What are the worst parts about being a family caregiver when your loved one is in a care facility?
Today in the United States, nearly 40% of adults are involved in caring for a family member. That’s 66 million people. If you’ve ever helped care for an aging parent, an ailing child or a friend living with a disability, you know firsthand how stressful it can be. Many studies have confirmed that caregiving can be emotionally devastating for caregivers. In fact, acting as a caregiver…
Unfortunately, because many of these challenges are caused by poor communication, moving a loved one into a residential facility like a nursing home or assisted living doesn’t necessarily reduce stress. Many caregivers report that their depression and anxiety are just as high after moving Mom or Dad into a home as they were before, when they were providing at-home care.
The CareMonster App is the new mobile application dedicated to transforming the caregiving experience, for both the caregiver and their loved one.
If you’re like nearly half of all American adults, you may know firsthand how challenging caring for a loved one can be, even under the best of circumstances. Care Monster’s co-founder, Michael Eidsaune, discovered that the hard way when his family was caring for their beloved 93-year-old grandmother who had dementia.
Even with a nurse in the family, they couldn’t stay on top of her over-the-counter medications. Even with phone calls, email, texting and Facebook, they couldn’t effectively and efficiently communicate with each other in real time. As hard has they tried, they couldn’t keep the whole extended family in the loop on her care.
After they experienced a few frightening “close calls,” they realized there had to be a better way.
Lack of meaningful communication is enormously frustrating and stressful for family caregivers. That’s why Mike and his team created the CareMonster App. Their simple goal: to help caregivers stay connected, informed and engaged throughout the caregiving process, no matter how far away they live or what level of care they provide. The result?
CareMonster is live in the Apple and Google app stores, and 35 care facilities already make the CareMonster App available to patients and their families. Now, we’re ready to widen our vision, and bring CareMonster to the nation’s top children’s hospitals, into every assisted living home in the country, and into the hands of families around the world who are caring for loved ones. And that mission starts here. We’re ready to not only expand nationally and internationally, but to improve the platform, adding features and functionality that will further improve our users’ caregiving experience, and help our facility partners deliver an elevated care experience to their families and patients.
The mission of Care Monster is simple: give families everywhere the tools they need to make the care process as communicative and connected as possible throughout their caregiving journey. With the CareMonster App, families and the care communities that support them can:
In short: the CareMonster App makes the logistical side of care easy, efficient and stress-free, so caregivers can relax, take a breath and focus on being there for their loved ones in the ways that matter most.
Nearly 40% of adults in the United States today are involved in care for a loved one. That’s 66 million people just in the US alone.
And that number doesn’t even begin to take into account the millions of care professionals who devote their lives to helping families navigate the care process.
While families and their ailing loved ones are CareMonster’s number one priority, we’re also committed to helping care facilities everywhere do their part to improve the patient and family care experience.
Offering CareMonster to patients and their families as a white-label solution has proven to be a great way for hospitals and other care facilities to add an extra dimension of support to their care.
And when families and care facilities alike are doing everything they can to stay connected, the result is something truly incredible:
The Care Monster team has already seen an incredible response to our mission, and the momentum is building toward even bigger and better things to come. A Viable Product The CareMonster App is available for download through both the Apple App store and the Google Play store. A Growing Customer Base The App is already in use in 35 different healthcare facilities across Ohio, Kentucky and Texas. The Care Monster team is also in talks with:
Facilities already partnering with Care Monster, Inc. include CareSource, Alzheimer’s Association, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital and Brookdale Senior Living. Based on our current trajectory and our current pipeline, we expect that number to quadruple in 2015 alone. Industry Recognition Care Monster is honored to have been invited to Aging2.0 Academy, a year-long program for top startups exploring solutions focused on aging and long-term care.
In March 2015, Care Monster headed to South By Southwest (SXSW) as one of 15 startups selected to participate in the Impact for Pediatric Healthcare pitch competition. There were more than 400 healthcare and tech industry leaders in attendance, including numerous hospital CIOs, venture capitalists and healthcare professionals. Billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban of Shark Tank fame emceed the event, reacting favorably to Care Monster’s concept and progress to date.
The CareMonster Caregiving App got an incredible response at SXSW. The team was awarded the “Design for All” Award, presented by AARP (American Association of Retired Persons). There are many more exciting developments where that came from. For more information about how we’re taking our momentum from SXSW and our other recent milestones and running with it, please request access to the business plan page of this profile.
