April 17, 2019

the future of living with dementia – new centre researching technologies in the home

Over 850,000 people in the UK are living with dementia – most of them still at home.  Obviously lots of research is going on to investigate causes of and treatments for dementia, but there is also a need to find out what might make life easier for those living with it.

A new research centre – the Care Research & Technology Centre – is opening to carry out scientific studies to uncover which tools and technologies in the home might help dementia patients.  The centre is part of the UK DRI (UK Dementia Research Institute) and will be based at Imperial College London in collaboration with the University of Surrey.

The centre will bring together scientists, engineers and doctors, who will investigate how effective things like AI, robotics, sensors in the home and sleep tracking are in either assisting patients in their daily living or remotely identifying to medics when patients are at risk of harm.

The Associate Director of the centre and other experts came to the SMC to talk about the research the centre is about to embark on, and their hopes for patients in the future.

Speakers:

Prof David Sharp, Associate Director, UK DRI Care Research & Technology, Imperial College London

Prof Bart De Strooper, Director, UK DRI, UCL

Prof Payam Barnaghi, collaborator on new centre, and Professor of Machine Intelligence, University of Surrey

Dr Fiona Carragher, Chief Policy and Research Officer, Alzheimer’s Society