June 7, 2025 • 56 mins
Could artificial intelligence be the solution to our eldercare crisis? In this riveting episode, we dive deep into the intersection of technology and compassionate care with Breana Patel, founder and CEO of Owie AI.
The statistics are sobering – we're facing a projected shortage of half a million nurses within the next decade while our aging population grows exponentially. But Breana's innovative approach offers a ray of hope in what can seem like an overwhelming challenge. Her company is developing contactless AI monitoring systems that can predict patient needs, prevent adverse events, and reduce the administrative burden on already overwhelmed caregivers.
Imagine a world where technology can alert staff before a fall occurs, detect early signs of dehydration, or recognize when a non-verbal patient is in distress. These aren't futuristic dreams but tangible solutions Breana's team is currently piloting in healthcare facilities. What makes this approach revolutionary is its focus on enhancing rather than replacing human care – giving caregivers more time for meaningful interactions by automating documentation and routine monitoring.
We explore the profound implications for transparency in long-term care, how AI might serve as a digital companion for isolated residents, and the careful privacy considerations built into these systems. Breana shares her personal motivation behind founding Owie AI after witnessing a loved one's complications from undetected health events, highlighting how technology can help prevent similar situations for countless families.
As our society grapples with policy decisions that will fundamentally shape eldercare for decades to come, innovations like these represent our best hope for creating dignified, quality care for all. Join us for this thought-provoking conversation about how artificial intelligence might become our most powerful tool in ensuring no one is forgotten or neglected in their vulnerable years.
Want to learn more about the challenges facing our long-term care system? Watch our documentary "No Country for Old People," releasing August 1st on Amazon.
Be a ROAR-ior!! JOIN THE R.O.A.R. MOVEMENT for quality long term care! Visit the No Country For Old People Website for more information.
YOU CAN ALSO SUPPORT THE ABSOLUTELY CRUCIAL PROMOTION OF OUR DOCUMENTARY "NO COUNTRY FOR OLD PEOPLE" BY MAKING A TAX DEDUCTIBLE DONATION THROUGH THE NATIONAL CONSUMER VOICE HERE
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Don Priess (00:00):
When the world has got you down, Alzheimer's sucks.
It's an equal opportunitydisease that chips away at
everything we hold dear. And todate, there's no cure. So until
there is, we continue to fightwith the most powerful tool in
our arsenal, love. This is Loveconquers alls a real and really
(00:22):
positive podcast that takes adeep dive into everything,
Alzheimer's, The Good, The Badand everything in between. And
now here are your hosts, Suziesinger Carter and me. Don
Priess,
Susie Singer Carter (00:40):
hi everybody. I'm Susie singer
Carter,
Don Priess (00:42):
and I'm Don Priess, and this is Love conquers alls,
hello Susan,
Susie Singer Carter (00:47):
hi. Do we still have a podcast? We
Don Priess (00:50):
do. It's been quite a while. And for if there's any
regular viewers, and I'm surethere's millions out there,
you'll notice that, yes, ourwhere our backgrounds are a bit
different. We've,
Susie Singer Carter (01:02):
we've changed location. I don't think
that anything anyone wouldnotice that on mine, because
yours
Don Priess (01:06):
is similar to the older episode,
Susie Singer Carter (01:10):
yeah, but we've been, we had to cut, I
think I said this last time, butwe've been sort of doing bi
monthly. It's, it's once a monthand but we're very close to
kicking it back up to twice amonth again, because we miss you
and we don't want to lose you.
So don't go. Don't listen toeveryone else. Listen to us,
because we're exactly 24/7 Yes,yeah. Only, well, there's some
(01:34):
good news that, you know, but,but I'll share with everybody
who's listening is that ourdocumentary, No Country for Old
people, has a release date.
Don't know. After over threeyears, a very difficult
(01:59):
production, very difficult, anda lot of a lot of a lot of hours
went into this, and tears andemotions and a lot of love and a
lot of support from very someamazing people. We are here at
the at the gate of and being I'mjust excited to be able to
(02:25):
finally share with everybody,because we've been getting that
question for the past year and ahalf, but where can we see it?
Where can we see it? So comeAugust 1, we'll fill you in
before then, but it will bereleased for everybody, and
it'll be available and it and sofar, it'll be free for you, so
(02:47):
it'll be it'll be available toeverybody. We think Amazon, I'm
just going to throw that outthere. And that's well, for
sure, Amazon, but it'll beeverywhere else too. But let me
hold on that. We've got detailsfor you, but this is, it's very
exciting, and it's a doc. It'sgonna be a docu series,
(03:08):
everybody. So it's gonna be,instead of one long film, we
have broken it into three partsso that you don't miss out on
some really pivot, you know,very, very important
information. Because we justfelt like it, it really needed
to be comprehensive, so that youget a good picture of what's
(03:29):
actually going on in the longterm care system, which is
really timely, because what'sgoing on politically, and not to
get political, but there is alot of, there is a, you know, a
lot of,
Don Priess (03:45):
well, the policies are going to affect everything
from here on out. They're goingto affect right care. But, you
know, I mean, everything aboutthe entire universe of this is
going to be affected by thepolicies that will be coming
down the road, that
Susie Singer Carter (04:01):
are coming down the road and, you know, and
that means the fact, Medicareand Medicaid, our Bunce, our
ombudsman system, and that wholeprogram is, is, you know,
dangerously close of being anunfunded, defunded, and that's a
problem. So, you know, there's alot of, a lot of scary issues
(04:22):
out there. And again, hello.
Thank you ageism, and thank youableism for, you know, allowing
these kind this kind of it'sreally abuse to take away these
programs from our populationthat's the most vulnerable. But
we're not going to we're goingto fight. And there's a lot of
us out there that are advocatingfor this not to happen, and
(04:42):
hopefully we'll prevail, becauseI don't know what's going to
happen if we don't, but not toget not to get down, but we need
to get activated. You know, wehave to. Know, we gotta get
activated, yeah, to get down.
Don Priess (05:04):
And this is not a, this is really not a political
thing. This is effective notthis is not what really does
center. It is everybody. It'shumanity. And, yeah, you
Susie Singer Carter (05:14):
know, and I think we forget, when you talk
about nursing homes, that thatwe think, you know, a lot of
people think, well, we're justolder people. They've lived
their life, and they're going,you know, it's okay, and it's
like, but that's not the truth.
First of all, older people arepeople, and we are all going to
be older, and we are all goingto be affected by the system
that is in place and will and,you know, stands to be altered
(05:40):
in a way that that's going to bedevastating. So we all that. But
then there's also a lot ofpeople who are disabled that
that need to take advantage oflong term care, and do, you
know, and can't live without it.
So if we and and can't affordit, because it's very expensive,
(06:04):
it's not, you know, our healthcare system is really a wealth
care system and and that's,that's, that's the truth of it
is it is a business model thatserves a lot of people more than
the people that are using it. Soanyway, I'm off my soapbox for a
second. But yeah, we a goodthing is, is that Don and I are,
(06:28):
as you know, We're roommates.
We're because I'm I'm singleever after, and I like it that
way. And but we've moved back tothe valley where I grew up and
Don grew up in the valley, soI'm back to being a valley girl
again, and I love it.
Don Priess (06:43):
We are full on vowels again, and yeah, good to
be home. And we said that
Susie Singer Carter (06:49):
it's so nice and warm, and it's warm at
night, and it's like, so, yeah,the valley is cool. I like it.
We were on the west side. Youknow, Marina del Rey area, if
you don't, aren't familiar withLos Angeles, but like Culver
City, that area, and, yeah,we're back. So supposedly cool,
but we like it. And
Don Priess (07:10):
recovering from a six week move that that was
basically most of it happened inabout two weeks. And if it
wasn't for Susie, I'd still besurrounded by, you know, boxes
up to here, but she does notallow that, and thank God for
that. So we're also
Susie Singer Carter (07:28):
good to get organized, right organization so
Don Priess (07:31):
good it is. And I'm in my own space now, my own
office, and Susie's got her
Susie Singer Carter (07:37):
life is good. We've got, yeah, we've got
separate offices. We're notsharing like, I don't know, like
The Dick Van Dyke Show. Is thatan old reference? All right. All
right. Well, on that note, sospeaking of the system that is
in place right now and think,and speaking of what the hell
(08:01):
are we going to do should theseprograms no longer exist, and
even though, and even if they doremain intact, we still need
help, because our population isgrowing exponentially, right? So
I was like, you know, there'slike Rick moncastle, our partner
(08:22):
on No Country for Old people,always says, there's no
coincidences. Well, somehow thisguest and I got connected by one
person that's our mutual friend.
Isn't that so crazy? Like wethis is on LinkedIn. I we don't
have any other mutual friends,and yet we this other woman,
who's phenomenal, thought weshould know each other, and we
(08:43):
talked, and was like, We arecouldn't have be more like
minded, only she's way smarterthan me, and she's like, she's a
genius of many different areas.
So Don Why don't you introducethis this boss.
Don Priess (09:07):
She's a boss. She's a boss, and let me tell you
about her. Right now, today, weare exploring a transformative
approach to one of our mostpressing challenges, the long
term care crisis. Our guesttoday, Breana Patel, stands at
the forefront of this revolutionharnessing the power of
artificial intelligence toreshape the future of elder
care. Breana is a seasonedentrepreneur and the founder and
(09:31):
CEO of owl AI, a companydedicated to real time patient
risk stratification to enhanceoutcomes and reduce hospital
readmissions. Her journey is asdiverse as it is inspiring with
a successful exit from aprevious venture, she has
navigated the complex worlds oftier one banks, financial
institutions and public sectoragencies focusing on regulatory
(09:55):
remediations and risk managementwith an executive MBA at m.
Sloan School of Management,Breana combines her deep
understanding of finance,technology and healthcare to
develop AI driven solutions thatprioritize patient safety and
efficiency. Her recentengagements include speaking at
the commission of Health'swebinar on using AI for better
(10:17):
hospital outcomes. Breana workis not just about innovation,
it's about ensuring dignity,reducing caregiver burnout, and
creating a sustainable model forlong term care. We are honored
to have her share her insightsand vision with us today. So
let's say hello toBreana Patel.
Hello, Breana, Hi.
Susie Singer Carter (10:38):
Welcome to our love conquers all. So happy
to have you.
Breana Patel (10:43):
Thrilled to be here. Thank you so much for
having me, of course.
Susie Singer Carter (10:47):
So yeah, it was, I was saying in our opening
to how I felt like we were solike minded, and we were that,
you know, we were talking, Idon't know for how long, but it
was like, Uh huh, Yes, uh huh,yes. And that yes, you know. And
so I was so excited to talk toyou. And when you talk, and when
(11:08):
I found out that you wereworking on AI for long term
care, I think it's just, I justthis thing that is the way to
go, and considering thepopulation that's growing
exponentially, so, I mean, tellus a little bit of your
background, because I know it'smassive, but in your like, I
don't know, 20 years old, so howyou got You've done so much in
(11:30):
such a little time?
Breana Patel (11:33):
Um, first things first. I'm not 20 years old. I
wish. I wish, um, but so Istarted my career in finance and
banking, and then when 2008crisis hit, there was a lot of
demand for regulatoryremediation, risk management. So
(11:54):
I started my company in 2014 andI scaled it and recently sold my
business. While I was goingthrough the sale, I joined MIT's
Executive MBA program, and Igraduated from the program last
year. I wanted to tap into MIT'secosystem, because this is where
all the cutting edgetechnologies developed, and, you
(12:17):
know, they provide a lot ofresources to find co founders,
build, tap into the talent pool.
