How an AI-powered platform is redefining preventive care, fall prevention, and safe aging at home
As America’s population ages and healthcare rapidly shifts toward home-based models, the stakes for safety inside the home have never been higher. One company is rising to meet the moment with a breakthrough approach: DwellSafe, a home-safety and accessibility platform blending artificial intelligence with clinical insight to prevent falls, reduce hospital readmissions, and promote independence for older adults.
DwellSafe is built on a simple but powerful idea—that the most critical setting of care isn’t a hospital or clinic, but the home itself. And now, with just a smartphone, patients, families, and caregivers can scan a home, answer adaptive health questions, and receive a personalized, clinician-reviewed safety plan. No in-person visits required.
“The inspiration came directly from clinical practice,” says James Taylor, MD, MPH, Co-Founder and CEO of DwellSafe. “As a physician, I saw patients’ treatments delayed or complicated because of falls that happened at home. Hospitals and clinics invest heavily in medical technology, but the home — where patients actually spend most of their lives — remains invisible to the healthcare system.”
The Hidden Risk: Why Homes Matter in Healthcare
Falls are the leading cause of injury and injury-related death for adults over 65 in the U.S., driving more than $50 billion in medical costs annually. They’re also among the top reasons for preventable hospital readmissions, particularly for post-acute patients transitioning from skilled nursing or hospital stays.
Yet despite these facts, the home has long been neglected in healthcare planning, deemed too difficult, costly, or logistically complex to assess on a large scale. DwellSafe is challenging that notion with technology that reimagines what’s possible.
“DwellSafe fills this gap by delivering a home safety assessment through something everyone already has: a smartphone,” Taylor explains. “We’re bridging healthcare into the home environment, turning the ‘invisible’ setting of care into structured, actionable data.”
How It Works: Clinician-Guided, AI-Powered Prevention
DwellSafe’s technology combines AI-powered image analysis with oversight from licensed occupational therapists. The process is simple:
Scan: A patient or caregiver uses their smartphone to take a guided video walkthrough of the home.
Analyze: AI software reviews the scan, identifies potential hazards (like poor lighting, loose rugs, or steep stairs), and flags risks based on the individual’s health status.
Review: A clinician reviews the scan, confirms findings, and builds a personalized safety plan tailored to the patient’s condition and environment.
Act: The family receives clear, actionable steps, from minor changes like grab bars to broader recommendations for mobility aids or service referrals.
“Our platform uses AI to analyze the home environment — identifying hazards, measuring risk factors, and matching them with health conditions,” Taylor says. “But the critical layer is clinician oversight: every report is reviewed and signed by a licensed occupational therapist.”
Embedding Safety into Care Workflows
Unlike traditional home assessments that require in-person visits and are often limited to the highest-risk cases, DwellSafe can scale, enabling healthcare providers to support many more patients efficiently. It integrates directly into care planning and discharge workflows, offering real-time safety insights during one of the most vulnerable stages in a patient’s recovery: the return home.
That’s exactly how One Health, a leading primary care clinic in Charlotte, N.C., is using the platform.
“DwellSafe gives our team a clinically reviewed window into a patient’s home,” says Mark Collins, MD, Chief Strategy Officer at One Health. “The platform is unlike anything we’ve seen before, and it aligns with our whole-person care mission. We’re starting with our highest-risk patients, but we see this becoming a value-driver across primary care for our Medicare population and those at moderate to high risk of falls.”
Beyond clinic walls, DwellSafe is also being adopted by community partners. With support from the National Council on Aging, EMS teams in North Carolina are using the platform to assist older adults and veterans after emergency calls, ensuring safety risks are identified before they cause further harm.
“With EMS teams supported by the National Council on Aging, we’ve shown that assessments can be performed right in the community, even after an emergency call,” Taylor notes. “Feedback has been strong: clinicians appreciate the efficiency, patients value the clear and personalized recommendations, and partners recognize the potential to reduce readmissions and extend independence at home.”
More Than Safety: A Window into Social Determinants of Health
Every DwellSafe scan provides more than just a safety checklist. It also captures structured data on social determinants of health (SDOH), such as mobility barriers, access to caregiving support, and living conditions.
“Every home scan captures more than hazards — it reflects social determinants of health: accessibility, living conditions, resources, and safety,” says Taylor. “Providers use this data to tailor care plans, target resources, and identify disparities.”
For instance, identifying a lack of safe bathing access could prompt both clinical and social interventions. This kind of intelligence is particularly valuable for value-based care models, which reward outcomes and prevention rather than volume of services.
By making the home measurable, DwellSafe positions itself as a vital tool in population health management.
National Reach Through Strategic Partnerships
DwellSafe’s momentum continues to grow with a series of national partnerships aimed at expanding its impact:
- Lowe’s is working with DwellSafe to help families access vetted home safety products more easily.
- Rebuilding Together, a nonprofit focused on safe housing, is collaborating with DwellSafe to support low-income homeowners and veterans.
- Health Systems and Clinics are piloting DwellSafe to reduce readmissions, control costs, and support aging-in-place initiatives.
These collaborations signal a major shift in how the healthcare industry views the home, not as an afterthought, but as a primary site of care.
“Healthcare is changing, demographics are skewing older, assisted-living options are declining, and home-health providers are stretched thin,” says Jonathan Hills, Co-Founder and President of DwellSafe. “DwellSafe provides a proactive, scalable solution—helping people stay safer, healthier, and more independent in their own homes.”
Building the Infrastructure for Home-Based Care
As more health systems embrace hospital-at-home and aging-in-place models, platforms like DwellSafe will be foundational. The company is focused on three core areas for the future:
- AI Advancement: Enhancing its platform to capture nuanced risks and predictive insights.
- Nationwide Scale: Expanding partnerships with health systems, payers, and contractors.
- Data Leadership: Building a national library of home-health data to inform care transitions, public health planning, and risk analytics.
“As hospital-at-home and aging-in-place models expand, the home itself must be treated as a clinical site,” Taylor says. “DwellSafe is building the infrastructure for that shift: transforming every home scan into structured, billable data that improves outcomes and reduces cost.”
He adds, “We see ourselves as the ‘fifth vital sign’ for healthcare — making the home environment as measurable and actionable as blood pressure or lab values.”
A New Standard for Preventive Care
Ultimately, DwellSafe’s goal is simple but ambitious: to redefine how healthcare systems, families, and communities address fall risk and safety, not reactively, but proactively.
“Falls are often treated as accidents — but they’re predictable, preventable, and measurable,” Taylor emphasizes. “By combining technology, clinical oversight, and data at scale, DwellSafe is creating a new standard of preventive care. Our mission is simple: safer homes, healthier lives, and a healthcare system finally connected to the place that matters most — the home.”
To learn more, visit www.dwellsafe.ai or follow DwellSafe on LinkedIn.
Daniel Casciato is a seasoned healthcare writer, publisher, and product reviewer with two decades of experience. He founded Healthcare Business Today to deliver timely insights on healthcare trends, technology, and innovation. His bylines have appeared in outlets such as Cleveland Clinic’s Health Essentials, MedEsthetics Magazine, EMS World, Pittsburgh Business Times, Post-Gazette, Providence Journal, Western PA Healthcare News, and he has written for clients like the American Heart Association, Google Earth, and Southwest Airlines. Through Healthcare Business Today, Daniel continues to inform and inspire professionals across the healthcare landscape.
