Technology

Connected Living Announces Global Partnership With Temi, a Companion Device and Telehealth Delivery Robot, in Response to COVID-19

April 28, 2020

QUINCY, MA–Connected Living and Temi have announced a global partnership in response to the COVID-19 new world, in which the most at-risk population—our seniors—need enhanced ways to interact with family, community and medical professionals all from a distance. Connected Living is now the U.S. partner and distributor of Temi powered by Connected Living, an interactive robot that’s been introduced to senior living and healthcare facilities.

The partnership with Temi is the latest addition to Connected Living’s comprehensive COVID-19 emergency toolkit, which enables senior living communities to manage outreach across all of its constituents, including those who work and live inside and outside the property.

Sarah Hoit, CEO and Co-Founder of Connected Living, on Temi, an interactive robot and latest addition to Connected Living’s comprehensive COVID-19 emergency toolkit for senior living communities and healthcare facilities

The suite of technology services geared at creating connected communities for seniors includes a roster of pre-configured iPads, tablets, Alexa-enabled skills, a unique TV channel with programming designed for seniors, and a unique smartphone app that helps them stay more connected with their families and one another.

“We want to protect and connect our senior population, their caregivers, staff and families. Temi allows us to safely check temperatures at the door, set up family and doctor social or health visits, and interact with unlimited engagement content,” said Sarah Hoit, CEO and Co-Founder of Connected Living, which serves hundreds of senior living communities nationwide. “We need to do everything we can to bring health and wellbeing to our clients and to help stop the spread of COVID-19 in senior communities, while creating significant opportunity for socialization and healthcare visits.”

As the need to connect and protect our seniors is heightened during this COVID-19 global crisis, Temi can be used in conjunction with Connected Living’s full suite of technology to schedule both family visits and telehealth calls for anyone in the building and record temperature of people entering the building or of current residents.

This reasonably-priced robot, now being offered by Connected Living as the official U.S. distributor to the senior and healthcare market, can also be used as a “companion device” in the room to connect anytime with family, see interactive videos and content and help senior living community managers with “temperature capture.”

Temi can also be used to ask for the food service menu or as a communication device to share safe, social distancing activities that might be occurring in the building.

One of the most innovative senior living organizations in the country, and client of Connected Living, is Connecticut-based, Maplewood Senior Living, which introduced Temi to the marketplace by purchasing robots for its communities including Inspir Carnegie Hill, a new 23-story, luxury modern senior living residence in Manhattan. Temi has been lifting spirits and connecting residents with family members and doctors virtually.

Maplewood Senior Living’s team of Temi robots help reduce the feeling of social isolation. These roaming friends lighten the mood by sharing a joke, playing a game,  helping residents video chat with family and friends outside the community, and connect to education, healthcare and entertainment.

“We are committed to continuously innovating the way we do things, and bringing the best of what the market has to offer to our residents,” said Eleonora Tornatore-Mikesh, Chief Experience & Memory Care Officer of Maplewood Senior Living. “While this has always been our commitment, being able to deliver social and emotional visits with family, and/or connect with a doctor in the resident’s room is critical at this time.”

Through vibrant digital screen “faces,” Temi interacts with humans via autonomous navigation, dynamic video, enhanced audio and advanced artificial intelligence. Within senior living communities, the gender-neutral Temis function as companion devices with virtually endless possibilities for education, healthcare and entertainment through a proprietary Connected Living Alexa skill.

“The entire concept for Temi came from a visit to my grandmother, when I realized she was struggling to handle her smartphone,” said Yossi Wolf, Temi Co-Founder and Chairman. “Partnering with Connected Living to bring the convenience of personal robots to thousands of other elders is truly the fulfillment of a dream, and knowing that we’re easing the burden on this population is incredibly rewarding. Connected Living is a big part of making this dream come true.”

That comfort level is essential because Temis are playing a vital role in delivering healthcare to seniors on lockdown. The robots have proven useful in connecting residents with family, but also with doctors for remote consultations on non-emergent care.

