Care Home Data Platform Innovation Foundation Challenge:
Technical Feasibility
Background Summary
A systems analysis jointly funded by Health Innovation South East Scotland (HISES) and the Chief Scientist’s office was undertaken, prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, by academics from Edinburgh Napier University and University of Edinburgh, to understand from Care Home managers and staff what opportunities existed for innovative solutions to improve the lives of both the residents and the staff.
Challenge Objectives
Care Homes collect a significant amount of data about their residents for making individual, person-centred care decisions and for management/national reporting requirements. This Challenge will invite companies to assess if currently collected data on residents by care homes, can – alone or when combined with health and social care records – provide a holistic digital picture of a resident’s health, wellbeing and care needs.
This first Care Home Innovation Challenge will lay the foundations for subsequent innovation in this area. The results will enable the future development of scalable and replicable risk stratification and decision support tools that will empower care home staff in collaboration with relevant others to make informed, timely and appropriate interventions for person-centred care.
Clinical Lead for the Challenge
The Clinical Lead for this innovation challenge is Dr Susan Shenkin from the Department of Geriatric Medicine, University of Edinburgh and NHS Lothian in collaboration with Lucy Johnston, a Research Fellow at Edinburgh Napier University.
Both Susan and Lucy having led and completed the systems analysis research.
Delivery Partners
Health Innovation South East Scotland (HISES), NHS Lothian, The Data Lab, Napier University, University of Edinburgh.
Challenge solvers:
freshEHR Clinical Informatics Ltd
Outputs Expected
Phase 1
An accessible technical feasibility demonstration, using currently available care home data, on its own, or in combination with other health and social care records of:
- A real or near real-time holistic record of a resident’s health, wellbeing and care needs.
- A trajectory of changes (over time) in a resident’s health, well-being and care needs.
The companies shortlisted to undertake the challenge being asked to provide:
- A report setting out additional analysis that identifies gaps, challenges and inconsistencies in the current care home data collected.
- Their expert opinion on whether and how this can be done, given the different ways in which data are collected across the care home sector with recommendations and advice on data harmonization and a minimum or desirable core dataset.
- And if possible, the initial development of a tool capable of predicting a deterioration in a resident’s health and wellbeing thereby enabling staff to intervene timely, appropriately and/or prevent escalation.
Consideration to also be provided on the potential inclusion of other health and social care records and how these could be combined to add value to the tools developed to this Challenge or tools for inclusion in a future innovation challenges for the care home sector in Scotland.
Strategic Priority Area
- To enhance the opportunities for healthy living and well-being.
- To deliver preventative and proactive care.
- To improve the provision of integrated care – both planned and unplanned.
SBRI Key Dates
- Contract notice opens and will be published via the Public Contracts Scotland portal: 16th December 2020
- Applicant briefing event: 11th January 2021
- Contract notice closes: 5th February 2021
- Phase 1 start date: 19th April 2021
View the event presentations and useful links here
Funding Partners
This is a Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI) competition jointly funded by the Chief Scientists Office (CSO) in Scottish Government and the Data Lab, and hosted by Health Innovation South East Scotland.