Dear Friends,
I admit to having a mix of emotions as I write this. I feel pride in what my son Alex has developed to help us seniors identify and mitigate fall risks; sadness in remembering how my husband Pablo fell during the last months of his life and my sense of helplessness at the time; and now a feeling of hope that I can continue to live my life as independently as I can with a little help from technology.
First, let me talk about SureStep, an easy-to-use technology using your phone to take pictures of rooms in your house where seniors are most likely to fall (bathroom, kitchen, and hallway). Using machine learning and artificial intelligence, Alex has been able to process the photos and identify where seniors are most likely to fall, shows what can be done to reduce fall risks, and even shows us how to install whatever may be required, like grab bars, etc. Alex has shown this to physicians and we’ve received such positive feedback that we’ve applied for a patent.
You may ask why bother since in many cases, physicians ask therapists to go to a patient’s home upon discharge to assess fall risk. Good question. In doing extensive research on this, we’ve learned the following:
- Seniors are fearful of inviting people they don’t know to their home, including therapists.
- Some seniors are hoarders and don’t want to reveal all the stuff they’ve hoarded over the years.
- Some seniors are protective of family members who live with them and who may be undergoing some sort of emotional/mental/drug crisis, and they don’t want to have unknown people in their homes.
SureStep photos can be taken by anyone with a smart phone. And it takes 1 minute (if that! I’m a little slow, so you may take less time!). I would love it if you could try it and let me know your feedback. We’re offering this to our amazing care network for the next 10 days at no charge. Simply click this link and enter the password ‘Surestep‘.
Please send your feedback to: cora.tellez@sterlingadministration.com.
Thank you,
Cora
