Engineering news
Eight new research projects that will help people self-manage chronic conditions, such as diabetes or lung disease, while in their own homes, have been announced by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.
The research will take place at seven UK universities; involve more than 30 partners from industry, charities and the public sector who will add contributions worth more than three quarters of a million pounds.
It will explore how to improve the use and development of networks that connect patients, and those supporting them, to clinicians and treatment. This will include investigating how using wearable devices like sensors, smart-watches, activity and heart rate monitors can allow clinicians to get the right sort of data to make choices and advise patients.
The studies will use conditions such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes, and dementia as examples to test technology and systems’ designs. The projects have different emphases, some will concentrate on how systems can be made more intelligent and interpret data coming into them, while others will develop and refine sensors and monitoring equipment and ensure they can be accessed securely.
For example, one project led by Professor Esther Rodriguez-Villegas from Imperial College, will create a small, lightweight and low-cost wearable wireless technology, which can be worn around the neck to monitor patients suffering from COPD, currently the fourth leading cause of death in the world that affects about 3 million people in the UK.
It is hoped that the devices will be able to provide early detection of potential exacerbations and inform patients and medical professionals so they can be treated promptly. The project also aims that the devices will reduce the cost of hospitalisations and visits to GPs, therefore resulting in savings to the NHS.
Professor Philip Nelson, chief executive of the EPSRC, said: “The UK has an aging population and the demands on our health services are growing. Monitoring chronic conditions through outpatients’ clinics is both costly and time consuming for patients, surgeries and hospitals. Using these new technologies provides ways of gauging a patient’s health in real-time and detecting any deterioration quickly. This will help people remain in their homes for longer, avoid congestion and delay and mean treatment can be targeted quickly and when it can be most appropriate and effective.”