Service providers find new business models to emphasize independent living

Connected healthcare solutions and technology in smart home, especially for our senior family members, often remain a doubt. Either because the solutions sometimes go too broad or difficult to understand, or the elders are worried about having after-sales problems that cause great inconvenience. As technology development reduces a lot of efforts taking care of the homes, people now cherish more of the services that really comes helping and supporting the remote home care in smart ways.

The following service providers, who were once simply a telco, MSO, security guard, or device repairer, have transformed their focus into smart home. And one more thing in common, they support independent living of the elders with considerate services directly provided by experts.

Kbro and TWM Broadband puts new techniques in old TVs

If an app interface is hard to manipulate for your older parents, how about a TV remote control? If a smartphone screen is too small to read any health data, how about a TV screen? Two of the Taiwanese multiple-system operators (MSOs) have the answer.
 
Kbro Broadband and TWM Broadband are the MSO leaders that provides connected home care services based on their cable TV systems, named simply as “HealthCare”. With the medical collaboration with Taipei Medical University Hospital, and the monthly subscription of end-users, the two service providers are bringing the easiest yet most convenient care into homes.

“After subscribing to this service, professional care takers from Taipei Medical University Hospital will visit the users first to evaluate their health condition, and bring them qualified sensors for blood pressure or blood sugar. All the daily measurements are collected through Bluetooth by the gateway that connects to TV and combines three emergency calls, offering round-the-cloud consultation to the hospital,” explained Sean Wang, Deputy Director, Product Development Division of Kbro Broadband.
 

That is to say, Taipei Medical University Hospital is in charge of all medical health support, whereas Kbro and TWM Broadband provides the connection and platform services. As HealthCare platform has only served its users for several months, the providers are expecting to combine broader in-home services, and more health sensor options in the coming future.

According to Wang, the senior users can feel exactly the benefit of HelathCare platform with the friendly user interface of the platform, as well as the thorough 24-hour remote care support from the hospital.

“In these few months, our team is greatly encouraged by successful user cases as the health platform effectively keep their health in control. We see unlimited opportunities as we expand our HealthCare system with a growing number of services and integration with voice command,” shared Wang. “On our way to serve more home users, we not only target the original clients, which are more than a million TV subscribers, but the cooperation with other MSO counterparts.”

Setting up senior homes in one day is nothing hard for Puls

Professional installation might not be special, but a same-day setup service of smart home connectivity and IoT devices is the highlight of Puls.
 
Starting as a mobile phone repair service, Puls’ service now also covers smart TV mounting and smart home installation around US. Users can first consult online for smart home device suggestions, and identify products that can work better with their planned smart home ecosystem. Later, through the simple service booking process on Puls website, professional technicians bring every necessary part to properly complete the smart home set up.
 

“We realize customization is important for every home, and believe that our service is what enables the smart home industry to continue growing,” commented Eyal Ronen, CEO & Co-Founder of Puls. “The elderly, for example, might need convenient control of their lighting and indoor temperature, and our technicians can provide instant service to set up their lighting control and smart thermostat to make their living situation as comfortable as possible.”

Puls is now the official partner of ANTOP, Google, Hisense, Lighthouse, Samsung SmartThings, and SimpliSafe, bringing the service experience into users’ smart home.

“With experts really engaging in setting up your smart home systems, from the decision of device selection all the way to installation, we believe service is what enables this industry,” said Ronen. “In the coming future, every device will connect with each other, making smart living simple for everyone, and Puls will be the strong support for all the users.”

Taiwan Secom puts MyCare supports into its modular home service

From governmental projects to residential communities, Taiwan Secom, the first security service provider in Taiwan, has now extended into connected home care services, linking the elders’ independent living comfortably to nationwide care centers. The platform MyCare can then record health measurements, provide remote care through direct calls, and emergency assistance.
 
“Senior users dislike wearables. Therefore, our system starts from daily measurement of blood pressure, blood sugar, sleep and motion, to track users’ regular health status and activity. The professional care takers also visit the users on a monthly basis,” introduced Frank Lin, CEO and Vice-Chairman of Taiwan Secom.
 

