Enhancing Senior Safety and Peace of Mind with Caregiver Smart Solutions

Ryan Herd, CEO of Caregiver Smart Solutions, shares his journey from the tech industry to founding his company, and discusses the development and functionality of the Caregiver Smart Solutions Core Kit.

The conversation also covers the use of data collected by the Core Kit, privacy issues, system setup, and the unique features of the monitoring system.

The conversation covers the innovative technology of Caregiver Smart Solutions, focusing on in-home monitoring and safety for seniors.

It also delves into the importance of fall prevention and the role of technology in providing peace of mind for family caregivers.

The discussion highlights the company's products, success stories, and the broader mission of enabling a better quality of life for seniors.

Takeaways

Technology can play a crucial role in enabling aging individuals to live independently and safely at home.

The Caregiver Smart Solutions Core Kit monitors activities of daily living without the use of cameras or listening devices, providing valuable insights into the habits and routines of loved ones.

The system allows for customization and control over data access, ensuring privacy and tailored monitoring for individual needs.

The Core Kit's simplicity, effectiveness, and focus on preventing falls and related health issues set it apart from other monitoring systems.

Falls among older adults can have serious and costly consequences, making preventive monitoring systems like the Core Kit essential for aging in place.

Caregiver Smart Solutions provides innovative in-home monitoring technology to ensure the safety and well-being of seniors, offering peace of mind to family caregivers.

The conversation emphasizes the importance of fall prevention and the role of technology in addressing the specific needs of seniors living independently.

The company's mission is to enable a better quality of life for seniors and family caregivers through the use of smart technology and real-time monitoring.

The discussion also highlights the significance of education and awareness in creating safer home environments for seniors, as well as the value of partnerships with industry experts and organizations like AOTA.

Chapters

00:00 Empowering Aging in Place with Technology

03:09 The Core Kit: Monitoring Daily Living Activities

07:24 Customized Monitoring and Privacy Control

15:26 System Setup and Data Access

34:39 Enabling a Better Quality of Life for Seniors

Transcript

Janet Engel (00:01.144)
Hello everyone, and today we have Ryan Hurd. He is the CEO of Caregiver Smart Solutions and has worked in the tech industry for 30 years. I'm very excited to have him on the show because I always want to learn more about technology and how technology can help people age in place. Ryan, thank you for being with us today.

Ryan Herd, CEO Caregiver Smart Solutions (00:27.316)
Hi, Janet, how are you? I really appreciate you having me on. I think this is great.

Janet Engel (00:33.176)
Well, thank you for being on. And I know you're a very busy man. I've been trying to get you on the show for a few months. So thank you very much for making time to be here. So I want you to tell us about your career in the tech industry and how it led you to founding your company, Caregiver Smart Solutions.

Ryan Herd, CEO Caregiver Smart Solutions (01:03.38)
Sure. You know, I've been in the tech industry, smart home, IOT for over 30 years. I actually wrote the book on it called Join the Smart Home Revolution. And quite frankly, my life was great. I was doing a bunch of stuff with Google and National Kitchen and Bath Association, Builders Association, Caldwell Banker, all these cool things. And it's been great. It really has. Unfortunately, my father, who is a Vietnam vet, he had cancer.

And when he's going through his chemo treatments, I had no idea how he was doing, right? He's proud. He goes home, he closes that front door. You know, it's a black hole of information. And I just want to know if he's okay. The problem was, is I didn't know if he got up. I didn't know if he was up all night. I didn't know if he was eating. Is he taking his medication for neuropathy or worse? You know, did he fall? So in the industry, I'm known as Ryan Hurd, the smart guy.

Janet Engel (01:39.)
Hmm.

Ryan Herd, CEO Caregiver Smart Solutions (02:01.684)
Figuring I could find something, right. And, and just buy it and put it in. Unfortunately, nothing existed. You know, there was the, I fallen in, I can't get up, you know, a button that you wore and maybe put in a camera or something else, but there really wasn't anything that could help me with, that problem. I just want it to be a fly on the wall. That's all I want to know. I just want to know that dad's okay. So, that's what led me down this, which then.

made me into developing and patenting Caregiver Smart Solutions, which is the core kit.

Janet Engel (02:39.512)
Well, that's a very interesting story and I think it is fascinating how just aging is a universal problem. Caregiving is a universal problem that we all share and it doesn't matter who you talk to. People always have a story to share like you did with your dog. So tell me about the core kit.

Ryan Herd, CEO Caregiver Smart Solutions (03:09.524)
Sure. See, it goes back to the problem. And the problem is, is we just want to know how our loved one's doing. Right. You give them a call. Maybe mom is living on their own and you call mom up and say, how are you doing? She's always going to tell you she's fine. Okay. But you know that there's issues. Is she eating? Is she drinking? Is she moving around? Did she leave the front door open? Did she leave the stove on and walk out the front door like,

Janet Engel (03:29.176)
Mm -hmm.

