Remote Monitoring Stigma Falls in Samsung Smartwatch Pilot

A technology solution that scored a partnership with Samsung is helping a senior living provider reduce falls, increase customer satisfaction and proactively intervene when residents’ health declines—in part, by leveraging the Internet of Things (IoT). And the smartwatch is taking some of the stigma out of remote monitoring, the pilot’s leaders have found.

Sixty residents at Ohio Masonic Home’s Springfield campus—Springfield Masonic Community in Springfield, Ohio—are testing a new solution from Minneapolis-based Reemo that combines Samsung’s SmartThings connected home technology and the Samsung Gear S2 smartwatch.

The solution enables residents to use simple hand gestures to operate lights, thermostats, appliances and locks that have SmartThings plugins. At the same time, the Ohio Masonic staff can remotely monitor residents’ real-time behavioral and biometric data, such as heart rate and blood pressure, and catch problems before they emerge.

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To use the solution, residents wear the Samsung Gear S2 smartwatch and use hand gestures to turn lights and appliances on and off. Meanwhile, the Reemo cloud-based platform enables families and health care professionals to access a dashboard with near real-time reporting of residents’ treatment adherence, device interaction, and falls. The resident also receives medication reminders via the smartwatch, and has the ability to communicate with family members, who also receive alerts and notifications.

Overall, the pilot is going well, from the resident, provider and companies’ perspectives. In particular, senior users of the technology have adopted it in short time.

“It has been surprising how quickly the seniors have adapted to it,” John Valiton, Reemo’s chief revenue officer, told Senior Housing News. Residents involved in the pilot are showing their watches off to other residents, he said, adding that the Samsung smartwatch in no way says “hey, look, I’m old.”

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Ohio Masonic CEO Tom Stofac has sung Reemo’s praises, and is advocating for Ohio Masonic Home to implement the solution into two of its upcoming development properties. Ohio Masonic Home currently provides assisted living, skilled nursing and home health services to more than 1,500 seniors throughout the state of Ohio. The company also offers hospice services and independent living options.

“I’ve been in the field of aging for over 35 years, and I’ve never been more excited,” Stofac said of the solution in a report on the case study. “With this type of compassionate technology that bends to the user, we can transform how people age and improve quality of life for seniors.”

Written by Mary Kate Nelson

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