(Lake Nona, Orlando, Florida; September 14, 2016) – The Lake Nona Institute in collaboration with partners including American Well, Craft Homes, Dais, Delos™, GE Appliances, GuideWell, Nemours Children’s Health System, Sustainable Synergy, Technogym, and University of Central Florida (“UCF”) College of Medicine, today announced WHIT (www.MeetWhit.com), a first-of-its-kind intelligent home and living lab showcase uniquely designed to activate and integrate health-centric technologies and wellness solutions to reimagine the future of home health. WHIT, which stands for Wellness Home built on Innovation and Technology, is a one-of-a-kind living lab for the connected healthy home that features an integrated set of health and wellness solutions and technologies, from concepts and prototypes to commercially available products, that will enable the collaborative group of partners to research, test and collect market data to measurably improve health and wellbeing, which begins in the home. Visitors will have the opportunity to interact with and experience wellness solutions that address everything from how to reduce the chemical burden in your home and diabetes management to internal medicine in the comfort of your home.

WHIT is located in a townhome building in the Laureate Park neighborhood of Lake Nona, a 14-squaremile community designed around health and wellness in Orlando, Fla. developed by Tavistock Development Company.

WHIT features three distinct areas representing the various stages of innovation: fully developed wellness solutions that are commercially available; emerging solutions, where the home will serve as a living lab to test developing prototypes; and a concept development area managed by UCF that features physical, projected and augmented reality to test the latest concepts and products. Fully developed solutions are showcased within a townhome model created by Craft Homes; another unit serves as the headquarters and showroom for Dais.

Many of the products and solutions are first generation pilots and/or have never been seen by the public before, such as the “Connected Island” by GE Appliances and the intelligent toilet prototype; or integrated solutions into one setting, like the concept development room that will feature virtual, projected and augmented reality, and Sustainable Synergy’s Superfood Tower hybrid system that is the first to combine hydroponics and aeroponics.

“It is our mission to use WHIT as a tool to continuously redefine wellness, healthcare and quality of life from inside the home,” said Gloria A. Caulfield, Executive Director of the Lake Nona Institute. “We want to provide solutions that address everyday needs and empower people to be their healthiest self by easily turning intentions into positive actions in a comfortable and collaborative environment. What’s exciting is that WHIT represents the first collaborative home environment created as a living lab for all of us to continuously study and evolve the solutions. For many, this provides unprecedented opportunity to explore possible collaborations across industry and product type – entrepreneurs connecting with major international corporations connecting with academic institutions – all in an effort to transform our home into the healthy haven it should be.”

WHIT seeks to become an international model and springboard for health awareness best practices and an incubator for strategic partners to create new, sustainable products by understanding the value added to consumers.

The Lake Nona Institute and WHIT partners are examining the health needs of consumers by collecting and analyzing information and feedback from WHIT visitors as they tour the living lab as well as projectled focus groups with residents and visitors. Lake Nona’s Laureate Park homeowners have already contributed valuable feedback and market data through daily use of various GE appliances, which helped shape the development of the showcased “Connected Island” prototype.

By combining the individual specialties and expertise of WHIT’s strategic partners worldwide, WHIT concentrates on five specific tour paths and solutions:

Nutrition & Performance – Combining new prototypes in healthy eating, WHIT will bring to life concepts that make it easier for people to eat healthy and adopt an active lifestyle. Solutions include: “Connected Island” by GE Appliances that allows the home chef to plan, schedule, shop, cook via an intelligent surface and a first-to-market outdoor garden by Sustainable Synergy that features a hybrid home-based tower growing system that combines aeroponic, hydroponic and organic soil growing all in one unit for optimal superfood diversity.

Built Environment – WHIT features floor-to-ceiling healthy options such as Delos’ circadian mood lighting solution to emulate natural light and enhance sleep quality and energy levels; unprecedented six-stage air filtration systems scientifically designed to tackle every major pollutant category; ultraviolet light to be safely used to kill germs without chemicals; and antimicrobial, mold resistant cork flooring.

Aging in Place – With support from GuideWell, WHIT will integrate innovative solutions to keep older populations healthy and active at home and in their communities. WHIT will examine how to manage chronic health conditions through an Intelligent Mirror prototype that displays personal health information and wellness tips, but also integrates with a user’s social media assets and personal calendar. In addition, an intelligent, self-cleaning toilet prototype will integrate data from a home-based urinalysis with personal health monitoring. One of the aging in place solutions showcased in the home is CarePredict® Tempo™, a GuideWell Innovation studio company. CarePredict Tempo is the first wearable sensor that helps identify small changes in daily activities of seniors that can be precursors to serious health concerns. The device uses predictive analytics to let you know about a potential concern or risk of stroke, Alzheimer’s or other conditions.

Pediatric Health – With the help of American Well, the #1 downloaded video telehealth app, and Nemours Children’s Health System, we offer Nemours CareConnect. This video telehealth platform allows families to conduct a video-visit with a board-certified pediatrician, 24/7 over a smartphone, tablet or computer. Nemours leveraged the American Well platform to offer the first pediatric telehealth application. The home highlights how the technology may be used in the future to better manage diabetes and asthma through solutions like an innovative in-home glucose monitoring products.

Sleep & Stress – Integrating light, sound, air quality, and new technologies, the home will help residents better manage stress and sleep with voice-controlled mood lighting, wearables dedicated to stress management, and interactive apps, such as Jiyo by Deepak Chopra. One featured Delos solution is Long Wave Night Lighting, which was designed to automatically illuminate the room with subtle lighting for safe navigation while minimizing sleep disruption.

Visitors can experience these guided tours through WHIT following the public grand opening on September 19. To learn more about the project or to inquire about becoming a WHIT partner, visit www.MeetWhit.com or visit the Lake Nona Institute at www.LakeNonaInstitute.org. You can also follow the Institute on Twitter at @LN_ Institute or Facebook at LakeNonaInstitute.

 

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