Ryan Herd, CEO Caregiver Smart Solutions (03:39.444)
All of these, what's called activities of daily living. So what we're doing with the core kit is we're monitoring what's called activities of daily living. So simply state it, your loved one's habits. And we're doing this without cameras and without listening devices, but monitoring their habits. You can tell a lot of a person. You can tell, are they doing normal things? did they get up this morning? Seven o 'clock? did they make their coffee?

Janet Engel (03:57.56)
Okay.

Ryan Herd, CEO Caregiver Smart Solutions (04:09.14)
Did they use a bathroom? You know, just the normal everyday things. And then when something's outside of that, you know, those are the kinds of things we want to know.

Janet Engel (04:19.896)
Okay, well, very interesting. So it doesn't have cameras, it doesn't listen. So what it does is it studies how someone's routine basically around their activities of daily living.

Ryan Herd, CEO Caregiver Smart Solutions (04:36.884)
Right. So if you think of a person's habits or their routine, right. what we're doing is we're using tiny, non -invasive sensors that are placed discreetly around the house and they are monitoring that person's, habits. Actually, let me show you. All right. So this is technology. You can see my green screen. unfortunately, sometimes technology works and doesn't, but let's see if this works. Let me show you the kit. Okay. So this is.

Janet Engel (04:54.392)
Yeah, show me.

Ryan Herd, CEO Caregiver Smart Solutions (05:06.836)
What's called the core kit. Now let me show you what's inside and we'll see if this works. All right. This is alive, not memrex. If you're old enough to remember that term, there we go.

Janet Engel (05:10.456)
Okay.

Ryan Herd, CEO Caregiver Smart Solutions (05:20.212)
Okay, can you see that?

Janet Engel (05:22.584)
Yes, let me put my glasses on so I can see it better.

Ryan Herd, CEO Caregiver Smart Solutions (05:24.82)
All right. So when you open up the core kit, what you're going to see is kind of a plan Ogram. So this tells you what sensors are inside the kit. From there, you're going to see this card and the kit is as simple. It's so simple to install. It's scanning this QR code and you download the app. You're going to plug in the hub and then you're going to peel and stick the sensors. They're, they're super simple. And when you open it up, when we talk about sensors, this is what I mean.

Right. So we have a hub, this is a smart hub. And then we have sensors, these sensors, they're about the size of a quarter and they're placed discreetly around the home. So if we think of things like master bedroom, master bathroom, living room, dining room, kitchen. Okay. Then we have temperature and humidity. This could be used either in the bathroom, monitoring showers or baths because hygiene is really important.

Or it could be used for, let's say, the stove. Did mom turn on the stove and then walk out the front door? We have these door drawer contacts. So think of like front door, side door, medicine cabinet, refrigerator. Again, we want to monitor. Are they, what's the trend? Are they eating normally? Are they not eating normally? Did they not even open up the refrigerator today? And it's already noon. Like these are all the things that you want to know as being a fly on the wall.

And then of course we have emergency buttons. So if there's an issue and if mom pushes one of these buttons, you need to know right away. And it's a combination of all these sensors working together and all that fancy stuff. You hear AI machine learning, that stuff. It's basically stitching together the information to give you, what you need to know so you can make the best possible decision for your loved one. So if you look at this as a tool,

I'm giving you the tool to make the best possible decision for that loved one. Does that make sense?

Janet Engel (07:24.792)
Mm -hmm, yes. Can you explain how the data collected by the CoreKit is used to alert caregivers or other family members to potential issues?

Ryan Herd, CEO Caregiver Smart Solutions (07:28.724)
Great.

Ryan Herd, CEO Caregiver Smart Solutions (07:35.22)
Yeah.

Ryan Herd, CEO Caregiver Smart Solutions (07:39.476)
So the information from the kit is then sent to an app that resides on your smart device, whether it's iPhone and Apple, iOS, Android, doesn't matter. That information then goes to that. And then from there in the palm of your hands, you can tell everything about this person. And the other great thing about it is, let's just say, it can be customized for the user and also for your mom. So for example.

Janet Engel (07:58.84)
Okay.

Ryan Herd, CEO Caregiver Smart Solutions (08:08.5)
let's say mom has a little bit of dementia. So the thing that you're worried about the most is did she get up, turn on the stove and walk out the front door. So I can give you that information. You select that. I want to know as soon as the front door is open. Boom. You'll know. So that information will come up in your smart device. you could also use this for, let's say, if you notice that mom.

