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#19: Ontario-based businesses and the innovation born as a result of COVID-19

The “sandwich generation” has become more prevalent with the rise of COVID-19.

This generation — made up of parents of dependent children, as well as caregivers of aging parents, or those living with conditions like dementia, who simultaneously balance caregiving with careers — are facing even more challenges as the pandemic continues.

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This year, WeTraq, an Ontario-based, Health Canada-certified tech company founded in 2016, set out to improve the mental health and caregiving capabilities of this generation with a powerful, easy-to-use application that provided family caregivers with the ability to remotely monitor the whereabouts and mobility behaviours of loved ones. When COVID-19 hit, WeTraq’s innovative app became even more pragmatic and they retooled their technology to assist with fighting the pandemic.

Before March 2020, WeTraq was strictly focused on its credit-card-sized location monitoring device for parents and caregivers concerned about the safety and well-being of their families — think children, teenagers, seniors wanting to age-in-place or those affected with medical conditions like severe autism, dementia, Alzheimer’s and more. This IoT-based personal tracking solution combined enhanced GPS technology with WIFI and cellular radio to allow caregivers to monitor the location of their kids or parents anytime, from anywhere. The device captured mobility behaviour, which was then further analyzed by its backend IoT platform using a proprietary algorithm. When COVID-19 hit, they shifted their focus toward building mobile solutions that could be downloaded on any smartphone to increase their market size, improve adoption rate with low-cost for the consumer and low operational costs for WeTraq. In the early stages of COVID-19, health authorities repeatedly expressed that tracing the movements and contacts of those exposed to the virus is one way to contain it. During this time, public-health officials had to interview those infected to determine who they had close contact with. These officials then had to reach out to those contacts to advise them to monitor for symptoms or to self-isolate. It was a laborious process during which others were potentially and unknowingly exposed.

“All startups must solve problems. Our company’s mission has always been to improve the mental health and quality of life for both care partners as well as care recipients. At times of change the methodology of solving a particular problem is the answer to the success of your company. Persistence is crucial but so is adaptability.”

In the early stages of COVID-19, health authorities repeatedly expressed that tracing the movements and contacts of those exposed to the virus is one way to contain it. During this time, public-health officials had to interview those infected to determine who they had close contact with. These officials then had to reach out to those contacts to advise them to monitor for symptoms or to self-isolate. It was a laborious process during which others were potentially and unknowingly exposed. While public health authorities have opted for a Bluetooth-based contact- tracing solution that uses Apple and Google technology for sending notifications to exposed individuals, WeTraq’s artificial intelligence-based predictive platform is also available for public health to create a private and secure means to enhance their contract  tracing capabilities.
 
Then WeTraq saw another opportunity. In the first few months of the pandemic, parents and caregivers struggled to manage at-home schooling, family time and providing care for seniors while working remotely. Months later, they faced even more challenges as they returned to working onsite. WeTraq enhanced its application to become an innovative smartphone app that would assist in making these challenging times more manageable by providing the ability to remotely and securely monitor the whereabouts and mobility behaviours of their at-risk loved ones, helping to reduce the caregiving-related employee absenteeism. According to a 2017 CIBC Report, employers across Canada saw an estimated six billion dollars in lost productivity: Thirty percent of workers had parents over the age of 65 and had to take time off work — sacrificing roughly 450 hours a year — and this translated into approximately $27 billion of lost income. Enter GuardIO — Family Care, the app that provides family caregivers with peace of mind, improved personal freedom and a safety layer for care recipients and care partners. It uses AI-based predictive technology to perform a detailed analysis of mobility behaviours and provide alerts to caregivers. From tracking driving behaviours — like distracted driving, routes taken and aggressive driving — and in-app messaging, to real-time location monitoring to confirm the arrival at and departure from “safe zones,” it provides teenagers, kids, seniors and people affected with cognitive illness more independence. GuardIO has given caregivers peace of mind while enabling them to manage work and other responsibilities. And as GuardIO is hosted on one of the leading Canadian telecom private cloud platforms housed in Canadian data centres, it protects data privacy and confidentiality, ensuring that only the registered caregivers have access to the monitoring data of loved ones or patients assigned to their care.
 
Since its pivot, WeTraq has launched a beta program to test and measure the impact of this Health Canada-certified solution and provide valuable feedback for how it can improve the quality of life for working caregivers across the country. The pandemic has made customers face more hardships than ever before and the economic downturn triggered by the pandemic has caused many businesses and startups to doubt the viability of their ideas and question whether they have what it takes to pull through. But WeTraq improved on their ideas and created something truly necessary for so many people. While many startups may have seen repurposing as a short-term opportunity or solution, WeTraq believed that retooling was a fundamental survival strategy and growth opportunity. The company’s mission to improve the mental health and quality of life of caregivers and care partners was steadfast, even when tactics were changing. As Ishaan Singla, co-founder and CEO puts it, 
“The important thing to remember about pivoting is that change is just part of the startup process. Pivoting your startup is not quitting.” 

Click here to find out more about WeTraq

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With over 15 years of experience in content development, media and PR, Melissa Nowakowski drives Spark Centre’s communications, social media, and public relations strategies.

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