Hi Andrea, thank you for taking time out of your schedule to speak to us. Please introduce yourself to our readers…
I’m Andrea Vaccaro. Innovation has characterised my entire career path, allowing me to specialise in the role of Product Manager and Project Owner. I currently hold the position of CTO at SICURA CARE, an Italian company based in Milan, specialising in the development and production of 100% Made in Italy IoT systems for the elderly care market.
Thanks Andrea. Please tell us a little about your business…
The objective of our company is to conceive, design and implement innovative and technologically advanced solutions capable of helping people live peacefully in their living spaces, discreetly and, above all, respecting their privacy. The ELISAcare project was born from the desire to provide a unique and innovative solution in the elderly care market.
That sounds amazing. Tell us more about ELISAcare…
ELISAcare is a digital family assistant equipped with artificial intelligence technologies that, while fully respecting privacy, is able to monitors elderly people habits, learn from their routines and highlight anomalies by signalling abnormal or emergency situations to relatives or caregivers through a dedicated app. The project stems from the specific need to ensure remote assistance and support, particularly for the elderly and fragile persons. The aim is to take care of them remotely, without the need to install intrusive systems, cameras, or wearable objects.
It sounds like you’re keeping things simple while removing a lot of the barriers that stop these things happening. How does ELISAcare work?
ELISAcare falls within the segment of IoT solutions defined as Ambient Assisted Living, the purpose of which is to assist people in their daily routine even remotely. It allows caregivers to monitor the activities of their family members through an artificial intelligence, or rather environmental intelligence, system that verifies the correct performance of daily actions.
Specifically, thanks to a series of activity sensors, the solution is able to detect activities within the home and process them to provide easy-to-read information.
All actions are displayed directly on the mobile app and in the event of anomalies, the family member or caregiver is informed immediately by a notification, without the latter having to constantly check and monitor the system actively. For the elderly, on the other hand, it becomes a useful tool for launching SOS and receiving reminders, through an intuitive interface made of lights and sounds.
ELISAcare app allows the caregiver to configure the system, view the collected data and receive notifications and alarms about routines and anomalies. It is possible to:
- Monitor daily household activities.
- Detect anomalies with respect to the normal course of common life, for example sudden changes in the usual wake-up or rest times or unplanned activities in the home at a given time.
- Receive notifications in case of anomalies, in real time, to stay close to loved ones even from remote.
- Manage intelligent reminders with activation of audible and visual alarms on the device. This service can be used, for example, to remind the elderly to take medication and, thanks to the additional functions offered by the device, to send a notification to the caregiver to indicate that the action has been performed.
- Expand the system by adding activity and environmental safety sensors.
- Take advantage of elderly care and healthcare services.
Thank you for such a detailed description – I feel like I could go and tell people all about ELISAcare now! What can you tell us about the background of the ELISAcare project?
The ELISAcare project was born in 2020, in the last 2 years we’ve completed our concept, the development and the testing phase. The realisation of the project was entrusted to a team composed of young professionals specialised in areas ranging from technical and scientific (engineering, IT, AI, Cloud, firmware, UX, mobile apps) to management, strategy and marketing.
To date, the project has been 100% privately financed, which has allowed us to put the product on the European market. We are currently looking for external investors to be able to implement the distribution on the various foreign markets and to be able to implement new technical features that could allow us to be highly innovative in this sector.
Fantastic. So what is the current status of the product? Is it available now?
The device has been on the European market in its B2C version since the end of September 2022 and it's possible to buy the solution on the digital channels both through our proprietary e-commerce platform and Amazon marketplace. Moreoever, in Italy, we have already made agreements with some pharmacies and specialized consumer retails that have started marketing ELISAcare and currently we are in negotiations with some European physical distributors.
Our goal is to have a commercial structure characterized by three sales channels, specific by customer segment, which will serve both to generate sales volumes and, together with dedicated marketing actions, to create and solidify the Brand Identity in the identified countries.
The three sales channels are:
- Physical stores: Since ELISAcare is a product aimed at monitoring and improving people's health, it is natural to think of already existing physical channels that deal with these issues, such as health care retailers, orthopaedics and pharmacies. Furthermore, the solution can also be proposed in all those private medical centres that also resell care products.
- E-commerce: Given the digital nature of the product and the incessant expansion of virtual stores, it is natural to think of an e-commerce dedicated to the sale of our devices. By its very nature, this channel is more suitable for more technological users who are inclined to purchase products online.
- Commercial network: Dedicated to the B2B customer segment (e.g. sheltered residences, healthcare companies, insurers).
Thank you for your time Andrea and for going into so much detail about ELISAcare. We look forward to seeing you at Longevitech!
Learn more at https://www.elisacare.com or check out the promotional video below.
Longevitech TLV 2023 takes place across 13th – 14th February.