Is losing a little weight. So I need to know every time she opens up that refrigerator or if she's not. So you can select that even on top of that, for example, let's say, let's say it's eight o 'clock at night. Mom usually goes to bed around nine o 'clock or 10. And let's say the front door is still open. I'm going to automatically send you that information, whether or not you're thinking about it, because this way we can make sure that mom remembers to close that front door or.

if mom left the refrigerator door open, you know, she got her groceries, put the groceries in and then, you know, whatever happened, it didn't actually close all the way. You know, that could be a real problem, especially with our, my, my grandmother who's 98, right? She went through the great depression. And if something like that happens, depending on how long that refrigerator was open, the leftovers, the deli meats, I mean, this could be really bad.

And especially when we're our aging loved ones, they're more susceptible to things. So by knowing that and getting notified, you know, five, 10 minutes later that the refrigerator is open, you know, now you can call mom, you can have somebody stop by, have mom close it, whatever. But now the crisis is averted. Those are the kinds of things that we're talking about with the core kit.

Janet Engel (09:51.224)
Mm -hmm.

Janet Engel (09:55.672)
Okay, I love that. And what you said is so true about food going bad. That is one of the top five reasons why older adults end up in the hospital is food poisoning because they can't smell if the food has gone bad. And they also can't taste as well as a younger person if the food has gone spoiled.

Ryan Herd, CEO Caregiver Smart Solutions (10:08.724)
Yeah.

Ryan Herd, CEO Caregiver Smart Solutions (10:18.484)
Right.

Janet Engel (10:20.568)
And especially in the summer and as hot as it's getting now, my mom lives in Miami. She said it's 95 degrees. So, you know, just, yeah.

Ryan Herd, CEO Caregiver Smart Solutions (10:29.652)
Yeah, could be a problem. And that's another interesting issue because when you look at the app, you're going to be able to see the outside temperature as well as the inside temperature. So we have it built in. Let's say we're going to pick on your mom real quick. So mom's in Miami. It's 95. I'm out of New Jersey. I had no idea. It's 95 today. Okay. Is that something I would like to know? Yeah, I would like to know whenever it's above 90, wherever mom lives or whenever it's below 40. Okay.

So you can set that criteria. So automatically the app's going to tell you that. But then inside, let's say I want to know if the inside is above 75 or if it's below 50, you can set that criteria because now not only will you know, you know, it's 90, you know, down in Miami, it's getting warm. And inside is 75 or 80. That could be a problem. And then this is what facilitates that phone call. Hey mom, how you doing?

Janet Engel (10:59.416)
Mm -hmm. Okay.

Ryan Herd, CEO Caregiver Smart Solutions (11:29.172)
I'm fine. Hey, listen, I noticed that inside it's like 80 degrees. What's going on? you know, that thermostat has been working. I haven't even thought about it. And ma, can I get somebody to come over and get that fixed? Like it's starting to get hot out. Summer is coming. These are all the lows, little things that if we're a fly on the wall, we notice, but when mom's in Miami and you're in Georgia, you have no idea. This is how we help our families.

Janet Engel (11:55.128)
Yeah.

Janet Engel (11:59.448)
And that was a scenario that I ran into a lot doing home health because older people tend to not, they prefer warmer temperatures, right? But the problem is that they would make it too warm. And...

especially with the old thermostats where you really can't read it because it's so small and then it had that little toggle that was so sensitive and you could move it five, eight degrees with just one small movement. Right? And I would go into some patients homes and I'd be like, I can't tolerate this for more than five minutes. And I would go and I would change the temperature because it was so hot. But even I couldn't.

Ryan Herd, CEO Caregiver Smart Solutions (12:30.964)
Right.

Ryan Herd, CEO Caregiver Smart Solutions (12:46.1)
Right.

Janet Engel (12:47.288)
tell what I was changing the temperature to because it was so small that I couldn't read it. So when you have those old thermostats and then on top of that you have summer then it can be a recipe for disaster.

Ryan Herd, CEO Caregiver Smart Solutions (13:06.676)
And the same thing with winter, you know, we've, we've had the scenario where the person is up in Vermont. Okay. I have no idea what it's like in Vermont. All of a sudden it's, you know, below 32. So I need to know that. And then inside all of a sudden it hits 50 or 55. And it's like, what's going on? That's, that's definitely too cold. And you get that. well, that thing wasn't working. Now it's their first cold snap. And it's like, well, we need to get that working. So let me find.

You know, somebody that does HVAC, let me get them over there because this isn't good. You can't, you know, you can't go through the night with it being 40 degrees in the house. And I understand how our loved ones want their independence and I want to enable that for as long as possible. And this is one of the things that's going to keep you safe and secure.

Janet Engel (13:40.728)
Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm.

