Another debut at Health 2.0, currently in ‘stealth mode’ (their terminology), is Emota.net. Their device, a touch screen monitor, is designed to keep seniors in touch with families with a picture-frame like monitor touch screen and messaging. The interface with caregivers and families is through an iPhone app, web widget or (for professionals) dashboard. Their claim is that ’emotional networking’ is a new concept, but it is already part of at least one remote monitoring service, GrandCare. Promised is integration with telecare remote monitoring, telehealth applications and PHRs. Release.
4 thoughts on “Now 'emotional networking'”
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Socialization & Emotional Connectedness
Hey Donna, Thanks for writing! As individuals age, we tend to mostly focus on the immediate physical needs. ADLs, Chronic Disease Mgmt, etc. Emota is so right to also focus on the emotional well-being of the seniors.
Socialization, Brain Fitness, Connectedness is so important to overall wellness – Happiness!
Why shouldn’t seniors be able to benefit from the current technology that is out there and available? Grandchildren can now communicate with Grandma the same way they do with their other contacts – virtually. The best part of these new technologies – Grandma doesn’t have to know ANYTHING about technology to benefit from it!
Thanks for posting!
Laura Mitchell
GrandCare Systems
http://www.grandcare.com
Emotional Networking
Hi Donna and Laura:
Thanks for the very kind words.
Over the last 2 years, I have been doing an informal survey. I ask everybody that I meet how often they think about their aging parents. The answer typically ranges from a few times a day to a few times a week. And when I ask how often do they actually call or visit the parents, the answer is normally once a week. And by this time, you can often see the feeling of guilt in people’s eyes… Admittedly, I am very much projecting my own feeling as well.
That got us thinking… What if there is a way that in our daily busy lives, that there is a way to covey a feeling awareness and connectedness to our loved ones in a subtle, non-intrusive way and that required little conscious efforts on our part?
This always-on yet non-intrusive form of mutual awareness is what emota.net is focused on, and we are lucky to have a top notch team of scientists, social anthropologists and designers who are deeply committed to this subject.
From a telehealth and patient monitoring perspective, we hope to be that “Emotional Communication” layer that augments the wonderful monitoring technologies that are recently developing in the market, such as from GrandCare. We have architected our system so that our UI and Awareness agents can run as an application and/or processes in 3rd party hardware; i.e. why does Grandma need 3 touch screen devices?
We are still in ‘Stealth Mode’ in a sense that we have only shown some early concepts at Health 2.0. We will be conducting a pilot trial with a health care partner in early 2010, at which time we hope to actively engage the very rich eco-system in this emerging “Elder Care 2.0” field.
By the way, we are deeply honored by Matthew Holt’s (Health 2.0 Conference founder) mention of emota.net as one of the 7 “Demos I Loved” in his post conference blog. We will be working hard to live up to the expectations.
Thanks again for your posts! And Laura, I hope to attend one of your wonderful weekly seminars soon.
Best regards,
Paul To
CEO & Founder, emota.net
Emota – infantile interface?
A news item today caused me to revisit the Emota website. While it sounds like an interesting idea and it is backed by a large and illustrious team, what struck me was that the pictures of the screens look like children’s TV.
Is this a case of treating older people like children? If so, it won’t take off with their target market. Emota.net Compare this with the grown-up approach of RememberItNow.
Let’s hope not!
It is a bit ‘children’s TV’, isn’t it? Once again, condescending. I hope that it’s only the website cartoonish rendering, not the final as produced product. Emota will be on display at ASA-NCOA in Chicago 16-18 March, booth 328 (I will be at the ‘Boomer Summit’ post-conference starting that last day), so any field reports appreciated.