November 18, 2024 • 32 mins
In this episode, Avanlee Christine, founder of Avanlee Care, shares the inspiring story behind her mission to support unpaid and informal family caregivers. Motivated by personal experience caring for her grandfather, Avanlee developed a groundbreaking app that empowers family members providing care to loved ones with the tools they need to ensure quality care delivery at home while also providing resources to support the wellbeing of the caregivers themselves.
Avanlee highlights the critical role of technology in supporting the often-overlooked unpaid caregivers, who are essential to caring for seniors at home, and discusses how innovations like medication management and health monitoring are reshaping senior care. She also reveals how partnerships with tech leaders like Fitbit and her collaboration with Mark Cuban are driving down costs, enhancing care, and connecting family caregivers to broader healthcare systems, plus she discusses her pilot program with Walmart that is helping family caregivers navigate daily tasks, like ordering groceries, with ease.
If you liked this episode and want to learn more about all things home-based care, you can explore all our episodes at alayacare.com/homehealth360.
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Episode Transcript
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Avanlee Christine (00:00):
If we really want to be able to care for this
aging population when we don'thave enough healthcare workers
that are available to care forthem, you have to then have a
direct line into the unpaidcaregiver and then you have to
be able as an organization to, Ithink, support them, because if
, like I said, if the caregiversare supported, those receiving
(00:22):
care will live longer, safer,healthier lives at home.
And so that's what I would liketo see happen and I think this
is a unique and greatopportunity for home care is to
basically monitor theseemergency alerts with the family
caregivers, engaging them inand then creating resources and
(00:42):
training modules.
We were speaking to thiscompany where they want to
integrate all their trainingmodules in to Avanlee Care, so
you're training up the unpaidcaregivers to almost be like the
paid caregivers when you can'tbe there in the home.
Erin Vallier (01:10):
Welcome to another episode of the Home Health 360
podcast, where we speak tohome-based care professionals
from around the globe.
I'm your host, rin Valliere,and today I am joined by Avanlee
Christine, founder of AvanleeCare.
Avanlee brings a unique blendof personal and professional
experience to providing care toseniors and others in need.
She has dedicated her career tobuilding solutions that improve
(01:31):
the lives of family, caregiversand aging seniors, and Avanlee
has attracted prominent earlystage investors, such as Esther
Dyson, a notable tech investorwho now serves as chair of
Avanlee Care Incorporated.
Avanlee experienced firsthandjust how tech solutions were
(01:52):
falling short and designedAvanlee Care app to pioneer an
all-in-one resource to fill thegap in remote care, one that
supports both the caregiver andthe care recipient.
She has written on topicsrelated to technology,
innovation and caregiving forpublications such as Fortune
Magazine and has been awardedInc's Best in Business Award in
2022 and was recently named toInc's 2024 Female Founders 250.
(02:18):
Congratulations and welcome tothe show, Avanlee.
Thank you, it's good to be here.
I'm excited to talk to youtoday.
Now it sounds like there mightbe a really good story why you
decided to create this app.
Can you share a little bitabout Avanlee Care and the
inspiration behind its creation?
Avanlee Christine (02:39):
I can do that .
So the inspiration to do thebusiness and to build a product
came from personal experiencewhich I think most people can
relate to.
I was 10 years old in 2000, andI watched my mom and my aunts
all get on the bandwagon ofhaving to care for my
(03:00):
grandfather, who had Lewy bodies, care for my grandfather who
had Lewy bodies, dementia andParkinson's, and for about eight
years my grandparents had tolive at one point with every
single one of us of their adultchildren, and we all cared for
my grandpa.
My mother and aunts were theprimary caregivers.
I was the little kid watchingthis happen, and this was before
(03:22):
Steve Jobs gave us the iPhoneand iPad, so really before any
technology, maybe life alert andI remember when he passed in
2008,.
I was 18 years old.
I just remember how challengingit was for my parents, the
emotional burden, the financialimpact it had on their personal
(03:43):
savings, having to go eventuallyinto full memory care for years
, and how expensive that was.
So at a very young age I got acrash course into the healthcare
system without really knowingthat would inspire what I would
do in my professional life andin terms of starting a business.
(04:03):
I used to work for a reallygreat CEO His name's Craig
Mandeville at Forkura.
He gave me one of my first jobs.
I don't know how great I was atthe job, but I learned a lot
from Craig and how to reallyfocus on product development and
build solutions for the kind ofpost-acute market.
(04:24):
And when I was living in NewYork City in my early 20s I was
again faced getting the callfrom my mom hey, grandma's gonna
start to need more care.
And I was in New York, theywere in Montana and I just
thought if Life Alert is reallystill the only option and it's
been almost 20 years since 2000.
(04:46):
Somebody needs to come tomarket with an all-in-one,
comprehensive solution thatwould bridge the gap between
paid caregivers.
So, whether that be through theplan, the home care agencies
and the unpaid caregiver totruly keep a senior safe,
healthy and happy at home.
(05:07):
And that's when I started to doa lot of research on the
fractured communication by notengaging the family members into
the plan of care.
So that's where Avanlee Care wasbirthed from.
I would say it was lifeexperience, almost over 20 years
, that when I got into the techworld and I got into and just my
(05:30):
love for my grandparents and mylove for seniors and those
living with a disability.
I thought, gosh, we're sendingpeople to orbit and we can see
what celebrities are eating forlunch on Instagram.
But we can't all collectively,as a family, have a robust
platform and it has to betechnology to care for an
(05:52):
individual at home.
So it's like, oh, I'll just gobuild that.
Erin Vallier (05:56):
Necessity is the mother of invention right.
Avanlee Christine (06:00):
Yeah, so here we are.
Erin Vallier (06:02):
And it does help when you have a passion about it
and it shines through when youtalk about your product.
Can you share with thelisteners just why you feel so
strongly that the applicationyou've developed is needed to
facilitate care?
Avanlee Christine (06:16):
Yeah.
So I was listening to a womanSusan, I'm drawing a blank on
her last name she wrote StageNot Age, and this was at a
pivotal Magnify Ventureconference just earlier last
year, and she said that peoplebeing born after 2000 will live
well into their hundreds.
And we don't, as most peoplewho are listening to this
(06:39):
podcast.
We don't have enough peoplebeing essentially born to take
care of our aging population.
We don't have enough peoplegoing into the healthcare system
to care for seniors.
Third, an interesting thingthat is happening in Montana.
I split my time between New Yorkand Montana, two complete
opposite ends of healthcare andhow healthcare is delivered.
