Project to design low-cost digital healthcare assistants for the home

7 June 2013

The SPHERE project is a collaboration between universities, industry and a local council that will develop simple home sensor systems to monitor the health and wellbeing of people living at home.

Called SPHERE for Sensor Platform for Healthcare in a Residential Environment, the project is a collaboration between the Universities of Southampton, Reading and Bristol, Bristol City Council, IBM, Toshiba and Knowle West Media Centre (KWMC). The project has been awarded a five-year grant of £11,683,480.92 by the EPSRC.

The project aims to address a range of healthcare needs simultaneously through data-fusion and pattern-recognition from a common platform of non-medical/environmental sensors in the home.

The system will be general-purpose, low-cost and accessible. Sensors will be entirely passive, requiring no action by the user and suitable for all patients, including the most vulnerable. An example of SPHERE’s home sensor system could be to detect an overnight stroke or mini-stroke on waking, by detecting small changes in behaviour, expression and gait. It could also monitor a patient’s compliance with their prescribed drugs.

Once practical, user-friendly technologies have been developed further, they will be piloted in a large number of homes over extended periods of time.

SPHERE will work hand-in-hand with the local community through Bristol City Council and its partners at KWMC. Leading clinicians in heart surgery, orthopaedics, stroke and Parkinson’s disease, and recognised authorities on depression and obesity will also be involved with the project, along with the Elizabeth Blackwell Institute for Health Research, Bristol Health Partners and Bristol’s NIHR-funded Biomedical Research Units.

Professor Ian Craddock, Director of the project and who will be leading the interdisciplinary team, says: “SPHERE aims to have a profound impact on the health and wellbeing of people with a wide range of different health challenges.

“Families, carers, health and social services professionals involved in all stages of care will benefit from the system. SPHERE will address real world challenges by developing a practical technology to monitor people’s health in the home environment, targeting health concerns such as; obesity, depression, stroke, falls, cardiovascular and musculoskeletal diseases.”

Professor Jeremy Tavaré, Deputy Director of the collaboration, comments: “The involvement of patients, carers, nurses and clinicians from the outset of this project will be key in ensuring acceptability of these exciting new technologies.”

Professor Ann Ashburn, Professor of Rehabilitation at the University of Southampton, says: “We have limited knowledge of the ways in which individuals move about, negotiate obstacles and on some occasions become unsteady and fall over in their homes. This exciting research opportunity will allow us to detect these situations and make major contributions to fall prevention among the older population.”

Professional William Harwin in the School of Systems Engineering at the University of Reading, adds: “The production of ubiquitous and unobtrusive 'passive sensors' is a key constituent part of this project. These sensors could be embedded in clothing or jewellery, or more ambitiously implanted, possibly in association with remedial surgery.

“Information from these sensors will monitor and track the signature movements of people in their homes and trigger a response in accordance with health needs. This will enable health care experts to respond as appropriate.”

Rodric Yates, Program Director in IBM's Chief Technology Office, says: “Although healthcare budgets and changing demographics are creating serious challenges, the latest technological advances can help society keep pace with this environment. We were pleased to be invited by the University of Bristol to join this important project and will contribute by drawing upon some of the best examples from around the world in healthcare sensing, medical data collection and analysis, and the delivery of healthcare systems. Improving patient care in a cost-effective way and helping people stay independent, for longer, is an objective we share with the University and the city.”

 

 

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