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 How A Robot Helped Me 

Master Home Care for Seniors



It was 2011 and I had been working on the very early versions of the robot known as RUDY, building and testing late into the night on a regular basis.  I realized that I needed to learn more, (like Johnny 5 in Short Circuit, I needed more input) I had to get out of the hallways of this building and get RUDY into the home of older adults to learn more.  What I would learn over the next 10 years would surprise me and open my eyes to a process that has remain largely unchanged since I began this journey.
 

Unabridged Access to How Home Care for Seniors

I remember calling businesses that cared for older adults, I started with the fact that I had a robot to help seniors at home and I had them hooked.  They always wanted to learn more and I never had problems getting a follow up call.   Convincing them to allow me into the home and to work around seniors was the real challenge.  Home care for seniors at the time was and still is for the most part (except for back office work) non-technology driven.  Most people at that time had only heard or seen robots in the movies or on TV. I would get a lot of "a robot, like the Terminator" references.  This caused their initial reaction to be interested but hesitant for a few key reasons.  It took some work, that I will discuss in a later post, but we overcame that hurdle and thus began to get full access to seniors at home and other locations where seniors lived or frequented.  
 
We began taking RUDY the robot everywhere we could and anywhere that worked with seniors, but we targeted home care for seniors because our goal was to keep seniors at home.  It was very interesting and curious for everyone at the time because it was so revolutionary and unheard of but most importantly it was exciting.  Everyone loved talking about how they were working with a robot or their mom or dad had was testing a robot.  Home care agency owners began talking to each other and the word spread.  Soon others began seeking to try it out and I found myself completely immersed with multiple home care agencies.  I would spend time at their offices discussing the testing, spending time with caregivers asking/answering questions and spending A LOT of time with their clients.  I began feeling as though I lived with the seniors and I worked in home care.  That was exactly what I wanted.
 
 

Going from 0 to 100

Home care at the time had not been implementing ANY form of technology and the home care market was not an attractive space for investors or many other companies.  As such, we had some competitors but just very few, but none on the east coast in any form at the time.  So we were asking the home care for seniors industry to go from no technology to the most advanced technology in one step, very ambitious and aggressive, and that one step would be a long step.  

On our end, we were learning at an unprecedented rate, seeing things first hand that were not matching up with white papers or other published research, I found this very interesting.  This was as true for the entire process, from beginning to our pivot.  We continued through this process, constantly evolving as a company and solution, applying lessons as we learned them and adjusting everyday.  One thing remained constant, we were moving things forward.  Our ability to learn and push was like a hands on Master's course in home care, with a twist.  We were given the keys to the building (metaphorically) and we respected the responsibility that came along with that, so while we moved forward and expanded our efforts, we never lost sight of the most important thing, the senior.











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