Wake Forest Baptist Health Partners With Verily to Improve the Health and Independence of Older Adults

Verily, an Alphabet company, is partnering with Wake Forest Baptist Health and its Center for Healthcare Innovation to implement new solutions to improve the health and wellness of older adults and help them remain independent at home.

The research partnership will leverage Wake Forest Baptist’s expertise in healthy aging and Alzheimer’s disease research and clinical care with Verily’s expertise in product development and engineering. The partners aim to develop more effective ways to connect patients with health care professionals and the resources needed to better deliver long-term rather than episodic care.

The research partnership will test interventions that promote physical and cognitive independence and facilitate greater involvement of older adults in decisions related to their health and wellness preferences. All interventions tested with patients will require Wake Forest Baptist’s Internal Review Board approval, which is an established, rigorous process used for research at the health system today.

“We’re pleased to partner with Verily to assess technologies that will provide older adults with better access to health care and wellness without having to leave their homes,” says Jeff Williamson, MD, chief of geriatric medicine and director of the Center for Healthcare Innovation at Wake Forest Baptist Health. “The goal is to help this rapidly growing segment of our population to take an active role in living their most healthy and independent life in a familiar setting—their home.”

“Keeping people healthy at home through all stages of life is foundational to our work at Verily,” says Vivian Lee, MD, president of health platforms at Verily. “By partnering with Wake Forest Baptist, we can provide new monitoring and collaboration tools to patients and clinicians and will learn directly from their experience.”

Source: Verily