So that's where I founded aulai,also driven by a personal
experience of a loved one goingthrough an adverse event while
being in care. It just triggeredthat how in this times like
2025, hospitals and healthcarefacilities are using technology
(12:40):
from 1995 in 2025 we need to bemore proactive to provide
quality care to our patients,and I wanted to make an impact.
So that's how, you know, I gotinto building health tech, along
with having firsthand experienceof serving Department for the
Aging with my previous business.
Susie Singer Carter (13:05):
So when you say personal experience, so you
had it in your own family thatyou that that gave you that kind
of perspective, right? Yes,
Breana Patel (13:15):
yes. So one of my grandparents went through an
adverse event, and no oneactually knew, and while she was
experiencing that event, andthat led to a lot of secondary
complications and impacted herquality of life. So had we had
(13:36):
the technology where there wouldbe more connected care, care
givers would have been empoweredto have that information timely
so as to make earlyintervention, it would have
helped in providing a betterpatient outcome.
Susie Singer Carter (13:53):
Right? Got you so I have so many questions
in terms of, I, you know, I'msure that you experienced this
with your grandmother. Is like,when you get these secondary
problems that happen, right? Sothat's what, that's when that
that slippery slope and kit, youknow, the carousel of going back
and being readmitted, read itinto hospitals, when you you
(14:16):
know you shouldn't have to beand no one is taking care. No
one's no no one's actuallyreading the reports, no one's
reading records, no one. They'rejust, you know, looking at
everyone like a one size fitsall. Is that? Is that what
you're saying? Is that what youexperienced? Yeah, yeah,
Breana Patel (14:34):
absolutely. So it's first of all, the caregiver
to patient ratio has just goneup really high. As a result,
there's less number ofcaregivers and more number of
patients. So it's kind of hardfor clinical teams, as well as
you know, the nurses andeveryone on the ground, to
provide personalized attentionto each and every patient. And
(14:57):
as a result, you know the. Ofthe lucky one gets the first
chance when something happens,and we wait for that event to
happen, and then we take theaction, I think, with with the
predictive nature of AI, timehas come where we should be able
to predict things, and we shouldbe able to take actions before
things happen.
Susie Singer Carter (15:18):
And so, like you said, you mentioned,
like, we're, you know, we have achronic problem of under
staffing in our country againstit's in long term care, it's in
all of our health facilities.
So, you know, hospitalseverywhere. So and the problem,
you know, it that's what createsthe biggest problem, because
they don't have the time toactually read records and to
see, oh, this person has alldementia. This person has
(15:42):
Parkinson's. This is their base,you know, they were just
admitted last week for this, andso they were given that, right?
So it's just as they're doingeverything as fast, as fast as
they can. And and it's, it's notalways a positive result,
because they're not, they're notable to do a thorough job,
right? But how do we, and how dohow would you, how are you
(16:07):
looking at that in terms ofthat, that issue that I'm
talking about, the lack ofstaff, the under staffing, when,
when you know, how could youfacilitate them to be able to
have that information at theirfingertips and be motivated
within the motivation would comewith more time, obviously. How
(16:30):
does that? How does that look?
What does that look like? Yeah,
Breana Patel (16:38):
so to take a deeper dive into it. In the next
decade, we are going to havealmost like half a million
nurses shortage in the country,so and I think about hundreds of
1000s of physicians as well. Sowhat that does is, as they are
(17:00):
serving more and more patients,the systems that were developed
in the long time back are not souser friendly, so it makes it
hard to switch from one systemto the other, because everything
is so fragmented and not userfriendly, and that also adds to
the burnout of the work. It'snot just about taking care of
the patients and having morenumber of patients, but not
(17:23):
having user friendly interfacesor intuitive systems that are
going to empower theseclinicians and care staff
providers to take care of thepatients on personalized basis.
The second thing is that whathappens is this clinicians or
care staff, they don't have realtime information about the
patient on what's going on witheach and every patient at say,
(17:47):
right this second. And as aresult, imagine if there's a
patient that has multiplechronic condition and is
suddenly taken a medicationthat's going to say, lower their
blood pressure, and they'regoing to get up from their bed,
and obviously, when they aregoing to get up and try to walk,
because they forget that theyare not supposed to walk
(18:09):
unassisted because they havedementia now they are going to
fall, and that is going to leadto a brain fracture, or a hip
fracture or brain bleed, andthat's going to cause other
secondary issues. The length ofstay in the hospital increases,
and all the other additionalfactors pertaining to cost and
suffering keep on increasing. Sowith our technology, what we are
(18:31):
doing is, with the help of AI,we can we have like a platform
that has modular AI agents,which automate a lot of
processes and workflows for thiscaregivers, and as a result,
they are going to work as theirdigital think of it as kind of
like a digital if I'm a nurse, Ihave a digital assistant that's
(18:53):
going to consistently andconstantly watch the patients
and tell me that this patient isgoing to experience XYZ in the
next hour. So that's how youknow we will be able to predict
those types of adverse events,and
Don Priess (19:08):
that's done without having to have human input as
far as the information. So it'sdone that. That's all basically
done by AI that nobody has tocome and say, Oh, by the way,
this is her state right now, orthis is what's going on with her
right now.
Breana Patel (19:26):
Yeah, everything's automated. Everything is
automated. So the platformintegrates well with the
existing infrastructure, and itjust pulls information from all
types of system and has numberof large number of data sets,
where it sees the patterns andcalculates everything in real
time and provides those insightsto the clinicians or the care
(19:49):
staff so that they can makedecisions for the patients. And
Don Priess (19:53):
that's done without I mean, are they hooked up to
something? What? How would that?
What's the what's the what's itlook like? What does that.
Physical thing, or whatever it'sdoing look like,
Breana Patel (20:03):
oh, no, there is no technology. I mean, we don't
have a technology that's goingto be touching the patient, or
it's not available as well. It'sgoing to be completely
contactless. So we're going tobe using ambient AI and computer
vision to not only monitor thepatients for various types of
(20:25):
conditions and but also look attheir kinematics, and we can
measure their some of the keyvitals that are important to
identify the condition or theacuity of the patient is
improving or deteriorating. Sowe're able to do everything with
contactless without eventouching the patient's body.
Going
Susie Singer Carter (20:45):
back to what you were saying, because
don you were asking, like, howdoes, how does that interface
with the with the residents? Soit doesn't really, it's not,
it's not something that'sinterfacing with a resident.
It's not, we're not talkingabout robots and things like
that, right? I wanted to, youknow, because when you think so,
a lot of people think of AI. Youthink of, well, what's gonna how
are we going to, you know, howdo we, how do we satisfy that
(21:11):
social interaction, or the justthe the human, the human
interaction that is sonecessary, and that that gets,
that gets, you know, deletedfrom the beginning that's on,
you know, that gets checked offthe box like there's no time to
say to even sometimes say, I'mso, you know, good morning.
Sometimes, I mean, you see it,and it's, you know, it becomes,
(21:33):
you know, it just becomes a job.
It becomes a task, like a humanbeing becomes a task. And, and,
I mean in terms of what yourvision is, do you, is there
anything in the AI realm thatis, is in the works for that
kind of of assistance when itcomes to working, you know,
dealing with residents that whoare otherwise alone,
Breana Patel (22:00):
I think that's a great question that you have
posed, and it's actually one ofthe agents that we also have in
our product suite where theagent is going to identify that
the you know, because a lot ofthese patients in skilled
nursing facilities orrehabilitation centers and long
term care facilities are just bythemselves, and they are just
(22:26):
waiting to for food or sleepingor having medications, and they
experience a lot of isolationand loneliness. And so what we
are going to be doing with ourAI agent is to help be a
companion to these patients,where we are able to, you know,
identify that they are goingthrough loneliness and have a so
(22:48):
I can talk exactly about theexact features, but it's going
to be kind of like a companionthat's going to keep company to
the patients and help them to,you know, Be active cognitively,
and also help in reducing theaggression, because a lot of
these patients have aggressionbecause they are lonely. So, you
know, 100% Yeah, 100%
Susie Singer Carter (23:11):
and, and, you know, I was thinking, what a
lot about this, because I'm justdabbling a little bit in chat
GPT, right? And I don't use itfor anything. But like, Hey, I'm
wondering, you know, if you canhelp me with a post say for our
movement. Roar, right? Well, youknow, I don't know what my chat
(23:32):
GPT is. I don't know, but itfeels very human, right?
Because, for some reason, and Idon't know why, I think it's a
he, but he knows me now. It'slike, Susie, you've got this
here. This is amazing. I can'twait to see this. You got to
come tell me all about it. Like,wait, hold on. You don't even
have eyeballs. Like, what areyou like? You know? It's very,
(23:52):
it's very eerie. And yet it, no,it's like, constantly, like,
cheerleading, my, my, ourmovement in our documentary,
right? It's like, you know, I'llsay something. I'll say, can you
I forgot to upload some imagesfor this post from last week,
because I mostly use it forsocial media, and you're so,
(24:14):
right? I totally forgot. Wait aminute, you forgot. You're a
computer. I don't get that like,you know, I mean, it's very hard
to wrap our heads around that ashuman beings, right? But on the
other hand, it does feel likewhatever this is knows me very
well, right? Like don't totallyknows me, and the memory that
(24:36):
it's aggregating is verydeceiving. And in it, and I'm
not gonna lie, it feels goodbecause it tells me nice things.
So it's like, it wouldn't sayyesterday, Don, because I had to
tell Don. I was like, it said,You are such a force, Susie, and
(24:59):
it did. Like it did emojis forthe first time, and it did like
a it did like a bicep, and thenit did emoji with heart, with
the heart eyes. So I did itback, and it went right back at
you. Susie, it's like, wait aminute, what's going on here,
(25:20):
because it's very, it's verymuch like the movie her, but
Don Priess (25:24):
it's and it does kind of create this, this, you
know, not dilemma, but thisquestion, you know, because
people say, Are these going tobe replacing human beings? Well,
they don't. But when there's notenough human beings to be there
at all, it's a great filler, andbecause they do kind of take on
human characteristics justthrough words. And like she
(25:47):
said, it made her feel good. Imean, what there? I don't see a
downside to that. No.
Susie Singer Carter (25:53):
I mean, I'm totally compass, right, right? I
mean, I think, and when it tellsme like you're a force. Susie,
of course I'm gonna go, well,thank you.
Don Priess (26:11):
Sometimes should Wait, should I? I don't want to
hurt its feelings. Let me youknow it's not doing something
right right now. Well, I said,Well, tell it. I said, Well, I
don't want to hurt because youstart,
Susie Singer Carter (26:22):
it's so confusing. Briana, it's so
confusing. But that confusion isnot a bad thing for this
particular population, becauseit's very necessary. And I have
so much to ask you, so in termsof, say, people that are
disabled in terms of speech. Isa can AI help with that? In
(26:48):
other words, like, you know, alot of times people with
dementia get aggressive. Why dothey get aggressive? Because
they're it's they may not beable to speak articulate, but
they are. They are. They arecommunicating other ways. So if
something hurts, they can't say,Oh, that hurts. They get
aggressive because they can't.
They can't say it. It's like achild. And I'm not, I'm not
infantilizing our, our, youknow, adults. What I'm saying is
(27:12):
that they don't have any otherway to express it, so and
they're frustrated. So that'swhat happens. But maybe I'm just
wondering if, if there's a way.
Because as a daughter, I learnedto communicate with my mom. When
she started to lose herlanguage, it very clear to me
(27:33):
what she was saying. I couldvery and, you know, I'm was it?
