Prof Ron Baecker: My Sister and InTouch

My younger sister, Janet, was the social one. I was the geeky curmudgeon. (Some say I still am.)

Janet seemed always on the move and into things: she had an active research group in the New Jersey Department of Public Health, she was an avid amateur musician – playing in a string quartet, and she was active in the Jewish Community. Her house was a hub – filled with laughter and enthusiasm of teenage children’s friends.

Janet and husband David

A devastating diagnosis

Then the unthinkable: before her 50 birthday she was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. By the time she died, 15 years later, her life was much reduced. Her last two years restricted to bed in a shared room in a Rehab facility, miles away from her family. Her husband visited her once a week. Visits from friends dwindled to once a year. As the end grew near, it became harder for her kids to visit: She could no longer speak. It was unclear whether or not she understood anything.

Each resident had a tv, each blasting different channels.

I visited her several times in those last two years, in a 75-room facility, north of Philadelphia, where most of the residents were confined to their two-bed rooms. Each resident had a tv, each blasting different channels. What was available was mostly mindless drivel.

It was on one of these visits I imagine the tv playing a different role: being a vehicle for communication. Programs would stop, as personal messages came on:

“Hi Mom, I went golfing, shot three birdies, going to see Mets tomorrow ‘nite, Coming to see you this weekend.”

I pondered, and an idea began to percolate: communication technology for seniors who are isolated, lonely, with friends dying off or perhaps moving away from friends, or living in an institution.

The more I looked into it, the more I saw that there was greater need. Isolation and loneliness didn’t just apply to people with life–draining illnesses in hospitals or institutions: elders with chronic conditions who are still till their own are just as likely to feel lonely and isolated when their children move away and their friends die off.

Researching, the data on the impact of loneliness and social isolation was staggering: right up there with lifestyle related conditions like smoking and obesity. Devastating to learn of the incidence of depression, self-worth, frailty, self-confidence, mental abilities, anxiety, poor nutrition, bedsores and falls.

I got to work with the team at TAGlab.

Fast forward: after the expected false starts, the vision that was sparked by my sister’s sorry state, is now a fully developed product, called InTouch. It’s being tested by seniors, and – happy day – evidence builds upon evidence, that even those fearful of and insecure about using technology can use this tablet and smart-phone based application with its touch-screen, bright colours and big pictures: all elements proven essential for seniors who may have failing eyesight and arthritic fingers.

inTouch was born

It’s pared down to four essential communication options, using simple icons: Voice, video, text message and picture-taking. Delivering love and good will in bite-size easy-to-share messages.

InTouch doesn’t need complex options: helping a senior feels loved and cherished and less lonely, less isolated, is as easy as:

• 10 seconds of video ‘here’s the view outside my window’
• a picture: ‘your granddaughter’
• 10 seconds of audio ‘saw your friend today, she asked about you’
• a pre programed ‘wave’

Sent and received throughout the day. Lighting up a senior’s life.

I only wish we could’ve had it in time for Janet.