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Gabriel Health Announces Pilot to Combat Social Isolation

2017-06-29 15:19 1590

MELBOURNE, Australia, June 29, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Thousands of seniors are set to benefit from a large-scale pilot in Victoria to turn around the trend of social isolation, a silent but widespread and growing issue among older Australians.

The Victorian pilot, which will save the health system more than $100 million per year, is set to take place in 30,000 homes in the Melbourne metropolitan and regional areas and will begin to roll out in August 2017.

Terry Crews is the founder of Gabriel Health Systems, a Victorian-based health technology company behind the pilot to not only enable seniors to remain independent at home for longer, but also stick to their normal routines to help prevent loneliness.

"We've looked at research across the globe and found that social isolation speeds up life threatening diseases like dementia, Alzheimer's, depression, suicide, diabetes, heart disease, cancer, frailty, ageing and many more."

"There has been widespread acknowledgement for many years of the adverse effects of social isolation, but until now there has not been an effective intervention," Mr Crews said.

"Our technology provides a simple means to create the family connection and in a non invasive way detect any changes to health and wellbeing." Mr Crews said.

Pilot participants will have a custom developed Unity tablet connected to the Gabriel communications platform. A click on a large photo of family member instantly creates a video link to the family member.

A combination of Gabriel video software, motion detectors, voice recognition and artificial intelligence keeps an eye out for any adverse situation enabling appropriate assistance or intervention and peace of mind for family.

Minister for Small Business, Innovation and Trade Philip Dalidakis said that Gabriel Health's pilot is a great example of the new technologies being developed in Victoria, Australia's digital technology and innovation capital, that are improving people's lives across the world.

"Victorian technology innovation is growing new global businesses and creating the jobs of the future. This technology has the potential to improve health outcomes for our aging populations worldwide, reducing healthcare costs across the globe."

Upon completion of the pilot, Gabriel plans to expand globally focusing initially on the US and UK markets.

Media contact:

Terry Crews
Gabriel Health Systems Pty Ltd
+61 429 007 001
terry@gabrielcares.com
www.gabrielcares.com

To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/gabriel-health-announces-pilot-to-combat-social-isolation-300481743.html

Source: Gabriel Health Systems
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