Janet Engel (13:55.8)
Yeah, and that's a great lead into my next question. You mentioned independence. What about privacy issues? Because this is something that always comes up whenever we talk about technology in the home. For example, these whole house systems that can detect falls. They can detect if someone has never left a bedroom or bathroom or if someone's laying horizontal.

Ryan Herd, CEO Caregiver Smart Solutions (14:05.364)
Right.

Ryan Herd, CEO Caregiver Smart Solutions (14:18.42)
Right.

Janet Engel (14:22.264)
And they don't like this because they're afraid that it's going to, you know, just give information that they don't want out there. So how does your system deal with privacy issues?

Ryan Herd, CEO Caregiver Smart Solutions (14:32.34)
Yeah.

Ryan Herd, CEO Caregiver Smart Solutions (14:40.34)
Great question. So 100 % you guys own the data. So it's only between you and your mom. That's it. Now, if you elect to, let's say you have siblings, you can elect to have them have the app. And then with each person, they can also customize it. So for example, let's say you have a sister who's very empathetic and she wants to know everything about mom. That's fine. I could literally blow up her phone. Her phone will never stop going off.

But let's say you have a brother who is like, I love mom, but I just want to know, God forbid if she fell, you know, he can have that as well. So it's customizable for all of us, but at the end of the day, it's between mom and it's between you and you guys deal with that data.

Janet Engel (15:26.328)
So as long as the older adult is okay with their adult children or caregivers having access to that data, then there really is no other issue. Okay.

Ryan Herd, CEO Caregiver Smart Solutions (15:41.395)
Yes. There's no other groups or anybody else that gets any information. It's yet to 100 % under your control.

Janet Engel (15:50.52)
And how do I set up a system like this in my mother's house? How do I do this?

Ryan Herd, CEO Caregiver Smart Solutions (15:57.908)
Super simple. So let me show you the kit again. So put in context. So as I said, number one, you're going to scan the QR code that comes with it. That's going to enable you to download the app, which is right in the app store. Number two, see this smart hub? You're literally just going to plug it in. Center of the house makes the most sense. Number three, you're going to peel and stick the sensors. So the app is literally going to walk you through everything. It's going to say, OK, you know.

Janet Engel (16:00.76)
Okay.

Ryan Herd, CEO Caregiver Smart Solutions (16:27.732)
Give me mom's name, give me, you know, certain information. And then you're going to say, okay, I'm going to call this sensor, the living room, and then this sensor, grandma's room, whatever, whatever it makes sense. And then you just walk right through it. It's super simple. The app walks you through everything and boom, you're done. And then from that standpoint, you can select if you want, I need to know if mom opens up that door right away. So you can select that.

Janet Engel (16:46.968)
Okay.

Ryan Herd, CEO Caregiver Smart Solutions (16:56.852)
Or you could just let the, the core kit learn over the next two weeks, mom's habits, and then kind of take it from there.

Janet Engel (17:03.32)
Hmm.

interesting. And how is your system different from other monitoring systems that are available?

Ryan Herd, CEO Caregiver Smart Solutions (17:15.028)
Great question. So we are simple and effective. You know, the one thing I've learned is there are some really smart people out in Silicon Valley. Really they are smarter than I'll ever be. The problem is, is that they don't understand the person that they're building for. They're building all this fancy technology for you and me, which will be great when we get older, but.

They don't understand my 98 year old grandmother who is technologically adverse. You know, they don't understand that she doesn't want to be spied on. She just wants her independence and dignity and she wants to live at home for as long as possible. So for us, it was really, really important. Number one, to have the smallest possible sensors. So we have the smallest, most robust sensors on the market, about the size of a quarter. And to be as simple as possible, you know, we don't want people to think like they're being.

monitored and watched because you're not. All this is is a tool. So we want to make it easy for everybody involved and make it as inexpensive as possible. So this way the family uses it because everybody's worried about falls. That's number one, 100%. And we take care of that. But then there's all these other secondary things that actually lead up to falls. Like you said, whether they're eating enough, whether they're drinking enough, dehydration is the number one precursor to a fall. So for us, if we're

monitoring mom going into the kitchen and opening up the fridge and using the bathroom. You know, what's normal seven times a day. Okay, great. But now she's going once a day. That's probably a problem. Something's going on. And over a couple of days, that's when dehydration comes in. And then what happens next? She gets up from her favorite seat in the living room. And when she gets up, she passes out and now she's on the floor. The problem with falls is.

They're not just a problem for mom, right? Mom fell. Yes, that's really bad, but they're a problem for the family. They're a problem for the first aid squad that picks mom up and put her in the ambulance. They're a problem for the emergency room, the nurses, the doctors. They're a problem for the hospital because when mom stays in the hospital, she's going to take up one of those hospital beds longer than you or I. She's a problem for the skilled nursing facility that she goes in.