From Lin’s perspective, the seamless combination of home security and home care is the value of Taiwan Secom’s service, uplifting home experience with peace of mind. The modular service is fully customizable based on users’ demand and selection. To approach more potential users, Taiwan Secom has opened multiple experience centers of their smart home service in residential communities.

“Residential communities are especially selected for our experience centers. Apart from our on-site services to users’ homes, professional consultant can provide detailed introduction while demonstrating smart devices as well as our services in the experience centers,” added Lin.

Taiwan Secom is also developing its own smart speaker. The voice control capability is expected to make elderly care more natural and intuitive in the future.

Inhealthcare optimizes health monitoring for patients and clinics

Rapid technical revolution has occurred in healthcare industry, turning UK traditional telehealth provider Inhealthcare into digital health platform provider.
 
Connecting regional clinics with users’ homes, Inhealthcare platform supports remote patient monitoring for all, whether they are at work, home or abroad. Either via SMS, apps, online, or automated telephone calls, the service can be used regardless of access to a smartphone, and is backed by over 50 digital health services designed by the company’s NHS (National Health Service in England) customers.

“We appreciate that not every patient is the same, which is why we want to provide patients with choice and allow them to remotely interact with their healthcare professionals by the means which suits them best,” said Georgina Adamson, Marketing Manager of Inhealthcare. “On the other hand, NHS needed technology to allow its staff to be more efficient, stopping them doing tasks which could be automated, and allowing them to spend more time with the people that needed their help.”
 

To quickly deploy the platform into clinics nationwide, the Inhealthcare Toolkit enables clinical teams to build their own digital health services, at speed and low cost. Moreover, Inhealthcare is hosted with Amazon Web Services, meaning a greater opportunity for the platform to go international.

This digital service tracks patients in near real-time through the pathway by replacing the existing paperwork with the Inhealthcare platform, and using machine learning to help predict if a patient is likely to miss a target. In this way, care takers can take effective actions to ensure that the patient is treated on time, which also avoids procedures such as evening and weekend clinics.

“There is a lot of emphasis on IoT, however, the data has to be meaningful and serve a purpose. We are concentrating on dealing the problem at hand, and our services is built with technology around it,” concluded Adamson. “AI will play a key role in the future in predicting outcomes and treatments. Once linked into existing clinical IT systems such as pathology, it can identify patients at risk of a breach based on the outcomes of similar patients.”

KT elderly monitoring is 100% contactless

There are an increasing number of elderly population living and dying alone yearly, only to be discovered some time after their death. To place people’s health and safety on top, KT Corporation has the solution.

Safe Mate LED Sensor Light Service can be attached to LED lights in premises. When the sensor does not detect movement for a preset period of time, it will notify the KT control center through NB-IoT radio technology. the control center can analyze if it deemed an emergency situation, the control center then sends the data to the caretakers and family by sending real-time emergency alerts through SMS.

The sensor can be installed by just adding LED lights and IoT sensor connections in the premises which expandable to various other types of services in future.

According to KT, Safe Mate LED Sensor Light Service is rather suitable for the elderly population that may not be so fond of mobile devices. It is providing a comprehensive service to the possible welfare blind spots, prevent accidents and also enables quick response time as often this is crucial in the elderly population.

What service providers think in common

The idea is clear that “make people enjoy the service” is the common goal of all service providers. No matter what they originally focused on, they are now part of the smart home industry, upgrading the independent living quality of the elders or supporting their connected home experience with the core support they need. The senior users can especially benefit from the convenience without having to travel to the hospital.

In addition, as information collection and online platform going wider, service providers are also targeting AI analysis and big data computing, which will better reflect the value of data, and help care takers to provide on-time service and assistance.

While users might still be uncertain about modern technologies, some have already benefit from the in-home service and support. At this transition point of many service providers, stepping into smart home industry, especially taking care of our senior families, turns out to be a great potential that is hard to neglect. However, developing a proper business model that fit their original expertise can be a big topic as well.