Solve the remote care problem! Taiwan’s new creation “WaCare” uses community power to promote the health of the elderly

According to statistics from the Bureau of Accounting and Accounting, Taiwan has an average life expectancy of 80 years, about 9 years may be disabled, and each of us may be a disabled person or a caregiver. When difficulties come, what services can help us?

Professor Pan Renhao, the founder of the community medical care innovation “Wacare”, faced with the problem that his mother who lived in Taichung suffered from a stroke and suffered from mild dementia, but he had to teach at Yuan Ze University in Taoyuan, and could not take care of him nearby, and could not immediately know Pan Renhao was worried about his mother’s health, so he bought a common health bracelet for his mother, installed the app on his mobile phone, and could see the steps taken by his mother, and even called to “supervise” his mother every day For walking rehabilitation, Pan Renhao found that because of the constant care, the effect of improving the health behavior of the disabled is very significant.

The Wacare platform collects data to predict risks and promote healthy behaviors through the community

“My mother is willing to walk for rehabilitation every day because she knows that her son is watching. As long as she doesn’t take medicine, the whole family will call her. This is how the community can motivate people to engage in healthy behaviors.” Pan Renhao said In the past, his expertise in massive data processing has long been applied to the establishment of disease health risk prediction models, such as the risk of environmental molecules inducing asthma, etc., which has attracted the attention of many medical units, and this experience of his mother is his The last piece of the jigsaw puzzle of business transfer, after adding the “community” element, Wacare was developed, and in 2017, it received angel investment favored by enterprises.

Wacare’s data sharing mechanism allows patients’ relatives and friends, medical teams, and personal managers to become a health community network through the platform, so that they can better understand the health conditions of the care recipients and improve patients’ health behaviors. At present, Wacare can collect 83 kinds of data ranging from medication, blood pressure and blood sugar, emotional records, environmental air pollution, ultraviolet rays, etc., combined with disease and health risk prediction models, integrates and analyzes fragmented information in daily life, and automatically pushes possible risks. Adhere to the doctor-patient relationship and assist doctors in diagnosis.

However, Wacare, which is dominated by data and analysis technology, quickly ran into walls everywhere in the conservative medical environment at that time, and was unable to enter in front of the giant white tower. According to Pan Renhao’s own analysis, first of all, the market for “enhancing patients’ stickiness to the clinic” is not large, and the most feared medical disputes in hospitals may come to them because of “too real-time” data transmission: “In the past, patients’ physiological data were transmitted every 4 hours. , In the period when there is no information transmission, the hospital can basically claim no responsibility. Once Wacare, a tool that can transmit and predict risks in real time, is introduced, will the hospital also monitor patients 24 hours a day? It is not because the hospital is unwilling, but because it was at that time Resources can’t do it yet.” Pan Renhao found out that data-oriented services may not be the only solution to the elderly care and health issues. It is the service that can really hit the pain point.

What about with the data? Caregivers need medical knowledge that can actually solve problems

When Pan Renhao worked as an assistant technician in a technical team in Ecuador in 2011, he saw the local Indians’ thirst for medical information; on the other hand, the caregivers’ need for medical knowledge is similar. In developing countries, medical technology can completely change people’s lifestyles and make healthy behaviors a habit. This is especially true in many rural areas in Taiwan where medical knowledge is scarce. For example, the “swallowing problem” that will actually be encountered in caring for the disabled elderly requires the assistance of general doctors, and resources such as speech therapists, nutritionists, and psychologists are actually resources that caregivers urgently need but have low accessibility. To convey medical knowledge to those who need it is what Wacare wants to do, ushering in the transformation of the service model in 2019.

At that time, Pan Renhao led a team and went into the mountainous tribes of Nantou at his own expense, and sent a tablet to bring the medical information of the Wacare platform to the community. After the establishment of word of mouth, more and more community care bases in need actively invited Wacare to import services, including community care workers. Through the platform, medical resources can be brought into the community in the form of online consultation or courses. Doctors can also monetize their knowledge and bring more people to offline clinics.

Pan Renhao said that in addition to the lack of medical information, the uneven quality of caregivers is also a problem. “The threshold for community care workers is actually not high, and their professional knowledge is not complete. Many elders are unwilling to open their hearts to tell them their needs.”

For example, the caretaker of the Atayal tribe in Nantou is a Seediq daughter-in-law from Ren’ai Township. Because they belong to different aboriginal ethnic groups, the local elders often show distrust towards the waiter. After the introduction of Wacare, more diverse The advanced health courses and the assistance of a professional medical team not only achieve a 100% sense of knowledge improvement for the attendants, but also awaken the self-health awareness of the elders. You can contact professional doctors, and they are more willing to talk about problems and accept new knowledge.” From passive medical treatment to health promotion, distance and preventive medicine also have a strong point in rural areas.

In the past, Wacare was like a B2B software platform, relying on hospitals to bring patients in to build a community and strengthen the relationship between doctors and patients through data collection. Now it is B2C2B, going deep into local communities, contacting home, community care workers, elderly elders and other needs Ethnic groups, and then introduce medical personnel to provide courses, live broadcast or one-on-one video consultation services, creating a highly cohesive community starting from the Wacare platform, becoming a platform for caregivers and elders to exchange knowledge online and connect the community relationship, so that the whole community cares about the health of an elder.

Now there are more than 100 communities in Taiwan, across 12 counties and cities, there are traces of Wacare’s heart-warming orange smile. However, it is not difficult to see that Wacare’s services have a strong sense of social welfare. Wouldn’t it be more difficult? Pan Renhao said that although the service starts from the disadvantaged groups in remote villages, what Wacare does is try its best to help remote villages find resources to pay for services. Whether it is the government, enterprises or individuals, they all bring a variety of charging channels, so as to solve social issues while creating income. profit model.

Pan Renhao also emphasized that everyone has the need for elderly care and health promotion. In 2022, we must focus on developing the 2C market, develop more valuable paid courses, and become the Netflix of the medical care industry. As long as you open Wacare, you can provide It is their vision that people bring health information and behaviors.