[Image courtesy Intuition Robotics]
Boston-based Intuition Robotics designed the ElliQ empathetic companion robot to help increase patient engagement and improve the patient experience to give primary care providers continuous data and insights for early detection and intervention of clinical conditions.
The empathetic digital companion robot is designed to curb loneliness and social isolation in older adults. It is a goal-based system that uses years of research and studies to combine psychology, behavioral sciences and advanced cognitive AI capabilities.
ElliQ has been in some older adults’s homes for the past two years and the experiment has shown that each older adult completed approximately 150 successful goal-oriented interactions with the robot per month. It helped engage older adults, connect to family, promote wellness and help older adults “stay sharp,” according to the company.
“ElliQ has proven to be an invaluable resource for our older adult users, who often choose to share something personal with the companion robot on a daily basis. While our original focus for ElliQ was to promote independent living and aging in place by combating isolation and loneliness, we realized that they were mere components of the bigger picture: helping to holistically improve care for older adults,” CEO and cofounder Dor Skuler said in a news release. “Working with healthcare professionals over the last year, we now see that ElliQ has the potential to support the full spectrum of care, physically, mentally, and socially.”
With new capabilities, ElliQ creates a direct channel of communication between healthcare providers and patients. It engages the patient in conversations and activities throughout the day, collects self-reported data and can share data with primary care provers with consent. With the data, providers can adjust the type and frequency of self-reported data that ElliQ collects.
“ElliQ is already a great resource for older adults to maintain a healthy and engaged lifestyle at home, providing them with much-needed companionship, entertainment, cognitive stimulation, and health and wellness suggestions,” said Dr. Peter Barker of Family Doctors. “The new capabilities provide physicians with visibility into the patient’s condition at home while allowing seamless communication are every doctor’s dream, as it can assist me and my team in early detection and mitigation of health issues, and it increases patients’ involvement in their care through more frequent engagement and communication.”
