Companion robot to support primary care providers

Primary care providers encounter two major challenges in engaging older adult patients that ElliQ aspires to address. The first is lack of visibility on the accurate state of their patient in between touchpoints. Leading primary care providers have ~1 touchpoint a month with each patient, but most have less than ~1 touchpoint a year, meaning that the day-to-day changes in older adults' clinical conditions are largely unknown. The second challenge is consistent and timely communication and engagement with patients. The combination of early detection when changes in clinical conditions occur, along with effective communication that strengthen the doctor-patient relationship, can increase the quality of care and help reduce avoidable emergency department visits and hospitalizations.

ElliQ is the first-ever empathetic digital companion robot designed to help curb loneliness and social isolation among older adults. It is a proactive goal-based system that was developed with years of research and user studies combining psychology, behavioral sciences, and advanced cognitive AI capabilities. The companion robot has spent over 30,000 days in older adults' homes over the past two years, and on average each older adult completed ~150 successful goal-oriented interactions with ElliQ per month. It engages older adults, connects to family, promotes wellness and helps older adults stay sharp.

The company's extensive experience demonstrated that older adults form meaningful bonds with ElliQ, treating it as less of a technological device, and more like a friendly roommate who provides a source of comfort and companionship. ElliQ projects empathy to deliver engagement, trust, and collaboration between the agent and the older adult, while offering unprecedented levels of engagement that affect behavior change.

COVID-19 not only increased the isolation and loneliness of many seniors, it also heightened the recognition of the importance of bringing healthcare into the older adult's home.

Now, with new capabilities designed for healthcare, ElliQ is in a unique position to help providers improve quality of care by creating a direct channel of communication between providers and patients. ElliQ proactively engages the patient in conversations and activities throughout the day, collects self-reported data, and, with the patient's consent, shares data with the primary care team. Primary care providers can adjust the type and frequency of self-reported data that ElliQ collects on a per patient basis, as well as communicate with patients seamlessly through the robot. These capabilities allow patients to ask their doctors questions, assume greater control of their condition and treatment, enjoy peace of mind, and receive higher quality of care. Ultimately, by increasing communication and engagement within the home, it helps strengthen the relationship between doctors and patients.

"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," said Dor Skuler, CEO and Co-Founder of Intuition Robotics. "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."

"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."