Wolf founded the Temi company in 2016. Having established robotics company Roboteam Defense seven years earlier with partner Elad Levy, Wolf decided to change direction to the consumer market and create Temi, the personal robot. Today Temi is a global company with offices in Shenzhen China (production), New York (Marketing & Sales), Tel Aviv (R&D) and Singapore.

“We are humbled to see Temi in such noble use for elderly care. It makes us proud,” said Gal Goren, Co-Founder and CEO of Temi.

Maplewood Senior Living resident interacts with his family on Temi powered by Connected Living

Connected Living was recently featured in a case study by LeadingAge called, “Improving System-Wide Communication with Connected Living Enterprise Platform During the COVID-19 Crisis.”

“Our mission is to do the most work where we can do the most good, so harnessing technology to connect and protect the people we love is our focus,” said Hoit, who shared other new company innovations including a new Connected Living Apple TV app.

“This Apple TV offering will be the only one out there and provides a significant opportunity to bring personalization to the room. This is essentially everything you would want in a technology engagement experience built into the resident’s room/TV,” said Hoit. “Whether we’re talking community info, RSVPing for events, dining, streaming online content, direct live streams, etc., resident directories, service request platform … it’s all in there. It sets the stage to take engagement in any direction. For example, next month a family member will be able to upload photos and videos straight from their Connected Living app to their loved one’s Connected Living Apple TV app.”

Regarding profile and sign-in protocol, Hoit said, “We follow the Netflix model in the sense that there may be multiple people living in a room, and they need to have their own profiles. Each person needs to be uniquely identified, for example, if they want to register for an event. Also from within the app, you can easily switch profiles.

“Residents can RSVP from their TV, and it all hooks into our CMS platform for reporting and our app for staff to take attendance,” Hoit added. “We also have all the menu data. We are integrated with a community’s current providers such as Grove Menus and ServingIntel. If at any point a community wanted to allow residents to order food from their room, we could accomplish that via the Apple TV app.”

Hoit also stressed that not all content needs to be created by a community’s team. Any YouTube video can be scheduled into Connected Living’s CMS and streamed on Apple TV at the resident’s convenience.

“Communities can leverage YouTube Live to do live streams right into the resident’s room to be displayed on the app,” Hoit explained. “Staff can schedule the content on YouTube, add the URL in our CMS, and it will be ready for viewing on the TV. If the stream hasn’t started, Apple TV will tell the resident how long until the stream begins.”

Connected Living’s private YouTube channel allows its customers to stream unlimited recorded and live content, scheduled right through its CMS to the in-room TV or signage.

For additional content, Connected Living enhanced its “Great Courses” partnership with access to over 1,000 courses on all topics both for the Activities team and also now available for individual accounts in residents’ rooms.

In early March, Connected Living retooled its free public app to offer the nation’s only real-time news feed focused on COVID-19 and older adults, with updates specifically geared to senior living staff members, residents and families.

Connected Living’s app, available on iOS and Android platforms by the same name, functions as a communication hub for seniors and their families, allowing them to share information on a private social feed, along with their location and activities, and even access a concierge.

A portion of the app is dedicated to the latest senior-specific information and updates from credible sources such as the World Health Organization, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and John Hopkins University, along with Argentum and LeadingAge, the largest senior living trade association and the largest association of nonprofit providers of aging services, including senior living communities.

The free Connected Living app is available to anyone with an interest in COVID-19 and its impact on the senior community. After downloading the app and creating a basic profile, users can immediately access the latest information about COVID-19, specially geared for seniors. New information, updates and tips about the coronavirus outbreak is shared daily.

Based in Quincy, MA, Connected Living was founded in 2007 to provide technology solutions to senior living communities to help them to deliver compassionate care, and to help seniors and their families to communicate better. The technology encourages resident engagement and inspires our aging population to increase their communication and connection with others to live healthier lives. Hundreds of communities nationwide have worked with Connected Living to increase occupancy, reduce employee turnover, and enhance the quality of life for seniors and their families.

 

 

 

 

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