They don’t know his name—or, in
the case of those who have dementia,
such as Jim—that he even exists. It’s
his job to be invisible.
Rochin is one of a dozen Care.coach
employees in Latin America and the
Philippines. Like all the company’s
workers, Rochin keeps meticulous
notes on the people he watches over
so he can coordinate their care with
family members and other workers.
Arlyn started checking Pony’s log and
watching her dad interact with Pony.
Any reservations Arlyn had had about
outsourcing her father’s companion-
ship vanished. Pony eased her anxiety
about leaving Jim alone, and the virtual
dog’s small talk lightened the mood.V
ictor Wang, care.coach’s
CEO, was studying human-
machine interaction at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
when his grandmother in Taiwan was
diagnosed with Lewy body dementia,
a disease that affects memory and
movement. On Skype calls, Wang
watched her grow increasingly debili-
tated. After one such call, a thought
struck him: Could he tap remote labor
to comfort her and others like her?In 2012, he launched Care.coach
with a fellow MIT student. The compa-
ny’s tablets are now used by hospitals
and health plans across the country. In
a study conducted by Pace University,
Care.coach’s avatars were found to
reduce subjects’ loneliness, delirium,
and falls. A health provider in Massa-
chusetts was able to replace a man’s
11 weekly in-home nurse visits with a
Care.coach tablet. (The man said the
pet’s nagging was like having his wife
back in the house—in a good way.)
Some critics, such as Sherry Turkle,
PhD, a professor of social studies, sci-
ence, and technology at MIT, view
roboticized eldercare as a cop-out.
“This kind of app is making us forget
what we really know about what makes
older people feel sustained,” she says—
caring interpersonal relationships.
For many families, though, provid-
ing long-term, in-person care is sim-
ply unsustainable. Between 2010 and
2030, the population of those older
than 80 is projected to rise 79 percent,
but the number of family caregivers
available is expected to increase
just 1 percent. Among eldercare ex-
perts, there’s a resignation that the
demographics of an aging America“I LOVE YOU, JIM!” PONY
TOLD HIM. JIM TURNED TO
ARLYN AND GLOATED,
“SHE THINKS I’M REAL GOOD!”Reader’s Digest Health & Medicine
92 dec 2018 ✦ jan 2019 | rd.com