Ryan Herd, CEO Caregiver Smart Solutions (19:37.844)
And the PTs and the OTs, and then the question is, does she go home or does she go into an assisted living facility or worse in nursing home? We never want to be there, but if we could just get ahead of that, all that goes away. And that's what we're trying to do because one of my pet peeves, we call it aging in place and I get it. It's always been called that, but it's, it's not about aging. It's about living. It's about living your best.

possible life and how do we do that? And we should use every thing that we can to enable us to live that best possible life.

Janet Engel (20:17.816)
Yes, and what you said is so true with the falls that that is the single worst thing that can happen to an older adult because that is well most falls results in either a hip fracture or a traumatic brain injury and so those are two very serious conditions and if you have a hip fracture your chance of dying that year goes up between 33 and 37 percent so that's very significant.

Ryan Herd, CEO Caregiver Smart Solutions (20:31.06)
Right.

Janet Engel (20:47.544)
Now, and they're also related to $50 billion in costs in the United States. Yeah, which Medicare and Medicaid shoulder most of that cost. Now, how much does this cost? Because you said we want to make it as inexpensive as possible. And I know that cost is usually an issue.

Ryan Herd, CEO Caregiver Smart Solutions (21:14.388)
Yeah. Cost is definitely an issue, especially, you know, when we think about if mom has to go into a nursing home, that's extremely expensive. If mom has to go into assisted living facility, I know up by me, it's like 7 ,500 bucks a month. That's, that's a lot of money. If mom needs some in -home non -medical help, you know, just somebody coming in, helping mom get dressed or eat or whatnot. by me, it's a minimum of 20 hours a week at 35 bucks an hour.

Janet Engel (21:22.808)
Yeah.

Janet Engel (21:30.968)
Yeah.

Ryan Herd, CEO Caregiver Smart Solutions (21:44.564)
That's that's $700 a week or like $3 ,000 a month, $750 a week, $3 ,000 a month. And here I've got a question for you. Do you know how many hours are in a week? Any idea?

Janet Engel (21:58.744)
I don't.

Ryan Herd, CEO Caregiver Smart Solutions (22:00.532)
Okay. Well, by me, if the minimum is 20 hours a week for in -home help, there is 165 hours a week. So what about the other 145? For us, the core kit retails at 899. And then there's a monthly subscription at $59 a month. From that standpoint, we are so inexpensive because it's

Janet Engel (22:06.424)
I'm done.

Janet Engel (22:13.912)
Mm -hmm.

Ryan Herd, CEO Caregiver Smart Solutions (22:27.124)
Not only filling in the gaps, it's enabling the family to have that peace of mind in real time. Like this is real time. We don't have to wait for anybody to look at the information. No, this is in your hand real time. You know exactly what's going on and it's 24 seven, 365. So that's what, when I say you want to be the fly on the wall, that's kind of what we are. We're the fly on the wall to give you the ability to know is mom okay, or is there a trend and is the trend or friend or not?

Janet Engel (22:57.912)
What about if the system malfunctions? How does that get serviced?

Ryan Herd, CEO Caregiver Smart Solutions (23:02.964)
Mmm.

Ryan Herd, CEO Caregiver Smart Solutions (23:06.516)
So let's say it's time to replace the batteries. OK. Just like your fire alarm, you want to replace the batteries at least once a year. Some batteries are going to have to be replaced earlier. But we're going to actually tell you that through the app. So through the app, you're going to see the icons. You're going to see an icon go yellow. And then that's going to say, you know, you need to replace the battery. Or if it goes gray, you're going to have to replace the battery then.

But let's say worse comes to worst. Let's say a sensor dies. Not a problem. Reach out to us. We're going to send you a new sensor. You're just going to appeal, stick the new sensor up, identify it in, and you're good to go. Super simple.

Janet Engel (23:47.704)
Is it obvious that that sensor has died?

Ryan Herd, CEO Caregiver Smart Solutions (23:51.988)
It'll tell you in the app. So the app is going to actually tell you, yeah, the app will tell you, it's time to replace the battery at that standpoint. You have, you know, about two weeks and it still has roughly 20 % battery power, but I want you to know. So this way, when you get a chance, I need you to replace the battery and the batteries are these little, CR small round batteries, but a little bit less than an inch real simple to put in.

Janet Engel (23:54.04)
in the app.

Janet Engel (24:18.872)
Okay, so as long as someone can physically go in there and change the sensor or change the batteries, then the system can be maintained properly.

Ryan Herd, CEO Caregiver Smart Solutions (24:30.452)
Yeah, it's super simple. And the other thing too, that we tell you is things like if the inner internet went out or if electric went out, you know, so in Texas, Texas has had some problems the last couple of weeks with tornadoes and whatnot. and if my mom lives in Texas, I have no idea, you know, maybe I know a tornado or rainstorm came through, but I have no idea if something went out, but you'll be able to tell.