I had a very communication goingon. There's no, you know, I
absolutely knew what was goingon So, and I would imagine that
AI could also figure that out.
Am I wrong? Well, the
Breana Patel (27:50):
AI can definitely differentiate the difference
between a dementia patientgetting agitated or a person
experiencing delirium orconfusion. So that difference
can help a lot as well, becausenow you can tell where the
whether the patient is actuallyagitated or the patient is just
(28:10):
experiencing delirium aftersurgery because of some kinds of
medication and other reasons. Soit can tell that difference
about interpreting what's goingon in patients mind. I mean,
there are technologies right nowthat would do, like brain
interfaces, where, you know, Ithink Elon Musk is pitching
(28:30):
something as well about braininterface. So those are the
kinds of technologies that arethere. But of course, they are
not yet tested on live patients,so that we are yet to see, you
know, it being released into themarket, but there are some
testings and pilots going on sothat we are not far from there.
(28:51):
But what I would say is, forspecifically dementia patients.
I mean, we could use voice as abiomarker to identify if a
person's dementia is, you know,improving, or it's going even
worse, depending on the stutterand the way they speak. So
that's quite possible. That typeof personalization with AI,
Don Priess (29:13):
that's, it's phenomenal. And with the
because, you know, somebodywho's incapable of, you know,
basically the only way that theycan communicate it is if they
hear something, it would it be,you know, right now we see it,
we type something on chat, GPT,and it comes back to us in text.
Well, they're not going to beable to interface that way,
(29:33):
yeah. So what are the differenttypes of interfaces would be
available or will be
Breana Patel (29:39):
so it would be audio, video and text right now,
but what I want to say is itwould free up the caregivers
time as well, because right now,caregivers are spending more
than 25% on administrative tasksand filling up the screens on
the computers now, AI can also.
Made all of that so caregiverscan focus on their job, which
(30:01):
is, you know, providingcompassionate care and human
touch to the patients. So that'sgoing to be a plus where, you
know, caregivers are going toget more time with the patients.
Susie Singer Carter (30:13):
You know, what else too. I mean, I'm sure
that that in terms of, I'mthinking of, say, a CNA from,
you know, hands on providerwho's doing just the brunt of
the all the work on people thatare, you know, full time
residents at a facility, andthose that are immobile, that
(30:33):
have to be turned every twohours, right? And those that
need whatever. You know, it'sfeasible that you have a laundry
list of their needs, right, andthen the provider can be
notified and doesn't have totake time to look on a chart or
be told, oh, this person needsyou instead of because now
(30:55):
you're getting thesenotifications that are that are
saying to you, you know, Normain room 202. Is ready for blah,
blah, blah. And that way youdon't have to, you know, it's
taking that onus off of or, youknow that that investment of
time that it takes to looksomething up, and then you can
maybe, and just with speech, Imean, just what we do with
(31:18):
Alexa, right? It's like Alexaset a timer. We don't have to
stop and set a timer. So youcan, they can easily auto, you
know, audibly say it's done.
Task, done, done. And now theydon't have to input that into a
record. And because doing therecords, like you said, is that
that is so time consuming. Ihear when we interviewed
(31:38):
frontline nurses, you know allof all of them have that becomes
such a drain.
Breana Patel (31:50):
Absolutely, that's one of our agents, too, where we
provide monitoring of thepatients, where we are able to
see through the trends. So we'realready seeing results with our
pilot at a healthcare facilitythat we are currently working
with where we saw that, youknow, patients have been in
certain types of position for along time, and we can actually
(32:12):
predict that, hey, this side ofthe body is going to experience
a pressure injury. So you mightwant to update your care plan so
that you can save them for thatfrom that kind of injury,
because that patient has had ahistory of scars or skin issues,
and now you can provide theirpersonalized insight to the care
provider, because, I mean, ahuman how many trends can you
(32:34):
remember? If you have changingpatients every single shift, you
need a tool or something that'sgoing to help you to see that.
Okay, this patient I saw lastFriday has been in these kind of
position for a long time, and weneed to update where you know
the like you said, the patientis bed bound, so they need to be
(32:55):
in different types of positionand rearrange and repositioned
so that they don't experiencethose kind of source
Susie Singer Carter (33:02):
exactly, and even, you know, as as
superficial, but it's notsuperficial because it's
actually really important, youknow, this person should be
taken outside and getting somesunshine. You know, those kinds
of things where, you know, it'snot just about delivering
medication and keeping andbathing the person and feeding
(33:23):
the person. You know, there's,there's a thing about there's
life, you know, it's like,because I remember saying, one
of the nurses, you know, kind ofclandestinely said, your mom
really needs to get outside. Youshould ask the you know,
administration to okay that. AndI'm like, of course she does.
Yes. Why am I not, you know, butyou don't think of, you know,
you forget that people need,that you can't, you can't thrive
(33:46):
sitting in a room in four wallsand, you know, those kinds of
things. And I think what'sreally exciting about what
you're doing also ismemorializing all of what's you
know, all of that that's goingon, and it's taking it out of
the hands of the administrators.
It's taking it out of the handsof of you know, of the owners,
so that it can't, you know, itcan't be as I sure can be, but
(34:12):
it's probably not as easy tomanipulate, right? So you have a
really pristine record of ofthis person you know has these
vulnerabilities, like they are,they are bed bound, but they
should be in and you would havethat record of your technology
memorializing what should bedone, and if it's not done, then
(34:34):
we know that, that you know, weknow it exactly. It's yeah, and,
you know, and it can't be, youknow, because, listen, we
interviewed people. Were theywere they were told by the
administration, no, you put therecords to in wrong. Well, I
didn't. Well, you did, yeah,right, that
Don Priess (34:55):
need to be changed, you know, just because it's not
convenient to. The to theadministration, but, and
Susie Singer Carter (35:03):
that's another level, sorry, Don but
that's another level of stressthat we can relieve off of our
providers. They don't have tointerface with the
administration making, you know,putting that on them to, you
know, do the wrong thing, right?
Do you know what I mean? Yeah.
(35:25):
So
Don Priess (35:25):
when and all of these systems will only work if
you have the facilities willingto implement them. And that
always comes down to the the thealmighty dollar. You know? How
does this to them? It's like,Well, does this cost me money?
Does this make me money? That'sreally, unfortunately the bottom
(35:46):
line. So how does this integratewith existing systems? How do
you show them, hey, in the longrun, this is going to make your
you know, this is going to begreat for you financially, also,
if
Susie Singer Carter (35:58):
then how do you and then going back to what
you were, what we were justsaying about, because it's
really about transparency,because it really does open up,
you know, and really enhance ourthe transparency. So which some
of them don't that, yes, some ofthe facilities don't want, which
I think is, I mean, I just,yeah, I just realized that that
you are just doing such aservice for transparency, which
(36:21):
is everything. So absolutely,how do you, you know? How can
you, how do you conquer thattoo, with with the way that the
status quo is now? Yeah,
Breana Patel (36:32):
so fortunately, the way we've designed our
platform is obviously customerfirst. So we did a thorough
research and one on oneinterviews with about more than
500 people across healthcare,different types of facilities,
ranging from care providers toclinicians to finance to
(36:54):
administrators. And we want tomake an impact on patients
lives, but it also has to besustainable in terms of
providing a return on investmentas well as saving costs for the
facilities. So with ourplatform, you know, it's
scalable and it's modular, sothe AI agents can deploy in a
(37:15):
very short amount of time,compared to, you know, other
types of technology, where ittakes a long time to actually
integrate into the existinginfrastructure. So it's not very
rigid. It's more, I would say,nimble and customizable, being
able to meet every careenvironment we don't tailor to
just, say, just a long term carefacility. We can go to a
(37:35):
rehabilitation center, or we cango to a nursing home, or we can
even go to a inpatient hospital.
And then our roadmap is toultimately provided for home
care to age in place. So we aredeveloping the system in a way
where it's really agile and can,you know, focus on any types of
care settings. So that's thefirst advantage. So we've not
(37:56):
had to, like, make a sale, wejust shared with the facilities,
and within a span of like sevenmonths, they were ready to do a
pilot with us, which is a verybig thing for a new startup
trying to develop a healthcareplatform, because clinical
validation is very important,and we're seeing the results
where we are able to improve theoperational efficiencies, reduce
(38:16):
the cost, reduce ER visits,reduce the response times as
well as improve the outcomes forthe patient. So we're focusing
more on how can we improve theoutcomes of the patients?
Because that will driveeverything, the cost, the
revenue, the
Susie Singer Carter (38:31):
ROI, for sure, for sure. Does it also
include the family of the of theresidents like where they are
able to inner interface with itas well. See, because they
because that, you know, we sawin COVID that when, when we were
locked out, you know, when, whenwe that that's when health even
(38:53):
got worse because that, youknow, people don't, don't
realize how much the family doesto support these facilities, you
know, and, and so it wouldstill, I'm imagining, and also
to
Don Priess (39:08):
check in and see if they're, you know, what's going
what's happening in there, youknow,
Susie Singer Carter (39:12):
yeah. So if they have access, yeah,
Breana Patel (39:17):
that is still in production, where we will be
able to provide family theoutputs. So right now we are
providing those outputs to thenurses and the care staff,
because it's in the pilot stage.
And we are providing a summary,like a daily summary, of, you
know, how the patient has been,what the patient has done, what
has been, their activity level,and, you know, their mood level,
(39:38):
everything. So it's up to themif they want to share it with
the family. But not we arecurrently only piloting within
the facilities right now.
Don Priess (39:52):
Do you see foresee any you know we who knows?
Because you know of them saying,wow. The administrator says,
wow. Look at all this. It'sbeautiful. We can cut our staff
now. We can cut down the amountof CNAs. We have to patient,
because this is all being takencare of, and we certainly don't
want that. It's not enough as itis, as we all know, not even
close. Yeah, is that somethingthat's even I mean, there's
(40:16):
nothing you can do to controlthat, obviously. But right? Do
you foresee that as any apossibility. I mean, we
certainly would hate to seethat.
Breana Patel (40:24):
No, I don't think we are replacing any human
workers. What we are doing is weare empowering the human workers
to make better decisions, toprovide faster care and to
provide standard quality of careto everyone, regardless of their
background. So that has been thesimple mission when I started
this company, is I want to beable to provide quality of care
(40:47):
accessible to everyone. Becauseright now it is not accessible
to everyone. Only say, a veryhigh risk patient would get
close monitoring. But what ifsomeone becomes a high risk
patient over the price of thehospital stay, then that event
is going to be missed, and thispatient is going to be unlucky,
and they're going to have abrain fracture or hip fracture
(41:09):
or brain bleed. So, you know,we're not replacing the human
workers. We're just elevatingand helping them and empowering
them to, you know, do their jobeasily, give better care. Yeah,
yes,
Susie Singer Carter (41:22):
right. And I think I was on a big I want to
maybe shift this is, this iscomes directly from Rick mon
castle. But this, instead ofsaying the standard of care,
standard of quality care,because it's the standard right
now is, is not quality. So wewant it to be quality care,
right because the standard iswell below quality right now,
(41:43):
that's, that's the that'sunfortunate, but that's what
you're trying to battle. Isthis, you know, substandard,
it's sub, it's sub standard towhat it should be. So we really
want to make it quality foreverybody. Yes,
Breana Patel (41:58):
we want to elevate, elevate the quality of
care to what it's right now tohave the best quality of every
patient can have best quality ofcare regardless of the
conditions they have, or youknow, what their background is.
