JACKSON, Wyo – When Remo Health went live three months ago, it fulfilled a promise Jackson resident Matt LeKrey made to his father four years ago.

After years of navigating the complex world of caring for his father, who suffered from a rare form of dementia, LeKrey made a commitment to his father to improve the experience for everyone else going through it. Together with co-founders Will Poe and Jason DeCastro, LeKrey created Remo Health, a comprehensive digital platform that supports and engages dementia caregivers.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), more than 55 million people worldwide suffer from dementia and 10 million new cases are diagnosed each year.

Dementia is currently the seventh leading cause of death among all diseases and a leading cause of disability and dependency among older people worldwide. Dementia has physical, psychological, social and economic implications, not only for people living with dementia, but also for their caregivers, families and society at large. There is often a lack of awareness and understanding of dementia, leading to stigma and barriers to diagnosis and care.

-World Health Organization; who.int

Despite these high numbers, Poe, a San Francisco internist with a master’s in public health, has treated dementia patients clinically and says many cases go undiagnosed because primary care physicians (PCPs) shy away from an actual diagnosis.

“Only 1 in 4 cases is diagnosed … often the GP doesn’t know what to do after the diagnosis,” Poe said. Having had a grandparent with dementia, Poe describes the illness as a one-way train ride. “With Remo we find out which train you are on and the length of the route. We talk to patients about their children and family and what is important to them. We want to save people emotional pain, stress and money.”

Because there are no standard treatments and medications for dementia like other diseases, it can be a particularly challenging experience for the patient and their loved ones, who are often faced with questions about the diagnosis, how to get to and from doctor’s appointments, and how to manage cognitive issues Confusing symptoms and figuring out how to pay for everything.

Prior to founding Remo, LeKrey had spent the past decade building apps for families struggling with chronic illnesses, giving him the technical background to complement his personal experience as a dementia caregiver. Through these past projects, LeKrey met Poe, whose grandmother suffered from dementia. The two bonded over the “problem that hides in plain sight,” as Poe described the lack of centralized care and support for dementia patients and their families.

They brought in DeCastro as co-founder and chief technical officer. A devoted programmer since he was 13, DeCastro had been developing digital products for the past decade but found the work he was doing didn’t matter much.

“I’ve cared for family members with illnesses, so I understand the issues,” DeCastro said. He wanted his work to make the world a better place, and Remo was a good fit.

Poe describes Remo as a “virtual geriatric center of excellence” where a group of brain health physicians help clarify a diagnosis and then stay with the person every step of the way, including prescribing and rejecting medications, avoiding slips, tripping and falling, handling memory, movement and mood, and assessing home safety.

building the business

In October 2022, Remo Health won the Panelist Choice Award, the grand prize at Silicon Couloir’s Pitch Day, where entrepreneurs pitch their companies to a panel of judges. It is the culmination of a three month process in which startups develop their business plan, pitch and marketing through coaching and practice from top business leaders in the region.

Matt LeKrey works to provide comprehensive, accessible dementia care. Photo: Silicon Couloir

Silicon Couloir is a Jackson-based nonprofit organization that aims to “align entrepreneurship with community vision to foster a diverse economy and healthy environment for current and future generations.” Their annual Pitch Day awards money and resources to winners so they can continue to grow their businesses.

“Silicon Couloir has been a wonderful community for us to find a way to not only meet people who have built businesses, but who have also helped us tackle the Intermountain West and shaped our history,” said LeKrey. Previously, LeKrey led Remo through gBeta Wyoming, an accelerator program that brings together entrepreneurs, investors, job seekers and others to create advancement opportunities in the business.

According to LeKrey, Jackson is a special and supportive place for entrepreneurs, where big names in business with access to money and resources live down the street. LeKrey also points out that many of the moguls who live in the Tetons have a friendlier, more supportive attitude.