(07:03):
But in Montana, on the high line, what's happening is nursing
homes are shutting down becausethey can't find people to work
in them, and so what's happeningto adult children and families
is you have these adult childrenwho live in the towns, like
Missoula and Bozeman andBillings, more towards the
bottom of the state, and theydon't know what to do with their
(07:23):
parents, and so I've watchedthis kind of play out over the
last 10 years.
How do you use technology, evenimplement AIs, to keep a senior
at home living longer andhealthier, but trying to get a
(07:43):
group of people, a generation ofpeople who never grew up with
technology, and how you get themto really adopt that and use
that is by engaging the family,the adult child.
I was speaking with a woman,she's a physician, she's on a
book tour right now at MemorialSloan Kettering and she said
something very interesting thatwhen a patient comes in, they
(08:06):
also add in the family caregiver.
They identify at that momentwho the primary family caregiver
is and the primary caregiver isinterwoven into the system,
interwoven into the care, and Ithought that was just fantastic.
I was like imagine a healthcaresystem where I'm going in with
mom and there's an EMR here,there's a login for this, but I
(08:30):
can't get access to just who'sgoing into her home two days a
month when she's receiving homecare.
That's what's happening.
But that's what I'm hoping tochange is by bridging this gap
between the unpaid and the paidcaregivers.
Erin Vallier (08:45):
It's an interesting shift that you're
highlighting there, that thefacilities the assisted living
facilities, skilled nursingfacilities are closing down.
It's going to highlight theneed for this hospital at home
model, or more care provided inthe home, and if we don't have
enough people going into thehealthcare industry to care for
people, then we really do needto be able to step up and care
(09:06):
for our own loved ones and do soin a way that is not completely
intrusive into our own livesand it causes a lot of burnout.
So I'm really excited for yourproduct and we've probably
paving the way for others tocopy you, which is a really good
compliment.
What specific challenges withinthe home care industry for
unpaid care workers does AvanleeCare aim to address?
Avanlee Christine (09:28):
So for the unpaid worker, so the family,
the adult child.
Let's start there.
We launched our first product,our real first product, not just
what we coded and piecedtogether, but a real product
after we raised some capital in2022.
What we learned very quicklywas we went right into the
consumer market because wewanted to get a substantial
(09:49):
group of families using this.
We got about 13,000 familiesthat had downloaded the app and
we averaged about two to threeadult children per senior with
the app which is actually prettygood coming right into the
market.
We also hit the market right.
The timing was really good.
It was in COVID when we startedto raise capital for the
company.
But one thing that we learnedon the customer support front
(10:12):
was there was a number of adultchildren calling in and saying I
have been thrown into this andI have no idea what I'm supposed
to do.
Can you please tell me where Ishould go for legal, where we
should go for financial, wherewe should go for financial,
where we should go for estateplanning, the caregiver basics,
what are activities of dailyliving.
And what we learned veryquickly was we heard over the
(10:37):
phone caregiver burnout, thestress.
We also understood that there'snot great resources for
caregivers, and so our firstproduct as a whole was a true
application that families woulduse to monitor biometrics or
integrate it in with Fitbit,apple Watch and HealthKit
monitor mom or dad's mood.
(10:59):
Number one was medicationadherence and management.
And then fourth to that was weare one of the first companies
to ever fully integrate withWalmart and we launched Walmart
shopping, grocery, OTC, anythingyou'd see around a pharmacy in
our app, and so we became thisone-stop shop, all things of hey
(11:21):
Erin, you and I are sisters,you're at work, you get mom
groceries through the app thatwould get mom groceries through
the app that would get deliveredto her by Walmart.
It's available in our app inall 50 states.
I see she took her meds.
She's saying she's feelingpretty down.
We could do the real okay,mom's okay, let's get her what
she needs.
Let's check up on her health,see her vitals.
(11:41):
But the second piece of that,which is what inspired our
second product launch as we wentB2B, was how do you support the
unpaid caregiver?
Because if the caregivers godown, the one receiving care
also fails.
And so we actually launched acaregiver strain index in our
(12:01):
app, in our app, and it's a13-question self-assessment
where us, as a tech company anda data company, we get to
understand and learn on a weeklybasis what are the strains and
the stresses of caregiving.
For example, maybe we learnedthat Erin is a single mom.
She's two states away from heraging mother.
She literally cannotfinancially afford to take time
(12:24):
off to care for her.
So here are the real resourcesshe's going to need Maybe an
introduction into a home careagency, maybe support around
better benefits with heremployer to be able to go care
for her aging mother.
So that from the preventingburnout, creating resources,
what we're also seeing too andthis might be a new line of
(12:45):
business, but my investors andmy board just yesterday told me
I have to stay focused for thenext nine months.
Try hard.
I know this new line ofbusiness is I'm seeing an
opportunity through our companyfor almost a boutique services
of how to support caregivers andbringing them into a community,
(13:05):
of how to support caregiversand bringing them into a
community.
I spoke to Ann Tomlinson.
She's the CEO of ATI Advisory.
She founded Daughterhood.
It's almost kind of like thatbecause so many of us will be
thrown into this position andit's pretty remarkable how
little people know I am now afamily caregiver.
What do I do?
What does that mean?
Erin Vallier (13:28):
caregiver.
What do I do?
What does that mean?
That's fantastic, I think, tohave an app that can pretty much
tell me what I need to do.
It's an entryway to help peoplebe successful in that
caregiving role, and that'ssuper important.
Do you have any statistics ordata that you could share
regarding how Heavenly Carecontributes to keeping
individuals in their homes forlonger or avoiding burnout, as
you were just describing to us?
Avanlee Christine (13:50):
Essentially people using our product.
They are staying on it andthey're using it daily with
their families.
That was one of the biggestconcerns in going into building
an app or any technology forseniors is are they going to use
it?
We in the early days had tospend a lot of time with
families.
Okay, if this feature wasn'tworking, we got rid of it.
(14:12):
If a barrier to entry and thisis one thing I would tell anyone
starting a technology companyreally need to understand
product development If thebarrier of entry was the signup
process was too long, seniorwouldn't go through it, we got
rid of it and we just said okay,start using the product with
your family.
We put the signup process andthe registering of the account
on the adult child and so whenwe launched our first product
(14:35):
into the market, we saw somereally interesting stats that
kind of surprised me.
Amongst the most active dailyusers, which was about 5,000
individuals, the most usedfeature was medication adherence
and management Delivered over125,000 medication adherence
reminders to a senior, to theiradult children.
(14:55):
So basically it said mom wasputting in her medication
reminders, updating her med list, or the adult child was.
That was interesting to usbecause we got an introduction
into Mark Cuban.
And Mark Cuban was reallyinterested because he just spoke
at the White House on this.
