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XThe Companies Gearing Up to Help Boomers Avoid Nursing Homes
Keerthi Vedantam is a bioscience reporter at dot.LA. She cut her teeth covering everything from cloud computing to 5G in San Francisco and Seattle. Before she covered tech, Keerthi reported on tribal lands and congressional policy in Washington, D.C. Connect with her on Twitter, Clubhouse (@keerthivedantam) or Signal at 408-470-0776.

In the 1980s, emergency response company Life Alert released a commercial showing older people falling down in slippery bathtubs, pulling out the pendant-shaped device and shouting, "Help! I've fallen and I can't get up!"
Personal emergency response system (PERS) companies like Life Alert have long billed themselves as a solution for the 75% of adults 50 and over who want to live in their houses as long as possible, avoiding retirement homes or expensive live-in care facilities. Given that, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, three million people aged 65 and older are treated in ER rooms each year for fall injuries, there's certainly a need for services aimed at older folks.
But the Life Alert-style response technology has fallen out of favor with the population it serves.
"They don't want to wear those things, especially the one that you wear around your neck," said USC gerontology professor Elizabeth Zelinski. "The message, if you're going to be wearing one of those things, is you can't take care of yourself. You're dependent. Americans hate that."
Now, as the Baby Boomer generation grows older (the oldest among them is now age 74), one thing is increasingly clear to health care experts: Thanks to advancements in medical technology, this generation is generally expected to live longer than their predecessors, and will require more health care resources for a longer period of time.
The answer to the elderly care dilemma might lie in the remote patient-monitoring industry, a budding sector that uses sensor technology to track a patient's heart rate, movement and other biometrics to offer a trove of sophisticated data. That information can allow older people, who may be prone to falling or forgetting things, to stay at home while being monitored.
"How to manage them well before they get sick, is really critical in terms of providing them the best care possible," said UCLA professor of medicine Arash Naeim, "ensuring that they have the best quality of life, but also in terms of managing the limited resources that are available from a national perspective."
Current Technology Doesn't Meet Boomers' Demands
A slew of studies have found that PERS technology, while a good emergency resource, weren't always effective. One found 80% of PERS users didn't utilize it, despite being on the floor for an hour. Some said they don't wear theirs. Others said they thought they could get up on their own. Still, a few said they did not want to be a burden by activating the device. For PERS technology to work, it has to be embraced by the end user, which isn't always the case.
"You basically want patients to do nothing," said Ramin Ramenazi, a health analytics expert at UCLA. "These technologies, the ones that are successful, are the ones that are more and more passive."
And there is more of a need for new technology as boomers get older. Some aren't falling quite yet, but still need to be monitored for stroke risks, or signs of Alzheimer's or dementia. Solutions on the market—say, at-home caregivers, nursing homes, or PERS devices—are too extreme to meet those demands, according to Zelinski.
"How do you keep people safe?" she said. "Do you have to be so heavy-handed about it?"
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The New Wave of Sensor Technology Could Change the Game for Seniors
While new sensor companies have long been working on ways to track the elderly, a fast-growing movement in remote patient monitoring that emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the technology's growth. In March 2020, the FDA relaxed some rules so clinical workers could monitor patients remotely and free up hospital space for those with more severe ailments and injuries. The technology was quickly embraced by health care institutions and clinical trial companies who needed to test a drug's effect on patients without forcing them to travel during the pandemic; in turn, a slew of companies have emerged targeting the elder and disabled population. Now, investments in the space have reached more than $3 billion, according to Pitchbook.
"I would say, five or six years ago, not so many companies were working on this. Maybe there were few," said Ramenazi. "Nowadays big stakeholders are playing in the field."
Current Health, a United Kingdom-based startup, offers a sleek wearable sensor that monitors lung health, body temperature, pulse rate and step count. The company's algorithms create a baseline model of the user's body, and then can track outliers in their behavior to better predict when in-person intervention is needed before an emergency occurs.
Another, Israel-based Vitalerter, uses wearable sensors to collect data on user movements and other vitals. It claims to be able to predict a fall one minute before it happens by using data like how easily the user got up, and when they are moving (if they got up in the middle of the night when they normally don't, they are more likely to fall). It also tracks irregular heartbeats to determine if someone is at risk of cardiac arrest.
