The CareBank is different from medical alert buttons, advertised with fearful cries for HELP, which only work if the button is pushed. The CareBank detects problems before they become crises by sensing routine activity patterns and alerting peers on their CareBank Apps when those activities, like taking medications and meals, are not detected. Help comes when nothing happens.

Sensors are placed on important items, like the pillbox and refrigerator, to detect problems before they become crises by sensing routine activity patterns and detecting anomalies in activity patterns. The CareBank integrates activity sensors with smartphones and social incentives to connect, detect, alert and reward PeerCare participants. It empowers elders to help save lives and money, by detecting problems before they become crises and rewarding elders for providing PeerCare services from the comfort of home.

The CareBank design and PeerCare method are based on the most innovative and authoritative ideas from academia and government:

PeerCare implements two key concepts presented in The National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine Proceedings of the 2018 Workshop on Behavioral Economics and the Promotion of Health Among Aging Populations:

1. The behavioral economics framework is ideally suited to system change, can provide scalability, and can aim at large parts of the population to improve the health of aging and older adults.

2. Social incentives, such as a “medication buddy” or “support partner,” call for people to be accountable to someone else in trying to achieve their desired goal.

The CareBank integrates three distinct goals of the 2016 President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology Report on Independence, Technology, and Connection in Older Age including:

1. Online tools can help older adults to participate in the sharing economy.

2. Remote monitoring and sensors can help elders to age-in-place while ensuring their safety and maintaining their health.

3. Time Banks allow elders to donate services now in order to access help from others when they need it.

Medication nonadherence has been associated with 125,000 deaths, 10% of hospitalizations, and costs $289 Billion annually. The negative health and economic effects of medication nonadherence and social isolation may be prevented by implementing TimeBanking and Behavioral Economic Principles to incentivize PeerCare services. The CareBank applies Behavioral Economic Principles by leveraging social incentives to help remedy the negative health and economic costs of medication nonadherence.

Loneliness and medication nonadherence are epidemic public health problems unsolved by conventional interventions. Recognizing these problems as Interrelated offers new opportunities to develop synergistic solutions that engage elders to participate in the eldercare workforce by empowering them with holistic innovations designed to enhance their longevity.