So that's what we are trying todo, and at the same time, help
the caregivers as well, becauseI empathize with them. With so
(42:21):
much work and burnout, itbecomes hard to manage so many
people so have a three sidedimpact, which is, help the
facilities make more revenue,save cost, help the caregivers,
you know, provide quality,higher quality of care, and help
the patients get quality of careregardless of their background.
Right
Susie Singer Carter (42:39):
now we talk about the moral injury that
people go that the frontlineproviders go through. What did
you say? Don I'm missing. Win,win, win, yes, win, win, win,
win, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes,yes, yes, totally, totally.
Don Priess (42:52):
Oh, go ahead, yeah.
I was
Susie Singer Carter (42:54):
gonna say, is there, is there some part of
that technology that wouldmonitor, say, someone's level of
hydration, so that, that, youknow, because a lot of times
people that aren't vocal orverbal, they can't say, I'm
thirsty, right? And so it justbecomes like, well, I'm going to
(43:16):
this person is going to getliquid every whatever, every
four hours every eight hours,whatever, but, but people are
different. We're all unique,right? So, you know, would it?
Would that be part of thetechnology so that that takes
the onus off of their caregiver?
And because that, you know, weknow that hydrate, being
(43:37):
dehydrated is the root of a lotof bad things. Right?
Absolutely,
Breana Patel (43:43):
absolutely, you asking the right questions. I
should have just gone to you formy first research, because we
had to do so many interviews toget these answers.
Susie Singer Carter (43:56):
Thank you.
I feel good.
Breana Patel (43:59):
Yeah, that is, that is one of the features also
from our agented platform, wherewe are going to provide a
patient concierge service,where, as a nurse or a care
provider, you can set that thispatient has, for example, heart
failure issue and they're onlysupposed to have X amount of
(44:21):
fluid for a specific timeduration, and then type it in
and send it into the system. Thesystem is going to watch and see
if the patient is adhering tothat liquid intake, and when the
compliance for not for that isnot match, or there's some kind
of anomaly, then the careprovider would be alerted that
(44:42):
the fluid intake is increasingand now the swelling is going to
happen
Don Priess (44:48):
on the other end, yeah, on the other end of that,
like my mother, who is currentlyin a care facility, and she just
went into memory care, and she,you know, they at the time, she
used to have a pendant where shecould say, I need to go. Go to
the bathroom, whatever, youknow, because you can't, she's
not mobile. They took thependant away and they said, Oh,
we check on them, you know, onceevery two hours. I say, well,
(45:08):
that, you know, okay during thattime. So we actually got him to
give the pendant back. But wouldthis be able to predict that,
oh, this patient is in distressand needs yes to Yeah, that
would be because she doesn'tsometimes want to bother them,
or she forgets and she can'tfind her pendant. You know that
that would be huge. Absolutely,
Breana Patel (45:30):
we are continuously monitoring these
patients. It the technology sitsin the background. No one has to
do anything. It just works onits own. And whenever there is a
change, say, a patient isgetting restless and they want
something, it's going to telltheir care provider that, you
know, this patient that's notsupposed to get up unassisted,
is trying to get something, soget to them. But at the same
(45:53):
time, we are also being verycautious that we are not having
an alarm fatigue on the careproviders, because we don't want
to just keep on buzzing theirdevices.
Susie Singer Carter (46:04):
Yeah, yeah.
I was thinking the same thing,yeah.
Don Priess (46:08):
And then, you know, I don't know, because of we're
such a litigious society, youknow, privacy issues, you know,
are there concerns that, oh, youknow, people might think I'm
being monitored all the time,you know, it's like, is that
been a concern, and how do youovercome those concerns?
Breana Patel (46:23):
Yeah, we're completely HIPAA compliant. We
don't collect any patientidentifiable information, so we
don't know even the names of thepatients. You know everything
that is collected. There's asecurity protocol designed into
our system where we anonymizethe patients and we don't even
know anything about the patient,so there's no patient
(46:45):
identifiable information in ouralgorithms,
Don Priess (46:48):
right? Kind of thought of everything? Yeah,
Breana Patel (46:51):
that's the first thing we thought about, because
that's the biggest hurdleregulatory and I come from a
regulatory background, so I waslike, Okay, what are the
regulatory hurdles we're goingto face. Yeah,
Susie Singer Carter (47:02):
I love it.
Brianna, when do you think thisis going to be, actually, you
know,
Breana Patel (47:08):
market launch to be, yeah, so we're finishing up
our first pilot with ahealthcare facility, and our
first market launch is going tobe sometime in 2026
Susie Singer Carter (47:21):
oh, wow, so exciting. I'm so excited for
you, and so I'm just thrilled.
Like, I think this is it. Thisis a game changer. This is a
heat and it's so necessary, and,I mean, it can't come soon
enough, like, it's giving me thechills. I'm not kidding you,
because I know how important itis, right? It's just so
important. It's so it's soobvious that AI, I mean, it came
(47:42):
on so fast, like, we're justhaving that conversation on how,
like, all of a sudden it wasn'tthere, and then it's there,
right? And it's there in a bigway. Well,
Don Priess (47:54):
in every day, it's like, yeah, big way, and,
Susie Singer Carter (47:58):
and, I mean, the fact that, you know,
like I said, When, when, mywhen, my when, my phone can tell
me I'm fierce. Okay, we've madea change here. Okay, so, I mean,
it's coming on fast, and it andand, you know, I'm excited about
it, and I'm excited that someonewith your heart is is, you know,
(48:20):
at the helm of this, becauseit's so important, because, yes,
it's can be dangerous too.
Everything can be weaponizedand, you know, and
Don Priess (48:30):
gamed. Yeah, any technology can be used for good
or evil. Yeah, absolutely,
Susie Singer Carter (48:35):
yeah. And we need people like you that
actually have, you know,integrity and and the right
motives and all that stuff. SoI'm just honored to know you. No
Breana Patel (48:48):
thank you. Thank you so much for having me here.
I just want to sorry. I justwant to add that as fast as AI
is coming, like you're seeing interms of advances, so is our
aging population. We're in themidst of silver tsunamis, what
they call where we have one inevery six people above the age
of 60. So the hospitals and thehealthcare facilities are going
(49:12):
to be even more burdened. Sowe're doing our best to get the
technology in the right way tothe market as fast as possible.
Susie Singer Carter (49:20):
And how can, how can the How can the
public help you? What's do you,you know? How can you be
supported?
Breana Patel (49:27):
Yeah, I think for the public, if someone is A from
the audience, if you're ahealthcare leader or a tech
innovator or even investor, thenwould love to connect. If you're
looking to partner with us to dopilots. We have early access
program where you could join ourwait list, and we would be more
(49:47):
than happy to explore thosepartnerships as well. So those
are the kinds of things I guess,would be helpful from from the
public.
Don Priess (49:56):
And how would this be meaning? Are you? Is there
CMS? Involvement, government,any you know, what is the it's
all be private. If so, how youknow? You go to a facility and
say, Okay, I mean, is it aongoing, it's obviously an
ongoing cost. But
Susie Singer Carter (50:11):
is it opt in? Are you saying, is it an opt
in, or is it just part of the ofthe system, like, this
Don Priess (50:16):
is the way. Sis, this is the way. Hopefully, this
is the way it's going to be. Itbecomes
Susie Singer Carter (50:20):
adopted by the system. What
Don Priess (50:22):
are those models look like?
Breana Patel (50:24):
Yeah, so we're looking at providing this as a
subscript from a subscriptionmodel perspective to the
facilities, where the facilitieswould get our platform on a
subscription basis, and they'lluse it. You know, from from the
subscription model. Itdefinitely does help them in
reimbursements from Medicaid andMedicare, because a lot of
(50:46):
patients in these types offacilities are on those
programs. And if they're able toprovide, you know, quality,
higher quality of care, or beable to, you know, prevent some
of this incidents, then theywould be getting more
reimbursements and lesspenalties. Are you in
conversation with CMS? Not yet?
No, but that's the next step.
(51:10):
Yeah, that is the next step.
Susie Singer Carter (51:12):
It also, again, transparency wise, it
will also probably up the theoversight, because, you know,
there's a lot of a lot ofpatients that like, like my mom,
who was, you know, consistently,chronically, getting these
pressure wounds that sheshouldn't get because they are
(51:33):
avoidable, even though, youknow, they they can start, But
they shouldn't progress, right?
So having that memorialized, andis is also important, because
that's a motivator for theadministration to do, to be able
to facilitate those things fromhappening, from preventing them
from happening. Because, youknow, it always seems so odd to
(51:55):
me, because it's, it is morecostly as soon as you get, as
soon as someone become, youknow, gets these co morbidities,
you know, but then again, CMSreimburses them for that. So,
no,
Breana Patel (52:09):
no, no, they don't, not completely. So if a
patient is in a healthcarefacility, and if they experience
pressure injury, it's notcompletely reimbursed by CMS. On
top of that, they get a penaltyof 3% on reimbursements across
the board for all the patients.
And by ended report
Susie Singer Carter (52:32):
them.
That's where the they're notreported. They're under
reported,
Breana Patel (52:36):
right, right?
That's also an issue, so ithelps in internal compliance as
well, where, you know, they areable to improvise their
processes and governance, wherethey're able to provide
attention to the those kinds ofpatients with this technology.
Yeah,
Susie Singer Carter (52:51):
I think it's important, you know, that's
so important that transparencybe for all, every part of of of
the the industry, because it'sgoing to help the residents and
the patients. It's going to helpthe frontline providers. It's
going to help a bit, you know,whether they like it or not.
It's going to help thefacilities, you know, to to be
(53:14):
more transparent and and youknow when, and there'll be less
neglect, and therefore lessabuse, and therefore less
suffering. Yes,
Breana Patel (53:26):
absolutely it helps in preventing patient
abuse and also care providerabuse, because the abuse is two
ways, so that is also somethingthat it would help. And yeah,
Susie Singer Carter (53:37):
absolutely we are, and we'd say that all
the time, because we are, we arenot, we're just, we're not anti
providers at all. And we get it.
We get what they're under. Theyare just as the abused, as the
as the as the residents andpatients. We know that that's
why there's, there's been atsunami of of, you know, there's
been an exodus from theindustry, of our of our
(54:00):
professionals, because peoplecan't, they just can't survive.
You know, emotionally in this,in the way that the industry is
set up now, it's, it's, it'sreally devastating for everyone.
So I do agree with you, yeah,100%
Breana Patel (54:18):
and the old technology doesn't
Susie Singer Carter (54:20):
help, right? Yes, yes.
Breana Patel (54:23):
If you look at the screens, it hurts your eyes.
It's it's like, really old thatneeds to be renovated or
replaced. Yeah, yeah.
Susie Singer Carter (54:33):
So much you're so right, yeah. We need
to get modern. Let's get intoexactly 2025,
Don Priess (54:41):
well, the technology exists. It's just a matter, you
know, I mean, it's, it's toimplement that. And again, that
comes with somebody saying, Oh,I see, again, I see how this
will, you know, unfortunately,save me money, that that's their
first, that's their first go tobut in this case, you know,
it's, it hits it on all levels.
So. Yeah, wonderful,
Susie Singer Carter (55:01):
yeah. Well, I'm, we are rooting for you.
We're so such big fans, and I'mjust just super excited about
what you're doing, and I can't,I can't support you enough and
cheerleading for you all theway. So no,
Breana Patel (55:17):
thank you so much for having me, and thank you so
much for putting, you know, yourDocu series as well, because
that brings a lot of awarenessof, you know, in the aging
environment, what's going onwith the elderly. So you're
doing a very noble thing bydoing that. And I'm just honored
to be on this and be able toshare the advances we are
(55:38):
making. But what you're doing isamazing, and I'm sure you would
have blessings of so many peoplebecause of that.
