On Sunday, November 20th, 2016, St. Thomas based Entrepreneur Fabian A. Boehm, Founder of digitaldackel.ca, was awarded with the prestigious IBM award for his AI-driven app that will prevent falls of dementia patients. Fabian is no stranger to technology, having graduated from Germany’s elite university and having started his career in Germany’s Silicon Valley.
“Falls of dementia patients are not only negative for the mental and physical health of the patient, but also the entire family. Numbers of dementia patients are expected to double by 2031 and the total cost on the health care system will rise to $4 billion. Our app allows patients to safely live at home longer and gives caregivers the freedom and peace of mind they deserve.”
The app prototype was developed as part of an intensive 72-hour hackathon organized by Hacking Health in Waterloo. Fabian’s idea was to use artificial intelligence to predict where patients will be going, in case they have wandered off. It is a first in the industry and can significantly increase the chances of survival of dementia patients.
Fabian A. Boehm, who worked as a Personal Support Worker for dementia patients in Germany, explained why he is passionate about this idea: “I have seen first hand the devastating impacts of injuries caused by wandering off during cold winter months. In these situations every second counts and the best we can do right now, is to contact the authorities when someone may have left the facilities and guess where they may have gone. This is absolutely unacceptable and we will use technology to dramatically decrease the number of dementia-related injuries and deaths in Canada and around the world.”
“Through artificial intelligence and our advanced data models, we can predict where a dementia patient will be instead of just displaying where he currently is. This will save emergency services time; time that will be the deciding factor between a person’s life and death.” The app can predict location and fall risks inside and outside residential homes as well as retirement communities.
The IBM award, valued at $48,000, will allow Fabian’s team to accelerate the app development and launch it as a prototype in 2017.
Fabian A. Boehm is estimating to pilot private homes for the in-home tracking by Q3 2017 and pilot in a care facility for the external tracking by Q4 2017.
“You know, I learned how to drive on Germany’s Autobahn and that is the speed I drive my company and team at”, says Fabian with a smirk on his face. “You better buckle up!”
“We are already in negotiations and talks with various universities and investors and are on track to raise over $1 Million in 2017 to accelerate global growth”, Fabian explains.
“We are proud to develop this solution in St. Thomas and I believe that this will send a strong signal to VCs and institutional investors that Elgin has the potential to become a tech hub in Canada as long as we get the support of politicians and private public partnerships to increase Internet bandwidth in St. Thomas and to aggressively attract world class talent. My agency, digitaldackel.ca, will be aggressively driving this growth and prove that we should all be #stthomasproud and that we are #progressivebynature here in Elgin.”
About Digital Dackel
DigitalDackel.ca has been founded in 2015 by Fabian A. Boehm of herrfabulous.com. We are a team of Dackels (FCI-Group 4, Section 1, Standard Nr. 148). Oh, and we are also Canada’s best research and data-driven agency with a focus on #fintech and #mhealth.
