Gary Barg talks with Michael Abcunas, Senior Product Manager at STANLEY Healthcare
Gary Barg: Michael, when I heard about Pria, I became extremely interested. As caregivers, it's very important to know who to trust. Who has our best interest? What names really resonate with us? And, of course, Stanley has been such a trusted name for families for generations. Please tell us, what Pria is and what it aims to solve for caregiver and our loved ones?
Michael Abcunas: One thing I think you bring up that's important is who we are and why we're here. Black & Decker has been around for 110 years and Stanley Black & Decker has been a trusted household brand for 176 years. Pria was designed to be a tool for caregivers, as w
Michael Abcunas
ell as the end users. That's where Pria comes into play. It's not just a medication adherence device. We also tie in some social factors, which is why the device itself has a personality designed around health and wellness. You're asking it about what your plan is for the day with medications. When you need to take them and what you need to take them with. As well as getting that information as well as insights from the device to the family caregivers and any individuals the end users invite into their care circles. We try to make it as personal as possible, not only for the end user, but for the caregivers as well.
Gary Barg: Can you walk me through what a typical interaction between our loved ones and Pria would look like?
Michael Abcunas: We've created Pria to store and dispense 28 doses. If mom takes medications twice a day, she'll store medications for two weeks. Now, let's just assume her dose is scheduled for 8:00 a.m. At that time, the device itself will wake up, and using its facial recognition technology will look for Mom. Once it recognizes her, it says, "Good morning, Mom. It's 8:00 a.m., time to take this dose. Do you want to dispense it now?" All mom has to say is, "yes," or, "no." If she says, "No," she can decide to take them later. Then, that information is recorded, not only for mom, but for the caregivers as well. If Mom doesn’t want to use face recognition, she can just use a four-digit pin number for the medications to be dispensed. One thing we don't do is video mom or dad taking their medications, but we do verify the person in front of the device, so we know when the medications were dispensed, which is multiple steps further than some of the other medication adherence platforms on the market.
Gary Barg: How did this come about that a company like Stanley is so interested in supporting family caregivers in such an important way?
Michael Abcunas: It's a great question. About two years ago, Stanley Healthcare wanted to find a partner to not only learn from, but also accelerate, iterate, and move fast with. Pillo Health is the startup that we financially invested in from our Stanley ventures team. This all came from research, caregiver research, and understanding that medication was a very big issue and can be a major driver to inhibit someone from living on their own. We knew that transparency and communication are big pieces of the puzzle, too. Which is why we've taken it a step further with voice assistant and video calling. Our device is not intended to replace a caregiver. It's more just a tool to enable them to do more when they physically aren't there or can't.
Gary Barg: How does Pria work in conjunction with its mobile application? I think that's important for a caregiver who's not living with their loved one or can’t be there when they're taking medications.
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Michael Abcunas: One thing we've really focused on is making sure the user experience is good for both parties, so we created one mobile app. When you're in the App store, it's just Pria by Black & Decker. But when you log in, you have separate credentials for a caregiver versus an end user. The end user really cares about their medications. What time it's supposed to be taken. What their day looks like. But, the caregivers want to know things like, "Is mom's device plugged in?" Has she missed her medications? Can I send her a check-in question such, "Has anyone visited you today?" The right information at the right time for the right party is what we're getting at. Our product is always evolving.
Gary Barg: Tell me about the features. I mean, how many doses does it hold? Does it have natural language recognition ability? You mentioned updates. How often does it update?
Michael Abcunas: I'll start with the update piece. Very little information is stored on the body of the device, Pria acts on the information that it has received. Typically, you might see sticky notes or a notepad sitting next to the refrigerator that says, "Okay, mom, here are your meds. Here's your schedule." Then, the pill box is next to it. You start typing in, say ibuprofen, for instance. It's going to pull up a number of different ibuprofen sources. You tell Pria how many you're going to take it and how often. After you add all your medications, the time and the quantity, the device actually does the math. It says, "Okay, you told me that you'd take these medications twice a day. I'm going to store them for two weeks." What we've done is to also change the way the doses are stored. The wheel in the back of the device can be filled using some automation. When filling the meds, you can just say, "Okay, Pria load my meds." The device will actually open up the slot in which that specific dose will go in and show on the screen, "Please put two ibuprofen in the device now."
Gary Barg: I can see how this can be so much better than just having a slew of pill bottles and a calendar on your dining room table.
Michael Abcunas: That's right. Because we can actually tell you the exact time and day that those medications were taken. If they were even taken late or early, we're going to know that much sooner than the following Sunday when pill containers are typically filled. We don't lock the device from the back. But, if that device was opened, the caregiver can get a notification; as well as if the device loses connectivity, or it gets unplugged. We want to make sure that you know as soon as possible when that dose is missed.
Gary Barg: I see Pria as being a personalized robot. If that's even the word to use.
Michael Abcunas: It's interesting that you call it a robot. In the beginning, we asked, "Is Pria a him or her?" We, kind of left it up to the end users to decide. The name Pria stems from the phrase In Propria Persona. A legal terminology that means standing up for oneself. What we intended to do is design Pria for the best of both worlds. We want to be able to store and dispense medication, but also give it that friendly personality. We hope that someone wants to go up to it, and show their friends, and family, "Hey, I can video call my kids with this, or my grandkids," versus just, "This is my appliance that gives me my medication." That, sort of, changes the dynamic of it.
Gary Barg: What does Pria cost?
Michael Abcunas: Pria will be $699.00. Right now, we have a special promotion where we waive the monthly subscription plan, which will be $10.00 per month. When you ask Pria a question, the answer you get today might be different tomorrow based upon a lot of the information with which we're able to continue to evolve Pria. Part of this monthly subscription includes unlimited caregivers, unlimited video calling, unlimited everything. Pria will actually update once a month and it will happen automatically. The end user does not have to update it like they may have to with a tablet or a phone.
Gary Barg: Pria is always learning?
Michael Abcunas: That's exactly right.
Gary Barg: What’s the one most important piece of advice you’d like to share with family caregivers?
Michael Abcunas: Ask for help, and if it's not help from a significant other, go out and go onto something like caregiver.com. Because what we need is really that openness of, "It's all right, if you can't do it all by yourself."