Your Circle of Care is the group of people who support you on PCAI — family, friends, caregivers, and healthcare professionals. Inviting someone is simple. From your dashboard, navigate to the Care Circle section (or the Family tab) and tap "Invite." Enter the person's email address, select their role, and tap Send. PCAI will email them an invitation link that they can open on any device. They do not need to install anything — the link takes them directly to a sign-up page where they create their own password and join your circle.

You can invite as many people as you like. There is no hard limit on the number of family members, though the specific roles available may depend on your subscription plan. Each invited person receives their own account with their own login credentials, language preference, and notification settings. This means a daughter in Vancouver and a son in Manila can both be part of the same care circle, each using PCAI in their preferred language while contributing to the same shared space.

When someone accepts your invitation, you will receive a notification. You can then configure their specific permissions — what they can see, what they can do, and what notifications they receive. If someone is having trouble finding the invitation email, ask them to check their spam or junk folder. You can also re-send an invitation from the Care Circle management page if needed. Invitations expire after 7 days for security reasons, but you can always send a new one.

PCAI uses five distinct roles to define what each person in a care circle can do and see. Understanding these roles is key to maintaining both connection and privacy. The five roles are: Member, Caregiver, Family, Clinic, and Admin. Each role has a carefully considered set of permissions that balances accessibility with protection.

A Member is the person at the center of the care circle — the individual receiving support. Members have full control over their own experience: they can use all modules, talk to COI, record vitals, browse Memory Lane, and adjust their own privacy settings. Members always have the final say over who sees their information.

A Caregiver is a professional or dedicated family member providing day-to-day care. Caregivers can record vitals on behalf of the member, view health trends, receive care reminders, and access specific therapeutic modules recommended for the member's condition. Caregivers cannot change the member's privacy settings or invite new people without the member's (or Admin's) approval.

A Family member is a relative or close friend who participates in the social and emotional support network. Family members can contribute to Memory Lane, participate in video calls, and view shared updates. Their access to health data (like vitals) is more restricted unless explicitly granted by the member.

A Clinic role is designed for healthcare professionals and care teams. Clinic users can view health data relevant to care delivery (vitals, symptom logs, wellness check responses), but they cannot access personal content like journals, life stories, or family photos unless specifically shared. This separation ensures that clinical care is informed without compromising personal dignity.

An Admin manages the technical and billing aspects of the care circle. Admins can invite and remove people, change roles, manage subscription plans, and configure account-level settings. There can be multiple admins per care circle. Typically, the person who created the account starts as the Admin, and they can grant Admin privileges to others as needed.

The Family Room is PCAI's built-in video calling feature, designed to make connecting with family as easy as possible. To start or join a video call, open the Family Room from your dashboard or the Care tab and tap "Join Video Call." Family members can join from any device with a camera and microphone — a smartphone, tablet, or computer — using the web browser. No app download is required, which is especially important for older family members who may find app installation confusing.

Video calls support multiple participants, so the whole family can join at once — a daughter in one city, a son in another, and a grandparent at home. The video interface is designed to be simple: large buttons, clear participant names, and a minimal set of controls (mute, camera on/off, end call). There are no complicated menus or hidden settings. The call quality automatically adjusts based on the connection speed, ensuring that even on slower internet connections, the call remains usable.

For members who may have difficulty with video calls (due to hearing loss, cognitive challenges, or simply not feeling up to a call), PCAI also supports voice-only calls and text-based messaging. Family members can leave voice messages and text messages that the member can listen to or read at their own pace. The goal is to remove every possible barrier to connection — technology should bring families together, not create new obstacles. Scheduled calls can also be set up, where COI sends a gentle reminder before the call and guides the member to the Family Room at the right time.

One of PCAI's most powerful features is the way it helps coordinate care across the entire circle. When a caregiver records a vitals reading, logs a symptom, or notes a change in the member's condition, this information becomes available (based on permissions) to the rest of the care circle. A daughter living abroad can see that her father's blood pressure was recorded this morning and is within a normal range — without needing a phone call that might interrupt his routine or cause anxiety.

The platform includes a simple activity feed — a timeline of recent events within the care circle. This might include a new photo uploaded to Memory Lane, a vitals reading, a completed module in the Adaptive Studio, a COI wellness check response, or a message from a family member. The feed is designed to be informative without being overwhelming. You can customize which types of updates appear and how frequently you receive notifications.

For more structured communication, PCAI supports care notes — short messages that can be tagged by category (medical, emotional, practical, social) and directed to specific people in the circle. For example, a caregiver might write a care note about a change in medication and tag the Clinic role so the healthcare team sees it. A family member might write a social note about a planned visit. This structured approach reduces miscommunication and ensures that important information reaches the right people without relying on group text messages or email chains that can easily be lost or overlooked.

Privacy is foundational to PCAI. The platform was designed from the beginning with the understanding that health and personal information is deeply sensitive, and that the people using PCAI — often older adults in vulnerable health situations — deserve the strongest possible protections. Every piece of information in PCAI is governed by a granular permission system that gives the Member (the person at the center of care) control over who sees what.

The Privacy Center, accessible from Settings, shows you exactly who has access to each category of your information. You will see a clear, simple list: "Vitals readings — visible to: Caregiver (Maria), Clinic (Dr. Smith)." "Memory Lane — visible to: Family (John), Family (Elena), Caregiver (Maria)." "Journal entries — visible to: No one (private)." This transparency is deliberate — you should never have to wonder who can see your information.

You can change any permission at any time. If you want to stop sharing your vitals with a specific caregiver, you can do so with one tap. If you want to share your journal with a trusted family member, you can grant that access. All permission changes are logged in an audit trail that you can review. PCAI also supports time-limited access — for example, granting a temporary caregiver access to your vitals for a two-week period, after which access automatically revokes.

Beyond the permission system, PCAI uses industry-standard encryption for data in transit and at rest, does not sell personal data to third parties, and complies with applicable privacy regulations including HIPAA guidelines for health information. The platform's 3-gate safety architecture (detailed in Part 4) adds additional layers of protection. We believe that trust is earned through transparency, and we encourage you to review our full privacy policy at coiorb.com/privacy-policy.