Amada Senior Care is a trusted industry leader known for caregiving and long-term care advocacy. Amada understands better than most that while caring for loved ones can be rewarding, it can also be stressful, time-consuming, and emotionally exhausting. Healthcare professionals and families look to Amada, as a pillar in the caregiving community, for help navigating the complexities that come with the senior care system.

Since the Amada team is devoted to innovating the caregiving space, we knew there was a way for them to experience the brand beliefs in an innovative form.

Nearly 1 in 5 (17%) adults age 65 and older are caring for an aging adult, and among this group, 29% are providing care for a spouse or partner, while 33% are providing care for a friend or neighbor.

These caregivers are often so busy caring for others that they neglect their own emotional and physical health. The demands on a caregiver's body, mind, and emotions can easily seem overwhelming, leading to fatigue, hopelessness, burnout, or worse. Current solutions, including tips and tricks to help elevate the importance of self-care for a caregiver, often fall on deaf ears as the caregiver continues to prioritize their loved one over themselves. So, how do you help an aging caregiver community when they aren’t willing to help themselves?

With the help of BizSys, an engineering and design firm based in Brazil, we developed WheelCare, the first wheelchair handle that doubles as an ECG monitor. Designed specifically for caregivers over the age of 65, WheelCare can adapt to any wheelchair their loved one uses, helping keep those in charge of others’ lives in control of their own.

The handle of the device was designed to track the user's heart rate throughout the day. The average healthy heart rate for someone over 65 should not exceed 155 bpm. Should the caregiver's heart rate exceed that marker, the bpm would be displayed on the screen and the user would be recommended to stop, pause, and perform some simple breathing exercises.

We started building the first prototype in the beginning of February and the first 5 beta products started to be implemented at Amada Senior Care by beginning of March.

An ECG scan is used to analyze the heart's rhythm and detect irregularities and other cardiac issues that might lead to serious health problems; however, traditional ECG recorders require intrusive skin preparation, professional fitting in the doctor’s office plus the use of wires or patches, and are overall not easy or comfortable to wear long term.

Developing technological solutions for caregivers to improve their health and outcomes is needed, but with an older generation as your audience, designing a solution that appropriately fits their needs is critical. For caregivers often spending many hours a day conducting the physically demanding task of pushing their loved one around in a wheelchair, we felt that the wheelchair was the perfect place to introduce our device.

The initial response for our WheelCare invention has been positive. As caregivers experience having control of their own health, it reinforces their commitment to keep going for those they're caring for while respecting their own limitations. Our hopes is with further investments we can reach a wider audience, making wheelcare available at a low cost for any caregiver in America. 5 units are currently being used at the facility with plans to expand to 55 until de end of the 3rd quarter.