AI-Powered Caregiving

Family and professional caregivers are already asking AI about medications, lab results and diagnoses. The harder question is when to trust the answer. In this episode of AI-Powered Caregiving, Zemplee founder and CEO Aparna Pujar talks with Dr. Irina Koyfman, a doctor of nursing practice, dementia specialist and board-certified AI clinician, about using AI as a thinking partner rather than a replacement for judgment.Mentioned in this episode: * The AI Health Companion by Dr. Irina Koyfman — Her guide to trust-but-verify AI use, with about 50 example health prompts — https://sandwich-generation.org/books#ai-companion• Sandwich Generation Handbook by Dr. Irina Koyfman — Her 18 short chapters for overwhelmed caregivers, each with a personal story and free resources — https://sandwich-generation.org/books#sandwich • AI Competency Domains for Nurses by Dr. Irina Koyfman and a nursing colleague — Written after both became board certified and found no AI competencies existed for nurses — https://sandwich-generation.org/books#ai-nursesZemplee offers AI-powered remote monitoring to help older adults live at home safely. Zemplee's the winner of two Gold Awards in the 2026 McKnight's Tech Awards. Learn how remote monitoring can help your loved ones or residents at zemplee.com.

Zemplee CEO Aparna Pujar talks about the study behind two 2026 McKnight's Tech Awards golds: A "Nursing home without walls" concept that helped older adults in rural Kansas stay safely at home, and cut skilled nursing bed days by 50%. Zemplee's tech is a peek into a future where senior care moves to people's homes. Learn more about Zemplee at zemplee.com.

Most advice about what to look for in dementia care comes from clinicians or from families. Khatera Bahadory has been both. She arrived from Kabul at ten, worked as a caregiver while putting herself through nursing school, and now directs Astoria Park Senior Living in Pasadena, California. Then her father-in-law was diagnosed with dementia, and she spent that period on the family side of the desk — frustrated by a care team whose communication, she says, simply wasn't there.She now uses that frustration as training material. With host Aparna Pujar, founder and CEO of Zemplee, she covers how she trains her team for sundowning, why every family gets the same standard of care regardless of how often they visit, and what she would change about aging in America.Visit: astoriaparkseniorliving.comzemplee.com

Jackie Hess spent 15 years in elder care and hospice before founding Stay Home Solutions, a Michigan-based service pairing certified home safety inspections with AI-powered passive remote monitoring. In this conversation, Jackie and Aparna dig into why families resist wearable fall pendants, how passive sensor data (not cameras) can protect privacy while still keeping families informed, and the most overlooked home safety fix that costs almost nothing: lighting.

Every hospital leader claims AI is transforming care. But how do you tell what's actually working from what's just hype?Joe Avelino is CEO of College Medical Center, a behavioral health and acute care hospital in Long Beach, California, with a dedicated geriatric psychiatric program for older adults. He's also been a nurse, a soldier, and a hospital executive — and it shows in how he thinks about leadership.In this episode, Joe walks through where College Medical Center actually stands with AI: the specific tools they're testing (from AI-assisted documentation in Cerner to an AI-generated plan of correction), how he separates real efficiency gains from tools that just move a metric, and how he leads a clinical staff through the skepticism and fear that come with any new technology.