How this healthcare startup making life easier for ageing people with dementia

Life is a journey where a day comes when ageing parents need more care and their children have to pay attention to them and take proper responsibility, care and love to make them feel secured and independent. Prashanth Reddy, founder of Anvayaa, shared that the startup behind 'Anvayaa' was his own experience in life. He said: "Being the only child for my parents, I was clear that I would be there for them when they require me the most. While I did fulfil the commitment and then I went a step ahead and established Anvayaa so that I could also help others take care of their parents."

Anvayaa, India's first and only IoT and AI tech-based personalized elderly care platform brought personalised dementia care plan to serve elders, suffering from dementia - a progressive neurodegenerative disorder. Prashanth shared the significance of this startup health care organization.

He said "Anvayaa has developed a customizable module to provide personalised care for dementia patients and help them live with dignity. This is characterized by a progressive deterioration in cognitive function finally affecting physically. The disruptive use of the innovative technology platform built using artificial intelligence (AI); the care platform constantly guides the care giver by giving them the ability to ensure the PWD is meaningfully engaged. The app provides a range of customised services to the elderly like booking a movie tickets, paying bills, taking to hospitals."

Anvayaa has 120 partners in multiple categories such as healthcare and utility service providers, who help them serve elders. In doing so, Prashath said "Anvayaa helps the young men and women, who often have to live away from home in the pursuit of a better life and are torn between the prospects of a better career and the urge to be with ageing parents."

"In 2016, we were building the platform. You will be surprised that when our first customer reached out to us, we did not even have the proper payment gateway on the website. But he did not care and paid via net banking," expressed Prashath

"This platform suggests dementia stage appropriate activities automatically and the directions in order to increase their physical, emotional and cognitive well-being. The process enables efficient care and predictable services for senior citizens with dementia supported by a network of trained clinicians and care managers," shared Prashath.

Aging process leads to different health issues for old people and dementia is something which needs personal attention. Prashath said "Dementia' is a condition that is generally associated with aging; however, it's not a normal part of aging. More than 90 per cent of all dementias occur in people over 65 years of age and it interferes with the ability of a person to do everyday activities. It manifests differently in different people and across the trajectory of stages, therefore necessitating the need for a personalized plan with effective use of technology to enable regular monitoring and tracking of the patient."

Without adequate care and professional support since the onset of dementia, the condition of the affected elders is bound to deteriorate rapidly, causing extreme stress and pain to the entire family. "Care from a team of specialists has to be personalized and aimed at making the journey less painful, arresting the damage already done, and slowing down the deterioration of the condition," shared Prashath

These days the work environment of people has changed and people are moving abroad to get a better pay and lifestyle. This is leading to negligence towards elder's health care as children are unable to concentrate on their parents. Keeping this in mind Prashath said "It is aimed at helping families by reducing the burn rate of care givers in the family to the PWD. Anvayaa's cementia care plan is a first-of-its-kind program designed by experts exclusively for PWD (patients with dementia). It is specifically targeted at improving the quality of life and has personalised packages (person-centric care) based on the type and stage of dementia." Talking about the specialities of Anvayaa's dementia care, Prashath expressed: "We have special tie-ups with dementia psychologists, neurologists and psychiatrists for timely and regular interventions. We have also appointed a team of specially trained care managers and caregivers who systematically and periodically link back with family to re-align the care program based on the progress of dementia. We offer social, cognitive, physical, and personal engagements designed by experts to improve and arrest deterioration. A specialized diet plan is included in Anvayaa's dementia care plan to improve cognitive functions and health. Besides this, the complete integration with Anvayaa's 360 degree technology platform network provides visibility, predictability, and reliability of care to the patients. We hope this will help us serve the elders with dementia better and help the family cope with the stress of managing the patient."

Today, around 200 families with nearly 350 elderly avail the services of Anvayaa's care managers. Prashant said, "It is not just those living abroad that who are counting on Anvayaa, many working couples in the city too are signing up with the startup to ensure that their elders are cared for."

"There will be 300 million such elders in the country by 2050 who will be living on their own. These people are at the high risk of suffering from depression and loneliness and family, which is why we set up 'Anvayaa' in 2016," shared Prashath. "Healthcare and emergency services are only a part of it. The key idea is to step beyond such services and make the elderly feel important and cared," concludes Prashanth.