Founder Spotlight: Michael Wang (Inspiren)

This week, I had the privilege of interviewing one of AgeTech NYC’s own: Michael Wang at Inspiren. Inspiren’s flagship solution, AUGi (Augmented Intelligence), a hybrid sensing wall-mounted AI that improves patient safety and clinical outcome that has received an Edison Award, Fast Company’s Innovation by Design Award for Artificial Intelligence, and Time Magazine’s Best Inventions.

— Sarah Richard

P.S. - If you’re an AgeTech founder, investor, or operator based in the NYC area, please consider joining us at January’s AgeTech NYC Fireside Chat, kindly hosted by Anchin and sponsored by Banc of California. 

Could you start by sharing a bit about your road to Inspiren?

MW: After my first career in the military as an Officer, I chose patient care as my civilian path of service.  It was at the bedside of my patients that I recognized the need for a sophisticated tool leveraging AI to help amplify the caring capacities of care givers.  Inspiren was born.  Since 2016, we have developed and commercialized the now AUGi (Augmented Intelligence) platform.

Inspiren began with a strong focus on acute care settings. What inspired you to expand into senior living, and how do you see the specific challenges of this sector shaping Inspiren’s product evolution?

MW: Covid inspired me to be in Senior Living.  I saw the applications of AUGi in Senior Living immediately.  In addition, my own experience with my grandmother, who had a 24/7 care giver but still suffered from falls and pressure injuries compelled me to bring AUGi to Senior Living.  The product market fit was simply perfect.  

With AI at the core of Inspiren’s technology, how do you envision its role evolving in senior living—particularly in balancing operational efficiency with improving quality of care for residents?

MW: Inspiren’s AI platform, for one of the first times, brings together the clinical and operational needs of an organization.  It is not good for anyone if a solution can drastically increase safety but bankrupts an organization.  The proper solution must allow the organization to operate more efficiently through intelligent staffing allocations as well as the ability to quantify care delivery.  

Your experience in acute care introduced the concept of "irresistible data." How are you adapting lessons learned in hospital settings to meet the unique needs of senior living communities?

MW: Irresistible data refers to high integrity data that play a key role in guiding the decision making process of an organization.  Operational data that reflect efficiency and care delivery quality are the data components that drive an organization to be more effective.  These data sets we learned from the hospital setting are the same as the needs of Senior Living.  

Inspiren emphasizes technology that empowers rather than replaces caregivers. How do you ensure that your solutions integrate seamlessly into workflows without adding a burden on already stretched teams?

MW: We designed everything from the caregiver’s perspective. That is one of the biggest differentiators of Inspiren.  For the first time, we are clinicians who are driving and inventing in this tech space.  This is instrumental in being able to put solutions into the hands of caregivers who will enjoy using our technology.  In addition, we build a culture around the technology that is positive in nature.  We recognize caregivers for their dedication.  

Looking forward, what is your vision for a fully integrated, data-driven senior care ecosystem? How does Inspiren aim to pioneer innovations that connect the dots across the continuum of care?

MW: It has been long time coming that a single interoperable solution can serve the operational and clinical needs of an organization.  With the introduction of Inspiren’s AUGi GEM platform that includes advanced capabilities of our ECall system, we are creating a seamless end to end solution that marries resident safety with operational efficiency.