Professor Eccleston (Director of BCPR) has recently been awarded with an EPSRC Knowledge Transfer Award, to develop innovative ways to accelerate the translation of research outputs in to business opportunities.
In partnership with the Bath Institute for Medical Engineering (BIME), Smart systems for rehabilitation and assisted living will provide individualised support for users and carers to manage their condition. They will be suitable for the self funded, mainstream market, and are more likely to provide a sustainable long term model of delivery.
The aim of this award is to take forward the outputs of previous awards led by Professor Eccleston (SMART 1, SMART 2 and KT) and Smart Homes work from BIME in to telehealth and telecare for those with chronic conditions, which enable them to self manage at home.
Although self care and self management are being promoted as the way forward, there is little analysis in to their integration in to the home; it assumes a medical model of health intervention, where a health professional is responsible for monitoring - unlikely to be sustainable in the long term.
This project will establish long partnerships with three key organisations working in this area: BIME, the Brain Injury Rehabilitation Trust (BIRT) - one of the leading independent providers for people with acquired brain injury, and Ivory Egg, the leading UK supplier of home automation products using the European wide open KNX architecture. BIRT and Ivory Egg are each contributing £12,000 to the project and there are also in kind contributions from industry in terms of business mentoring and technology installation.
