Pace alumni, marketing grad- uate, Chris Gaur is no stranger to entrepreneurship. Graduate of the class of 2012 from the Lubin School of Business and founder of Pace Perk, Gaur has moved on to help create another project with Pace University, this time in the area of health.
Chris Gaur, along with his brother David Gaur, cofounded Vital Care Services, which uses TeleHealth technology to allow clinicians and patients to con- nect remotely through the use of tablet devices. Partnering with Pace, Vital Care Services and Pace were selected as winners of PILOT Health Tech NYC’s $100,000 Innovative Project based in New York City. Created to focus on the key needs in the healthcare technology sector,
The Pilot grant recipients will have the opportunity to present their accomplishments on the main stage at Health 2.0’s annual conference in Santa Clara, CA, which starts on Sept. 29, 2013.
“We began designing the software when we started the
company,” Chris Gaur said. “We paired up with Pace to develop a software that is able to assist elderly patients with checking blood pressure, weight, and even blood oxygen.”
Seeing the great need in in- novative healthcare services for the elderly, Vital Care Services is primarily focused on the New York area. Growing up in the city, the Gaur brothers, noticed the diverse socioeconomic com- munities, which aided them in developing software that is ap- plicable to persons of different backgrounds.
“There is a barrier between the elderly and technology,” Chris Gaur said. “So we try to adapt our technology to what they need. So after a couple of weeks, they get use to the technology and use it for them- selves.”
The money from the PILOT Health Tech project has gone to hiring students, development, and hardware. Pace students have had the opportunities to actually gain practice on this in- novative healthcare practice and
have been trained to teach older adults the new technology.
“Being part of my generation, I find it humbling when hearing the seniors say “thank you” and thanking us for coming down and caring for them,” Gaur said. “Technology does scare them, but this technology has been helpful.”
Although a majority of the students from Pace that are in- volved in this new initiative do come from the Manhattan cam- pus, they are looking to expand their horizons.
“We are trying and are look- ing into expanding back up to Westchester,” Gaur said. “Tele- Health has been around, but also students are the ones administer- ing the care when they take vitals and help elders learn how to us the technology.”
Preparing the project for the Health 2.0 presentation, the big- gest change that has been made is allowing the software to be ac- cessible form any tablet, rather than being bounded to just one. The lead contact from Pace has been PhD Jean F. Coppola, of the Seidenburg School of Com- puter Science and Information Systems.
“After I graduated, I noticed she had a program going on. We
actually became a brand of com- puter generation course,” Chris Gaur said. “It’s truly an honor.”
As a Pace alumni who was able to use the contacts he gained from his experience at Pace, Gaur plans on being a contact himself for other students who are looking for opportunities.
“We will be looking to hire
people since we want to ex- pand to Westchester,” Gaur said. “Sometimes you have to jump in and take the risk. Sometimes it’s hard, but what made me succeed was to network with administra- tion and faculty.”
Gaur has used a simple mind- set to help further his entrepre- neurial ambitions.
“Find a problem to fix, and then find a solution,” Gaur said.
Gaur plans on presenting to the Pace Pleasantville campus Thursday, Oct. 17 at 8:00 AM on healthcare and technology in cel- ebration to the 50 year anniver- sary of the Pleasantville campus. 