IoT Health and Social Care

How the Internet of Things as well as consumer and specialist technology can improve health and social care.

14:44 09 February 2018

The Greater Manchester Council is currently trialling the internet of things (IoT) and a variety of consumer and specialist technology to improve health and social care.

 

A bungalow set up by the Wigan council in 2017 is now being used as a test bed and demonstration site. It has been designed and equipped with consumer and specialist technology to allow social workers, service users and family members to see how IoT devices are revolutionising assistive technology and how this can help people to stay independent longer.  

 

Helen Sunderland, the national social care lead at EY (formerly known as Ernst & Young), said: “[Now it’s about] how do you make a smartphone do the stuff you need it to? How do you take personal gadgets and make them a part of helping people live their lives more easily?”

 

“We had our normal telecare service,” she continues. “But then in 2016 Jo Willmott, one of our assistant directors, recognised that we needed to start expanding our assistive tech offer, looking at consumer products and whether we could utilise them. That’s the journey we are on at the moment.”