Cleaner, companion, security guard: You can add “clinician’s assistant” to the growing list of roles robots are playing in senior living and care settings.
A multi-state senior living operator has started a pilot program in which physicians remotely pilot a robot, Temi, equipped with medical tools, to provide geriatric consultations.
Maplewood Senior Living, which has become known for continually upgrading technology in its communities, began the pilot program by conducting its first virtual, robot-assisted appointment, the company announced Thursday.
The Temi robots are enabled with artificial intelligence and equipped with medical tools such as a stethoscope and blood pressure cuff. The clinician conducting the telehealth call can “drive” Temi into a resident room for an assessment; the mobile interface also allows off-site personnel to inspect the residents’ living arrangements.
The concept is intended to provide residents with a user-friendly interface for the telehealth visits, a Maplewood Senior Living spokesman said.
“Temi represents a pivotal moment in geriatric care,“ Morgan Iorio, Maplewood’s corporate director of business development, said in a statement Thursday. “Access to specialized geriatric services is often delayed by insufficient availability and local resources, which can adversely impact our seniors. I am thrilled about the opportunity for revolutionizing the way we deliver care to our older adults.”
Maplewood, which operates 16 senior living communities across five states, recently installed a system, AUGi, at its Bethel, CT, site. It passively monitors residents’ activity patterns, such as sleeping, to help prevent falls.
For its pilot program with AUGi, Maplewood won a Bronze Award in the Innovator of the Year category in the Senior Living track of the 2023 McKnight’s Excellence in Technology Awards program.
Earlier versions of Temi’s robots helped another senior living operator, Williamsburg Landing, win its own McKnight’s Tech Award — a Gold — back in 2020.
Maplewood also acquired two Temi models for its communities that year, although at the time, the Temi was intended to be used for companionship and social distancing activities, as opposed to facilitating more sophisticated telehealth check-ins.