Susie Singer Carter (55:45):
Thank you.
Back at you, back at you becauseyou know, like, like, my friend
chat says you're fierce, yourforce. You're a force in your
fierce Okay, so, but it's truethough, you are. You really are.
And so when you'll come back,when, when you launch, okay,
absolutely, tell us all aboutit. Maybe you could do a, you
know, demonstration of it andjust see, oh, yeah, fantastic.
(56:08):
That would be so fun, right?
Great. Yeah, this is so great.
Well, thank you, Brianna, youwe, you're, you're not only
smart, you're a love, and we'reall about Thank
Breana Patel (56:21):
you. Yeah, thank you so much.
Don Priess (56:23):
And that's because love is powerful. Love is
contagious, and love conquersall we thank everyone for
watching, listening. If you likewhat you saw or heard, please
share, subscribe, do all thosefun things. And Suze, I guess
we'll see them next time on loveCongress.
Susie Singer Carter (56:42):
We will, we will, everybody take care and
see you soon. You.
When the world has got you down, Alzheimer's sucks.
It's an equal opportunitydisease that chips away at
everything we hold dear. And todate, there's no cure. So until
there is, we continue to fightwith the most powerful tool in
our arsenal, love. This is Loveconquers alls a real and really
(00:22):
positive podcast that takes adeep dive into everything,
Alzheimer's, The Good, The Badand everything in between. And
now here are your hosts, Suziesinger Carter and me. Don
Priess,
Susie Singer Carter (00:40):
hi everybody. I'm Susie singer
Carter,
Don Priess (00:42):
and I'm Don Priess, and this is Love conquers alls,
hello Susan,
Susie Singer Carter (00:47):
hi. Do we still have a podcast? We
Don Priess (00:50):
do. It's been quite a while. And for if there's any
regular viewers, and I'm surethere's millions out there,
you'll notice that, yes, ourwhere our backgrounds are a bit
different. We've,
Susie Singer Carter (01:02):
we've changed location. I don't think
that anything anyone wouldnotice that on mine, because
yours
Don Priess (01:06):
is similar to the older episode,
Susie Singer Carter (01:10):
yeah, but we've been, we had to cut, I
think I said this last time, butwe've been sort of doing bi
monthly. It's, it's once a monthand but we're very close to
kicking it back up to twice amonth again, because we miss you
and we don't want to lose you.
So don't go. Don't listen toeveryone else. Listen to us,
because we're exactly 24/7 Yes,yeah. Only, well, there's some
(01:34):
good news that, you know, but,but I'll share with everybody
who's listening is that ourdocumentary, No Country for Old
people, has a release date.
Don't know. After over threeyears, a very difficult
(01:59):
production, very difficult, anda lot of a lot of a lot of hours
went into this, and tears andemotions and a lot of love and a
lot of support from very someamazing people. We are here at
the at the gate of and being I'mjust excited to be able to
(02:25):
finally share with everybody,because we've been getting that
question for the past year and ahalf, but where can we see it?
Where can we see it? So comeAugust 1, we'll fill you in
before then, but it will bereleased for everybody, and
it'll be available and it and sofar, it'll be free for you, so
(02:47):
it'll be it'll be available toeverybody. We think Amazon, I'm
just going to throw that outthere. And that's well, for
sure, Amazon, but it'll beeverywhere else too. But let me
hold on that. We've got detailsfor you, but this is, it's very
exciting, and it's a doc. It'sgonna be a docu series,
(03:08):
everybody. So it's gonna be,instead of one long film, we
have broken it into three partsso that you don't miss out on
some really pivot, you know,very, very important
information. Because we justfelt like it, it really needed
to be comprehensive, so that youget a good picture of what's
(03:29):
actually going on in the longterm care system, which is
really timely, because what'sgoing on politically, and not to
get political, but there is alot of, there is a, you know, a
lot of,
Don Priess (03:45):
well, the policies are going to affect everything
from here on out. They're goingto affect right care. But, you
know, I mean, everything aboutthe entire universe of this is
going to be affected by thepolicies that will be coming
down the road, that
Susie Singer Carter (04:01):
are coming down the road and, you know, and
that means the fact, Medicareand Medicaid, our Bunce, our
ombudsman system, and that wholeprogram is, is, you know,
dangerously close of being anunfunded, defunded, and that's a
problem. So, you know, there's alot of, a lot of scary issues
(04:22):
out there. And again, hello.
Thank you ageism, and thank youableism for, you know, allowing
these kind this kind of it'sreally abuse to take away these
programs from our populationthat's the most vulnerable. But
we're not going to we're goingto fight. And there's a lot of
us out there that are advocatingfor this not to happen, and
(04:42):
hopefully we'll prevail, becauseI don't know what's going to
happen if we don't, but not toget not to get down, but we need
to get activated. You know, wehave to. Know, we gotta get
activated, yeah, to get down.
Don Priess (05:04):
And this is not a, this is really not a political
thing. This is effective notthis is not what really does
center. It is everybody. It'shumanity. And, yeah, you
Susie Singer Carter (05:14):
know, and I think we forget, when you talk
about nursing homes, that thatwe think, you know, a lot of
people think, well, we're justolder people. They've lived
their life, and they're going,you know, it's okay, and it's
like, but that's not the truth.
First of all, older people arepeople, and we are all going to
be older, and we are all goingto be affected by the system
that is in place and will and,you know, stands to be altered
(05:40):
in a way that that's going to bedevastating. So we all that. But
then there's also a lot ofpeople who are disabled that
that need to take advantage oflong term care, and do, you
know, and can't live without it.
So if we and and can't affordit, because it's very expensive,
(06:04):
it's not, you know, our healthcare system is really a wealth
care system and and that's,that's, that's the truth of it
is it is a business model thatserves a lot of people more than
the people that are using it. Soanyway, I'm off my soapbox for a
second. But yeah, we a goodthing is, is that Don and I are,
(06:28):
as you know, We're roommates.
We're because I'm I'm singleever after, and I like it that
way. And but we've moved back tothe valley where I grew up and
Don grew up in the valley, soI'm back to being a valley girl
again, and I love it.
Don Priess (06:43):
We are full on vowels again, and yeah, good to
be home. And we said that
Susie Singer Carter (06:49):
it's so nice and warm, and it's warm at
night, and it's like, so, yeah,the valley is cool. I like it.
We were on the west side. Youknow, Marina del Rey area, if
you don't, aren't familiar withLos Angeles, but like Culver
City, that area, and, yeah,we're back. So supposedly cool,
but we like it. And
Don Priess (07:10):
recovering from a six week move that that was
basically most of it happened inabout two weeks. And if it
wasn't for Susie, I'd still besurrounded by, you know, boxes
up to here, but she does notallow that, and thank God for
that. So we're also
Susie Singer Carter (07:28):
good to get organized, right organization so
Don Priess (07:31):
good it is. And I'm in my own space now, my own
office, and Susie's got her
Susie Singer Carter (07:37):
life is good. We've got, yeah, we've got
separate offices. We're notsharing like, I don't know, like
The Dick Van Dyke Show. Is thatan old reference? All right. All
right. Well, on that note, sospeaking of the system that is
in place right now and think,and speaking of what the hell
(08:01):
are we going to do should theseprograms no longer exist, and
even though, and even if they doremain intact, we still need
help, because our population isgrowing exponentially, right? So
I was like, you know, there'slike Rick moncastle, our partner
(08:22):
on No Country for Old people,always says, there's no
coincidences. Well, somehow thisguest and I got connected by one
person that's our mutual friend.
Isn't that so crazy? Like wethis is on LinkedIn. I we don't
have any other mutual friends,and yet we this other woman,
who's phenomenal, thought weshould know each other, and we
(08:43):
talked, and was like, We arecouldn't have be more like
minded, only she's way smarterthan me, and she's like, she's a
genius of many different areas.
So Don Why don't you introducethis this boss.
Don Priess (09:07):
She's a boss. She's a boss, and let me tell you
about her. Right now, today, weare exploring a transformative
approach to one of our mostpressing challenges, the long
term care crisis. Our guesttoday, Breana Patel, stands at
the forefront of this revolutionharnessing the power of
artificial intelligence toreshape the future of elder
care. Breana is a seasonedentrepreneur and the founder and
(09:31):
CEO of owl AI, a companydedicated to real time patient
risk stratification to enhanceoutcomes and reduce hospital
readmissions. Her journey is asdiverse as it is inspiring with
a successful exit from aprevious venture, she has
navigated the complex worlds oftier one banks, financial
institutions and public sectoragencies focusing on regulatory
(09:55):
remediations and risk managementwith an executive MBA at m.
Sloan School of Management,Breana combines her deep
understanding of finance,technology and healthcare to
develop AI driven solutions thatprioritize patient safety and
efficiency. Her recentengagements include speaking at
the commission of Health'swebinar on using AI for better
(10:17):
hospital outcomes. Breana workis not just about innovation,
it's about ensuring dignity,reducing caregiver burnout, and
creating a sustainable model forlong term care. We are honored
to have her share her insightsand vision with us today. So
let's say hello toBreana Patel.
Hello, Breana, Hi.
Susie Singer Carter (10:38):
Welcome to our love conquers all. So happy
to have you.
Breana Patel (10:43):
Thrilled to be here. Thank you so much for
having me, of course.
Susie Singer Carter (10:47):
So yeah, it was, I was saying in our opening
to how I felt like we were solike minded, and we were that,
you know, we were talking, Idon't know for how long, but it
was like, Uh huh, Yes, uh huh,yes. And that yes, you know. And
so I was so excited to talk toyou. And when you talk, and when
(11:08):
I found out that you wereworking on AI for long term
care, I think it's just, I justthis thing that is the way to
go, and considering thepopulation that's growing
exponentially, so, I mean, tellus a little bit of your
background, because I know it'smassive, but in your like, I
don't know, 20 years old, so howyou got You've done so much in
(11:30):
such a little time?
Breana Patel (11:33):
Um, first things first. I'm not 20 years old. I
wish. I wish, um, but so Istarted my career in finance and
banking, and then when 2008crisis hit, there was a lot of
demand for regulatoryremediation, risk management. So
(11:54):
I started my company in 2014 andI scaled it and recently sold my
business. While I was goingthrough the sale, I joined MIT's
Executive MBA program, and Igraduated from the program last
year. I wanted to tap into MIT'secosystem, because this is where
all the cutting edgetechnologies developed, and, you
(12:17):
know, they provide a lot ofresources to find co founders,
build, tap into the talent pool.
So that's where I founded aulai,also driven by a personal
experience of a loved one goingthrough an adverse event while
being in care. It just triggeredthat how in this times like
2025, hospitals and healthcarefacilities are using technology
(12:40):
from 1995 in 2025 we need to bemore proactive to provide
quality care to our patients,and I wanted to make an impact.
So that's how, you know, I gotinto building health tech, along
with having firsthand experienceof serving Department for the
Aging with my previous business.
Susie Singer Carter (13:05):
So when you say personal experience, so you
had it in your own family thatyou that that gave you that kind
of perspective, right? Yes,
Breana Patel (13:15):
yes. So one of my grandparents went through an
adverse event, and no oneactually knew, and while she was
experiencing that event, andthat led to a lot of secondary
complications and impacted herquality of life. So had we had
(13:36):
the technology where there wouldbe more connected care, care
givers would have been empoweredto have that information timely
so as to make earlyintervention, it would have
helped in providing a betterpatient outcome.
