Putting innovation at the heart of health & social care to drive healthy ageing across a million-strong population in North East London.

We are delighted to have launched our Innovation Test Bed video, sharing the progress we have made to date in our aim to create stronger, more innovative and collaborative health and social care communities.

The Care City Innovation Test Bed is one of the Test Beds selected by NHS England as part of The Five Year Forward View (FYFV) to serve as a real world site for evaluating ‘combinatorial’ innovations that integrate new technologies and other novel approaches. The aim of the test bed programme is to offer the prospect of better care, and better patient experience of care, at the same or lower overall cost.

The Care City Test Bed promotes healthy ageing across a million-strong population in North East London. Bringing together six Innovation Partners, the Programme tests and evaluates combinations of innovative technologies that can help people to manage their own health conditions, to remain as independent as possible, whilst ensuring that  carers receive the information and connections they need in order coordinate care effectively.

Working with researchers, innovators, clinicians, patients and the community, across the London boroughs of Barking and Dagenham, Havering, Redbridge and Waltham Forest, we specifically aim to understand the challenges that are being faced by people living with dementia and long term conditions, and their carers and families, and test and implement innovative solutions designed to improve quality of life and independence.

Our video takes you on a journey through each of our target audiences and how the Innovators we are working with, and the technologies we are testing, can offer improvements to individuals and their wider support network.  

Claire Stidston, Programme Manager, Care City commented “The Care City Borough of Havering has London’s oldest population, so there is a real need to make improvements to those living right on our doorstep with dementia or a long term condition. We are delighted to be working with these Innovation Partners who share our brand values and vision and are dedicated to helping people live longer, healthier, more independent lives”.

The six innovations currently being tested are:

• Kardia Mobile by AliveCor– A mobile ECG which can allow individuals to detect and monitor heart arrhythmias with automatic analysis.
• Kinesis QTUG™– A fast and efficient tool for identifying older adults at risk of falling, using precise and accurate body movement sensors.
• Join Dementia Research– Supporting local people to register their interest in participating in dementia research and allows them to be matched to suitable studies in their area and wider.
• HealthUnlocked– A social prescribing function for dementia that identifies appropriate local services, peer support and online resources based on people’s needs.
• Canary Care– a monitoring and notification system which aims to provide round the clock reassurance to family members whilst allowing older or vulnerable people to stay at home and;

• St Bernard– a GPS based Emergency Location Service which can reassure both the individual and their carer and family.

John Craig, Chief Executive, Care City commented “Our long term vision is to share the output from the Test Bed to understand the benefits of each innovation and, where successful, assist with implementation and ultimately feedback to a health and social care system to enable it to become good at identifying, implementing, testing and sharing innovation”.

To learn more please watch the Care City Innovation video and keep up to date on the Innovation Test Bed pageon the Care City website.