He is trying really hard toensure lower costs of care for
(15:19):
older adults but ensure thatAmerican consumers get access to
cheaper medications.
And in our business, when youare in the world of dealing with
family caregivers and then justthe astronomical costs of care
as you age, having the abilityto lower the out-of-pocket
expense for caregivers was ano-brainer for us.
(15:40):
So we actually took that data.
We approached him.
We said this is what we'reseeing.
We're a relatively new companybut we're getting some great
data.
And we approached him we saidthis is what we're seeing.
We're a relatively new companybut we're getting some great
data and we have a very activeuser base.
We would like to go in, bringour second product into the kind
of health plan home care agencyspace, because essentially what
we're learning is, yes, whilethe caregivers are there helping
(16:04):
or nearby, we are learning thathome care is needed and we
could be recommending some ofthese seniors living at home to
start receiving home care.
But also by lowering theout-of-pocket costs and expenses
, it's a win for everyone.
And so we integrated Cost PlusDrugs into our app, plus drugs,
(16:28):
into our app.
Second to that, we had almost86,000 hours of logged health
information between the seniorusing Care Receiver and the
caregivers the adult children.
So what that told us was theapp is being used on a daily
basis.
Information around vitalsdoctor's appointments,
medication and mood were beingcommunicated on.
We were also able to trackessentially, how is a senior
doing every day?
Are they feeling sad?
(16:48):
Are they depressed?
Being able to notify the adultchild mom has said she is sad
every day for five daysSomething might happen, running
like predictive analytics andthen taking that data using AI
to alert families on things youcan do with them.
Ai to alert families on thingsyou can do with them.
So A, b and C doesn't happen.
(17:15):
And I think the last point I'llmake on that, which was really
probably the most powerful datapoint we gathered, was we
integrated in with Fitbit and itwas really funny because I
reached out to the, I think,chief growth officer of Fitbit
when we were very young.
I hadn't raised any capital.
I think my mom and grandma werethe only one using the app and
I just wrote to him.
I said one day I hope that thisis a household brand or name or
(17:38):
solution for families in thiscountry who have an aging parent
.
And I said so, if 54 millionpeople are going to be using
this, one day, we have to beintegrated into Fitbit.
And he wrote back and he waslike, how many people?
When we were a staff, I saidless than a hundred, but we're
growing and we have everyintention.
This was like way back in 2019.
And so Good for you.
(17:59):
Just put it out there.
You really have to when youstart a company.
And he said okay, we'llintegrate Fitbit in.
And what we learned five yearslater One of the most important
things because I remember thiswith my grandpa was being able
to see his vitals my aunt inBoise being able to see vitals,
my mom in Billings, montana,being able to see vitals
(18:20):
regardless of where grandma was.
And we've sent 15,000notifications to adult children
that their parents' vitals wentout of an expected range, which
means they called, they wentover and did something.
And that was the key piece tothis information.
If we're this 24-7 digitalwindow into the home, this
(18:41):
information should be availableto the home care provider and it
should be available to thehealth plans.
It's that missing piece ofgetting the paid and the unpaid
all together on the same page.
That will truly keep somebodyhome longer and safer.
Erin Vallier (18:58):
Yeah, this is excellent.
I'm getting excited over heremyself going okay, I'm going to
use this when I need to use this, because it's going to help me
monitor what's going on with myloved one.
It's going to help me getaffordable drugs into the home
and it's going to help me makesure they take them at the right
(19:19):
time, which is a huge deal inhome care.
We all know how important it isto manage the medications
correctly, because that couldcause an easy death in the home
and avoidable comorbidities.
I had.
My experience was with mygrandmother.
One doctor prescribed this, onedoctor prescribed that they
didn't know, they didn'treconcile and, lo and behold,
(19:41):
heart failure.
So it's helping avoid thingslike that and that's really
exciting.
And you mentioned somethingthat leads me to my next
question that we need to havethis technology into the hands
of home care agencies and healthplans.
How can Avonlink here integrateinto the offerings of home care
agencies and what kind ofbenefits do you expect that this
(20:04):
integration is going to bringto both the agency and their
clients?
Avanlee Christine (20:10):
Great question.
So I would just say, first off,the benefit to the agency is
improved communication,coordinate the chaos and support
family caregivers Very highlevel, I think communication
having access as the home careagency to each, if you want to
call patient in the home andtheir family having a direct
(20:30):
line of communication, soeveryone is communicating around
the same person, is reallyimportant.
Being able to, like I said,having that notification hey,
mom was wearing a Fitbit, heartrate went out of an expected
range Home care agency isalerted and so are the unpaid
caregivers.
This is not new.
Most, I think, platforms aretrying to do this schedule
(20:54):
medications, schedule doctor'sappointments but we took it a
step further in getting cheapermedications via our app to those
living at home to truly lowerthe costs of care.
And then, like I said at thebeginning of this call, we're
moving into a world that I trulybelieve that in 10 years I will
(21:17):
probably be on my mother'shealth record in a more
integrated way.
I don't know exactly what thatlooks like quite yet, but with
everything, with the White Housesigning an executive orders, we
have to have a nationalstrategy for the unpaid family
caregiver and if we really wantto be able to care for this
(21:37):
aging population when we don'thave enough healthcare workers
that are available to care forthem.
You have to then have a directline into the unpaid caregiver
and then you have to be able, asan organization, to for them.
You have to then have a directline into the unpaid caregiver
and then you have to be able, asan organization to, I think,
support them, Because if, like Isaid, if the caregivers are
supported, those receiving carewill live longer, safer,
(21:59):
healthier lives at home.
And so that's what I would liketo see happen and I think this
is a unique and greatopportunity for home care is to
basically monitor theseemergency alerts with the family
caregivers, engaging them inand then creating resources and
training modules.
We were speaking to thiscompany, where they want to
(22:20):
integrate all their trainingmodules in to Avanlee Care, so
you're training up the unpaidcaregivers to almost be like the
paid caregivers when you can'tbe there in the home.
That's what I would say.
Erin Vallier (22:31):
Our primary offering to the home care agency
right now is that's awesome,and you mentioned Something as
well you were speaking with acompany that wants to integrate
some training materials, so I'mcurious what other partnerships
or collaborations does AvanleeCare have or you're engaging
with within the home care spaceto further enhance your impact
(22:56):
and your?
Avanlee Christine (22:56):
reach.
We did a pilot with Walmartlast year in Florida and I
learned a lot.
I could write a book about that.
We were in Florida in 10 or 15Walmart super centers and in
South Florida, and what welearned?
It was really interesting.
The majority of people in their40s, 50s and 60s walking in
(23:22):
when they spoke to us.
