University helps residents shape the future of health technology in their own homes

The Plymouth Living Lab project aims to demonstrate whether home-based technologies can improve the health and wellbeing of older people
Carer guiding elderly woman with remote interaction on a tablet device

The University of Plymouth has led the creation of a city-wide partnership working to explore the impact of digital health technology within homes across Plymouth.
The Plymouth Living Lab project will see researchers from the University’s Centre for Health Technology working closely with Plymouth Community Homes (PCH) and some of the residents living in its properties.
Set to be one of the largest initiatives of its kind in the world, it will also be developed by a network of local, national and global partners, including Livewell Southwest, University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust, Plymouth City Council, NHS Devon, and Health Innovation Southwest.
The 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.
In line with that, the Plymouth Living Lab project aims to demonstrate whether and how home-based technologies can improve the health and wellbeing of older people with mild to moderate frailty.
Through the project, PCH residents will be provided with opportunities to help co-design technology, such as sensors in the home and wearable devices.
Piloting these devices, which aim to help residents remain independent in their own homes, will support the system shift of care delivery away from hospitals to care in people’s homes.

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.

Sheena AsthanaProfessor Sheena Asthana
Director of the Centre for Health Technology

The Plymouth Living Lab is being funded by global IT firm Cisco, through its Country Digital Acceleration initiative, and brings the Plymouth partners into a healthcare innovation programme, The Lister Alliance.
The Alliance’s mission is to embed digital technologies seamlessly across the NHS, and it works with NHS Trusts, key partners and academics to create Living Labs, demonstrating new ways to deliver accessible, efficient and personalised healthcare.
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. This will create 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 focus 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 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.

Rachael Fox
Partnership Project Manager

We are very proud to be pioneering Plymouth's Living Lab project through our partnership with Livewell Southwest, and it's exciting news that this will be 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 and for innovative technology companies, and I'm delighted PCH is leading the way in demonstrating this.

Jonathan Cowie
Chief Executive at Plymouth Community Homes
 
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