MedCottage

Photos by Sam Dean | The Roanoke Times

Builder Bret Berneche, CEO of Cardinal Homes, puts some finishing touches on the MedCottage prototype.

The MedCottage has several monitoring systems that track air quality, vital signs, motion and other data, all of which can be viewed via an online account.

The prototype MedCottage, produced by N2Care in Salem, sits on display recently on the campus of Hollins University. The product is intended to accommodate family members in need of care while keeping them close to home.

Scott Muench of the company Tridium demonstrates the remote monitoring features of the MedCottage, produced by N2Care, a company based in Salem.

An idea to build a modular medical home that could be placed in a caregiver's back yard could be on the market by January.

Salem-based N2Care, the company responsible for inventing the MedCottage, revealed its prototype for the specially equipped, portable house Monday at the Roanoke Civic Center.

MedCottage would retail for between $65,000 and $75,000 at first, with about 100 being made in 2011. N2Care eventually plans to make the homes available for lease at about $1,500 to $2,000 a month. N2Care plans to be profitable within three to six months of hitting the market.

Investors, along with other supporters and media, toured the MedCottage as N2Care touted its invention as the way to meet the health care needs of aging baby boomers without having to rely on nursing homes. But the units could be used by any person wanting

some independence but in need of home medical care. The prototype was dedicated to a 9-year-old boy, Jason Terpenny, who died a decade ago from a virus after getting leukemia.

The 12-by-24-foot home is the brainchild of the Rev. Kenneth Dupin, pastor of Salem Wesleyan Church, who first thought of the idea about four years ago.

"I feel like this is as much a ministry as anything else I do," Dupin said.

N2Care has quickly evolved from a company with an idea and no money into one that has lots of backing. Even before the prototype was revealed Monday, N2Care and the MedCottage had caused a lot of buzz during the past few months. Recent national attention has come from The Washington Post, AARP and CBS. The attention has spread globally, and the business has fielded international inquiries.

Dupin said after the Post published an article in May, "Every little old lady in the world called us asking for one."

Since dreaming up the concept, Dupin has assembled a team that includes an engineer from Virginia Tech, the CEO of a modular home manufacturing company and several others with expertise in the hospice and home health care arenas.

N2Care formed in December 2008, and in August 2009 the privately held limited liability company went public with the MedCottage concept. In April Gov. Bob McDonnell signed a bill into law allowing structures like the MedCottage to be placed in back yards without special-use permits typically required in zoning ordinances. The law took effect July 1.

Bret Berneche is responsible for manufacturing the MedCottage. He is a member of N2Care's leadership team, but he is also the president and CEO of Cardinal Homes Inc., a manufacturer of modular homes in Wylliesburg in Charlotte County. He formed an affiliate of Cardinal Homes, MC Manufacturing Inc., for the sole purpose of manufacturing MedCottages.

It was Berneche's relationships that secured the money needed to build the prototype.

The Charlotte County Industrial Development Authority and the Tobacco Indemnification and Community Revitalization Commission each contributed $50,000 to the development of the first MedCottage. The prototype is technically being leased by the IDA to N2Care for two years at no cost, said Susan Conn, director of operations for N2Care.

Charlotte County provided the financial backing because it has a strong working relationship with Berneche and believed in the product, said Larry Dunn, a member of the IDA board.

"Economically it just made sense to try and help the company that has helped our county so much," Dunn said.

Investors have started to financially support the effort. Currently N2Care has about 20 investors, said Conn, but she wouldn't say how much money has been raised. However, Conn said the company needs about $3 million to support the startup.

The MedCottage includes features such as a pressurized ventilation system similar to those found in hospital intensive care units. It also has a video system that monitors the floor at ankle level so a caregiver will know if a patient falls. Another system dispenses medicine at the proper time and dosage; it even alerts a caregiver if the patient doesn't take the medicine out of the system.

The MedCottage is still in its infancy, with many improvements being planned, Dupin said.

Next the prototype will be taken to Virginia Tech, where several projects are being planned to study and possibly improve on the model, said Janis Terpenny, a Tech systems engineering professor and a member of the N2Care team. She is also Jason's mother.

"Frankly I think it could be configured to whatever the needs are of the person," Terpenny said.

Studies are being planned in both the College of Engineering and the Center for Gerontology, Terpenny said.