As the nation’s thousands of military veterans come to require more healthcare services, companies that cater to them are looking more often at more complex technology solutions.
One example: AI-giant Iveda, in partnership with Movement Interactive, announced Thursday that it had received an eight-year Veterans Affairs contract worth just over $1 billion to use IvedaCarea and IvedaAI for telehealth and fall-detection technology.
Iveda and Movement Interactive’s technology provides healthcare personnel with by-the-second monitoring technology. Issues such as fall detection and medication usage can be closely scrutinized in real time, according to a statement from Iveda on the agreement.
“It’s fantastic to see the U.S. government investing in updated technology infrastructure,” Iveda CEO David Ly said in the statement.
Iveda’s AI assistant IvedaCare launched last year and relies on sensors and smartphone technology, rather than cameras, to monitor patients. The new tech would be a boon to both homes and care facilities, Ly told McKnight’s previously.
For the VA contract, Movement Interactive will equip 150 households and public areas, as well as 4,000 senior living communities across the country, with the Iveda technology, the company said.
Currently, there are more than 70,000 veterans aging in place; more than three million of veterans age 75 and above are expected to rely on VA healthcare by the end of the decade, according to the Military Times.
In addition to regular age-related health concerns, veterans may have unique service-related disabilities. A combination of declining fatalities and increased diagnosis/awareness of veterans’ conditions such as PTSD has led to a rise in the number of disabled veterans, according to a 2020 US Census report.The VA also is supporting legislation — pending certain conditions or amendments — that would create a pilot program for veterans to have their needs met in an assisted living community rather than a VA home.
