Care.Coach expands avatar deployments to fight COVID-19 loneliness epi

Care.Coach, a Silicon Valley healthcare startup, disclosed today details of a rapid expansion of its virtual avatar program for health plans to combat COVID-19's exacerbation of the loneliness epidemic in the United States. The company, founded in 2012 by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) graduate Victor Wang, develops virtual avatars that provide companionship to individuals who live with complex health conditions and chronic loneliness. A large body of published research demonstrates that the feeling of loneliness increases morbidity and mortality; in a time of social distancing, self-isolation, and quarantine, loneliness has become a clear public health crisis. Care.Coach is rising to the challenge by providing its customers with as many avatars as are needed to support these at-risk populations. For the past 8 years, Care.Coach has been working with care providers to help those populations which possess "outsized risk", focusing on older adults with psychosocial risks such as loneliness, depression, and anxiety, alongside medical risks such as diabetes, hypertension, COPD, heart failure, and medication non-adherence.