Despite the apparent need for sensor technology, Ramenazi said, "We are still far from having a robust unified platform for monitoring the geriatrc population."
Already, there's been some progress on this front. The Oregon Center for Aging and Technology, housed inside the Oregon Health and Science University in Portland, has outfitted hundreds of elderly patients' homes with sensors. They place sensors in the home that don't have to be worn, programmed or connected to a patient's smartphone or tablet, but that track a variety of physical metrics to find behavioral patterns that can alert health care professionals to problems a patient might not even know about regarding their own health.
"The key is not the technology, because the technology gets improved over time pretty fast," Ramenazi said. "The key is to penetrate the market, have more patients in your pocket so that you can collect more information on them to build your predictive algorithms."
Lead image by Ian Hurley.
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Keerthi Vedantam is a bioscience reporter at dot.LA. She cut her teeth covering everything from cloud computing to 5G in San Francisco and Seattle. Before she covered tech, Keerthi reported on tribal lands and congressional policy in Washington, D.C. Connect with her on Twitter, Clubhouse (@keerthivedantam) or Signal at 408-470-0776.
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TikTok’s Latest Ad Strategy: Let Brands Crowdsource Creators
Kristin Snyder is an editorial intern for dot.la. She previously interned with Tiger Oak Media and led the arts section for UCLA's Daily Bruin.
TikTok’s newest advertising program will allow brands to crowdsource content from creators.
Branded Mission, which the Culver City-based video-sharing app announced Wednesday, is currently being beta-tested. The program lets brands release briefs containing specific creative directions—such as incorporating a specific hashtag, visual effect or audio—with the goal of procuring videos that will become promoted ads. Creators with at least 1,000 followers will be compensated with cash payments if the content performs well.
Creators participating in the “authentic branded content” program, as TikTok described it, can choose which brand initiatives they wish to participate in—with each Branded Mission “page” highlighting details like how much money a creator could potentially receive for participating. TikTok told Business Insider that it’s testing various payment models, including a first-come, first-serve model as well as “boosted traffic” compensation.
“Creators are at the center of creativity, culture and entertainment on TikTok,” the social media firm said in a statement. “With Branded Mission, we're excited to bring even more creators into the branded content ecosystem and explore ways to reward emerging and established creators.”
TikTok’s previous advertising strategies have relied on creators with large followings, with the recently announced TikTok Pulse targeting users with at least 100,000 followers. Branded Mission, on the other hand, gives creators with smaller platforms a chance to make more revenue beyond programs like TikTok’s Creator Fund.
Kristin Snyder is an editorial intern for dot.la. She previously interned with Tiger Oak Media and led the arts section for UCLA's Daily Bruin.
Greater Good Health Raises $10M To Fix America’s Doctor Shortage
Keerthi Vedantam is a bioscience reporter at dot.LA. She cut her teeth covering everything from cloud computing to 5G in San Francisco and Seattle. Before she covered tech, Keerthi reported on tribal lands and congressional policy in Washington, D.C. Connect with her on Twitter, Clubhouse (@keerthivedantam) or Signal at 408-470-0776.
The pandemic highlighted what’s been a growing trend for years: Medical students are prioritizing high-paying specialty fields over primary care, leading to a shortage of primary care doctors who take care of a patient’s day-to-day health concerns. These physicians are a cornerstone of preventative health care, which when addressed can lower health care costs for patients, insurers and the government. But there’s a massive shortage of doctors all over the country, and the pipeline for primary care physicians is even weaker.
One local startup is offering a possible answer to this supply squeeze: nurse practitioners.
On Wednesday, Manhattan Beach-based Greater Good Health unveiled $10 million in new funding led by LRVHealth, adding to $3 million in seed funding raised by the startup last year. The company employs nurse practitioners and pairs them with doctor’s offices and medical clinics; this allows nurse practitioners to take on patients who would otherwise have to wait weeks, or even months, to see a doctor.
“This access and equity issue is just going to become more pervasive if we don't do things to help people gain more access,” Greater Good founder and CEO Sylvia Hastanan told dot.LA. “We need more providers to offer more patients appointments and access to their time to take care of their needs. And in order to do that, we really need to think about the workforce.”