The inspiration for the CareMonster App was a great-grandmother named Gertrude. As Gertrude’s condition and memory deteriorated, Mike Eidsaune and his family struggled to coordinate schedules and keep everyone on the same page with Gertrude’s condition and care. The same questions popped up again and again: After a while, the family got to thinking: with all of the technology at our fingertips today, surely there has to be a better way to manage the care process. So Mike set out to build it, and before long, the CareMonster App was born. Michael’s experience with his great-grandmother inspired the app, but it wasn’t until a year after the app launched—when he and his wife had to rush their three-year-old son to the hospital—that Mike got firsthand proof of how the CareMonster App could add some much-needed peace of mind to the care process. During the three days that Michael’s son was hospitalized, grandparents, aunts and uncles called in constantly to get updates on his condition. It seemed as though Michael was spending more time with his cellphone than with his son. Before long, Michael realized that the CareMonster App was the perfect tool to keep everyone up-to-date on the latest news easily and efficiently. More importantly, Michael realized that the CareMonster App empowered him to give his son what he needed most in a scary, unfamiliar place: the irreplaceable time, presence and hands-on support of his mom and dad. Michael introduced the CareMonster App to facilities like Hospice of Dayton—the third largest non-profit hospice facility in the U.S.—and another facet of the caregiving experience came to light. Families using the CareMonster App were empowered to make the most of every day they had left with their loved one, so the precious time spent with them was full of love and meaning, not guilt, fear and regret. “Care Monster will truly change the care industry and vastly enhance how we deliver care. I see this platform as a great extension of our brand and an incredible tool for our families,” noted Kent Anderson, the CEO of Hospice of Dayton.
Mike Eidsaune, CEO
Mike is the driving force behind Care Monster’s overall strategic vision. Since Care Monster launched 15 months ago, he has closed more htan 35 contracts with partner organizations, including the 2nd largest US-managed care provider, generating $135,000 in revenue and funding all business operations for Care Monster. Mike is also responsible for Care Monster’s acceptance into Aging2.0 Academy and the SXSW Impact Pediatric Pitch competition, also for winning the Innov8 for Healthcare Challenge and the AARP “Desig For All” Award. Mike also has an MBA in Finance and was a CFA Charter Holder. As Care Monster continues to grow and evolve, Mike will be responsible for overseeing the vision and mission of the company and making sure that the company continues to hit all of its milestones and goals.
Jared Fleener, CTO
Jared is responsible for instituting Care Monster’s technical vision, and leading all aspects of technology development. Previously, Jared was a founding team member of Tune Wiki, where he led at global team of developers spanning 4 countries and helped scale the platform to over10 million active users. Jared is also a Google Android Developer Challenge Top 10 Winner.
Schonne Eldridge
Schonne is a seasoned digital executive, leader and strategist. He is an expert in business communications, operational management, UX/product design, editorial direction, and product and process design. His real passion (since1988) is Technical Marketing and growth hacking. He has a book coming out specifically about the technical challenges of marketing to an international audience. Schonne has helped companies deal with technical marketing challenges, and shown them how to embed growth into their products using viral loops and analysis of growth assets. His grew his first business grew to almost a million subscribers in just over a year.
Brian Link
Brian is a software technology executive, passionate technologist, and Internet start-up enthusiast. He is a strategic web, engineering and product manager addicted to the agile development process. Brian was the first CTO at Digg.com, where he led Development, Product, QA and R&D for 3 years as Digg grew to be one of the most highly trafficked websites in the world. Today, Brian is also an advisor and board member to various Internet startups in San Francisco, Austin, Boston and Columbus.
Dr. Sandeep Palakodeti, MD MPH
Dr. Palakodeti is an InciteHealth Fellow at the Harvard Medical School Center for Primary Care. He specializes in bringing together patients, providers and innovators from across the healthcare industry to radically transform the primary care landscape through empowerment, engagement and the use of 21st-century solutions in healthcare.
Kent Anderson
Kent was named President and CEO of Hospice of Dayton and Hospice of Butler and Warren Counties in 2010, following a nationwide search by the Hospice of Dayton Board of Trustees. With more than eighteen years of top-level leadership experience in the operation of hospice programs, Kent has led programs in several states.
Brian Zuercher
Brian Zuercher is CEO of Seen, a visual marketing company specializing in customer enagement. When he’s not quarterbacking for Seen, Brian spends his time co-founding, building and funding early-stage companies.