And you'll know electrics out. Now you can call mom or get somebody over there, have her moved to someplace else, you know, or make sure her friends are, are, are taking care of you. And as soon as anything comes back on, boom, you'll know. So at least again, it's the value of knowing in real time what's going on because we're all busy, you know, especially with the price of food nowadays, we all have to go to work. We have to take care of things. So here is just that, that ability to know what's going on.

Janet Engel (25:25.464)
If someone has a large house, then they just need more sensors to cover that square footage.

Ryan Herd, CEO Caregiver Smart Solutions (25:33.364)
Well, yeah, I mean, the core kit covers roughly 80 % of all households, but let's say you have a weird living room, right? Maybe it's a weird angle or something like that. you can pick up another sensor. You can put two sensors in a room. you could even add. So for example, let's say mom has a Cape cod where she has a second floor. So we have a stair kit where this way sensors go on top and below the stairs because again,

In real life, what's important is she started at the stop and she ended up at the bottom. Not too fast, right? Because if she started at the top and she ended up at the bottom and it was two seconds, well, that's a fall. That's a problem. That's something you want to know. But the reverse is true. If she started at the top and it's five minutes later and she didn't get down to the bottom. That's a problem. She's probably sitting in the middle and there, there is something going on. So.

It's the power of smart technology helping us out as humans.

Janet Engel (26:35.96)
That's fascinating. What about outside? Can these sensors tolerate exposure to the elements?

Ryan Herd, CEO Caregiver Smart Solutions (26:45.268)
They can, but we're really focused on inside. So from our standpoint, the biggest problem is really that, that single person, 75 and older that is living on their own. That is really our focus and our focus is inside the house outside. If you can get mom or dad to wear one of those pendants or something, a watch or something that has GPS tracking, that would be amazing.

Janet Engel (27:11.704)
Okay, but not immediately outside of the home like the front porch or the back porch or the yard. We can't use the core kit's sensors in those areas. You could.

Ryan Herd, CEO Caregiver Smart Solutions (27:21.652)
You could, yeah, you could actually, yeah. Let's say you have a screen in porch. So in that kind of scenario, so you would put a sensor on the door. So we know that mom opened the door to the screen in porch. We know that it's open and then you would have a sensor outside in that screened in porch. And basically again, just if she wants to stay out there all day, that's fine. She can stay out there. She can read, she can be on her iPad, she can do whatever. I just want to know that she is vertical or sitting down and everything's okay.

Janet Engel (27:48.696)
Right, right, right. Are there any other products that Caregiver Smart Solutions makes or is working on?

Ryan Herd, CEO Caregiver Smart Solutions (28:02.324)
So yes, behind the scenes and I probably shouldn't tell you this, you know, because it's part of our skunk works. But what I will say is we are really focused on the family caregiver and our loved one. We have a million family mission. Our mission is to give 1 million families, peace of mind in real time. And with that said, I'm always looking at it from a caregiver's perspective. So.

What other problems can I solve? And for that, I'm looking to partner with best of breed. So there's products out there. There's a great product called auto slide. So think of it like this. when you go to target, you know how the door is just open and then they close. That's great. But when we stay, when we talk about mom's house, if somebody is in a wheelchair, that makes perfect sense, right? the ability to allow them in the front door, the ability to open up a slider.

You know, that makes sense to automate the doors, but it also makes sense that if mom has a cane or a walker, and especially if they have a service dog. So I think of it like this down in Florida, you know, everybody's got the sliding glass doors. They're heavy. They're hard to move. And then you add a walker or a cane on top and a dog that wants to go out. That's a recipe for disaster. You know, that is a fall. Well, by using a. And the threshold.

Janet Engel (29:28.056)
threshold. Don't forget the threshold.

Ryan Herd, CEO Caregiver Smart Solutions (29:31.092)
Right. So by using auto slide, it now automates that door open. Mom can just push a button real quick. Boom. It opens. It can open halfway. It can open all the way. Let's the dog out. Dog comes back in crisis averted. So what we're doing is we're partnering with companies like this and where we can get that information and pulled into the app. So now you up in Georgia can know that, well, mom's letting out the dog. Everything's okay. She went out the back slider today.

all is good. Because that's what we want to know. At the end of the day, we just want to know everything's okay.

Janet Engel (30:06.904)
That's great. Do you have any success stories that customers have shared with you?

Ryan Herd, CEO Caregiver Smart Solutions (30:12.348)
I have a lot of interesting stories. I have to say so many. So we have one, family that noticed that their mother was getting up multiple times a night. So they were like, okay, what's going on? they called mom up the next day. She said she was having an issue. So they picked her up. They went to the minute clinic and found out she has urinary tract infection. And that's, you know, great. At least we, we were able to pick that up.