There has been a growing movement in the medical industry to use nurse practitioners in place of increasingly scarce primary care physicians. California passed a law in 2020 that will widen the scope of nurse practitioners and allow them to operate without a supervising physician by 2023. Amid a shortage of doctors, there’s also the question of what will become of the largest and longest-living elderly population in recent history, Baby Boomers. Public health officials are already scrambling for ways to take care of this aging demographic’s myriad health needs while also addressing the general population.
“By the time you and I get old enough where we need primary care providers to help us with our ailments and chronic conditions, there aren't [going to be] enough of them,” Hastanan said. “And/or there just isn't going to be enough support for those nurse practitioners to really thrive in that way. And I worry about what our system will look like.”
Nurse practitioners function much like doctors do—they can monitor vitals, diagnose patients, and, in some cases, prescribe medication (though usually under the supervision of a doctor). Nurse practitioners need to get either a master’s degree or higher in nursing and complete thousands of hours of work in a clinical setting. All told, it usually takes six-to-eight years to become a nurse practitioner, compared to 10-to-15 years to become a practicing physician.
Greater Good Health’s platform puts nurse practitioners in often years-long care settings where they manage patients—most of whom are chronically ill, high-risk patients that need to be seen regularly and thoroughly. This allows them to follow up more carefully on patients they have managed for years, instead of catching up on a new patient’s history and treating them in the moment. Patients, meanwhile, don’t have to see a rotating door of clinicians and can talk to a provider they already have an established rapport with.
The one-year-old startup will use the funding to provide learning and development opportunities for its nurse practitioners and also connect them with each other through virtual support groups. Burnout has been an issue across health care during the pandemic, spurring an exodus of nursing and support staff and leaving health care facilities woefully understaffed. Greater Good hopes that keeping nurse practitioners in more stable, years-long care situations and offering them career development opportunities will help retain them and keep them in the workforce longer.
“We want them to be well-rounded and balanced both in work and life, and we see that returns us healthier, more engaged and ready nurse practitioners,” Hastanan said.
Keerthi Vedantam is a bioscience reporter at dot.LA. She cut her teeth covering everything from cloud computing to 5G in San Francisco and Seattle. Before she covered tech, Keerthi reported on tribal lands and congressional policy in Washington, D.C. Connect with her on Twitter, Clubhouse (@keerthivedantam) or Signal at 408-470-0776.
Plus Capital Partner Amanda Groves on Celebrity Equity Investments
On this episode of the L.A. Venture podcast, Amanda Groves talks about how PLUS Capital advises celebrity investors and why more high-profile individuals are choosing to invest instead of endorse.
As a partner at PLUS, Groves works with over 70 artists and athletes, helping to guide their investment strategies. PLUS advises their talent roster to combine their financial capital with their social capital and focus on five investment areas: the future of work, future of education, health and wellness, the conscious consumer and sustainability.
“The idea is if we can leverage these people who have incredible audiences—and influence over that audience—in the world of venture capital, you'd be able to help make those businesses move forward faster,” Groves said.
PLUS works to create celebrity partnerships by identifying each client’s passions and finding companies that align with them, Groves said. From there, the venture firm can reach out to prospective partners from its many contacts and can help evaluate businesses that approach its clients. Recently, PLUS paired actress Nina Dobrev with the candy company SmartSweets after she had told them about her love for its snacks.
Celebrity entrepreneurship has shifted quite a bit in recent years, Groves said. While celebrities are paid for endorsements, Groves said investing allows them to gain equity from the growth of companies that benefit from their work.
“Like in movies, for example, where they're earning a residual along the way, they thought, ‘You know, if we're going to partner with these brands and create a tremendous amount of enterprise value, we should be able to capture some of the upside that we're generating, too’,” she said.
Partnering in this way also allows her clients to work with a wider range of brands, including small brands that often can’t afford to spend millions on endorsements. Investing allows high-profile individuals to represent brands they care about, Groves said.
“The last piece of the puzzle was a drive towards authenticity,” Groves said. “A lot of these high-profile artists and athletes are not interested, once they've achieved some sort of level of success, in partnering with brands that they don't personally align with.”
Hear the full episode by clicking on the playhead above, and listen to LA Venture on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
dot.LA Editorial Intern Kristin Snyder contributed to this post.