Plymouth Community Homes (PCH) is working on a ‘digital living lab’ project which will explore the impact of digital health technology within the homes of our residents. Working with the Centre for Health Technology, University of Plymouth and Livewell Southwest, the project is funded by global IT firm Cisco, through their Country Digital Acceleration initiative, bringing PCH and partners into The Lister Alliance, a healthcare innovation programme.
The project aims to establish a ‘Plymouth Living Lab’, seeking to address frailty management in the home environment, supported by our Health and Housing partnership with Livewell Southwest. The ‘Plymouth Living Lab’, set to be one of the largest in the world, will be developed by a network of local, national and global partners, including; Livewell Southwest, University Hospitals Plymouth, Plymouth City Council, NHS Devon and Health Innovation Southwest.
The Lister Alliance’s mission is to embed digital technologies seamlessly across the NHS. They work with NHS Trusts, key partners and academics to create Living Labs, demonstrating new ways to deliver accessible, efficient and personalised healthcare.
The project will focus on older individuals with frailty, and our residents will be provided opportunities to help co-design technology, such as sensors in the home and wearable devices. Piloting these various new technologies, that aim to help them remain independent in their own homes, will support the system shift to care delivery away from hospitals to care in peoples homes.
This research aims to demonstrate whether and how home-based technologies can both improve the health and well-being of older people with mild to moderate frailty. Wider use of home-based technology supports the management of conditions and care in the community, prevents deterioration and reduces hospital admissions, offering better quality of life for individuals and reducing pressure on the NHS, supporting the local health system and its staff.
At this early stage of the partnership, the investment secured from Cisco will support a PCH based user engagement researcher. This researcher will work with residents, staff, medical professionals, social care staff, and other voluntary organisations to support the co-design, piloting and evaluation of the home-based technologies. Creating a collaborative and safe environment for new technologies to be tested directly with the end users.
PCH is also recruiting a Digital Inclusion Worker to deliver the Digital Inclusion Scheme being jointly funded by PCH and Livewell Southwest. This new role will be focused on supporting residents with getting online and will provide Patient Participation Insight and Engagement (PPIE) work to support the development of the ‘Plymouth Living Lab’, assisting participants to overcome digital barriers.
The project comes at a very exciting time for the partnership between 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.
