D2A Smart Incubator

When older people are in hospital, there can be delays in discharging them back to their homes. This is because an assessment needs to take place to check that they are able to look after themselves. This is a major problem for the health and social care sector. Delays to hospital discharges cost the NHS £820m annually. Longer stays in hospital are associated with increased risk of infection, low mood, and reduced motivation. Difficulty putting a package of support in place is the cause of nearly a third of all delays.

We want to use our conversation-based AI-technology to support this process. Our project will introduce non-conventional methods of collecting and analysing data (gait, voice and conversation) which provides health insights, in addition to established clinical data sources (like blood pressure and heart rate) to help assess overall wellbeing of patients in the home environment following a discharge.

We already have an AI-led product that supports older people. This project will develop this to support what is known as Discharge to Assess (D2A). This will reduce delays, improve patient care, and save money. By developing MiiCare's existing product we will be able to:

* Automate and schedule patient care assessments
* Use conversations between the patient and Monica, our voice assistant, to evaluate mental health status
* Step in if symptoms of delirium/hallucinations/delusions are detected
* Analyse changes in voice patterns to identify possible symptoms of RTIs
* Apply clinical gait analysis on the patient's footstep recordings to evaluate physical fitness, gait abnormality, and risk of fall.
* Build a comprehensive digital health record depicting the overall patient wellbeing from conversations, gait and vitals data captured in their home.
* Reduce number of patients needing to be discharged to a 24-hour residential care setting
* Provide 24/7 interactive virtual support to users that can help reassure them and their families.

Our approach will put users at the heart of the design process. We will use their knowledge, experience, and expertise to build something that really works for them. We will also work with families, care providers, and doctors to make sure that what we design meets their needs too. By the end of the project we will have designed, built and tested a product that is ready for a wider scale rollout in community care settings. This will increase the number of patients being discharged to their own home and save money for the NHS and Local Authorities.