Animated short videos to support use of smart technology to help people living with dementia stay safer at home

The comments come as Surrey and the UK Dementia Research Institute (UK DRI) Care Research and Technology Centre at Imperial College London released a series of animated videos outlining the questions potential users could consider before installing smart monitoring systems aimed at helping people with dementia stay safe in their homes for as long as is possible.  

The series of short-animated videos are designed to help people who would like to build a secure, smart technology set up in their home to help someone living with dementia. 

 Professor Christine Hine, co-lead of the project from the University of Surrey, said:  

"Digital technology has huge potential to change healthcare in the near future, and one of these areas is remote monitoring for people who are living at home with conditions such as dementia. The technology can spot healthcare problems as they are emerging, provide reassurance and support people to live where they want to for longer.  

"As someone who has supported a family member living in this situation, I can really see the potential, but I also know we can't expect technology to solve all of the problems – so it's important to help people work out what it can and can't do for them."  

 According to Alzheimer’s Research UK, nearly 20 per cent of dementia hospital admissions are due to preventable causes. 

 The videos cover:  

• How could smart care help?  

• What can it do?  

• How does it do it?  

• How do you set up and maintain it?  

• Who has access to your data?  

• Whose agreement is needed?  

The videos are based on research that has involved interviewing healthcare professionals, carers, service users and engineers involved in the development of smart technologies for care settings. 

Watch the videos here or read more about the research project. 

Read the full study here. 

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 Notes to editors 

• Professor Hine is working with Professor Payam Barnaghi, Chair in Machine Intelligence Applied to Medicine in the Department of Brain Sciences at Imperial College London, on this project.  

• Videos are available at: https://mindermeetingplace.com/smartcareethics/   

• Professor Hine is available to interview – please contact mediarelations@surrey.ac.uk   

• This work is funded by a public engagement grant from the Royal Society, connected with the research project "Emergent everyday ethics in infrastructures for smart care" carried out by Professor Christine Hine (University of Surrey) and Professor Payam Barnaghi (UK Dementia Research Institute and Imperial College London). This research is funded by an APEX award (Academies Partnership in Supporting Excellence in Cross-disciplinary research award) scheme, operated in partnership with the British Academy, the Royal Academy of Engineering and the Royal Society ('the Academies') and with generous support from the Leverhulme Trust.