In 2016, founders of eHomeCare, Hubert van Dalen and Gerard Blokker realised that the health and aged care industry are ill equipped to ensure the health & safety of increasingly frail and cognitively impaired people. Technology-enabled innovations pervade nearly every aspect of life and business and increasingly low cost tools are at our disposal. 

​

Despite tremendous technological advances, they had not seen corresponding changes in the way care was provided or technology was used. Everyone they spoke to had a story – eg. a mother who had fallen in her home and only to be found until hours later. Why had smart care technology introductions not succeeded in doing what it could do well; enabling the elderly, loved ones and care providers to do what humans do best – care and connect?

​

In their research they discovered key influences on the non-adoption and abandonment of the technologies by individuals, or limited success in attempts to move from a successful trial project to a fully scaled sustainable service within and beyond the care organisations. Finding good technologies didn't seem to be the biggest challenge, sustainably adopting them was...

​

Experiencing related challenges as children of aging parents they realised there was a gap in the market for a provider who specialises in searching and testing suitable care technologies and creating solutions, like chefs creating meals out of groceries, to support the needs for Healthy Ageing. Not by building a new technology, but by focusing on helping their clients successfully finding and adopting them. 

 

Combined with their understanding of the aged care & hospital sector and knowledge and leadership from different industries, they felt it was their duty to create the solution provider eHomeCare that smartly combines fit-for-use, affordable, and sustainable products to support disabled, elderly, (health)care professionals and loved ones’ unique care needs.

 

eHomeCare brings innovation through combination of technologies, leading to improved services and efficiency, hence value for money for the clients. It can provide day and night supervision, social interaction, reminders, and avoid alert fatigue. Innovation is also required as the care workforce faces its own challenges with a current shortage of trained care workers and registered nurses. The demand for care workers will continue to surge as the number of older Australians requiring personalised care and support increases.