“Everyone comes from a ‘How can we help?’ mentality that provides access to money, customers, talent and mentorship,” said LeKrey. “People have come out of nothing and tried to create opportunity … in a way that is without pretentiousness or arrogance or extreme bias that might come from bigger cities.”

This is how Remo works

Through the use of telemedicine, Remo hopes to bring world-class healthcare to all parts of the country, from rural areas to densely populated cities. Remo also hopes to support caregivers who are often overlooked in the current healthcare landscape. Online forums, mental health professionals and treatment guidelines are an integral part of Remo’s approach to care.

Physician visitation virtually eliminates the barrier of taking patients to the doctor for in-person visits, which is difficult when caregivers need to change their own schedules and take time off work. The support and involvement of caregivers – who often experience burnout with dementia – is key to making a patient’s final years healthier and more balanced overall.

“It takes a whole village to take care of one person with dementia,” Poe said. “We’re bringing this interdisciplinary village to patients and families virtually, so the ethos of Remo — it’s an empathy service.”

Dementia is a difficult diagnosis because, unlike cancer or heart failure, there are no drugs to treat the disease. The reality is that all patients will die from the disease or its associated complications. Therefore, priorities are shifting from treating the disease itself to constructing what the patient and their family will be like in their final years.

“With Remo, there is only one true medicine: truth with compassion. We are in a world that is largely beyond drugs. That’s not diabetes. This is not heart failure. We don’t have any effective drugs or cures for dementia,” Poe said. “What we have is the courage to step up to the plate and bring clarity to the diagnosis and give families agency and empowerment back. You decide how to live the final chapter of life.”

By bringing timely, specialized care to a patient’s home, Remo also helps with another problem faced by patients with dementia: reducing unnecessary trips to the emergency room. Often patients with cognitive impairment come in for the visit with no real medical reason, and a burned-out nurse doesn’t know what else to do.

While Remo Health is fully operational in California with 11 full-time employees, the company has expansion plans into Nevada, Arizona and beyond, aiming to fill health care gaps for rural populations, including Wyoming.

“I would appreciate it for people to know that if you or someone you love is struggling with dementia, you are not alone. You don’t have to do everything by yourself,” LeKrey said. “We are here to help. This is a promise we made to loved ones and we intend to keep it.”

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Increased energy savings is a desirable goal for organizations and households alike. That’s why there’s a growing number of solutions concerning artificial intelligence (AI) for heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems. Here are some compelling ways AI improves HVAC systems and benefits the people who use them.

Keeping Rooms More Comfortable Without Wasting Energy

Even as climate control systems get more advanced, it’s still difficult to keep everyone content with the temperature. The challenges rise with the number of people in a space. It’s much easier for four people in a household to agree on a comfortable temperature compared to two-dozen attendees in a meeting room, for example.

A project at the University of Michigan previews future potential. Researchers developed an autonomous HVAC system that uses thermal cameras to detect whether people in a room are hot or cold. Measurements of occupants’ facial temperatures get fed into an algorithm that compares the real-time data with the people’s climate preferences.

Next, the technology determines how to keep the most individuals happy about the temperature with minimum energy usage. Early work on this project involved testing it on 10 workers in a lab setting. The developers said their approach did not require participants to wear detection devices, nor was it necessary to have one camera to monitor each participant.

After the system gets installed, people periodically provide data from their smartphones by indicating their temperature comfort level on a three-point scale. Once they confirm whether they feel too hot, too cold, or just right, the AI ​​takes that information and uses it to make future adjustments.

Reducing Energy Poverty

Energy poverty is a prevalent concern in today’s society. People define it in different ways. For example, one common definition is spending more than 10% of a household’s income on heating and cooling costs. This issue can also emerge when people live in areas without reliable energy infrastructures.

Energy Poverty Can Create Home Dangers

Besides making people uncomfortable, stressed over energy bills, and forcing them to restrict many activities to daylight hours, energy poverty can pose genuine dangers. For example, statistics show that 40% of the world’s population does not have clean, modern energy sources for cooking.

