watching a family member end up in the hospital “multiple times” because they weren’t taking their medication properly, Spencer Waugh was inspired to create a better medication delivery system. The Ace Age CEO created Karie, a device to help people take the right medication at the right time.
“Medication non-adherence is a serious issue causing poor health outcomes for patients and costing governments billions every year,” Waugh explained. “This is a common problem for seniors who are tasked with medicating themselves at home.”
How will technology help seniors live independently at home for longer?
Telemedicine is extremely promising when it comes to technologies that will aid seniors in living independently. There is an abundance of activity tracking, outcome monitoring and video conferencing products dedicated to providing remote care.
Will seniors embrace these new technologies?
Emerging technologies will be embraced by seniors. Technology is very much apart of their lives already. Baby Boomers are the group that we need to focus on when it comes to tech innovations. It is critical to adopt technologies that will allow Baby Boomers to age in place. AARP (American Association of Retired Persons) already reports that 90% of seniors wish to age in their own homes, which is great since we don’t have the infrastructure to support the growing aging population. New technologies will need to be adopted, not necessarily because elderly people want to embrace them but out of necessity due to lack of resources. With limited beds available in nursing and retirement homes, and the decreased availability of caregiving staff, the future hospital is in the home.
What advice do you have for young entrepreneurs?
Find your pregnant chicken. It took me almost a year to raise my first dollar. It was a grueling and heartbreaking experience trying to convince investors to fund the production of Karie. I had been advised to go out and get some sales commitments, without a product being available to sell. I found myself in the standard chicken-or-the-egg situation. Having been tasked with raising a tremendous amount of funding for AceAge, I had to break this cycle. Where I found success was finding a partner who had investment dollars and would benefit from having our product exist in the market. This is where our strategic partner came in, investing to make Karie a reality while also gaining a competitive advantage to help more patients. If you ever find yourself in such a predicament, find a partner that can be both the chicken and the egg.