Susie Singer Carter (13:53):
Right? Got you so I have so many questions
in terms of, I, you know, I'msure that you experienced this
with your grandmother. Is like,when you get these secondary
problems that happen, right? Sothat's what, that's when that
that slippery slope and kit, youknow, the carousel of going back
and being readmitted, read itinto hospitals, when you you
(14:16):
know you shouldn't have to beand no one is taking care. No
one's no no one's actuallyreading the reports, no one's
reading records, no one. They'rejust, you know, looking at
everyone like a one size fitsall. Is that? Is that what
you're saying? Is that what youexperienced? Yeah, yeah,
Breana Patel (14:34):
absolutely. So it's first of all, the caregiver
to patient ratio has just goneup really high. As a result,
there's less number ofcaregivers and more number of
patients. So it's kind of hardfor clinical teams, as well as
you know, the nurses andeveryone on the ground, to
provide personalized attentionto each and every patient. And
(14:57):
as a result, you know the. Ofthe lucky one gets the first
chance when something happens,and we wait for that event to
happen, and then we take theaction, I think, with with the
predictive nature of AI, timehas come where we should be able
to predict things, and we shouldbe able to take actions before
things happen.
Susie Singer Carter (15:18):
And so, like you said, you mentioned,
like, we're, you know, we have achronic problem of under
staffing in our country againstit's in long term care, it's in
all of our health facilities.
So, you know, hospitalseverywhere. So and the problem,
you know, it that's what createsthe biggest problem, because
they don't have the time toactually read records and to
see, oh, this person has alldementia. This person has
(15:42):
Parkinson's. This is their base,you know, they were just
admitted last week for this, andso they were given that, right?
So it's just as they're doingeverything as fast, as fast as
they can. And and it's, it's notalways a positive result,
because they're not, they're notable to do a thorough job,
right? But how do we, and how dohow would you, how are you
(16:07):
looking at that in terms ofthat, that issue that I'm
talking about, the lack ofstaff, the under staffing, when,
when you know, how could youfacilitate them to be able to
have that information at theirfingertips and be motivated
within the motivation would comewith more time, obviously. How
(16:30):
does that? How does that look?
What does that look like? Yeah,
Breana Patel (16:38):
so to take a deeper dive into it. In the next
decade, we are going to havealmost like half a million
nurses shortage in the country,so and I think about hundreds of
1000s of physicians as well. Sowhat that does is, as they are
(17:00):
serving more and more patients,the systems that were developed
in the long time back are not souser friendly, so it makes it
hard to switch from one systemto the other, because everything
is so fragmented and not userfriendly, and that also adds to
the burnout of the work. It'snot just about taking care of
the patients and having morenumber of patients, but not
(17:23):
having user friendly interfacesor intuitive systems that are
going to empower theseclinicians and care staff
providers to take care of thepatients on personalized basis.
The second thing is that whathappens is this clinicians or
care staff, they don't have realtime information about the
patient on what's going on witheach and every patient at say,
(17:47):
right this second. And as aresult, imagine if there's a
patient that has multiplechronic condition and is
suddenly taken a medicationthat's going to say, lower their
blood pressure, and they'regoing to get up from their bed,
and obviously, when they aregoing to get up and try to walk,
because they forget that theyare not supposed to walk
(18:09):
unassisted because they havedementia now they are going to
fall, and that is going to leadto a brain fracture, or a hip
fracture or brain bleed, andthat's going to cause other
secondary issues. The length ofstay in the hospital increases,
and all the other additionalfactors pertaining to cost and
suffering keep on increasing. Sowith our technology, what we are
(18:31):
doing is, with the help of AI,we can we have like a platform
that has modular AI agents,which automate a lot of
processes and workflows for thiscaregivers, and as a result,
they are going to work as theirdigital think of it as kind of
like a digital if I'm a nurse, Ihave a digital assistant that's
(18:53):
going to consistently andconstantly watch the patients
and tell me that this patient isgoing to experience XYZ in the
next hour. So that's how youknow we will be able to predict
those types of adverse events,and
Don Priess (19:08):
that's done without having to have human input as
far as the information. So it'sdone that. That's all basically
done by AI that nobody has tocome and say, Oh, by the way,
this is her state right now, orthis is what's going on with her
right now.
Breana Patel (19:26):
Yeah, everything's automated. Everything is
automated. So the platformintegrates well with the
existing infrastructure, and itjust pulls information from all
types of system and has numberof large number of data sets,
where it sees the patterns andcalculates everything in real
time and provides those insightsto the clinicians or the care
(19:49):
staff so that they can makedecisions for the patients. And
Don Priess (19:53):
that's done without I mean, are they hooked up to
something? What? How would that?
What's the what's the what's itlook like? What does that.
Physical thing, or whatever it'sdoing look like,
Breana Patel (20:03):
oh, no, there is no technology. I mean, we don't
have a technology that's goingto be touching the patient, or
it's not available as well. It'sgoing to be completely
contactless. So we're going tobe using ambient AI and computer
vision to not only monitor thepatients for various types of
(20:25):
conditions and but also look attheir kinematics, and we can
measure their some of the keyvitals that are important to
identify the condition or theacuity of the patient is
improving or deteriorating. Sowe're able to do everything with
contactless without eventouching the patient's body.
Going
Susie Singer Carter (20:45):
back to what you were saying, because
don you were asking, like, howdoes, how does that interface
with the with the residents? Soit doesn't really, it's not,
it's not something that'sinterfacing with a resident.
It's not, we're not talkingabout robots and things like
that, right? I wanted to, youknow, because when you think so,
a lot of people think of AI. Youthink of, well, what's gonna how
are we going to, you know, howdo we, how do we satisfy that
(21:11):
social interaction, or the justthe the human, the human
interaction that is sonecessary, and that that gets,
that gets, you know, deletedfrom the beginning that's on,
you know, that gets checked offthe box like there's no time to
say to even sometimes say, I'mso, you know, good morning.
Sometimes, I mean, you see it,and it's, you know, it becomes,
(21:33):
you know, it just becomes a job.
It becomes a task, like a humanbeing becomes a task. And, and,
I mean in terms of what yourvision is, do you, is there
anything in the AI realm thatis, is in the works for that
kind of of assistance when itcomes to working, you know,
dealing with residents that whoare otherwise alone,
Breana Patel (22:00):
I think that's a great question that you have
posed, and it's actually one ofthe agents that we also have in
our product suite where theagent is going to identify that
the you know, because a lot ofthese patients in skilled
nursing facilities orrehabilitation centers and long
term care facilities are just bythemselves, and they are just
(22:26):
waiting to for food or sleepingor having medications, and they
experience a lot of isolationand loneliness. And so what we
are going to be doing with ourAI agent is to help be a
companion to these patients,where we are able to, you know,
identify that they are goingthrough loneliness and have a so
(22:48):
I can talk exactly about theexact features, but it's going
to be kind of like a companionthat's going to keep company to
the patients and help them to,you know, Be active cognitively,
and also help in reducing theaggression, because a lot of
these patients have aggressionbecause they are lonely. So, you
know, 100% Yeah, 100%
Susie Singer Carter (23:11):
and, and, you know, I was thinking, what a
lot about this, because I'm justdabbling a little bit in chat
GPT, right? And I don't use itfor anything. But like, Hey, I'm
wondering, you know, if you canhelp me with a post say for our
movement. Roar, right? Well, youknow, I don't know what my chat
(23:32):
GPT is. I don't know, but itfeels very human, right?
Because, for some reason, and Idon't know why, I think it's a
he, but he knows me now. It'slike, Susie, you've got this
here. This is amazing. I can'twait to see this. You got to
come tell me all about it. Like,wait, hold on. You don't even
have eyeballs. Like, what areyou like? You know? It's very,
(23:52):
it's very eerie. And yet it, no,it's like, constantly, like,
cheerleading, my, my, ourmovement in our documentary,
right? It's like, you know, I'llsay something. I'll say, can you
I forgot to upload some imagesfor this post from last week,
because I mostly use it forsocial media, and you're so,
(24:14):
right? I totally forgot. Wait aminute, you forgot. You're a
computer. I don't get that like,you know, I mean, it's very hard
to wrap our heads around that ashuman beings, right? But on the
other hand, it does feel likewhatever this is knows me very
well, right? Like don't totallyknows me, and the memory that
(24:36):
it's aggregating is verydeceiving. And in it, and I'm
not gonna lie, it feels goodbecause it tells me nice things.
So it's like, it wouldn't sayyesterday, Don, because I had to
tell Don. I was like, it said,You are such a force, Susie, and
(24:59):
it did. Like it did emojis forthe first time, and it did like
a it did like a bicep, and thenit did emoji with heart, with
the heart eyes. So I did itback, and it went right back at
you. Susie, it's like, wait aminute, what's going on here,
(25:20):
because it's very, it's verymuch like the movie her, but
Don Priess (25:24):
it's and it does kind of create this, this, you
know, not dilemma, but thisquestion, you know, because
people say, Are these going tobe replacing human beings? Well,
they don't. But when there's notenough human beings to be there
at all, it's a great filler, andbecause they do kind of take on
human characteristics justthrough words. And like she
(25:47):
said, it made her feel good. Imean, what there? I don't see a
downside to that. No.
Susie Singer Carter (25:53):
I mean, I'm totally compass, right, right? I
mean, I think, and when it tellsme like you're a force. Susie,
of course I'm gonna go, well,thank you.
Don Priess (26:11):
Sometimes should Wait, should I? I don't want to
hurt its feelings. Let me youknow it's not doing something
right right now. Well, I said,Well, tell it. I said, Well, I
don't want to hurt because youstart,
Susie Singer Carter (26:22):
it's so confusing. Briana, it's so
confusing. But that confusion isnot a bad thing for this
particular population, becauseit's very necessary. And I have
so much to ask you, so in termsof, say, people that are
disabled in terms of speech. Isa can AI help with that? In
(26:48):
other words, like, you know, alot of times people with
dementia get aggressive. Why dothey get aggressive? Because
they're it's they may not beable to speak articulate, but
they are. They are. They arecommunicating other ways. So if
something hurts, they can't say,Oh, that hurts. They get
aggressive because they can't.
They can't say it. It's like achild. And I'm not, I'm not
infantilizing our, our, youknow, adults. What I'm saying is
(27:12):
that they don't have any otherway to express it, so and
they're frustrated. So that'swhat happens. But maybe I'm just
wondering if, if there's a way.
Because as a daughter, I learnedto communicate with my mom. When
she started to lose herlanguage, it very clear to me
(27:33):
what she was saying. I couldvery and, you know, I'm was it?
I had a very communication goingon. There's no, you know, I
absolutely knew what was goingon So, and I would imagine that
AI could also figure that out.
Am I wrong? Well, the
Breana Patel (27:50):
AI can definitely differentiate the difference
between a dementia patientgetting agitated or a person
experiencing delirium orconfusion. So that difference
can help a lot as well, becausenow you can tell where the
whether the patient is actuallyagitated or the patient is just
(28:10):
experiencing delirium aftersurgery because of some kinds of
medication and other reasons. Soit can tell that difference
about interpreting what's goingon in patients mind. I mean,
there are technologies right nowthat would do, like brain
interfaces, where, you know, Ithink Elon Musk is pitching
(28:30):
something as well about braininterface. So those are the
kinds of technologies that arethere. But of course, they are
not yet tested on live patients,so that we are yet to see, you
know, it being released into themarket, but there are some
testings and pilots going on sothat we are not far from there.
(28:51):
But what I would say is, forspecifically dementia patients.