But here's what got really interesting because when she went home, like in a normal world, if you found out about this, hopefully before mom fell, because a lot of times another reason why people fall is because they're dehydrated. They have a urinary tract infection. They're sick and then nobody knows cause they don't tell anybody and now they're on the floor. Well, we were able to catch it. she was able to get medication. So now we're monitoring the medicine cabinet. So we're seeing her taking her main medication.

But the great thing about it is if we know that she was going to the bathroom a lot beforehand and we presume she's taken her medication, are we getting the expected results? And over time, we're noticing that mom is going to the bathroom less. Great. So that is a wonderful success story. Other stories, you know, something that we never realized, but we started having, some of our aging loved ones purchase this for themselves because let's say mom,

moves from New Jersey down to Georgia. And, you know, the family's still up North, but she's down here because it's warmer and they like it and it's, it's less expensive, but she doesn't have any family around and she knows, you know, they've all heard about the stories where somebody fell in their condo apartment house and nobody found them for God forbid, two days later. That should never happen today. Right. That should never happen. So they actually bought it and then they let their friends, the next door neighbors.

be that person to monitor. And she's just like, listen, if anything happens to me, at least you'll know and call the police. Right. Because up until now, all they do is they literally go around when they're walking around their development and they're just looking at the mail. And if the mail is starting to pile up, there must be a problem with Mary and then they'll go up to the door. But now, I mean, that could be three days later. Now they're using this as like a self monitoring system. So that was something that was.

Janet Engel (32:30.52)
Mm -hmm. Right, right.

Ryan Herd, CEO Caregiver Smart Solutions (32:38.804)
fantastic that we learned. And I really do encourage so many more people to do that.

Janet Engel (32:44.632)
I have a friend that she is single, she lives alone and she developed this system where she texts people, she has this automated text, but she has to push the button for the text to go out to the people she has on that list. And so they know that if they don't receive the text from her that morning, that something happened. And so that's her system. But I think this is...

Ryan Herd, CEO Caregiver Smart Solutions (32:56.316)
Right.

Ryan Herd, CEO Caregiver Smart Solutions (33:08.564)
Right, right.

And again, that's a great way to leverage technology, right? I love to see things like that.

Janet Engel (33:14.456)
Yeah. Yeah, this is great. And I love that it's not a wearable because so many people, they don't want to wear them. And even if they were okay with wearing them, they're not compliant with wearing them. Yet some of them you have to take them off when you shower because they can't get wet. And so that's the most dangerous time when you're in the shower and now you can't call anyone.

Ryan Herd, CEO Caregiver Smart Solutions (33:32.02)
Yeah.

Ryan Herd, CEO Caregiver Smart Solutions (33:43.572)
Yeah, slip and falls and we're monitoring that as well. So with the sensors in the bathrooms, we're not, and this is the power of not being a camera and not being a listening device, right? Quite frankly, I don't care what mom's doing in the bathroom. I just want to know, number one, she's going into the bathroom a certain amount of times a day, right? What's normal. And then number two, by using a temperature and humidity, we can track if mom's taking a shower or a bath.

Janet Engel (33:44.056)
yeah.

Ryan Herd, CEO Caregiver Smart Solutions (34:10.708)
Now, if her average is 20 or 30 minutes, great by all means, mom enjoy that. But now all of a sudden it's 45 minutes or an hour. There's probably a problem. And that's something I need to know because you know, the worst possible case is a slip and fall in the shower. Nobody knows. And she's literally in there for eight hours or a day. And this is happening time and time again, all across the U S that should never happen.

Janet Engel (34:38.168)
Mm -hmm.

Ryan Herd, CEO Caregiver Smart Solutions (34:39.38)
It'll never happen with the core kit by caregiver smart solutions ever.

Janet Engel (34:43.288)
Yeah, well, you know that a person over the age of 65 falls every second of every day?

Ryan Herd, CEO Caregiver Smart Solutions (34:50.964)
Wow, I did not know.

Janet Engel (34:52.472)
Mm -hmm. Yep.

Ryan Herd, CEO Caregiver Smart Solutions (34:54.195)
That's rough. And the other thing that we learned too is people are not wearing those pendants, like you said, but even if you can get mom to wear it, when she comes home, more than 80 % of these people take it off. Why? Well, because they feel like they're safe at home and they should be, but you and I both know that most events happen between the bedroom and the bathroom and in the kitchen. That's where most events happen. So.

We have to do something about this. And obviously I have a technology background and I know that I'm only one piece of the puzzle, right? Because technology can absolutely alert you of anomalies or what's right, what's wrong, any of that kind of stuff. But you're never going to take away somebody like you or the non -medical in -home person, OTs, PTs. Like we need people to help people. But at the end of the day, as I said before, it's all about living. How do we.

