At HEC Lausanne (UNIL), the entrepreneurial spirit is strongly encouraged, and many students and graduates are coming up with solutions to meet the challenges facing our society. Among these initiatives, Retr’aide stands out for its innovative approach to the problem of an ageing population.
In 2023, Murielle Mormont and Gimmi Grosso met for the first time, sharing their experiences of the challenges and consequences of keeping seniors at home. The idea for Retr’aide was born. With their complementary skills, Murielle and Gimmi embarked on this adventure with a clear vision: to develop an innovative solution to improve the quality of life of elderly people at home and preserve their independence.
A graduate of the Executive MBA program at HEC Lausanne, Murielle is both a surgeon and a consultant. She brings to the project her skills derived from her medical practice, as well as her in-depth knowledge of healthcare policy. Her time at HEC Lausanne enabled her to acquire knowledge of entrepreneurship and strategy, “and above all the desire to dare to create”, she emphasizes. For his part, Gimmi, an entrepreneur and financier by training, enriches Retr’aide with his entrepreneurial experience.
To turn their vision into reality and create their start-up, they joined the UCreate program at the University of Lausanne’s (UNIL) Entrepreneurship and Innovation HUB. A program they describe as extremely enriching and formative on every level – theoretical, practical and, above all, human. In particular because of the HUB’s culture of mutual support and practical experience.
And the solution proposed by Murielle Mormont and Gimmi Grosso could well attract the attention of many households as well as political decision-makers.
But what exactly are we talking about
How can we enable the elderly to remain in their own homes for as long as possible, while at the same time relieving families who are too often overwhelmed by the task of coordinating care? How can we prevent the saturation of care structures, and thus contribute to limiting healthcare costs? How can we implement effective preventive care?
Retr’aide focuses on coordinating homecare services and centralizing access to care via a single coordinator. As well as providing comprehensive care, this enables to monitor the state of health of elderly people and their environment. This preventive monitoring detects any changes and leads to rapid adaptation of support services to avoid costly hospitalization. Aware of the social isolation that the elderly can experience at home, the start-up also offers activities and events to encourage social interaction.
The next stages of the project include the creation of partnerships, the launch of a pilot project and the development of digital tools to facilitate the coordination of services. Expansion is planned once the results of the pilot have been evaluated.
We wish them every success in bringing this fabulous project to fruition!
For more information, visit www.retraide.ch.
Picture : © Lacheev | Dreamstime.com
