Technology Integrated Health Management (TIHM) phase 1.5
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Technology Integrated Health Management (TIHM) Phase 2
IRAS ID
249208
Contact name
Helen Rostill
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS Foundation Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 0 months, 0 days
Research summary
Our project will evaluate an ‘Internet of Things’ (IoT) approach to improving the health and wellbeing of people with dementia and their carers. Dementia is a serious disorder, with over 850,000 affected in the UK (Prince et al 2013, 2014), costing £23bn annually (Luengo-Fernandez et al, 2010). The research is funded by NHS England and Innovate UK as one of only two IoT ‘Test Bed’ sites.
A growing body of evidence suggests that technology provides new opportunities for interventions to improve quality and access to health care. We want to find out if combinations of digital products such as wearables, monitors, sensors, apps and robotics can improve care and save money. The digital devices will be combined into an IoT developed by the University of Surrey 5G Innovation Centre, supported by the Information Security Group at Royal Holloway, University of London.
We have build (phase 1) a flexible, scalable IoT infrastructure that support the integration of different devices in a ‘living lab’ before installation in people’s homes throughout Surrey. This enables continuous monitoring, data analysis and real-time support to provide efficient, useful and actionable feedback to health and care staff, patients and carers.The TIHM phase 2 study has a short action research element to refine the intervention ready for implementation. Results from Phase I (the RCT element of our evaluation) will be available in July 2018 (including clinical and cost effectiveness, user TIHM acceptability, influence on clinical decision-making, and technology/system reliability). These will be used to inform Phase 2 - refinement of the TIHM to maximise its usability, acceptability and potential to improve the support for people with dementia and their carers over time as the disease progresses.
The research approach to be used in Phase 2 is Action Research. This research approach has frequently been used in studies of IT systems and involves a cycle of “identifying problems of meaning,” “developing questions and examining assumptions,” “gathering data,” “analyzing data,” “interpreting data,” and “taking action” (Waterman et al., 2001; Henderson et al., 2012, p. 2).
The study will be informed by the principles of the Holistic Framework for the Uptake and Impact of eHealth Technologies.
REC name
East of Scotland Research Ethics Service REC 1
REC reference
18/ES/0075
Date of REC Opinion
1 Aug 2018
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion