The COVID-19 pandemic put nursing-home visits on pause, but families and their older loved ones can stay connected through Cincinnati-developed app HiLois.
Launched by University of Cincinnati professor Brett Harnett, HiLois is a private social support app that lets users share photos, send messages and challenge mom or grandma with brain teasers — almost like a social media platform for grandparents. Harnett launched the app in 2018 after his Florida-based mother developed Alzheimer’s. He hoped HiLois could help his family stay connected, and keep his mother’s memory fresh enough to remember her kids and grandkids.
Two years and one pandemic later, HiLois has never been more relevant. “This is a highly unusual event that’s underscored the capabilities of HiLois,” Harnett said. “When all is said and done, I hope people can recognize that our app helps connect disconnected families wherever they are.”
While options like FaceTime or Zoom are available, HiLois lowers the barrier of entry. Nursing home staff members are busy as it is; they don’t have time to troubleshoot tech problems. But HiLois is built for low-tech simplicity. Families give grandma and grandpa a tablet or smartphone with the app pre-loaded and configured. It appears like a digital photo frame, with posts and photos popping up that grandparents, the app’s “VIPs,” can either respond to or simply enjoy — similar to a private Facebook news feed.
Harnett says one common misconception about HiLois is that it’s just for loved ones with cognitive disabilities. “It’s scalable,” he said. “For my mom, it was a photo frame. If you have the ability to do messaging or trivia questions, you can turn on those features as a remote administrator. At the end of the day it’s a way to connect with aging parents who are disconnected from families.”
For now, families provide the devices for HiLois, but Harnett says several facilities have considered getting shared devices for residents. The HiLois team isn’t going down that road yet — instead, they’re perfecting their business model.
HiLois is a startup under the University of Cincinnati’s Innovation Hub umbrella. It’s available across North America, and Harnett’s team is updating privacy and user licenses to scale globally. Their biggest hurdle right now is figuring out their revenue model.
“The Innovation Hub is helping us make money under a grant mechanism,” Harnett said. “If you have enough users to create critical mass, then there are multiple ways to make money from that — but we’re not there yet.”
One important pivot for HiLois is target audience. An estimated 60 percent of nursing home residents never have visitors; Harnett initially targeted that segment of non-visiting families for HiLois. “We were dead wrong on that,” he said. “Those people aren’t the ones interested in this.”
They’re now targeting the 40 percent of regular visitors, especially now that these families are struggling to communicate. “FaceTime is great once a week, but [HiLois] helps them solve the immediate and daily problem,” he said.
HiLois is free to download, and available for Android and iPhone devices.
