Watcherr has been recognized as one of the 20 Fastest Growing Companies to Work in 2021 by The Executive Headlines

Technology is constantly evolving and it will continue to improve the healthcare industry for both healthcare staff and patients. There are systems in place through which detection of irregular patterns in ADL or changes in health variables such as an elevated heart rate, physical inactivity and disturbed sleep of residents/patients can be continuously monitored. One health-tech company that focuses on facilitating the healthcare industry by being proactive is none other than Watcherr.

Indoor/outdoor location tracking can be done by combining the Watcherr wearable (that has an e-sim, BLE-chip and AGPS) with the system’s beacons and gateways. By using Watcherr tags, it is also possible to locate equipment, as well as residents. This tracking can even take place in the basement or garage of the residence/hospital.

An alert can be sent in advance to the healthcare providers about potential health risks with the help of Watcherr's streamlined system solutions. By working preventively, rather than reactively, residents/patients in seniors homes and hospitals can avoid unnecessary complications such as cardiac arrest, unnecessary falls, malnutrition and dehydration.

The Watcherr system is in the process of becoming medically CE-certified. "We are a fully-international company with team members around the world managing things very well," says Nikolai Stevens, Co-founder and CEO of Watcherr. “We are proud to offer robust system in harsh environments such as reconstructions”, he continued. Watcherr is specifically developed to help people in distress and to improve staff efficiency in both emergency and non-emergency situations. “Our team members hail from the US, UK, Belgium, Spain, Greece, Poland, Malta and many other countries.  Remote working has become the norm for us as a company,” said Nikolai.

 

The Man Behind The Watcherr

Nikolai Stevens graduated with a BSc in Business management. As a graduate in BSc in Business management, Nikolai Started as a consultant in insurances, in 2013, after leading a team of 10 people in insurance, Nikolai founded an elderly residence ‘Bellevue-Gavere’. Simultaneously, he started educating himself further in Nursery Geriatrics to better understand the needs of the elderly in residences. After noticing that the current distress systems on the market lacked the required features to grant high-quality healthcare, Nikolai founded Tequinity in 2016 and under this business venture, he, together with this team, created Watcherr - an advanced wearable monitoring distress system.

During this time-period, Nikolai also decided to invest further in his education and successfully obtained a MSc in Business Economics (Corporate Finance) and a MSc in Business Engineering (Finance) from Ghent University. Mr Stevens was a trained nurse when he set up a residence with assisted living and this is where the idea developed.

For example, someone could die of a heart attack without anyone realising while staff would be busy tending to another resident in the same hallway. During Nikolai’s time at the residence, a resident drove with his bicycle in a pond and drowned since nobody was there to help him. If someone knew the location and received the alert via the Watcherr system, he could have been saved.
e. This is what motivated Nikolai to develop Watcherr.

 

Dynamics of Watcherr

The brand-Watcherr consists of different products. The beacons and gateways serve as immobile objects in a residence/hospital such that the Watcherr Pro, Lite and Tag can be tracked indoors via BLE-technology, which grants the healthcare provider insights where the residents, staff, visitors and equipment are situated. The Watcherr Pro allows outdoor location tracking via AGPS and e-sim. This provides geofencing both in- and outdoors. Stationary Watcherr buttons are attached to the walls wherever the user prefers (toilet, bathroom, bed).

These will send out an alert whenever the user presses the distress button. All alerts will be captured by the gateways and sent to the server via ethernet/internet where they get passed on to the healthcare provider via an app or website. Watcherr Pro has voice communication and is IP67 waterproof. Thanks to the Watcherr battery, the Watcherr Pro never needs to be removed from the user’s wrist. The unique design of the waterproof Watcherr battery allows it to click firmly onto the Watcherr Pro such that it charges the Watcherr Pro while being worn. The Watcherr battery can be charged via the Watcherr single/multiple charger.

Next to the proprietary hardware devices, Watcherr offers a broad range of software as a service and data science whereas logistic, staff and other operational costs are taken into account based on the captured parameters mentioned above. On top of that, Watcherr provides proprietary algorithms to detect variations in wrist movements, heart rate, location, etc. to warn when early health risks appear. “Our goal is to venture into international markets where Watcherr will become a household name for senior homes and residences,” concludes Nikolai.

It is also possible to track residents, staff, visitors and equipment to increase operations efficiency and fight COVID-19 due to being able to track exactly where people met with each other for the last 14 days.

Watcherr is a game changer in the healthcare sector since it offers a solution to detect deviations in health patterns instead of reacting to them. We have been endorsed by international entities who have awarded Watcherr with prestigious titles such as the IFAH top 100 healthcare visionaries, IFAH Top 50 healthcare companies, and Healthcare Tech Outlook’s Top 10 AI Award.

 

Quote: "Anything is achievable if you set your mind to it"