If we asked them if they were afamily caregiver, they had no
idea what that meant.
And then you'd say, hey, areyou here picking up groceries
for your mom or dad, or do youever do that, pick up their meds
or anything Like.
Oh yeah, all the time.
That's why I'm here right now.
We're like, oh, we actuallyhave an app that you can manage
and coordinate all this in oneapp and Walmart will deliver it
for you.
(23:42):
And we had to bring awarenessto these people of, actually,
you are a family caregiver.
And so what we learned in thatpilot was really interesting One
.
There's a massive opportunityfor groceries, OTC, health and
wellness products.
Mom has diabetes, mom has justhad her hip replaced.
(24:04):
Having these curated shoppinglists that allow you to do this
in one place and not have toleave work, go and do all of
these and take things, take twohours out of your day.
That's a massive time saver the361 billion dollar time gap
between women and men from thetime women have to take off work
(24:27):
, compared to men, to go andcare for an aging parent.
And when we integrated in withWalmart for that one feature, I
really wanted to do that for mymom, because my mom I watched
her leave work for years and notcome home for two, two and a
half hours because she was doingall of these things related to
(24:48):
caregiving and then by the timeshe got home she was exhausted
and it was late and that was oneof the simple solutions.
And then we had to build anintegration with Walmart.
That was not simple, but we didit and I would say, on a tech
roadmap, there are moreintegrations, I think, coming
out in terms of what we wouldlike to do with cost plus drugs.
We have discussed transportationas well.
(25:12):
That's a tricky one.
Just Uber and Lyft and thepolicy that they want the
smaller companies to carry.
I don't know how realistic Uberand Lyft are going to be able
to really make an impact in thismarket, but we'll see how time
goes on.
I am interested more on how wecan partner with larger
(25:34):
organizations.
If it was a larger home careagency, a larger health plan who
has resources that are builtout that are specific to their
patient population, that'sreally interesting to me,
instead of us having to build iton our own.
We are great on the tech front,but if there are organizations
(25:54):
that have resources, they knowthat maybe, like in downtown
Louisville, that population ofpeople could benefit from.
We would be interested more inthose integrations.
And then we just started reallyto do a lot of stuff with
adding an AI button in the app,using AI in the platform around
care care plans, communicating,using AI to communicate amongst
(26:17):
adult children.
So that is interesting to me.
More to come on that.
Erin Vallier (26:21):
I do like the idea of integrating with health
plans, because that'd be a greatbenefit to offer the consumer.
For sure, it sounds like theapp does a ton of things.
Like a ton of things.
Name your top three features,your favorite three features.
Avanlee Christine (26:38):
That's funny.
Well, it's funny because thefirst product did do way too
many things.
Well, it's funny because thefirst product did do way too
many things.
And my co-founder and ourdevelopment team politely sat me
down one day and said you can'tfeature, spam someone to death.
People are not going to use allthese features, and that's
right.
Again, when building technology, you just have to become sticky
(27:02):
enough to solve a problem.
Our chairman said this isn'trocket science, it's almost like
glue or grease.
It just makes everything workbetter and flow better amongst
the family and the senior livingat home.
And so I would say our topfeatures.
I have a son and he's almosttwo.
(27:22):
I started using the caregiverstrain index on a weekly basis
just because I was like, wow,talk about timing.
Erin Vallier (27:32):
Yeah, and I imagine growing this kind of a
business with a small childwould cause a little bit of
strain in a multitude of ways.
Avanlee Christine (27:41):
Yeah, I was looking at my caregiver strain
index and I was like holy cow, Iam not doing well.
This is hard, but we have beengetting an astronomical amount
of usage around the caregiverstrain index.
I don't even know if somepeople downloading the app are
even caring for an aging parent.
They may have children, butthey're using the caregiver
strain index.
(28:01):
Second to that is I really likewhat we've done with Mark
Cuban's cost plus drugs?
I am learning to, I think, asI've watched kind of the tech
billionaires everyone come fromthat era.
Some went out and bought superyachts and bought big houses and
did that during COVID and thensome went and said how do we
(28:25):
better humanity?
And I like that Mark has donethat and that he has a vested
interest in those living at homeand their families.
He gave us an amazing pressrelease or we did a press
release with him and he gave usan amazing quote.
I think he genuinely cares I'mexcited over as they have some
stuff that are pretty early notat a prototype yet to integrate
(28:49):
more fully come end of this yearwith Mark Cuban's cost plus
drugs.
I think there will be a lot ofinteresting things that will
come out of this relationshipwith cost plus drugs, learnings
and findings in terms ofprescriptions and how to support
the Medicare Advantage plans inthis.
Obviously, my third favoritefeature is I should get this
(29:11):
picture out when we integratedwith Walmart, the first ever
Walmart order I placed and mymom did for my grandmother, who
lives actually now in anindependent living facility in
Montana, and we all went to theindependent living facility.
We were standing out front, weplaced the order via the Avanlee
(29:32):
app and Walmart dropped it off.
We scheduled it for 1 pm and weall stood out there and we
waited for this poor girl fromWalmart comes out with all the
groceries.
Did it work?
And I was crying because weworked so hard for this
integration for a year and she'slike is everything okay?
She handed us the groceries.
(29:53):
I was like, no, this is just abig deal.
It's the first.
You thought it was just comingfrom Walmart, but it actually
was delivered and placed throughour app.
She was like, oh, that is justso cool.
So that feature was really formy mom and my grandma, because I
know so many adult children arein that boat every single day.
Erin Vallier (30:13):
Saves a lot of time and stress, so I love it.
Final question for you I'm anagency, curious about
integrating this into some of myhome care offerings, or I am
just a caregiver myself?
How do?
Avanlee Christine (30:31):
I learn more.
So you can reach out to Avanleeat Avanlee Care.
Our team will get back to you.
If you are just an adult childlistening to this podcast, go to
the app store and you candownload it and there's a free
version and there's premium.
With a home care agency, we'dbe happy to talk.
We have a really great friendand supporter in Bob Roth, so I
(30:54):
want to do something more withBob Roth on this.
I love Bob.
He's an awesome guy.
Erin Vallier (31:00):
Yeah.
Avanlee Christine (31:01):
Happy to talk more about how we're working
with home care agencies, how wecan hopefully help change the
landscape of home care.
That's what I'd like to see.
I'd like to see real change inthe next couple of years.
Erin Vallier (31:13):
And you will.
You've accomplished so much insuch a short period of time with
very little resources, which isyou.
Maybe that's why the caregiverindex is not favorable, but I
just believe in your ability tomake a real big difference.
Thank you, it's been so lovelyto talk to you on the show today
.
