Over the past few decades medical, economic and social developments have resulted in a substantial increase in life expectancy in many countries, while at the same time birth rates have declined. These changing demographics present real challenges for society, challenges that require innovative solutions, particularly around the care of our ageing populations. Ilogs, the Austrian-based European e-health specialist, is tackling these challenges and filling the care gap by digitalising care, which means they offer professional digital care and a digital system that supports care processes.
For Andreas Jansa, the director of Ilogs UK: “The main question we ask ourselves is: ‘What can digital systems and devices do for people living at home who need care – and how can we support both them and their caregivers? With Ilogs solutions, people receive better care, but we also support the care system in delivering better care. This is crucial as baby boomers age – more people need care and there are fewer people to deliver that care, both because of declining birth rates but also because the caregivers themselves are getting older, which creates a domino effect that results in shortages of care workers. This is where digitalisation is so important.”
While Ilogs can’t be compared with real human contact, their digital solutions allow people to monitor things like blood pressure or blood sugar levels daily, rather than waiting for their caregiver’s weekly visit. The patient checks these things with their online consultant via Ilogs’ Alexa of Care tablet, which sends an alert fifteen minutes before the consultation so the patient can get ready. When the Alexa of Care rings, the patient picks up and the consultant takes them through testing blood pressure, measuring blood sugar or anything else that needs to be done.
“Having the consultant guide them means we can make sure everything is done correctly,” says Jansa. “In addition, in some cases, there are regulations that require the tests are done with a consultant on video because that video acts as a record that the tests were done and that they were done properly. This also covers medication – it helps ensure that everything is done safely and correctly.”
“Social isolation is also a massive issue these days,” adds Jansa. “More than a third of people living in the EU live alone and this has been shown to be very unhealthy for your mental wellness, which has a direct impact on your physical health. So, our ‘Alexa of Care’ also puts people in contact with others in their community who may be facing similar challenges. We are only the transporter of information, the enabler – so we do things like assist municipalities in sending events and other information to people through our system to alleviate their loneliness. We are also integrating a shop where people can buy care-related items easily. All of this means we help people live at home longer and more independently with a higher quality of life.”
Ilogs is trying to do this with as few devices as possible, which means integrating different monitoring devices such as an oximeter, blood glucose monitoring, blood pressure monitoring into one device, something that will be very helpful for elderly people who have multiple challenges. Ilogs also has a wearable, which can also do a lot more than just step counting and of course, safety is of course job number one when talking about connected care.
“Our wearable has a Tele2 IoT SIM card in it and it is key to our offering because safety is really the most important thing,” adds Jansa. “Falling, getting lost outside – these are all serious safety issues and can really impact a person’s health. We have another device that looks like a watch. Caregivers and family can locate it at any time and call it, while the person wearing it can use it to call for help at any time. We have a lot of care organisations integrated, such as the German Red Cross, as well as Axa Health – its call centre can call for an ambulance or other help when needed.”
A second Tele2 SIM is in the Alexa of Care tablet, which gives the reliable connectivity Ilogs needs and also allows the Alexa of Care and the devices to ‘speak’ to one another.
Patient confidentiality
When it comes to connected care, ensuring that patient confidentiality and privacy is not compromised is vital. Ilogs encrypts most data, including video calls, uploaded documents, and chats between patients and their caregivers.
“What isn’t encrypted is positioning,” says Jansa. “This is because we need to be able to send positioning information to healthcare workers or when calling for an ambulance – you need to act quickly in an emergency situation so some information needs to be readily available, such as location – but even there we do two-factor authentication. On the customer side, some of the care homes don’t even use smartphones, so it’s up to them how they handle this – but from our side we encrypt and authenticate and ensure everything is secure.”
Tele2 IoT and SIM management
Ilogs’ main markets are Austria, Germany, Poland and the UK. It has also started in Spain with a partner, and the company is present in Belgium, the Netherlands, the US and Australia. That means a lot of SIMS deployed in a lot of different countries and regions. Ilogs uses 2CONTROL, the Cisco IoT Control Center, to manage its SIMs with its own system completely integrated with 2CONTROL.
“We do carry out checks on our deployments, of course, but the nice thing is that I don’t need to ask the SIM cards how it’s doing because the wearable is talking to me all the time,” explains Jansa. “If the wearable stops talking to me, then the system checks why, and we can troubleshoot with 2CONTROL – is it the battery? Is it the SIM? Is it the connectivity? Was the watch turned off? Is it broken? It could be any number of things and we are able to check on that, alerting the customer to check the watch or whatever the solution will turn out to be.”
Why did Ilogs choose Tele2 IoT? There are several simple but important answers to that question. “After I talked to ten different vendors promising that SIM cards were non-steered, Tele2 IoT was the only one who delivered on that promise,” says Jansa. “I’ve worked with different vendors in different countries and while some deliver on non-steered, the price has been crazy. Tele2 IoT, on the other hand, is very attractive price-wise.”
“Tele2 IoT is super-fast in answering service requests and very pro-active,” he adds. “The onboarding process is clear and smooth, which has been great because in the past we’ve had to ask what is going on or what is the next step, but with Tele2 IoT it was the opposite – it was coming to us with the information before we even asked for it and it’s the only company doing this. Customer care is important to me because it is part of my responsibilities, so seeing how Tele2 IoT does things has really impressed me.”
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