The entrepreneur
Who could forget the “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up” TV spot for a panic button device for seniors? Though the commercial was often imitated, Cindy Crump and her business partners at AFrame Digital took a different approach: They designed and built a system with a real-time view of the health and well-being of seniors, one that does not rely on someone to press a panic button. Crump and her team leveraged their digital network, software and risk-analysis expertise (gathered throughout a career in telecommunications, financial services risk analysis and e-commerce applications) to create the company’s MobileCare Monitor.
AFrame Digital, based in Reston, launched its service in late 2010. The software interacts with wireless networks, a secure hosted server and wristwatch monitors worn by seniors or any other at-risk individuals. The watch not only has a button to call for help, it also can detect if a user falls or becomes unstable and then send automated alerts to caregivers. The watch continuously monitors a user’s activity level, location and other physiological data (heart rate, temperature, etc.) as he or she goes about daily activities.
The pitch
Crump started AFrame Digital in 2005. She quickly joined forces with Bruce Wilson, now AFrame Digital’s chief operating officer and director of engineering, who is a former colleague, co-founder of CyberCash and veteran entrepreneur. They financed early development through the federal Small Business Innovation Research program with a series of government research contracts and grants. AFrame Digital’s team has grown to eight, including Kelly Besecker, vice president of sales, and Jill DeGraff Thorpe, vice president for strategic initiatives.
Crump
“Our subscription-based monitoring solution creates a virtual safety net in senior living, rehabilitation hospitals and home settings so that caregivers can respond more quickly to falls and subtle changes in a patient’s unique wellness profile, which often precede falls.”
DeGraff Thorpe
“AFrame’s technology is FDA-cleared and complies with federal privacy statutes. It gathers data from users continuously without them having to do anything except wear the wristwatch monitor. The hosted software uses predictive data modeling — technology that has proved useful in other industries including financial services and other fields — to catch subtle changes in a user’s health. The wireless monitor tracks everything and sends the data to a secure platform, which can then be accessed by the patient’s family, caregivers and doctors. Those people receive immediate alerts via text or e-mail if a user falls or experiences a potential health problem.
“AFrame already has several customers and sells its system directly to senior living communities and rehabilitation hospitals, as well as wireless vendors that sell other panic-button devices. The AFrame system gives care providers an easy, cost-effective, unobtrusive way to monitor residents using few resources. For vendors, AFrame offers the incentive of a revenue-sharing subscription service. For users, it offers better monitoring capabilities than other products on the market for about the same price.”
Loading...
Comments