Hospitals and startups are building digital tools for family caregivers

The markets for home health care and hospital-at-home are booming as the U.S. population ages. Health care workers provide care for patients outside of the hospital in these models, but they aren’t the only ones. An estimated 59 million adults in the United States act as caregivers for one or more people 18 or older, according to the AARP Public Policy Institute.

Caregivers provide hours of unpaid labor for children and adults with complex medical needs. A report from Pew Research Center found that 68% of adults caring for aging parents help with at least one of these tasks: personal care, coordinating medical care, keeping track of medication, managing finances and housework.

Though they are a vital part of many patients’ care teams, caregivers often have to figure out how to manage those responsibilities alone. A growing number of digital tools for caregivers aims to change that. Organizations like the Hospital at Home Users Group (HaHUG) are funding initiatives to develop resources for caregivers, and multiple startups are developing platforms and apps designed to address the various challenges of caregiving. 

Digital technology like telemedicine and remote patient monitoring brings care into the home, where caregivers have an important role to play. A burgeoning market for digital tools has the potential to make caregiving more coordinated and visible 

How caregivers are using technology

With the tap of a few buttons on their phones, caregivers can access a plethora of digital tools. More than half of caregivers (55%) use one or more types of technology to manage the demands of care coordination, health monitoring and routine management, according to a 2026 report from AARP.

Caregivers relying on tech turn to a variety of options for assistance. Telemedicine is the most frequently used (by 29% of caregivers), followed by GPS devices to track loved ones’ location (26%). The report found caregivers also using:

• Motion sensors: 12%
• Remote patient monitoring devices: 12%
• Emergency response systems: 12%
• Scheduling assistants: 9%
• Daily activity trackers: 8%
• AI health bots: 6%
• “Smart” pill bottles: 5%
• Online support communities: 4%

Hospitals are finding ways to develop digital support for caregivers

Caregivers can help their loved ones access care via telemedicine and help them navigate remote patient monitoring programs, but their work often doesn’t end there. They act as informal members of the overall care team. And some hospitals and health systems are developing initiatives specifically designed for caregiver support.

Penn Medicine and Hackensack Meridian Health, for example, received $5,000 each for programs selected for HaHUG’s 2026 Caregiver Innovation Project (CIP) cohort. The CIP initiative provides funding for member programs to develop and implement tools for caregivers. Penn Medicine will create a skills curriculum for caregivers; they will be able to access training modules while patients are in the hospital and after discharge. Hackensack Meridian Health will use AI to develop educational videos tailored to caregivers’ specific language and reading level.

Digital health startups offer solutions to address caregiving challenges

In addition to hospital initiatives, there is a growing number of digital health startups looking to address the confusing, time-consuming, expensive and lonely endeavor of caregiving. 

Care coordination can be difficult to navigate, particularly for someone with complex medical needs. The Care Hack is a digital platform designed to help caregivers manage these types of complex needs. It offers coaching from licensed professionals, patient stability tracking, care planning and a library of video lessons.

Other tools are positioned as “companions” in caregiving. Kintently, for one, provides its users with a score between 0 and 1,000 with the goal of assessing an aging parent’s ability to live independently. The tool also offers insight into caregivers’ level of burnout and suggests actions to take.

Tend, a recovery care app, narrows in on the weeks after a patient leaves the hospital. Caregivers upload discharge paperwork and the app turns it into a daily plan that sequences prescriptions, dressing changes, physical therapy, meals and follow-up visits. Caregivers can photograph and annotate wounds, record symptoms like pain and fever, and the app alerts the surgeon’s office when an entry looks worrying. Because the guidance is built from the patient’s own discharge instructions, the red flags it surfaces are tied to the specific procedure rather than generic advice. The app also asks caregivers about their own rest and stress levels. Tend keeps user data local to the phone rather than on a server.

The Sandwich Club is among the digital platforms that create an online community for caregivers to connect and ask each other questions. It also offers a planner to help guide caregivers, as well as a financial tool to calculate cost of care 

In addition to startups that provide guidance, there are several startups aiming to not only streamline caregiving but also to make it a paid service.  

Abby Care, a startup founded in 2021, helps caregivers become certified, paid health care workers. It offers free training and then facilitates payment for caregivers through Medicaid waivers and home and community-based services (HCBS). Once caregivers are onboarded with the startup, they have access to an AI-powered app for documenting and coordinating care. Abby Care is active in eight states 

The ianacare platform is a partner organization with the CMS GUIDE program. Launched in 2024, the GUIDE program provides respite services up to $2,500 a year, as well as caregiver training and care navigation support. 

Through the ianacare app, users can access a calendar to track appointments and tasks, communicate with other people involved in care, tap into a library of educational resources and connect with local support. Additionally, ianacare partners with employers and health plans to make caregiving more accessible.

RubyWell is another technology startup with the goal of facilitating caregiver training, support and compensation. It is conducting a family caregiver study in two Pennsylvania counties and participants can earn a monthly stipend. The goal of the study is to demonstrate how providing caregivers with training and compensation can lower costs of care. RubyWell is also working on pilots with Medicare Advantage plans to demonstrate how its model could reduce readmissions and overall cost of care.

RubyWell also helps caregivers identify Medicare home health benefits and connect with resources, like care navigators and educational tools.  

Caregiving needs are only expected to grow as the population ages, and many tech startups are looking to be a part of the solution.  

Go deeper at the 2026 Hospital at Home Technology Summit

Hospital at home is moving past its waiver-era roots into a permanent pillar of acute care, and the technology stack behind it is changing just as fast. On Tuesday, September 22, from 12:00 to 4:00 PM EST, Digital Health Insights hosts a free virtual summit on the systems that make H@H programs scale, from virtual command centers and continuous remote monitoring to agentic AI that prioritizes risk. Speakers from Stanford Health Care, Mass General Brigham Healthcare at Home, NewYork-Presbyterian, Tampa General, OSF OnCall and UMass Memorial Health will cover virtual nursing, care at home models outside the CMS framework, tailoring programs to Medicaid populations and building a sustainable business model. Register here.

Carrie Pallardy, a Chicago-based freelance writer and editor, began her career covering healthcare more than a decade ago. Her work has taken into many different industries, but covering healthcare delivery remains a constant focus. She can be reached at [email protected] or on LinkedIn.