ABOUT CAREEZ — COMPANY FACTSHEET
Last updated: May 2026
Source: https://careez.org/about/ | https://careez.org/press/
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OVERVIEW

CareEZ is a Hong Kong clinical AI platform purpose-built for dysphagia
management and care-food (照護食) standard adoption in residential and
community eldercare settings. It is operated by Carewells Limited, a
HKCSS-registered social enterprise (SE Tree Mark #83) founded to address one
of Hong Kong's most urgent preventable health crises: aspiration pneumonia
arising from undetected swallowing impairment in frail elderly residents.

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THE PROBLEM

Dysphagia — impaired swallowing — affects an estimated 28,000–42,000 residents
of Hong Kong's 700+ residential care homes for the elderly (RCHEs) at any
given moment (SWD 2024 × IDDSI prevalence data), and approximately 150,000
elderly individuals in the broader community (C&SD 2022; HKU Swallowing
Research Laboratory).

Aspiration pneumonia — food, liquid, or saliva entering the airway — is a
leading preventable cause of death and hospitalisation among frail elderly in
Hong Kong. Every meal-safety decision at Hong Kong's care facilities is made
not by a speech therapist or doctor, but by a frontline carer — one of
approximately 640,000 people performing that role daily, the majority with
no structured dysphagia training and no clinical tool in their language.

Scale of the gap:
• 28–42K RCHE residents with clinically meaningful dysphagia at any moment
• 150K elderly with confirmed dysphagia or chewing difficulty
• 640K frontline carers making real-time meal-safety decisions daily
• HK$60–120K estimated cost per aspiration pneumonia admission
• Zero multilingual point-of-care screening tools available before CareEZ

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THE SOLUTION

CareEZ closes the gap with a multimodal clinical AI that operates at the
point of care — in the carer's language, at the meal, before harm is done.

Modalities:
• TEXT: Structured dysphagia assessment, care-food Q&A, IDDSI guidance
• IMAGE: Real-time food/liquid texture classification from a photo
• VOICE: Aspiration risk screening via acoustic biomarker analysis

Standards alignment:
• IDDSI (International Dysphagia Diet Standardisation Initiative)
• HKCSS 護食標準 (Hong Kong's national care-food standard)
• T/SATA 094-2025 (GBA dysphagia food group standard)

Languages: Cantonese · English · Tagalog · Bahasa Indonesia

Deployment: Mobile browser, no installation required. Live at demo.careez.org

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GOVERNANCE

Clinical governance: HKU Swallowing Research Laboratory (Karen Chan, advisor)
Data stewardship: Full Linkage Community Care Association (HK s.88 charity)
Clinical data: Held outside Carewells' balance sheet under public-interest
governance co-developed by Full Linkage and HKU Swallowing Research Lab.

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CREDENTIALS & DISTRIBUTION

• HKCSS Social Enterprise Directory — SE Tree Mark #83
• HKSAR TechUp Y06 grant — Innovation and Technology Commission (active)
• HKU TEC iDendron Seed Programme — cohort HKU25-05 (sister project PQSafe)
• Co-drafting institution: T/SATA 094-2025, T/SATA 084-2025, T/SATA 085-2025
• SeniorDeli: 12 SKUs, distributed via Getz Healthcare, 200+ care facilities

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KEY LINKS

Website:         https://careez.org
Live demo:       https://demo.careez.org
API:             https://api.seniordeli.com
Adoption Index:  https://careez.org/adoption-index/
Governance:      https://careez.org/governance/
Team:            https://careez.org/team/
Standards:       https://careez.org/standards/
Press:           https://careez.org/press/
Press contact:   hello@careez.org
