ElderCare WhatsApp AI Chatbot: Health risk screening
A WhatsApp-based AI chatbot that empowers older adults to self-screen for key geriatric health risks, providing instant feedback, referrals, and caregiver support in an accessible and elder-friendly format.
Location
Mehsana & Sabarkantha (Gujarat) and South-West Delhi
Launch
August 2025
Innovation
AI-enabled WhatsApp chatbot for geriatric risk screening (frailty, mood, nutrition, falls, memory)
Partner
Safecure Healthcare Foundation, and District Health Authorities
Opportunity
India’s rapidly growing elderly population faces multiple health challenges such as frailty, depression, malnutrition, fall risk, and memory impairment. Traditional geriatric assessments, while effective, are often resource-heavy and inaccessible to many, particularly in rural and semi-urban areas. With high mobile phone penetration and WhatsApp as the most widely used platform among families, there was an untapped opportunity to deliver geriatric risk screening directly into the hands of elders and caregivers using standard screening tools.
What we did
Safecure Healthcare Foundation, with collaborators local social welfare organization and local health authorities, developed and deployed ElderCare, a WhatsApp-based AI chatbot. The bot delivers structured, button-based screening questionnaires in Gujarati, Hindi, and English to minimize typing effort. It assesses frailty, depression, malnutrition, falls risk, and cognitive health through short, validated tools, and instantly generates a traffic-light style summary with basic advice, referral suggestions, and caregiver alerts if consented. The chatbot was designed with accessibility features such as large fonts, audio prompts, and multilingual support, ensuring usability even for elders with limited digital literacy.
Outcome
The intervention is actively being monitored, with early evidence suggesting that elders and caregivers find the chatbot simple, non-intrusive, and useful for becoming aware of hidden health risks. It has enhanced engagement between elders, caregivers, and primary health facilities by providing structured referral pathways. While refinements are ongoing, ElderCare has demonstrated that everyday digital platforms like WhatsApp can serve as powerful gateways to preventive geriatric care, laying the foundation for a broader digital ecosystem of elder health services.
