Given my experience as a data scientist at one of SA’s largest aged care providers, I’m very excited about RAP entering the aged care space. This is why;
Macro Scenario
The world is aging, that’s not a secret. What may surprise people are the ratios. From memory, at current, there are approximately six workers to every one person over 75. Within 30 years, this falls to around 2.5 workers. This is a global phenomenon and answers to how to care and pay for it are yet to be answered. In the future, these demographic trends will exacerbate labour shortages and the already high demand for aged care services. Governments will be looking at ways to bring efficiencies into the sector.
At present, the Australian government’s main strategy is to move more people into home care away from residential care (nursing homes). Residential care will be mainly used for end-of-life/palliative care and cases of severe dementia. In order to safely provide in-home care, the sector is turning towards monitoring combined with AI to improve the quality of care. Some of the AI/monitoring is already being incorporated follows;
· Motion sensors to monitor if the person is moving enough
· Behavioural recognition to identify mental health issues
· Appliance sensors to ensure elderly are correctly nourished
· Pain detection to ensure elderly aren’t in pain
· Medical adherence to ensure medication is being correctly taken
· AI assistance (google, Siri et al) to assist in day to day activities
· With this announcement, we can add at-home health care.
As demonstrated, the industry is primed and well versed in bringing technology to the consumer, and competition for ‘home care packages’ is fierce. The funding model is ‘consumer directed care’ and although people don’t pay, they make decisions where funding is spent. This ensures that platforms will be actively looking for enhancements and a point of difference to entice the elderly and their families. I can see ResAppDX being a BIG selling point.
Funding and Growth
One of the main reasons that this area is hot is because significant funding is being pumped into aged care. In response to the Royal Commission into Aged Care, the Government “Budget will deliver $17.7 billion for once in a generation change to aged care in Australia”. This includes $6.5 billion for an additional 80,000 Home Care Packages (now over 200,000 packages). The beauty here is that Medicare reimbursement status is not needed as the money is spent by the package holder. These platforms are already sanctified as being worthy of funding. As we know, lack of reimbursement has been a major sticking point for commercial success in telehealth locally.
Even though the agreement today is from a start-up, it highlights the sector is perfect for ResApp’s monitoring. Many more similar platforms will follow - local and global.
The thin end of the wedge
Today marks a momentous occasion as RAP’s entry into at-home health care. RAP will be collecting copious amounts of data and use cases to help it enter into at-home health care for other diseases. This will help RAP enter asthma, croup, and COPD monitoring. When the next pandemic hits, the sick will not have to go to hospitals or the doctor’s office as this model of care would’ve been already pioneered in aged care. The market opportunity has just expanded significantly – RAP now just has to corner it.
I’m not calling touch down yet, but Tom Brady has justbeen handing the pigskin
Expand
