03 Jan 2023
This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
12 May 2023
13 companies chosen for UK-Canada healthy ageing exchange programme
As part of an international innovation exchange programme, thirteen innovative companies from across the UK and Canada have been selected to develop their healthy ageing solutions.
The UK Canada AgeTech Innovation Exchange called on businesses with products that have the potential to improve the health and well-being of older people to apply to take part in an in-person international exchange visit.
Over 60 companies applied for a place in the coveted programme, with a total of eight UK companies and five Canadian companies invited to take part in the in-person exchange. Over the coming months, they will be supported by leading experts with in-depth knowledge of the healthy ageing innovation ecosystems within each country, from national healthcare providers, academia and industry. An additional 31 companies have also been selected to benefit from a related virtual programme of support.
The companies all have an innovation that addresses one of the competition priorities areas: ageing at home; health care and health service delivery; cognitive and mental health; and autonomy and independence.
The Canadian companies will visit the UK in mid-June, to coincide with NHS ConfedExpo, and the UK delegation will then visit Canada later that month, to coincide with the COLLISION event in Toronto.
The programme is funded is funded by the UKRI Healthy Ageing Challenge, delivered by Innovate UK and ESRC and led by the Northern Health Science Alliance (NHSA) with the following partners: Department for Business & Trade; the four northern Academic Health Science Networks (AHSNs) from the UK – Health Innovation Manchester, Yorkshire and Humber AHSN, Innovation Agency (North West Coast AHSN), AHSN for the North East and North Cumbria; and AGE-WELL and Centre for Aging + Brain Health Innovation (CABHI) from Canada.
Dr Mandy Dixon, Executive Lead for Corporate Engagement and Cluster Development, who leads the Healthy Ageing Programme at the Northern Health Science Alliance (NHSA), said:
“We are thrilled to have seen so much interest in this exciting new initiative which will bring two countries together to collaboratively work on solutions that address key healthy ageing needs. Improving the health and wellbeing of people as they age is a particularly challenging area for both countries, and we hope that our partnership working will see great innovations and ideas come to fruition and will also lead to further investment and growth in this sector.”
The successful companies are:
Abtrace is a digital health software solution for GP surgeries that sits on top of existing electronic healthcare record systems extracting data, processing against guidelines, delivering an intuitive output to clinicians and managers.
Bridgit Care is Microsoft Partner, DIT Top 100 Business, and Social Enterprise using digital technologies to support carers across the UK. They have reached over 500k carers through their outreach campaigns and provide a number of services to help identify and support carers. They also provide opportunities to innovate how health and social care is delivered, while reducing system demands.
GaitSmart is a sensor based tool that measures gait kinematics and presents this in an easy to understand format for everyone to understand. This data is used to generate an AI driven personalised exercise programme to address the muscle deficiencies identified from the gait assessment. Collectively, the unique solution informs diagnosis and provides a personalised exercise plan without the need for a highly skilled physiotherapist. The report is available immediately after the 10-minute test.
Isla is an innovative health-tech company, offering a secure platform for the capture, storage and sharing of photos, videos and structured assessment forms between patients, carers and clinicians. This enriched data creates a visual record of a condition over time, allows for remote monitoring and assists clinical decision-making.
KiActiv® Health rethinks exercise and makes everyday movement a medicine for the prevention and management of disease, and supports older adults to age well. KiActiv is a digital behaviour change therapy that delivers improved health outcomes, quality of life and social impact at scale.
Memory Lane Games delivers professionally-curated, inclusive reminiscence and speech and language games to over 90,000 users and is available to individuals as well as assisted living and care environments. Designed for those living with cognitive decline such as dementia, the app is simple and frustration free (error-less learning).
It includes a digital platform that can both map and predict care ‘dark patches’ where home care provision is either failing or doesn’t currently exist. It will also upskill people in areas of low economic activity and high public service demand so they can create micro businesses, structured as community enterprises, to provide care.
The mission of the Tribe project is to directly address inequalities in local and national care and community support. Tribe represents a unique opportunity for collaboration between the most radical developers, providers and validators of advanced digital innovation and experts, innovators and proven community-centred drivers of social action models of care and support.
Ufonia’s mission is to use automation to increase capacity in healthcare systems. They have built Dora – an AI enabled autonomous clinical assistant. Dora telephones patients and conducts a routine clinical conversation in a similar way to a human clinician. Dora doesn’t require patients to use any technology, they simply have a normal phone call. This means it is a highly accessible way for patients to receive reliable, convenient and consistent care.
AltumView is an AI company in Vancouver, Canada. It has developed the Sentinare smart activity sensor for senior care and remote patient monitoring. The sensor has a build-in AI chip, and uses the latest deep learning algorithms to monitor the activities of people, collect health statistics, and send alerts when emergencies such as falls are detected.
CareTeam’s innovative digital health platform is designed to flexibly enable care planning, collaboration and coordination to better the lives of health professionals, patients and their families and achieve the best possible outcomes and experiences, specifically focused on ageing, multimorbidity and complex chronic care.
ImaginAble Solutions is a social impact company headquartered in Hamilton, Ontario that creates assistive technology to improve the quality of life for people with disabilities. The company’s international award-winning product is Guided Hands, an assistive device that enables people with limited hand mobility to write, paint, draw, and access technology through touch-screen devices and keyboards.
Tenera Care is a highly precise Indoor Positioning System (IPS) platform that utilizes wireless technology, wearable devices, and a mobile-app to monitor people and assets in real-time. The platform serves as an advanced nurse call system, meeting the mandatory requirements for long-term care facilities, this is just one of Tenera’s functions.
Tochtech Technologies is an award-winning digital health tech company, on a mission to enable healthcare and senior care providers to improve safety and wellness care through timely intervention and evidence-based practise, while also enhancing staff efficiency. Our innovative smart care products empower care teams with real-time information, AI-powered analysis and prediction methodology, and decision support tools to improve staff efficiency, and reduce missed care incidents.