Thanks for sharing all aboutAvanlee and your vision.
(31:36):
Thanks for having me AbsolutelyWelcome.
Home Health 360 is presented byAlayaCare and hosted by Erin
Vallier.
First, we want to thank ouramazing guests and listeners.
Second, new episodes air everymonth, so be sure to subscribe
today so you don't miss anepisode.
And last but not least, if youlike this episode and want to
(31:59):
learn more about all thingshome-based care, you can explore
all of our episodes atalayacare.
com/ homehelp360 or visit us onyour favorite podcast platform.
If we really want to be able to care for this
aging population when we don'thave enough healthcare workers
that are available to care forthem, you have to then have a
direct line into the unpaidcaregiver and then you have to
be able as an organization to, Ithink, support them, because if
, like I said, if the caregiversare supported, those receiving
(00:22):
care will live longer, safer,healthier lives at home.
And so that's what I would liketo see happen and I think this
is a unique and greatopportunity for home care is to
basically monitor theseemergency alerts with the family
caregivers, engaging them inand then creating resources and
(00:42):
training modules.
We were speaking to thiscompany where they want to
integrate all their trainingmodules in to Avanlee Care, so
you're training up the unpaidcaregivers to almost be like the
paid caregivers when you can'tbe there in the home.
Erin Vallier (01:10):
Welcome to another episode of the Home Health 360
podcast, where we speak tohome-based care professionals
from around the globe.
I'm your host, rin Valliere,and today I am joined by Avanlee
Christine, founder of AvanleeCare.
Avanlee brings a unique blendof personal and professional
experience to providing care toseniors and others in need.
She has dedicated her career tobuilding solutions that improve
(01:31):
the lives of family, caregiversand aging seniors, and Avanlee
has attracted prominent earlystage investors, such as Esther
Dyson, a notable tech investorwho now serves as chair of
Avanlee Care Incorporated.
Avanlee experienced firsthandjust how tech solutions were
(01:52):
falling short and designedAvanlee Care app to pioneer an
all-in-one resource to fill thegap in remote care, one that
supports both the caregiver andthe care recipient.
She has written on topicsrelated to technology,
innovation and caregiving forpublications such as Fortune
Magazine and has been awardedInc's Best in Business Award in
2022 and was recently named toInc's 2024 Female Founders 250.
(02:18):
Congratulations and welcome tothe show, Avanlee.
Thank you, it's good to be here.
I'm excited to talk to youtoday.
Now it sounds like there mightbe a really good story why you
decided to create this app.
Can you share a little bitabout Avanlee Care and the
inspiration behind its creation?
Avanlee Christine (02:39):
I can do that .
So the inspiration to do thebusiness and to build a product
came from personal experiencewhich I think most people can
relate to.
I was 10 years old in 2000, andI watched my mom and my aunts
all get on the bandwagon ofhaving to care for my
(03:00):
grandfather, who had Lewy bodies, care for my grandfather who
had Lewy bodies, dementia andParkinson's, and for about eight
years my grandparents had tolive at one point with every
single one of us of their adultchildren, and we all cared for
my grandpa.
My mother and aunts were theprimary caregivers.
I was the little kid watchingthis happen, and this was before
(03:22):
Steve Jobs gave us the iPhoneand iPad, so really before any
technology, maybe life alert andI remember when he passed in
2008,.
I was 18 years old.
I just remember how challengingit was for my parents, the
emotional burden, the financialimpact it had on their personal
(03:43):
savings, having to go eventuallyinto full memory care for years
, and how expensive that was.
So at a very young age I got acrash course into the healthcare
system without really knowingthat would inspire what I would
do in my professional life andin terms of starting a business.
(04:03):
I used to work for a reallygreat CEO His name's Craig
Mandeville at Forkura.
He gave me one of my first jobs.
I don't know how great I was atthe job, but I learned a lot
from Craig and how to reallyfocus on product development and
build solutions for the kind ofpost-acute market.
(04:24):
And when I was living in NewYork City in my early 20s I was
again faced getting the callfrom my mom hey, grandma's gonna
start to need more care.
And I was in New York, theywere in Montana and I just
thought if Life Alert is reallystill the only option and it's
been almost 20 years since 2000.
(04:46):
Somebody needs to come tomarket with an all-in-one,
comprehensive solution thatwould bridge the gap between
paid caregivers.
So, whether that be through theplan, the home care agencies
and the unpaid caregiver totruly keep a senior safe,
healthy and happy at home.
(05:07):
And that's when I started to doa lot of research on the
fractured communication by notengaging the family members into
the plan of care.
So that's where Avanlee Care wasbirthed from.
I would say it was lifeexperience, almost over 20 years
, that when I got into the techworld and I got into and just my
(05:30):
love for my grandparents and mylove for seniors and those
living with a disability.
I thought, gosh, we're sendingpeople to orbit and we can see
what celebrities are eating forlunch on Instagram.
But we can't all collectively,as a family, have a robust
platform and it has to betechnology to care for an
(05:52):
individual at home.
So it's like, oh, I'll just gobuild that.
Erin Vallier (05:56):
Necessity is the mother of invention right.
Avanlee Christine (06:00):
Yeah, so here we are.
Erin Vallier (06:02):
And it does help when you have a passion about it
and it shines through when youtalk about your product.
Can you share with thelisteners just why you feel so
strongly that the applicationyou've developed is needed to
facilitate care?
Avanlee Christine (06:16):
Yeah.
So I was listening to a womanSusan, I'm drawing a blank on
her last name she wrote StageNot Age, and this was at a
pivotal Magnify Ventureconference just earlier last
year, and she said that peoplebeing born after 2000 will live
well into their hundreds.
And we don't, as most peoplewho are listening to this
(06:39):
podcast.
We don't have enough peoplebeing essentially born to take
care of our aging population.
We don't have enough peoplegoing into the healthcare system
to care for seniors.
Third, an interesting thingthat is happening in Montana.
I split my time between New Yorkand Montana, two complete
opposite ends of healthcare andhow healthcare is delivered.
(07:03):
But in Montana, on the high line, what's happening is nursing
homes are shutting down becausethey can't find people to work
in them, and so what's happeningto adult children and families
is you have these adult childrenwho live in the towns, like
Missoula and Bozeman andBillings, more towards the
bottom of the state, and theydon't know what to do with their
(07:23):
parents, and so I've watchedthis kind of play out over the
last 10 years.
How do you use technology, evenimplement AIs, to keep a senior
at home living longer andhealthier, but trying to get a
(07:43):
group of people, a generation ofpeople who never grew up with
technology, and how you get themto really adopt that and use
that is by engaging the family,the adult child.
