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1. Inspiration

In view of the escalating COVID-19 situation, circuit breaker measures were introduced in Singapore to curb the spread of the virus. Amid this pandemic, we observe the following problems:

(1) Sense of displacement in the society (amongst elderly); thus affecting health and well-being

After the announcement of circuit breaker measures, we have since seen a handful of cases where the seniors were found idling around public vicinities that were blocked out for use. An on-site interview by CNA attributed this phenomenon to the elderly feeling a sense of displacement in their daily social lives and the inability to leverage on the digital world for social interaction.

With the restriction on physical social interactions, the forms of entertainment for the elderly were mostly limited to television programmes, radio or phone calls. Current efforts by VWOs include befriending and helping the elderly through phone calls or suggesting activities and handicrafts that could be done at home. Nevertheless, these efforts might be insufficient in alleviating the sense of displacement deriving from the abrupt change in their daily routines.

It is recognised that this demographic group is highly susceptible to the COVID-19 infection, yet, the inevitable shift from offline to digital means poses a risk on their mental health (especially for seniors with on-set dementia and depression).

(2) Difficulties in engaging medical services

In a pandemic where medical resources are likely overstretched and exposure to infections are higher at the clinics, non-essential medical services have been advised to be deferred to a later date. Examples of these services include outpatient rehab and therapy appointments and community nursing.

Whilst services such as chronic disease management and medication refill are considered essential services, some elderly might choose to defer the appointments or avoid seeking care in fear of getting infected.

In light of the current situation, the use of telemedicine has been on the rise. However, current implementations might have a complex usability as they require multi-level authentication for better security on video services. As such, telehealth services might still seem foreign to the elderly, especially the seniors who have minimal access to digital devices.

1.1 What it does

A low-friction, in-home communication and medical health monitoring platform, enabling remote healthcare providers to interact and get live readings from elderly patients.

Elderly may also use the platform to connect with friends virtually and communicate over video calls.

2. How we built it

2.1 Challenges we ran into

Identifying product core: avoid duplicating existing local and regional commercial entities, navigating towards complementing government initiatives
Distributed workforce: teams are located across time-zones, geography, with varied mastery of skills
Including key stakeholders (doctors, health institution operation, elderly) need to be consulted to help prioritize critical feature use cases and design

2.2 Prior Work

Independent by James: Related prior presentations

3. What we learned

Components to address remote elderly health (wide-angled lens, far-field microphone) are available commercially and affordably
Synergies between commercial and public health entities will create a healthy ecosystem including patients, government, and private providers.