Tech Beat: Royal Philips Acquires Blue Willow, Expands Senior Safety Portfolio

Royal Philips Acquires Blue Willow Systems

Royal Philips acquired Blue Willow Systems, effectively expanding the Dutch health technology company’s resident safety solutions platform. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Blue Willow, a cloud-based senior living community resident safety platform, will complement Philips’ CarePoint 6.0 safety platform by providing customers with new solutions for resident and staff management via a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) business model. The merger also brings added functionality like Bluetooth connectivity, real-time location tracking and and enterprise reporting. These solutions will ultimately link home, senior living communities and healthcare organizations, and are designed to enhance the quality of care and the operational performance of care providers seeking to optimize population health.

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Philips also teamed up with Inovonics, provider of the most-widely sensors and monitoring devices in North American senior living communities, further enhancing Philips’ senior living resident safety portfolio.

Ziegler Announces Three Strategic Investments

Ziegler announced its first three investments through its Ziegler LinkAge Fund II. The fund invested in Chronic Care Management, Socially Determined and AllyAlign Health.

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Chronic Care Management, a solution-oriented technology and services provider, focuses on “in-between visit” care management for patients with multiple chronic conditions. Socially Determined fuses clinical and claims data with outside contextual data to create profiles of people, their communities and their interactions with the healthcare system. AllyAlign aims to transform the care delivered to geriatric special needs populations by enabling senior living providers to embrace, and thrive, under value-based care.

LG Electronic Launches New TV Specifically For Long Term Care Market

LG Electronics introduced a series of commercial grade televisions developed specifically for the long-term care market. The LU340L series features a host of LTC Features including a large display font, an onscreen clock and a simple remote with large, easy to read buttons that pairs with a specific TV, perfect for shared rooms or resident apartments with more than one set.

The new line, in 32- and 43-inch models, are designed for the specific needs of the LTC community. Their public display mode allows facility staff to pre-set the start channel, limit volume and set an on/off timer. To provide a greater experience in LTC environments, LG’s Multi-IR feature allows staff to pair one TV with one remote control, or control up to nine TVs at once with a master remote by using different I/R codes. The TVs are Energy Star certified and are on average 27% more energy efficient than conventional models.

New Jersey Retirement Community Goes High Tech To Support Healthy Aging

Homestead at Hamilton, a retirement community in Hamilton Township, New Jersey, recently installed a full circuit of HUR strength training equipment with HUR SmartTouch Technology. The decision to incorporate this technology into its wellness program is a result of an ongoing commitment to make physical health a priority of community life.

HUR SmartTouch Technology is a cloud-based operating and operating program engineered specifically for older adults. The technology allows wellness staff to enter each resident’s personal training program into the operating system, guide them through workout sessions, automatically adjust machines to their preferences and tracking progress, and deliver real-time data to wellness staff so they can monitor individual progress and track changes in each users’ body mechanics.

Written by Chuck Sudo

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