I was speaking with a woman,she's a physician, she's on a
book tour right now at MemorialSloan Kettering and she said
something very interesting thatwhen a patient comes in, they
(08:06):
also add in the family caregiver.
They identify at that momentwho the primary family caregiver
is and the primary caregiver isinterwoven into the system,
interwoven into the care, and Ithought that was just fantastic.
I was like imagine a healthcaresystem where I'm going in with
mom and there's an EMR here,there's a login for this, but I
(08:30):
can't get access to just who'sgoing into her home two days a
month when she's receiving homecare.
That's what's happening.
But that's what I'm hoping tochange is by bridging this gap
between the unpaid and the paidcaregivers.
Erin Vallier (08:45):
It's an interesting shift that you're
highlighting there, that thefacilities the assisted living
facilities, skilled nursingfacilities are closing down.
It's going to highlight theneed for this hospital at home
model, or more care provided inthe home, and if we don't have
enough people going into thehealthcare industry to care for
people, then we really do needto be able to step up and care
(09:06):
for our own loved ones and do soin a way that is not completely
intrusive into our own livesand it causes a lot of burnout.
So I'm really excited for yourproduct and we've probably
paving the way for others tocopy you, which is a really good
compliment.
What specific challenges withinthe home care industry for
unpaid care workers does AvanleeCare aim to address?
Avanlee Christine (09:28):
So for the unpaid worker, so the family,
the adult child.
Let's start there.
We launched our first product,our real first product, not just
what we coded and piecedtogether, but a real product
after we raised some capital in2022.
What we learned very quicklywas we went right into the
consumer market because wewanted to get a substantial
(09:49):
group of families using this.
We got about 13,000 familiesthat had downloaded the app and
we averaged about two to threeadult children per senior with
the app which is actually prettygood coming right into the
market.
We also hit the market right.
The timing was really good.
It was in COVID when we startedto raise capital for the
company.
But one thing that we learnedon the customer support front
(10:12):
was there was a number of adultchildren calling in and saying I
have been thrown into this andI have no idea what I'm supposed
to do.
Can you please tell me where Ishould go for legal, where we
should go for financial, wherewe should go for financial,
where we should go for estateplanning, the caregiver basics,
what are activities of dailyliving.
And what we learned veryquickly was we heard over the
(10:37):
phone caregiver burnout, thestress.
We also understood that there'snot great resources for
caregivers, and so our firstproduct as a whole was a true
application that families woulduse to monitor biometrics or
integrate it in with Fitbit,apple Watch and HealthKit
monitor mom or dad's mood.
(10:59):
Number one was medicationadherence and management.
And then fourth to that was weare one of the first companies
to ever fully integrate withWalmart and we launched Walmart
shopping, grocery, OTC, anythingyou'd see around a pharmacy in
our app, and so we became thisone-stop shop, all things of hey
(11:21):
Erin, you and I are sisters,you're at work, you get mom
groceries through the app thatwould get mom groceries through
the app that would get deliveredto her by Walmart.
It's available in our app inall 50 states.
I see she took her meds.
She's saying she's feelingpretty down.
We could do the real okay,mom's okay, let's get her what
she needs.
Let's check up on her health,see her vitals.
(11:41):
But the second piece of that,which is what inspired our
second product launch as we wentB2B, was how do you support the
unpaid caregiver?
Because if the caregivers godown, the one receiving care
also fails.
And so we actually launched acaregiver strain index in our
(12:01):
app, in our app, and it's a13-question self-assessment
where us, as a tech company anda data company, we get to
understand and learn on a weeklybasis what are the strains and
the stresses of caregiving.
For example, maybe we learnedthat Erin is a single mom.
She's two states away from heraging mother.
She literally cannotfinancially afford to take time
(12:24):
off to care for her.
So here are the real resourcesshe's going to need Maybe an
introduction into a home careagency, maybe support around
better benefits with heremployer to be able to go care
for her aging mother.
So that from the preventingburnout, creating resources,
what we're also seeing too andthis might be a new line of
(12:45):
business, but my investors andmy board just yesterday told me
I have to stay focused for thenext nine months.
Try hard.
I know this new line ofbusiness is I'm seeing an
opportunity through our companyfor almost a boutique services
of how to support caregivers andbringing them into a community,
(13:05):
of how to support caregiversand bringing them into a
community.
I spoke to Ann Tomlinson.
She's the CEO of ATI Advisory.
She founded Daughterhood.
It's almost kind of like thatbecause so many of us will be
thrown into this position andit's pretty remarkable how
little people know I am now afamily caregiver.
What do I do?
What does that mean?
Erin Vallier (13:28):
caregiver.
What do I do?
What does that mean?
That's fantastic, I think, tohave an app that can pretty much
tell me what I need to do.
It's an entryway to help peoplebe successful in that
caregiving role, and that'ssuper important.
Do you have any statistics ordata that you could share
regarding how Heavenly Carecontributes to keeping
individuals in their homes forlonger or avoiding burnout, as
you were just describing to us?
Avanlee Christine (13:50):
Essentially people using our product.
They are staying on it andthey're using it daily with
their families.
That was one of the biggestconcerns in going into building
an app or any technology forseniors is are they going to use
it?
We in the early days had tospend a lot of time with
families.
Okay, if this feature wasn'tworking, we got rid of it.
(14:12):
If a barrier to entry and thisis one thing I would tell anyone
starting a technology companyreally need to understand
product development If thebarrier of entry was the signup
process was too long, seniorwouldn't go through it, we got
rid of it and we just said okay,start using the product with
your family.
We put the signup process andthe registering of the account
on the adult child and so whenwe launched our first product
(14:35):
into the market, we saw somereally interesting stats that
kind of surprised me.
Amongst the most active dailyusers, which was about 5,000
individuals, the most usedfeature was medication adherence
and management Delivered over125,000 medication adherence
reminders to a senior, to theiradult children.
(14:55):
So basically it said mom wasputting in her medication
reminders, updating her med list, or the adult child was.
That was interesting to usbecause we got an introduction
into Mark Cuban.
And Mark Cuban was reallyinterested because he just spoke
at the White House on this.
He is trying really hard toensure lower costs of care for
(15:19):
older adults but ensure thatAmerican consumers get access to
cheaper medications.
And in our business, when youare in the world of dealing with
family caregivers and then justthe astronomical costs of care
as you age, having the abilityto lower the out-of-pocket
expense for caregivers was ano-brainer for us.
(15:40):
So we actually took that data.
We approached him.
We said this is what we'reseeing.
We're a relatively new companybut we're getting some great
data.
And we approached him we saidthis is what we're seeing.
We're a relatively new companybut we're getting some great
data and we have a very activeuser base.
