Technology
In this episode, Teri welcomes Dev Singh, the CEO and Co-founder of Viki Health.Dev is a HealthTech entrepreneur from Chicago and the Founder CEO of two successful tech ventures - AiRo Digital Labs and ViKi Health AI. Dev is passionate about leveraging advanced technology to positively impact patient outcome. His most recent venture is ViKi Health AI, is the first-ever revolutionary 24/7-365 Voice-AI companion for seniors, using a combination of voice technology with AI, machine learning, and natural language processing, to bring the best of these technologies to the senior living sector, along with remote patient monitoring.It offers various amazing features such as voice-based interaction with the back-end EMR for care management, voice-based dictation for nurses, voice-IoT integration with the wearables for remote monitoring, and real-time diagnostics, emergency assistance, lifestyle and entertainment profiles, concierge and home automation services, and many others.Key points from Dev!Producing a very comprehensive ecosystem to help the aging population live more independently.Forming Viki HealthIt’s less than an year old. They have development centers globally.The company has 4 founders who all have elderly parents which is part of the reason why they started it, in order to provide the elderly with some level of support through technology.They created Viki by combining five technologies (voice, AI, natural language processing, RPA, and IoT) to create one use-case.How Viki Health WorksIt has five different modules namely:Care: This helps seniors connect better with their care providers, and vice versa. This could mean a hotline with the doctor, or enabling a nurse to dictate notes while administering care to a patient which would make them more efficient. This module also enables the user to transmit their vitals on an ongoing basis.Alerts and Notifications: It enables the user to set thresholds and it can alert care givers and family members of any emergency issues.Home Automation: It helps in controlling lights, electronic fixtures, etc.Concierge: This enables the request of support services like facility maintenance, medication refills, food menu, and others.Lifestyle and Engagement: This has huge potential. It’s Alexa-based and is linked to the TV and audio devices. Doctors and care givers can pre-program a patient’s choices of entertainment.The alpha-version for Viki was released a month ago and it’s Alexa-based. It requires the Amazon Echo Show as the user’s main device. They are hosted on Amazon’s AWS and are using Fitbit. They also use HIPAA Compliant encryption.They have three ongoing pilots and hope to have a change in their device combo within a year.Interactions for UsersThe skill on Alexa is completely customized to a particular facility. The facilities can customize the name of the skill to fit their preference.Viki is also customizable to fit a facility’s unique preferences.The Pilot ProgramsOne of them is at a 1,000-Seniors facility and there is another one at a much larger assisted living facility.They have learnt that people are excited about the technology. All the stakeholders involved in the pilot programs have supported and believed in the technology.Some more features were added into Viki during the programs, for example, their concierge feature was the brainchild of one of their users.The Future of VikiThey aim for a future where when a senior goes to a care facility, they will demand to have a Viki in their room.Links and Resources in this EpisodeViki Health Website