When Wolf Shlagman came up with the idea for Care Angel, he had to “connect a lot of dots.” The award-winning service, which helps ensure homebound people are happy and healthy, required that the technology—artificial intelligence and voice recognition software, for instance—be advanced enough. “When you can finally bring it all together,” Shlagman says, “it’s the ideal solution.” The genius of Care Angel is that although it’s sophisticated technology, it doesn’t require seniors to do anything more daunting than answer their own telephone. A virtual caregiver with a soft, soothing voice calls and asks simple questions like “Have you taken your medication today?” If they haven’t, it asks follow-up questions about whether they’ve forgotten or need to get more from the pharmacy. All the information it gathers, including long-term trends like not sleeping well or spikes in blood pressure, is delivered to family members.
Part of what I like to do is come up with solutions to issues that people are facing in their daily lives. Questions pop into my mind, and I find a way to solve them.
Shlagman says he’s always been interested in technology, joining an internet startup right out of college. The 46-year-old entrepreneur has been applying his knowledge to the healthcare field since 2005. He says Care Angel just closed another round of funding, and a long list of health-related companies has expressed interest. “Everybody so far has been taken aback by the innovations that we have,” says the member of Miami’s WeWork Lincoln Road. “We’re really revolutionizing the way we care for people.”
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