Livewell Southwest is partnering with Plymouth Community Homes (PCH) on a ‘digital living lab’ project to explore the impact of digital health technology in the homes of residents with frailty.
Working with the Centre for Health Technology, University of Plymouth, and University Hospitals Plymouth, the project is funded by Cisco through their Country Digital Acceleration initiative and is part of The Lister Alliance healthcare innovation programme.
Residents will have the opportunity to help design technology, such as home sensors and wearable devices, aimed at helping them remain independent at home and shifting care delivery from hospitals to homes.
This pilot aims to demonstrate how home-based technologies can improve the health and wellbeing of older adults with mild to moderate frailty, manage conditions at home, prevent deterioration, reduce hospital admissions, and alleviate pressure on the NHS.
The ‘Plymouth Living Lab,’ one of the world’s largest, will be developed with local, national, and international partners, marking an exciting step for PCH and Livewell Southwest.
Rachael Fox, Partnership Project Manager, said: “The Health and Housing Partnership is all about how we can work together with other organisations to deliver services that support the health and wellbeing of our residents. Enabling them access to test new technology that supports their independence at home is an exciting step forward.
“I am proud that PCH is leading the way in bringing housing and health services together. The ‘Plymouth Living Lab’ gives our residents an exciting opportunity to support our local health services, transforming the way they deliver care in the community, and shaping how the system can support people to remain independent in their homes’.
“I look forward to sharing more with our residents as the project develops.”
Jonathan Cowie, Chief Executive at Plymouth Community Homes, said: “We are very proud to be pioneering Plymouth’s Living Lab project through our partnership with Livewell Southwest, and it’s exciting news this will one of the largest ‘living labs’ in the world.
“Working with world class organisations including the Centre for Health Technology and CISCO will allow us to form new global partnerships as well as creating positive outcomes for our residents, who will not only play a key part in this exciting research but be able to benefit from brand new technology to help them in their daily lives.
“Projects like this demonstrate the real, tangible impact partnership working can bring about, for local people as well for innovative technology companies, and I’m delighted PCH is leading the way in demonstrating this.”
Professor Sheena Asthana, Director of the Centre for Health Technology, said: “There is an urgent need to shift the balance of care from expensive, reactive hospital treatment to prevention, earlier diagnosis, and care within the community (the ‘shift left’ agenda).
“Digital transformation can support this agenda. To date, however, digital innovations have tended to be introduced in acute as opposed to community settings, supporting hospital discharge rather than hospital avoidance.
“By providing the necessary conditions to develop home-based technologies that work for end users and support the need to shift left, the Plymouth Living Lab will be leading the way in helping us to visualise what safe, effective and cost-effective health and care could look like in the future.”
Photo caption: Geoff Baines, Deputy Chief Executive at Livewell Southwest, Morris Watts, Strategic Lead for Partnerships at Livewell Southwest, Tracy Smith, Executive Director of Homes and Communities at Plymouth Community Homes, Melanie Edwards, Health Improvement Manager at Livewell Southwest, Mandy Seymour, Managing Director at Livewell Southwest, Rachael Fox, Partnerships Project Manager at Plymouth Community Homes and Jonathan Cowie, Chief Executive at Plymouth Community Homes – left to right.