I mean, we could use voice as abiomarker to identify if a
person's dementia is, you know,improving, or it's going even
worse, depending on the stutterand the way they speak. So
that's quite possible. That typeof personalization with AI,
Don Priess (29:13):
that's, it's phenomenal. And with the
because, you know, somebodywho's incapable of, you know,
basically the only way that theycan communicate it is if they
hear something, it would it be,you know, right now we see it,
we type something on chat, GPT,and it comes back to us in text.
Well, they're not going to beable to interface that way,
(29:33):
yeah. So what are the differenttypes of interfaces would be
available or will be
Breana Patel (29:39):
so it would be audio, video and text right now,
but what I want to say is itwould free up the caregivers
time as well, because right now,caregivers are spending more
than 25% on administrative tasksand filling up the screens on
the computers now, AI can also.
Made all of that so caregiverscan focus on their job, which
(30:01):
is, you know, providingcompassionate care and human
touch to the patients. So that'sgoing to be a plus where, you
know, caregivers are going toget more time with the patients.
Susie Singer Carter (30:13):
You know, what else too. I mean, I'm sure
that that in terms of, I'mthinking of, say, a CNA from,
you know, hands on providerwho's doing just the brunt of
the all the work on people thatare, you know, full time
residents at a facility, andthose that are immobile, that
(30:33):
have to be turned every twohours, right? And those that
need whatever. You know, it'sfeasible that you have a laundry
list of their needs, right, andthen the provider can be
notified and doesn't have totake time to look on a chart or
be told, oh, this person needsyou instead of because now
(30:55):
you're getting thesenotifications that are that are
saying to you, you know, Normain room 202. Is ready for blah,
blah, blah. And that way youdon't have to, you know, it's
taking that onus off of or, youknow that that investment of
time that it takes to looksomething up, and then you can
maybe, and just with speech, Imean, just what we do with
(31:18):
Alexa, right? It's like Alexaset a timer. We don't have to
stop and set a timer. So youcan, they can easily auto, you
know, audibly say it's done.
Task, done, done. And now theydon't have to input that into a
record. And because doing therecords, like you said, is that
that is so time consuming. Ihear when we interviewed
(31:38):
frontline nurses, you know allof all of them have that becomes
such a drain.
Breana Patel (31:50):
Absolutely, that's one of our agents, too, where we
provide monitoring of thepatients, where we are able to
see through the trends. So we'realready seeing results with our
pilot at a healthcare facilitythat we are currently working
with where we saw that, youknow, patients have been in
certain types of position for along time, and we can actually
(32:12):
predict that, hey, this side ofthe body is going to experience
a pressure injury. So you mightwant to update your care plan so
that you can save them for thatfrom that kind of injury,
because that patient has had ahistory of scars or skin issues,
and now you can provide theirpersonalized insight to the care
provider, because, I mean, ahuman how many trends can you
(32:34):
remember? If you have changingpatients every single shift, you
need a tool or something that'sgoing to help you to see that.
Okay, this patient I saw lastFriday has been in these kind of
position for a long time, and weneed to update where you know
the like you said, the patientis bed bound, so they need to be
(32:55):
in different types of positionand rearrange and repositioned
so that they don't experiencethose kind of source
Susie Singer Carter (33:02):
exactly, and even, you know, as as
superficial, but it's notsuperficial because it's
actually really important, youknow, this person should be
taken outside and getting somesunshine. You know, those kinds
of things where, you know, it'snot just about delivering
medication and keeping andbathing the person and feeding
(33:23):
the person. You know, there's,there's a thing about there's
life, you know, it's like,because I remember saying, one
of the nurses, you know, kind ofclandestinely said, your mom
really needs to get outside. Youshould ask the you know,
administration to okay that. AndI'm like, of course she does.
Yes. Why am I not, you know, butyou don't think of, you know,
you forget that people need,that you can't, you can't thrive
(33:46):
sitting in a room in four wallsand, you know, those kinds of
things. And I think what'sreally exciting about what
you're doing also ismemorializing all of what's you
know, all of that that's goingon, and it's taking it out of
the hands of the administrators.
It's taking it out of the handsof of you know, of the owners,
so that it can't, you know, itcan't be as I sure can be, but
(34:12):
it's probably not as easy tomanipulate, right? So you have a
really pristine record of ofthis person you know has these
vulnerabilities, like they are,they are bed bound, but they
should be in and you would havethat record of your technology
memorializing what should bedone, and if it's not done, then
(34:34):
we know that, that you know, weknow it exactly. It's yeah, and,
you know, and it can't be, youknow, because, listen, we
interviewed people. Were theywere they were told by the
administration, no, you put therecords to in wrong. Well, I
didn't. Well, you did, yeah,right, that
Don Priess (34:55):
need to be changed, you know, just because it's not
convenient to. The to theadministration, but, and
Susie Singer Carter (35:03):
that's another level, sorry, Don but
that's another level of stressthat we can relieve off of our
providers. They don't have tointerface with the
administration making, you know,putting that on them to, you
know, do the wrong thing, right?
Do you know what I mean? Yeah.
(35:25):
So
Don Priess (35:25):
when and all of these systems will only work if
you have the facilities willingto implement them. And that
always comes down to the the thealmighty dollar. You know? How
does this to them? It's like,Well, does this cost me money?
Does this make me money? That'sreally, unfortunately the bottom
(35:46):
line. So how does this integratewith existing systems? How do
you show them, hey, in the longrun, this is going to make your
you know, this is going to begreat for you financially, also,
if
Susie Singer Carter (35:58):
then how do you and then going back to what
you were, what we were justsaying about, because it's
really about transparency,because it really does open up,
you know, and really enhance ourthe transparency. So which some
of them don't that, yes, some ofthe facilities don't want, which
I think is, I mean, I just,yeah, I just realized that that
you are just doing such aservice for transparency, which
(36:21):
is everything. So absolutely,how do you, you know? How can
you, how do you conquer thattoo, with with the way that the
status quo is now? Yeah,
Breana Patel (36:32):
so fortunately, the way we've designed our
platform is obviously customerfirst. So we did a thorough
research and one on oneinterviews with about more than
500 people across healthcare,different types of facilities,
ranging from care providers toclinicians to finance to
(36:54):
administrators. And we want tomake an impact on patients
lives, but it also has to besustainable in terms of
providing a return on investmentas well as saving costs for the
facilities. So with ourplatform, you know, it's
scalable and it's modular, sothe AI agents can deploy in a
(37:15):
very short amount of time,compared to, you know, other
types of technology, where ittakes a long time to actually
integrate into the existinginfrastructure. So it's not very
rigid. It's more, I would say,nimble and customizable, being
able to meet every careenvironment we don't tailor to
just, say, just a long term carefacility. We can go to a
(37:35):
rehabilitation center, or we cango to a nursing home, or we can
even go to a inpatient hospital.
And then our roadmap is toultimately provided for home
care to age in place. So we aredeveloping the system in a way
where it's really agile and can,you know, focus on any types of
care settings. So that's thefirst advantage. So we've not
(37:56):
had to, like, make a sale, wejust shared with the facilities,
and within a span of like sevenmonths, they were ready to do a
pilot with us, which is a verybig thing for a new startup
trying to develop a healthcareplatform, because clinical
validation is very important,and we're seeing the results
where we are able to improve theoperational efficiencies, reduce
(38:16):
the cost, reduce ER visits,reduce the response times as
well as improve the outcomes forthe patient. So we're focusing
more on how can we improve theoutcomes of the patients?
Because that will driveeverything, the cost, the
revenue, the
Susie Singer Carter (38:31):
ROI, for sure, for sure. Does it also
include the family of the of theresidents like where they are
able to inner interface with itas well. See, because they
because that, you know, we sawin COVID that when, when we were
locked out, you know, when, whenwe that that's when health even
(38:53):
got worse because that, youknow, people don't, don't
realize how much the family doesto support these facilities, you
know, and, and so it wouldstill, I'm imagining, and also
to
Don Priess (39:08):
check in and see if they're, you know, what's going
what's happening in there, youknow,
Susie Singer Carter (39:12):
yeah. So if they have access, yeah,
Breana Patel (39:17):
that is still in production, where we will be
able to provide family theoutputs. So right now we are
providing those outputs to thenurses and the care staff,
because it's in the pilot stage.
And we are providing a summary,like a daily summary, of, you
know, how the patient has been,what the patient has done, what
has been, their activity level,and, you know, their mood level,
(39:38):
everything. So it's up to themif they want to share it with
the family. But not we arecurrently only piloting within
the facilities right now.
Don Priess (39:52):
Do you see foresee any you know we who knows?
Because you know of them saying,wow. The administrator says,
wow. Look at all this. It'sbeautiful. We can cut our staff
now. We can cut down the amountof CNAs. We have to patient,
because this is all being takencare of, and we certainly don't
want that. It's not enough as itis, as we all know, not even
close. Yeah, is that somethingthat's even I mean, there's
(40:16):
nothing you can do to controlthat, obviously. But right? Do
you foresee that as any apossibility. I mean, we
certainly would hate to seethat.
Breana Patel (40:24):
No, I don't think we are replacing any human
workers. What we are doing is weare empowering the human workers
to make better decisions, toprovide faster care and to
provide standard quality of careto everyone, regardless of their
background. So that has been thesimple mission when I started
this company, is I want to beable to provide quality of care
(40:47):
accessible to everyone. Becauseright now it is not accessible
to everyone. Only say, a veryhigh risk patient would get
close monitoring. But what ifsomeone becomes a high risk
patient over the price of thehospital stay, then that event
is going to be missed, and thispatient is going to be unlucky,
and they're going to have abrain fracture or hip fracture
(41:09):
or brain bleed. So, you know,we're not replacing the human
workers. We're just elevatingand helping them and empowering
them to, you know, do their jobeasily, give better care. Yeah,
yes,
Susie Singer Carter (41:22):
right. And I think I was on a big I want to
maybe shift this is, this iscomes directly from Rick mon
castle. But this, instead ofsaying the standard of care,
standard of quality care,because it's the standard right
now is, is not quality. So wewant it to be quality care,
right because the standard iswell below quality right now,
(41:43):
that's, that's the that'sunfortunate, but that's what
you're trying to battle. Isthis, you know, substandard,
it's sub, it's sub standard towhat it should be. So we really
want to make it quality foreverybody. Yes,
Breana Patel (41:58):
we want to elevate, elevate the quality of
care to what it's right now tohave the best quality of every
patient can have best quality ofcare regardless of the
conditions they have, or youknow, what their background is.
So that's what we are trying todo, and at the same time, help
the caregivers as well, becauseI empathize with them. With so
(42:21):
much work and burnout, itbecomes hard to manage so many
people so have a three sidedimpact, which is, help the
facilities make more revenue,save cost, help the caregivers,
you know, provide quality,higher quality of care, and help
the patients get quality of careregardless of their background.
Right
Susie Singer Carter (42:39):
now we talk about the moral injury that
people go that the frontlineproviders go through. What did
you say? Don I'm missing. Win,win, win, yes, win, win, win,
win, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes,yes, yes, totally, totally.
Don Priess (42:52):
Oh, go ahead, yeah.
I was
Susie Singer Carter (42:54):
gonna say, is there, is there some part of
that technology that wouldmonitor, say, someone's level of
hydration, so that, that, youknow, because a lot of times
people that aren't vocal orverbal, they can't say, I'm
thirsty, right? And so it justbecomes like, well, I'm going to
(43:16):
this person is going to getliquid every whatever, every
four hours every eight hours,whatever, but, but people are
different. We're all unique,right? So, you know, would it?
Would that be part of thetechnology so that that takes
the onus off of their caregiver?
