Healthcare Wearables for Independent Living

Around 1 in 4 people have multiple long-term conditions (MLTCs) rising to up to two-thirds in people over the age of 65 years. Treatment for this group is estimated to take up 70% of health care expenditure. Such people have poorer health, poorer quality of life, and a higher risk of dying. Key challenges for this group of people include maintaining their independence in their homes, avoiding developing further conditions that can threaten their health, and which would further impair their quality of life and minimising the high burden of healthcare for this group potentially made worse by uncoordinated health and social care. Our challenge is to improve outcomes through informed self-care and maintaining independence, while reducing healthcare costs. The current model for many MLTCs is for people to present to urgent care services when they can no longer cope at home. This reactive approach leads to frequent use of emergency hospital services when a severe episode occurs, shifting the focus of care to hospitals. Management then follows generic pathways within acute healthcare, in an attempt to stabilise the condition of the patient. Information-driven technologies will enable people to perform their own health management, which will change the model of care. Individuals will be able to manage their condition proactively. The integration of knowledge concerning individuals' co-morbidities (which are common in MLTCs) will allow personalised therapy, further maintaining independence, improving patient outcomes, and optimising the use of resources.

The proposed programme "Healthcare Wearables for Independent Living" (HW-IL) aims to develop, for the first time, a suite of predictive tools, based on regular wearable devices, to allow a step-change in the self-care of patients with MLTCs, and in the maintenance of their independence by avoiding deterioration. Patients and their carers will be guided, using such tools, to preventative management. For the first time, such tools will incorporate an integrated approach, exploiting patient-worn devices (at or near the patient), and healthcare data (from GPs and hospital information systems), working in real-time. All work will be ethically approved, and accord to the highest standards of patient confidentiality.