Partnership to develop mobile health platform to support independent
living
13 March 2014
HMA Digital Marketing, the Centre for Assistive Technology and
Connected Healthcare (CATCH) at the University of Sheffield, and
Tunstall Healthcare are collaborating to develop 'mHealth Assist', a
mobile health platform.
mHealth Assist will support
healthcare management and independent living for people with
long-term conditions, providing personalised healthcare information
and customised support.
The project is being funded through
an investment from the Creative England NHS Digital Fund awarded to
HMA Digital Marketing. The Fund is geared towards creative SMEs who
want to take innovative concepts or prototypes into the NHS
marketplace.
Early research at CATCH with potential users is
defining what functions need to be included so that people can
easily access the most useful support and information. This focuses
on the needs of vulnerable people, including those living with
dementia, visual impairment or needing solutions to resolve
communication difficulties.
Dr Ceri Batchelder, Business Development Director and HMA’s lead
on digital healthcare, said, “Creative England’s support and our
partnership with Tunstall and CATCH are enabling us to accelerate
the development of mHealth Assist and provide new digital approaches
to improve quality of care”.
Richard France, Centre
Development Manager at CATCH said, “This is an exciting partnership
where our expertise in researching new technologies to support
health and social care complements the innovative digital design
ideas at HMA and the commercial development experience of Tunstall.”
Jim Farmery, Director of Business Investment at Creative
England, said: “We introduced the NHS Digital Fund in partnership
with NHS England to help improve the health and wellbeing of
patients using the very technology we have at our fingertips –
mobile technology and app development. mHealth Assist is the perfect
example of creative and innovative technology that can be developed
with the right support.”