David Waldie, Founder and Managing Director of eevi, has firm views on resident-focused technology in retirement communities.
Unlike many technology and emergency alarm providers pushing “not yet proven” solutions, David is advising eevi clients to solve pain points and seek real insights using simple technologies, not to get ahead of technology for technology’s sake.
Real village technology
David and eevi, working with their clients, identify that residents have an evolving understanding and desire for the hard and soft benefits that technology can bring to their lives.
“Our research programs do tell us that residents have an evolving awareness of what technology can do, and they have an expectation that operators have an understanding and a plan.”
“This revolves around communication and care. The real village technology that is almost upon us is seamlessly aware of the resident, their general movement, their ‘wellness’, the support and care services they are utilising, and has the ability to be reactive with knowledge and proactive based on this knowledge.”
“This is all about data creating a 360° view of the resident but in a collaborative manner. Residents don’t want an invasion of their privacy, but they increasingly have an expectation that we understand them and understand why and how they want services.”
“It’s like we all appreciate a call centre that seems to be briefed before we call them and can help us seamlessly, but we are concerned if the call centre seems to know too much or is a weak security link with our data.”
“This is the delicate path we are travelling, offering more than residents expect but not overstepping the mark. But what is prickly in 2021 will be standard by 2023.”
“For example, data will tell you the Top 10 residents calling out for help and the operator can focus personnel and services, but also organise the village community around those people. For individual residents, you will be helped to drill down into their history to understand events and trends. Smart reports will deliver a wellness map of the village.”
“Using insights and data, we advocate the application of human intelligence, which is the best intelligence in care settings, to understand, interpret and act.”
Data security
“It is technology that delivers the data and assembles it to provide the services. Its security is fundamental – both for the resident and the secure operation of the business.”
“As an operator, you want to be confident that resident data never leaves your shores, and if it does, that it is secure and encrypted and, where possible, de-identified. And you want residents to know that they can ask for their data, and ask for it to be deleted when they go – the so called ‘right to be forgotten’.”
“At eevi, data security is at our core, with industry leading protocols and encryption, and secure transmission, processing and storing of sensitive resident data.”
