*By Carlo Versano*
A new start-up wants to help patients and caregivers with the age-old problem of managing medications for chronic or serious illnesses.
Hero sprang from the mind of Kal Vepuri, whose aptly-named Brainchild Holdings led a $12 million investment round for the company, which produces an eponymous counter-top device that can store and dispense pills in pre-selected dosages at certain times.
Vepuri told Cheddar he came up with the idea after he became a caregiver for his ill mother.
"She took almost a dozen medications at one point," he said, and the task of organizing, remembering, and dispensing them, as well as dealing with multiple prescribing physicians and changing dosages became an overwhelming task.
So Vepuri took his experience as an entrepreneur and tech consultant to build Hero, which resembles a kitchen appliance married to an Apple device.
The problems surrounding medication management are what he called a "phantom issue" ー no one wants to talk about it, but a stunning number of people have to deal with it ー 70 million Americans have multiple chronic diseases, Vepuri said, and that number will unfortunately only go up as Baby Boomers age, and more millennials are tasked with taking care of their older parents (one-fourth of caregivers are already millennials).
"It's not really great dinner table conversation," he said, "But when you're one-on-one with somebody, and they bring up a problem that they've faced themselves and has been so personal to them and their family, they tend to understand it immediately."
The Hero device can't tell if a user has actually taken his or her pills, but it can remind that person (or a family member or caregiver) through an app notification.
Vepuri said he plans to use the new funding to educate consumers and develop partnerships and online direct-to-caregiver systems so that Hero can be a closed-loop solution for caregivers and patients alike.
For full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/healthcare-start-up-hero-launches-with-12-million-seed-funding).
It’s a chicken-and-egg problem: Restaurants are struggling with record-high U.S. egg prices, but their omelets, scrambles and huevos rancheros may be part of the problem. Breakfast is booming at U.S. eateries. First Watch, a restaurant chain that serves breakfast, brunch and lunch, nearly quadrupled its locations over the past decade to 570. Fast-food chains like Starbucks and Wendy's added more egg-filled breakfast items. In normal times, egg producers could meet the demand. But a bird flu outbreak that has forced them to slaughter their flocks is making supplies scarcer and pushing up prices. Some restaurants like Waffle House have added a surcharge to offset their costs.
William Falcon, CEO and Founder of Lightning AI, discusses the ongoing feud between Elon Musk and Sam Altman, and how everyday people can use AI in their lives.
U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum “will not go unanswered,” European Union chief Ursula von der Leyen vowed on Tuesday, adding that they will trigger toug
The Trump administration has ordered the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to stop nearly all its work, effectively shutting down the agency that was created to protect consumers after the 2008 financial crisis and subprime mortgage-lending scandal. Russell Vought is the newly installed director of the Office of Management and Budget. Vought directed the CFPB in a Saturday night email to stop work on proposed rules, to suspend the effective dates on any rules that were finalized but not yet effective, and to stop investigative work and not begin any new investigations. The agency has been a target of conservatives since President Barack Obama created it following the 2007-2008 financial crisis.
Jeff Benedict, author of 'The Dynasty,' weighs in on the Kansas City Chiefs being the next big dynasty, who he thinks will win Super Bowl LIX and more. Watch!
