Edinburgh-based technology start-up Smplicare has raised £750,000 to fund research into the use of artificial technology (AI) to help older people live independently for longer.
Set up last year, the firm will use the money from UK Research & Innovation and private investors to study the use of wearable technologies such as Fitbit or Garmin to predict the risk of falls. This is expected to lead to the launch next year of a digital platform to help people better manage their own health.
As part of the study, 300 people aged 55 and older with a recent history of falls will be given a device to produce data that will allow Smplicare to create and AI-powered platform that can predict and proactively alert to the likelihood of a future fall.
Latest UK Government figures show that 30 per cent of over-65s and half of over-80s fall at least once per year, costing the NHS more than £4.4 billion annually. Official data also estimates that the number of over-65s will grow by more than five million people by 2043, placing added pressure on healthcare services.
READ MORE: Artificial intelligence 'better at diagnosing heart failure' than standard test
Garrett Sprague, chief executive and founder of Smplicare, said the need for such technology is "immediate and immense".
“People often say older adults don’t use technology," he said. "That’s just not true anymore. Technology spending for adults over 65 – including wearables – exploded during the pandemic, up 350% by some estimates.
"It’s not that older people don’t use technology – the reality is that they have a low tolerance for bad technology. Smplicares’ technology is simple and allows users to monitor and manage their own health data via our bespoke mobile dashboard which is co-designed alongside older adults."
The study is being supported by a team of scientists at The Data Lab, Scotland’s innovation centre for data and AI.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here