They burn solid fuels, like wood and dung, which can fill the living area with smoke and toxic chemicals. Then, people are at risk for ailments ranging from lung cancer to cataracts.

The Pandemic Worsened Energy Poverty

The struggle to pay energy bills also affects residents in highly developed areas of the world. Since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, a United Kingdom charity saw a 23% rise in people needing emergency help with heating and cooling expenses. However, experts believe AI could stop energy poverty by detecting signs of distress that would otherwise get overlooked.

dr Aidan O’Sullivan is a University College London professor working at the intersection of energy and AI. He explained, “What AI can really help with is correctly identifying the customers who should be receiving support.” He’s building HVAC machine learning neural networks that take data from smart devices. However, that’s not a straightforward endeavor.

“The signals that suggest a household is starting to struggle with their energy use are complex. For example, someone might repeatedly reduce their consumption at the end of the month as they run out of money, which is a subtle signal that can get lost when averaging data,” O’Sullivan clarified. However, algorithms could trigger an AI chatbot to engage with a customer and go over their options.

A trial conducted elsewhere also showed that smart controls helped vulnerable parties heat their homes to levels they couldn’t before using the technology. There’s no universally successful way to apply AI to energy management, but these examples highlight some of the exciting possibilities.

Preventing HVAC System Failures

Most people hardly think about their HVAC system until things go wrong. However, it can become costly to ignore even minor changes in equipment behavior. For example, a clogged or full filter could make an air conditioner run more often than it should, reducing component life spans. Replacing or cleaning the filter could bring up to a 15% increase in efficiency.

Many organizational leaders find AI improves HVAC operations by predicting failures before they happen. That’s critical in places like apartment buildings, hospitals, and manufacturing facilities that need tight climate controls to support their production.

However, AI-based predictive maintenance warnings are accessible to some homeowners, too. Google Nest smart thermostats already had some artificial intelligence capabilities built into them. For example, when the device senses an empty house, it automatically switches to an energy-saving temperature. It also learns users’ preferences.

In 2020, Google began testing features on its smart thermostats that detected possible problems. When the technology identified something unusual, it sent an email alert to someone in the home. The content included which system had the abnormality and helped people in some cities connect with HVAC professionals.

One of the goals was to help residents get HVAC problems checked before they cause major issues. AI can detect small changes, such as at elevated operating temperature or excessive vibration. Then, people have the insights they need to act before suddenly finding themselves without functional heating or air conditioning.

Facilitating Significant Energy Savings

Many smart devices prevent mistakes that could cause wastage. For example, sensor-equipped sinks automatically turn off once a person takes their hands from under the faucet. Smart lighting systems work similarly, automatically darkening a no-longer-occupied room. In such cases, there are no worries about higher bills when someone forgets to turn off the lights.

HVAC machine learning algorithms can give some of the same financial payoffs. For example, they can identify excessive usage trends earlier, helping someone target the cause before they receive a surprising bill.

AI analysis could also highlight the costliest pieces of HVAC equipment, convincing decision-makers it’s time to upgrade. Since some AI-based HVAC systems only activate when necessary, they can help users reduce their overall energy usage.

In one example, a Marriott hotel in China achieved a 50% decrease in energy consumption by installing an intelligent HVAC system. Besides saving electricity, this upgrade resulted in a quieter setup.

People often want to cut their energy costs but don’t know which steps to take. AI can solve this common issue by working in the background and responding to environmental changes humans don’t immediately notice.

AI Improves HVAC Performance

These are just some of the many reasons people are increasingly curious about how AI could positively impact HVAC systems. Having access to affordable, well-functioning climate controls improves the quality of life for individuals and increases the likelihood of enterprises enhancing their operations.

Emily Newton is the editor-in-chief of Revolutionized, a magazine exploring how innovations change our world.

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