The Technology Strategy Board is funding a series of radical ideas with the potential to revolutionise the approach to long-term care.
Six business-led projects, which aim to transform quality of life for older adults, are to share £2.4 m in funding. Iain Gray, chief executive of the Technology Strategy Board explains: “We focus innovation activity on areas where we think it can make the biggest difference. Late life care is often regarded as an economic liability but it can actually be an engine for economic growth.
This is an expanding market and we need to radically rethink our approach to long-term care provision, providing options that will enable people to live with more dignity and autonomy.”
One of the six projects will create a humanised avatar to act as a digital champion for older people, capturing their individual preferences to create a joined-up care plan. Another applies the training principles for high performance athletes to people with long-term health issues and a third project assesses tolerance levels for stages of specific conditions.
The funding was offered to the winners of a competition called the ‘Long-Term Care Revolution’, and is funded through the Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI) scheme, which connects public sector challenges with innovative ideas from industry.