And because that, you know, weknow that hydrate, being
(43:37):
dehydrated is the root of a lotof bad things. Right?
Absolutely,
Breana Patel (43:43):
absolutely, you asking the right questions. I
should have just gone to you formy first research, because we
had to do so many interviews toget these answers.
Susie Singer Carter (43:56):
Thank you.
I feel good.
Breana Patel (43:59):
Yeah, that is, that is one of the features also
from our agented platform, wherewe are going to provide a
patient concierge service,where, as a nurse or a care
provider, you can set that thispatient has, for example, heart
failure issue and they're onlysupposed to have X amount of
(44:21):
fluid for a specific timeduration, and then type it in
and send it into the system. Thesystem is going to watch and see
if the patient is adhering tothat liquid intake, and when the
compliance for not for that isnot match, or there's some kind
of anomaly, then the careprovider would be alerted that
(44:42):
the fluid intake is increasingand now the swelling is going to
happen
Don Priess (44:48):
on the other end, yeah, on the other end of that,
like my mother, who is currentlyin a care facility, and she just
went into memory care, and she,you know, they at the time, she
used to have a pendant where shecould say, I need to go. Go to
the bathroom, whatever, youknow, because you can't, she's
not mobile. They took thependant away and they said, Oh,
we check on them, you know, onceevery two hours. I say, well,
(45:08):
that, you know, okay during thattime. So we actually got him to
give the pendant back. But wouldthis be able to predict that,
oh, this patient is in distressand needs yes to Yeah, that
would be because she doesn'tsometimes want to bother them,
or she forgets and she can'tfind her pendant. You know that
that would be huge. Absolutely,
Breana Patel (45:30):
we are continuously monitoring these
patients. It the technology sitsin the background. No one has to
do anything. It just works onits own. And whenever there is a
change, say, a patient isgetting restless and they want
something, it's going to telltheir care provider that, you
know, this patient that's notsupposed to get up unassisted,
is trying to get something, soget to them. But at the same
(45:53):
time, we are also being verycautious that we are not having
an alarm fatigue on the careproviders, because we don't want
to just keep on buzzing theirdevices.
Susie Singer Carter (46:04):
Yeah, yeah.
I was thinking the same thing,yeah.
Don Priess (46:08):
And then, you know, I don't know, because of we're
such a litigious society, youknow, privacy issues, you know,
are there concerns that, oh, youknow, people might think I'm
being monitored all the time,you know, it's like, is that
been a concern, and how do youovercome those concerns?
Breana Patel (46:23):
Yeah, we're completely HIPAA compliant. We
don't collect any patientidentifiable information, so we
don't know even the names of thepatients. You know everything
that is collected. There's asecurity protocol designed into
our system where we anonymizethe patients and we don't even
know anything about the patient,so there's no patient
(46:45):
identifiable information in ouralgorithms,
Don Priess (46:48):
right? Kind of thought of everything? Yeah,
Breana Patel (46:51):
that's the first thing we thought about, because
that's the biggest hurdleregulatory and I come from a
regulatory background, so I waslike, Okay, what are the
regulatory hurdles we're goingto face. Yeah,
Susie Singer Carter (47:02):
I love it.
Brianna, when do you think thisis going to be, actually, you
know,
Breana Patel (47:08):
market launch to be, yeah, so we're finishing up
our first pilot with ahealthcare facility, and our
first market launch is going tobe sometime in 2026
Susie Singer Carter (47:21):
oh, wow, so exciting. I'm so excited for
you, and so I'm just thrilled.
Like, I think this is it. Thisis a game changer. This is a
heat and it's so necessary, and,I mean, it can't come soon
enough, like, it's giving me thechills. I'm not kidding you,
because I know how important itis, right? It's just so
important. It's so it's soobvious that AI, I mean, it came
(47:42):
on so fast, like, we're justhaving that conversation on how,
like, all of a sudden it wasn'tthere, and then it's there,
right? And it's there in a bigway. Well,
Don Priess (47:54):
in every day, it's like, yeah, big way, and,
Susie Singer Carter (47:58):
and, I mean, the fact that, you know,
like I said, When, when, mywhen, my when, my phone can tell
me I'm fierce. Okay, we've madea change here. Okay, so, I mean,
it's coming on fast, and it andand, you know, I'm excited about
it, and I'm excited that someonewith your heart is is, you know,
(48:20):
at the helm of this, becauseit's so important, because, yes,
it's can be dangerous too.
Everything can be weaponizedand, you know, and
Don Priess (48:30):
gamed. Yeah, any technology can be used for good
or evil. Yeah, absolutely,
Susie Singer Carter (48:35):
yeah. And we need people like you that
actually have, you know,integrity and and the right
motives and all that stuff. SoI'm just honored to know you. No
Breana Patel (48:48):
thank you. Thank you so much for having me here.
I just want to sorry. I justwant to add that as fast as AI
is coming, like you're seeing interms of advances, so is our
aging population. We're in themidst of silver tsunamis, what
they call where we have one inevery six people above the age
of 60. So the hospitals and thehealthcare facilities are going
(49:12):
to be even more burdened. Sowe're doing our best to get the
technology in the right way tothe market as fast as possible.
Susie Singer Carter (49:20):
And how can, how can the How can the
public help you? What's do you,you know? How can you be
supported?
Breana Patel (49:27):
Yeah, I think for the public, if someone is A from
the audience, if you're ahealthcare leader or a tech
innovator or even investor, thenwould love to connect. If you're
looking to partner with us to dopilots. We have early access
program where you could join ourwait list, and we would be more
(49:47):
than happy to explore thosepartnerships as well. So those
are the kinds of things I guess,would be helpful from from the
public.
Don Priess (49:56):
And how would this be meaning? Are you? Is there
CMS? Involvement, government,any you know, what is the it's
all be private. If so, how youknow? You go to a facility and
say, Okay, I mean, is it aongoing, it's obviously an
ongoing cost. But
Susie Singer Carter (50:11):
is it opt in? Are you saying, is it an opt
in, or is it just part of the ofthe system, like, this
Don Priess (50:16):
is the way. Sis, this is the way. Hopefully, this
is the way it's going to be. Itbecomes
Susie Singer Carter (50:20):
adopted by the system. What
Don Priess (50:22):
are those models look like?
Breana Patel (50:24):
Yeah, so we're looking at providing this as a
subscript from a subscriptionmodel perspective to the
facilities, where the facilitieswould get our platform on a
subscription basis, and they'lluse it. You know, from from the
subscription model. Itdefinitely does help them in
reimbursements from Medicaid andMedicare, because a lot of
(50:46):
patients in these types offacilities are on those
programs. And if they're able toprovide, you know, quality,
higher quality of care, or beable to, you know, prevent some
of this incidents, then theywould be getting more
reimbursements and lesspenalties. Are you in
conversation with CMS? Not yet?
No, but that's the next step.
(51:10):
Yeah, that is the next step.
Susie Singer Carter (51:12):
It also, again, transparency wise, it
will also probably up the theoversight, because, you know,
there's a lot of a lot ofpatients that like, like my mom,
who was, you know, consistently,chronically, getting these
pressure wounds that sheshouldn't get because they are
(51:33):
avoidable, even though, youknow, they they can start, But
they shouldn't progress, right?
So having that memorialized, andis is also important, because
that's a motivator for theadministration to do, to be able
to facilitate those things fromhappening, from preventing them
from happening. Because, youknow, it always seems so odd to
(51:55):
me, because it's, it is morecostly as soon as you get, as
soon as someone become, youknow, gets these co morbidities,
you know, but then again, CMSreimburses them for that. So,
no,
Breana Patel (52:09):
no, no, they don't, not completely. So if a
patient is in a healthcarefacility, and if they experience
pressure injury, it's notcompletely reimbursed by CMS. On
top of that, they get a penaltyof 3% on reimbursements across
the board for all the patients.
And by ended report
Susie Singer Carter (52:32):
them.
That's where the they're notreported. They're under
reported,
Breana Patel (52:36):
right, right?
That's also an issue, so ithelps in internal compliance as
well, where, you know, they areable to improvise their
processes and governance, wherethey're able to provide
attention to the those kinds ofpatients with this technology.
Yeah,
Susie Singer Carter (52:51):
I think it's important, you know, that's
so important that transparencybe for all, every part of of of
the the industry, because it'sgoing to help the residents and
the patients. It's going to helpthe frontline providers. It's
going to help a bit, you know,whether they like it or not.
It's going to help thefacilities, you know, to to be
(53:14):
more transparent and and youknow when, and there'll be less
neglect, and therefore lessabuse, and therefore less
suffering. Yes,
Breana Patel (53:26):
absolutely it helps in preventing patient
abuse and also care providerabuse, because the abuse is two
ways, so that is also somethingthat it would help. And yeah,
Susie Singer Carter (53:37):
absolutely we are, and we'd say that all
the time, because we are, we arenot, we're just, we're not anti
providers at all. And we get it.
We get what they're under. Theyare just as the abused, as the
as the as the residents andpatients. We know that that's
why there's, there's been atsunami of of, you know, there's
been an exodus from theindustry, of our of our
(54:00):
professionals, because peoplecan't, they just can't survive.
You know, emotionally in this,in the way that the industry is
set up now, it's, it's, it'sreally devastating for everyone.
So I do agree with you, yeah,100%
Breana Patel (54:18):
and the old technology doesn't
Susie Singer Carter (54:20):
help, right? Yes, yes.
Breana Patel (54:23):
If you look at the screens, it hurts your eyes.
It's it's like, really old thatneeds to be renovated or
replaced. Yeah, yeah.
Susie Singer Carter (54:33):
So much you're so right, yeah. We need
to get modern. Let's get intoexactly 2025,
Don Priess (54:41):
well, the technology exists. It's just a matter, you
know, I mean, it's, it's toimplement that. And again, that
comes with somebody saying, Oh,I see, again, I see how this
will, you know, unfortunately,save me money, that that's their
first, that's their first go tobut in this case, you know,
it's, it hits it on all levels.
So. Yeah, wonderful,
Susie Singer Carter (55:01):
yeah. Well, I'm, we are rooting for you.
We're so such big fans, and I'mjust just super excited about
what you're doing, and I can't,I can't support you enough and
cheerleading for you all theway. So no,
Breana Patel (55:17):
thank you so much for having me, and thank you so
much for putting, you know, yourDocu series as well, because
that brings a lot of awarenessof, you know, in the aging
environment, what's going onwith the elderly. So you're
doing a very noble thing bydoing that. And I'm just honored
to be on this and be able toshare the advances we are
(55:38):
making. But what you're doing isamazing, and I'm sure you would
have blessings of so many peoplebecause of that.
Susie Singer Carter (55:45):
Thank you.
Back at you, back at you becauseyou know, like, like, my friend
chat says you're fierce, yourforce. You're a force in your
fierce Okay, so, but it's truethough, you are. You really are.
And so when you'll come back,when, when you launch, okay,
absolutely, tell us all aboutit. Maybe you could do a, you
know, demonstration of it andjust see, oh, yeah, fantastic.
(56:08):
That would be so fun, right?
Great. Yeah, this is so great.
Well, thank you, Brianna, youwe, you're, you're not only
smart, you're a love, and we'reall about Thank
Breana Patel (56:21):
you. Yeah, thank you so much.
Don Priess (56:23):
And that's because love is powerful. Love is
contagious, and love conquersall we thank everyone for
watching, listening. If you likewhat you saw or heard, please
share, subscribe, do all thosefun things. And Suze, I guess
we'll see them next time on loveCongress.
Susie Singer Carter (56:42):
We will, we will, everybody take care and
see you soon. You.
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