We would like to go in, bringour second product into the kind
of health plan home care agencyspace, because essentially what
we're learning is, yes, whilethe caregivers are there helping
(16:04):
or nearby, we are learning thathome care is needed and we
could be recommending some ofthese seniors living at home to
start receiving home care.
But also by lowering theout-of-pocket costs and expenses
, it's a win for everyone.
And so we integrated Cost PlusDrugs into our app, plus drugs,
(16:28):
into our app.
Second to that, we had almost86,000 hours of logged health
information between the seniorusing Care Receiver and the
caregivers the adult children.
So what that told us was theapp is being used on a daily
basis.
Information around vitalsdoctor's appointments,
medication and mood were beingcommunicated on.
We were also able to trackessentially, how is a senior
doing every day?
Are they feeling sad?
(16:48):
Are they depressed?
Being able to notify the adultchild mom has said she is sad
every day for five daysSomething might happen, running
like predictive analytics andthen taking that data using AI
to alert families on things youcan do with them.
Ai to alert families on thingsyou can do with them.
So A, b and C doesn't happen.
(17:15):
And I think the last point I'llmake on that, which was really
probably the most powerful datapoint we gathered, was we
integrated in with Fitbit and itwas really funny because I
reached out to the, I think,chief growth officer of Fitbit
when we were very young.
I hadn't raised any capital.
I think my mom and grandma werethe only one using the app and
I just wrote to him.
I said one day I hope that thisis a household brand or name or
(17:38):
solution for families in thiscountry who have an aging parent
.
And I said so, if 54 millionpeople are going to be using
this, one day, we have to beintegrated into Fitbit.
And he wrote back and he waslike, how many people?
When we were a staff, I saidless than a hundred, but we're
growing and we have everyintention.
This was like way back in 2019.
And so Good for you.
(17:59):
Just put it out there.
You really have to when youstart a company.
And he said okay, we'llintegrate Fitbit in.
And what we learned five yearslater One of the most important
things because I remember thiswith my grandpa was being able
to see his vitals my aunt inBoise being able to see vitals,
my mom in Billings, montana,being able to see vitals
(18:20):
regardless of where grandma was.
And we've sent 15,000notifications to adult children
that their parents' vitals wentout of an expected range, which
means they called, they wentover and did something.
And that was the key piece tothis information.
If we're this 24-7 digitalwindow into the home, this
(18:41):
information should be availableto the home care provider and it
should be available to thehealth plans.
It's that missing piece ofgetting the paid and the unpaid
all together on the same page.
That will truly keep somebodyhome longer and safer.
Erin Vallier (18:58):
Yeah, this is excellent.
I'm getting excited over heremyself going okay, I'm going to
use this when I need to use this, because it's going to help me
monitor what's going on with myloved one.
It's going to help me getaffordable drugs into the home
and it's going to help me makesure they take them at the right
(19:19):
time, which is a huge deal inhome care.
We all know how important it isto manage the medications
correctly, because that couldcause an easy death in the home
and avoidable comorbidities.
I had.
My experience was with mygrandmother.
One doctor prescribed this, onedoctor prescribed that they
didn't know, they didn'treconcile and, lo and behold,
(19:41):
heart failure.
So it's helping avoid thingslike that and that's really
exciting.
And you mentioned somethingthat leads me to my next
question that we need to havethis technology into the hands
of home care agencies and healthplans.
How can Avonlink here integrateinto the offerings of home care
agencies and what kind ofbenefits do you expect that this
(20:04):
integration is going to bringto both the agency and their
clients?
Avanlee Christine (20:10):
Great question.
So I would just say, first off,the benefit to the agency is
improved communication,coordinate the chaos and support
family caregivers Very highlevel, I think communication
having access as the home careagency to each, if you want to
call patient in the home andtheir family having a direct
(20:30):
line of communication, soeveryone is communicating around
the same person, is reallyimportant.
Being able to, like I said,having that notification hey,
mom was wearing a Fitbit, heartrate went out of an expected
range Home care agency isalerted and so are the unpaid
caregivers.
This is not new.
Most, I think, platforms aretrying to do this schedule
(20:54):
medications, schedule doctor'sappointments but we took it a
step further in getting cheapermedications via our app to those
living at home to truly lowerthe costs of care.
And then, like I said at thebeginning of this call, we're
moving into a world that I trulybelieve that in 10 years I will
(21:17):
probably be on my mother'shealth record in a more
integrated way.
I don't know exactly what thatlooks like quite yet, but with
everything, with the White Housesigning an executive orders, we
have to have a nationalstrategy for the unpaid family
caregiver and if we really wantto be able to care for this
(21:37):
aging population when we don'thave enough healthcare workers
that are available to care forthem.
You have to then have a directline into the unpaid caregiver
and then you have to be able, asan organization, to for them.
You have to then have a directline into the unpaid caregiver
and then you have to be able, asan organization to, I think,
support them, Because if, like Isaid, if the caregivers are
supported, those receiving carewill live longer, safer,
(21:59):
healthier lives at home.
And so that's what I would liketo see happen and I think this
is a unique and greatopportunity for home care is to
basically monitor theseemergency alerts with the family
caregivers, engaging them inand then creating resources and
training modules.
We were speaking to thiscompany, where they want to
(22:20):
integrate all their trainingmodules in to Avanlee Care, so
you're training up the unpaidcaregivers to almost be like the
paid caregivers when you can'tbe there in the home.
That's what I would say.
Erin Vallier (22:31):
Our primary offering to the home care agency
right now is that's awesome,and you mentioned Something as
well you were speaking with acompany that wants to integrate
some training materials, so I'mcurious what other partnerships
or collaborations does AvanleeCare have or you're engaging
with within the home care spaceto further enhance your impact
(22:56):
and your?
Avanlee Christine (22:56):
reach.
We did a pilot with Walmartlast year in Florida and I
learned a lot.
I could write a book about that.
We were in Florida in 10 or 15Walmart super centers and in
South Florida, and what welearned?
It was really interesting.
The majority of people in their40s, 50s and 60s walking in
(23:22):
when they spoke to us.
If we asked them if they were afamily caregiver, they had no
idea what that meant.
And then you'd say, hey, areyou here picking up groceries
for your mom or dad, or do youever do that, pick up their meds
or anything Like.
Oh yeah, all the time.
That's why I'm here right now.
We're like, oh, we actuallyhave an app that you can manage
and coordinate all this in oneapp and Walmart will deliver it
for you.
(23:42):
And we had to bring awarenessto these people of, actually,
you are a family caregiver.
And so what we learned in thatpilot was really interesting One
.
