Empowered Patient Podcast Digital Tools for Caregivers and Patients to Navigate Challenges of Aging with Shauna Sweeney tendercare
Shauna Sweeney, Founder of tendercare, aims to assist caregivers with digital tools and expert support to simplify the process of caring for an aging family member. Recognizing the essential role of caregivers in the quality of life of the patient, tendercare provides a user-friendly interface that incorporates data from wearables and remote sensors to identify early warning signs of risks, help coordinate care, and encourage proactive preparation. The Magic Magnet feature allows caregivers and emergency responders to quickly update and share critical health information.
Shauna explains, "This is not just a gendered issue. We have 54 million just Americans, if we keep it to the US, who are currently providing unpaid family care. This usually takes the form of anything from looking through bills, managing medications, renewing prescriptions, coordinating doctors’ visits, and all other visits. Often, we find that those who are on our platform are the eldest child. So whether that's a daughter or a son, this is the type of person who is often leaning in to help. What is generally a parent or a grandparent who may or may not have the ability or the means to be able to get themselves to the doctor's appointments or pick up their prescriptions themselves, for instance."
"Up until now, a lot of this has actually been human-powered. So, sitting down at the kitchen table with Mom and going through the mail to determine what needs to be paid by what time, but increasingly, because so many of us are living farther apart from one another, this is becoming more and more complicated. There is a level of coordination that we're all doing with one another, but we're often doing it over text. We're doing it over email, we're doing it over shared accounts and passwords. And so it's getting a lot more complicated, which is really where tendercare dropped in to try and help simplify a lot of this experience that so many of us are walking through right now."
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