Checking in
Every morning I have a ritual: I wake up, put on my bathrobe, grab a cup of coffee, and sit down to prepare for the day. Around that time, I receive a text message from my grandmother updating me on how she is doing with a simple: “I’m okay” or, “a bit tired - didn’t sleep that well”. We have a system, my grandma and I, that assures me that she didn’t fall during the night and that she woke up and managed to go to the kitchen where her cell phone is. It’s like a digital pulse; one that beats once per day.
In Sweden today, over 20% of the population is of retirement age or older. About one percent or 90 000 of the population lives in retirement homes and another 240 000 receive in-home care.
Elderly care is often lagging behind when it comes to the digitization of our society, and the only form of it they receive is often pre-determined by other people, and on other people's terms. Cenvigo aims to change that. We believe that the elderly deserve to feel safe, and have a normal life without any limitations; a life full of opportunities and well-being.
In Sweden, we have the word: “Trygghet” and it roughly translates to “the right to feel safe”. Our seniors were especially impacted by Corona but they, like the rest of us, deserve to feel safe; to feel “trygg”.
By the beginning of 2021, Sweden had lost over 5 000 citizens to Covid-19 and 89% of these were 70 or older. “Trygghet” or “the right to feel safe” for the elderly has failed. We as a society have failed them.
While Cenvigo can’t bring these people back, we can help others feel safe and protect our loved ones in the future. We have a system that can help identify key factors for Covid-19 infection, without jeopardizing integrity.
Our system works with two sensors: one that is placed in the bed and one that measures temperature with infrared. The bed sensor is able to analyze sleep patterns, in particular, if someone has been out of bed for too long. The sensor can also indicate heart rate, and measure the quality of breathing. This data is processed and analyzed allowing us to detect early signs of infection and help us mitigate the disease spread.
The early signs and symptoms vary, but over the course of the disease, most people with Covid-19 will experience the following:
Fever
Cough
Fatigue
Weight loss
Shortness of breath
Sputum production
Muscle pain
Thanks to interactive AI questionnaires we believe that all the common symptoms of Covid-19 are covered.
Corona has affected all of us; the elderly most. Isolation is no viable way to spend the last years of one’s life. With this technology, we want to save lives, enable more safe human contact, and bring back the right to feel safe - by reducing and mitigating the risk of infection.
However, these symptoms and infections aren’t anything new or unique. We have always seen contagions such as the flu go around, which severely affects the quality of life for the elderly, and in many cases affects their lifespan.
We believe that our platform will have the potential to help improve the lives of 350 000 Swedish citizens, and will be scalable to all. Together, we bring families together and increase their quality of life.
My grandma and I still communicate through a text message each morning, but it is no longer because it might save her life – we got that part covered now. We communicate because we want to. It’s easy to forget or neglect our elderly, but I do my part to not let that happen.
