Completed Education & Skills Psychology & Behaviour

Overcoming barriers to mainstreaming Assisted Living Technologies

Funder InnovateUK (part of UKRI)
Recipient organisation University of Sheffield Source-published name: University of Sheffield
Funding £1.8M
Period May 2011 — Nov 2014

In plain English

AI plain-English summary

Telehealth devices that let patients monitor their conditions at home are being rolled out across Yorkshire, but no one yet knows if they actually save the NHS money or work well enough to justify a national rollout. This project tackles three specific barriers holding back assisted living technologies: proving they are cost-effective, getting people to actually use them, and finding business models that make them sustainable. The researchers will build cost-effectiveness models for two common long-term conditions, then test and refine those models using real telehealth deployments in three Yorkshire areas. They will also study what patients, carers, and staff think about the technology, and work with industry to design service and business models that could support large-scale use. If this succeeds, the NHS and social care systems could gain practical tools—cost models, uptake strategies, and business frameworks—to decide where and how to deploy assisted living technologies at scale. The immediate impact is on infrastructure and commissioning decisions, not on individual patients directly. The project produces evidence for policymakers and providers, helping them avoid wasting money on technologies that do not work in practice.

View original technical description
The future large-scale deployment of Assisted Living Technologies (ALTs) depends on establishing cost-effectiveness at scale, overcoming barriers to uptake, and devising viable service and business models. Our research aims to unlock these 3 barriers to ALT mainstreaming by initially focussing on NHS and social care telehealth deployments across Yorkshire and subsequently examining the effect of the introduction of new ALTs. This project will: 1. create cost-effectiveness models of 2 common long-term conditions that allow ALT deployments to be tested for cost-effectiveness at different scales and configurations; 2. refine these models with commissioners and service providers in three areas in Yorkshire where telehealth is being deployed; 3. study user, carer and staff acceptance of telehealth, deepening understanding of ALT acceptability 4. design strategies for service delivery optimising cost-effectiveness and uptake of ALT and evaluate these in three areas in Yorkshire; 5. adapt and apply these models and strategies to innovative ALTs to test their likely benefits; 6.work with industry to identify and develop business models which will optimally service market need for current and future ALT deployment; 7.Produce evidence and tools for policy-makers, commissioners, providers and industry which will support future large-scale ALT deployment.

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Related Research

Grants with similar aims, by meaning.

Tackling Barriers to Adoption of Assisted Living Technology for Older Adults
Designing Scalable Assistive Technologies and Services for Independent Healthy Living and Sustainable Market Development in the Mixed Digital Economy
Studies in Co-creating Assisted Living Solutions.
Mobilising knowledge to improve assistive technology commissioning, service provision and sustained implementation
AAL-WELL Ambient Assistive Living Technologies for Wellness, Engagement and Long Life

Original classification

Collaborative R&D

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