Janet Engel (35:30.04)
Mm -hmm.

Ryan Herd, CEO Caregiver Smart Solutions (35:52.948)
that life, regardless of where we are in life, but how do we live our best possible life? And that's what we're trying to enable.

Janet Engel (35:59.392)
Ryan considering that most falls occur due to hazards in the home and when I say most falls it's half to two -thirds of all falls are due to hazards in the home. Does a company like yours provide education on how to make the home safer so that they can prevent a fall?

Ryan Herd, CEO Caregiver Smart Solutions (36:24.564)
Yeah. You know, our partnership with AOTA, you guys are great. And it's all of the information that we learned. I mean, you guys know everything, right? Being a PT and an OT, you see things that I would never realize. so for example, we were talking at the last conference about how, an OT comes in the house for wellness check. And the first thing they see is like all of the furniture pushed together. They know immediately mom's not using her Walker.

You know, these are the things that I wouldn't think of or all of these rugs that are drop rugs, you know and again, I'm also a clip certified so certified living in place professional and I have to say I got to give a plug to living in place Institute. Louie Delaware does a great job. It really opens your eyes to things that if you're not going through it, you wouldn't realize, right? And yes, we talk about the.

zero threshold showers, front doors, back doors. You said about the threshold before, right? Because it's, it's hard. It's hard to get your foot over it. It's hard to get a walker over it. It's hard to get a wheelchair in, but it's so much more. It's those horizontal sight lines in the bathrooms. It's the different colors as you're going into different rooms, it's different textures. It's, it's making sure you don't use tile on the floor that is slick or gets slick when it gets wet. Like.

Janet Engel (37:36.28)
Yeah.

Ryan Herd, CEO Caregiver Smart Solutions (37:50.324)
Things that once you're told, you're like, that makes total sense. But if you're not told, you're, you're not thinking about it. So.

Janet Engel (37:56.792)
Right, and most people don't know because that's not their expertise. They don't realize that their lighting is too low, that they don't have enough artificial light. Having the blinds closed prevents them from daylight coming in or the air quality in their home. So many things that affect our fall risks, not just how slippery the floor is, but...

Ryan Herd, CEO Caregiver Smart Solutions (38:04.148)
Yeah. Right.

Ryan Herd, CEO Caregiver Smart Solutions (38:24.628)
Right. It is much more dynamic.

Janet Engel (38:26.104)
you know, what kind of furniture, your throw rugs, your lighting, what kind of shoes the person's wearing. That's a big one, especially for women that like to wear heels or sandals, you know, very dangerous. Well, Brian.

Ryan Herd, CEO Caregiver Smart Solutions (38:29.652)
Right.

Yeah, that's true. Yeah.

Ryan Herd, CEO Caregiver Smart Solutions (38:41.076)
Yeah. And we like to all of these things that we learn from people that are way smarter than us. We like to log all of this. And then we ended up doing a blog. So we have over 90 blogs on our website. We have FAQs. We do a twice a month newsletter. And it's every time we learn something, we want to get that information out. So this way we can be as helpful as possible to that family caregiver. Because as I said, you said about blinds being open. So another quick conversation we had with our friends over AOTA was,

about the blinds being closed. And I'm thinking, you know, does that mean they just forget they're getting forgetful? And they were saying, yeah, that could be one thing. But the other thing is if the blinds are consistently closed, that could actually mean that that person is in depression because they're not getting that natural light that those blinds need to be open. So things again, as you were saying that unless you are told or taught, we just take for granted because we're not thinking about it.

Janet Engel (39:26.752)
Yeah. Yeah.

Janet Engel (39:38.488)
Mm -hmm. Yeah, Ryan, how does a caregiver or someone who's interested in the product for themselves? How do they find your product your website?

Ryan Herd, CEO Caregiver Smart Solutions (39:50.708)
No problem. So you go onto that wonderful worldwide web. You're going to type in caregiver smart solutions .com. Again, it's caregiver smart solutions .com wealth of information there. Everything that you need is there. If you'd like to give us a call, call us at 888 -585 -5022. Again, that's 888 -585 -5022.

Janet Engel (40:16.408)
All right, Ryan, thank you so much. I am so glad that you came on and I had the opportunity to learn about the technology that Caregiver Smart Solutions has created. And I hope to have you on again soon and you can tell us about other products you're working on.

Ryan Herd, CEO Caregiver Smart Solutions (40:36.116)
there are so many great products out there. I would love to come back and tell you about technology for living in place. But thank you. Thank you very much for having me on Janet.

Janet Engel (40:43.416)
Alright.

Thank you, Ryan.