There's a massive opportunityfor groceries, OTC, health and
wellness products.
Mom has diabetes, mom has justhad her hip replaced.
(24:04):
Having these curated shoppinglists that allow you to do this
in one place and not have toleave work, go and do all of
these and take things, take twohours out of your day.
That's a massive time saver the361 billion dollar time gap
between women and men from thetime women have to take off work
(24:27):
, compared to men, to go andcare for an aging parent.
And when we integrated in withWalmart for that one feature, I
really wanted to do that for mymom, because my mom I watched
her leave work for years and notcome home for two, two and a
half hours because she was doingall of these things related to
(24:48):
caregiving and then by the timeshe got home she was exhausted
and it was late and that was oneof the simple solutions.
And then we had to build anintegration with Walmart.
That was not simple, but we didit and I would say, on a tech
roadmap, there are moreintegrations, I think, coming
out in terms of what we wouldlike to do with cost plus drugs.
We have discussed transportationas well.
(25:12):
That's a tricky one.
Just Uber and Lyft and thepolicy that they want the
smaller companies to carry.
I don't know how realistic Uberand Lyft are going to be able
to really make an impact in thismarket, but we'll see how time
goes on.
I am interested more on how wecan partner with larger
(25:34):
organizations.
If it was a larger home careagency, a larger health plan who
has resources that are builtout that are specific to their
patient population, that'sreally interesting to me,
instead of us having to build iton our own.
We are great on the tech front,but if there are organizations
(25:54):
that have resources, they knowthat maybe, like in downtown
Louisville, that population ofpeople could benefit from.
We would be interested more inthose integrations.
And then we just started reallyto do a lot of stuff with
adding an AI button in the app,using AI in the platform around
care care plans, communicating,using AI to communicate amongst
(26:17):
adult children.
So that is interesting to me.
More to come on that.
Erin Vallier (26:21):
I do like the idea of integrating with health
plans, because that'd be a greatbenefit to offer the consumer.
For sure, it sounds like theapp does a ton of things.
Like a ton of things.
Name your top three features,your favorite three features.
Avanlee Christine (26:38):
That's funny.
Well, it's funny because thefirst product did do way too
many things.
Well, it's funny because thefirst product did do way too
many things.
And my co-founder and ourdevelopment team politely sat me
down one day and said you can'tfeature, spam someone to death.
People are not going to use allthese features, and that's
right.
Again, when building technology, you just have to become sticky
(27:02):
enough to solve a problem.
Our chairman said this isn'trocket science, it's almost like
glue or grease.
It just makes everything workbetter and flow better amongst
the family and the senior livingat home.
And so I would say our topfeatures.
I have a son and he's almosttwo.
(27:22):
I started using the caregiverstrain index on a weekly basis
just because I was like, wow,talk about timing.
Erin Vallier (27:32):
Yeah, and I imagine growing this kind of a
business with a small childwould cause a little bit of
strain in a multitude of ways.
Avanlee Christine (27:41):
Yeah, I was looking at my caregiver strain
index and I was like holy cow, Iam not doing well.
This is hard, but we have beengetting an astronomical amount
of usage around the caregiverstrain index.
I don't even know if somepeople downloading the app are
even caring for an aging parent.
They may have children, butthey're using the caregiver
strain index.
(28:01):
Second to that is I really likewhat we've done with Mark
Cuban's cost plus drugs?
I am learning to, I think, asI've watched kind of the tech
billionaires everyone come fromthat era.
Some went out and bought superyachts and bought big houses and
did that during COVID and thensome went and said how do we
(28:25):
better humanity?
And I like that Mark has donethat and that he has a vested
interest in those living at homeand their families.
He gave us an amazing pressrelease or we did a press
release with him and he gave usan amazing quote.
I think he genuinely cares I'mexcited over as they have some
stuff that are pretty early notat a prototype yet to integrate
(28:49):
more fully come end of this yearwith Mark Cuban's cost plus
drugs.
I think there will be a lot ofinteresting things that will
come out of this relationshipwith cost plus drugs, learnings
and findings in terms ofprescriptions and how to support
the Medicare Advantage plans inthis.
Obviously, my third favoritefeature is I should get this
(29:11):
picture out when we integratedwith Walmart, the first ever
Walmart order I placed and mymom did for my grandmother, who
lives actually now in anindependent living facility in
Montana, and we all went to theindependent living facility.
We were standing out front, weplaced the order via the Avanlee
(29:32):
app and Walmart dropped it off.
We scheduled it for 1 pm and weall stood out there and we
waited for this poor girl fromWalmart comes out with all the
groceries.
Did it work?
And I was crying because weworked so hard for this
integration for a year and she'slike is everything okay?
She handed us the groceries.
(29:53):
I was like, no, this is just abig deal.
It's the first.
You thought it was just comingfrom Walmart, but it actually
was delivered and placed throughour app.
She was like, oh, that is justso cool.
So that feature was really formy mom and my grandma, because I
know so many adult children arein that boat every single day.
Erin Vallier (30:13):
Saves a lot of time and stress, so I love it.
Final question for you I'm anagency, curious about
integrating this into some of myhome care offerings, or I am
just a caregiver myself?
How do?
Avanlee Christine (30:31):
I learn more.
So you can reach out to Avanleeat Avanlee Care.
Our team will get back to you.
If you are just an adult childlistening to this podcast, go to
the app store and you candownload it and there's a free
version and there's premium.
With a home care agency, we'dbe happy to talk.
We have a really great friendand supporter in Bob Roth, so I
(30:54):
want to do something more withBob Roth on this.
I love Bob.
He's an awesome guy.
Erin Vallier (31:00):
Yeah.
Avanlee Christine (31:01):
Happy to talk more about how we're working
with home care agencies, how wecan hopefully help change the
landscape of home care.
That's what I'd like to see.
I'd like to see real change inthe next couple of years.
Erin Vallier (31:13):
And you will.
You've accomplished so much insuch a short period of time with
very little resources, which isyou.
Maybe that's why the caregiverindex is not favorable, but I
just believe in your ability tomake a real big difference.
Thank you, it's been so lovelyto talk to you on the show today
.
Thanks for sharing all aboutAvanlee and your vision.
(31:36):
Thanks for having me AbsolutelyWelcome.
Home Health 360 is presented byAlayaCare and hosted by Erin
Vallier.
First, we want to thank ouramazing guests and listeners.
Second, new episodes air everymonth, so be sure to subscribe
today so you don't miss anepisode.
And last but not least, if youlike this episode and want to
(31:59):
learn more about all thingshome-based care, you can explore
all of our episodes atalayacare.
com/ homehelp360 or visit us onyour favorite podcast platform.
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