Our Care Trailblazers are entrepreneurs and innovators participating in the Healthier Working Lives programme.
They are pioneers and ground-breakers shaping the sector.
Shain Khoja, Founder & CEO of Thriving.ai aims to brings everyone involved in health care, social care, informal family care and professional care together to support independent living.
Thriving.ai is an app that aggregates fragmented elements of caregiving to a single trusted platform that enables friction-less monitoring, engagement, provision, coordination & communication of care. Meaningful community participation provides updates and connections to family caregivers to reduced stress and give peace of mind. Thriving.ai is a fast-growing business and part of Barclays Eagle Labs.
Bringing everyone involved with caregiving into a private circle of care reduces stress, empowers people, and improves communication thereby increasing better use of time, cost savings and greater overall satisfaction.
Insight: A huge difference can be made by effectively bringing together all the important parts of care together in one easy to use, straightforward approach.
Find out more about Thriving AI.
Symbiosia’s founder - Esther Wiskerke’s ambition is to reset the UK’s residential social care system, that includes an HR model designed to resolve the social care staffing retention issues, creating a new paradigm by combining fun with care in nature. Moving into a nursing home should not be the feared, and Symbiosa aims to create a sustainable alternative to the current residential social care model.
Symbiosia is a community interest company that seeks to re-imagine the current model of care, re-organise how it financially operates, and re-design the space, to create a thriving, fun destination which is a pleasure to live in and visit - blending with its local community and geographical surroundings.
Insight: Early days yet in Esther’s journey, but bringing together care for human beings with a sustainable care for nature is a bold and highly relevant ambition.
Find out more about Symbiosia.
Mydex’s mission is to empower individuals to manage their lives more effectively through convenient, trustworthy access and control of their personal data and how it is used by them and others. Mydex’s strategy is to create, evolve and maintain a secure, trustworthy and convenient open personal data ecosystem.
Mydex’s are a partner in a taskforce assembled by Blackwood care homes to deliver the Peoplehood Project - a pioneering three-year initiative to create a blueprint for welcoming communities with age-friendly homes. This is supported by cutting-edge technologies, making independent living achievable and sustainable as people grow older, with safe outdoor spaces to sustain physical activities.
Insight: Putting the power back in the hands of the individuals involved in care can resolve many tensions and build trust.
Find out more about Mydex.
PredicAire founders Vinay Patel and Ketan Shah, have experienced both sides of care provision. Born out of the frustrations of a highly-fragmented care delivery market, they have used their experience to develop the first holistic care management system powered by AI.
PredicAire uses AI technology to give care providers meaningful real-time data on their residents’ health and wellbeing and enables them to predict and prevent unnecessary outcomes.
Vinay has been named as one of the Top 100 Asian Stars in UK Tech for 2021, with PedicAire support by Codebase.
Insight: Adapting emerging technologies and data in a meaningful and tailored approach to care systems offers exciting potential for both workers and resident's wellbeing.
Find out more about PredicAire.
Smplicare founders Garret Spraguem and Alexandra Reissig, are building a digital platform to bring peace of mind that ageing loved ones are living safe, healthy and independent lives at home for longer.
The platform aims to facilitate an easy and smooth means for Carers to track their loved one’s health as they age. The platform also gathers health and wellbeing data from answers to simple questions.
Garret and Alexandra have connected their ideas to the world through the Venture Builder at the University of Edinburgh and are supported by Codebase.
Insight: Used properly, data can make life simpler and easier - allowing carers more time to do what they do best - care.
Find out more about Smplicare.
Milbotix founders Zeke Steer, Dr Iveta Eimontaite and Jacqui Arnold have built on research at Bristol Robotics Laboratory, to reinvent wearables for people living in care.
Their smart socks are designed for people with dementia and autism. They aim to predict agitation linked to distressed behaviours such as physical and verbal aggression.
Early recognition of agitation can support pre-emptive interventions, targeting the reduction of distress which may be helpful for preventing behavioural escalations.
Insight: Simple, intuitive and easy to use – these wearable devices could make a huge difference to anticipate support managing difficult and challenging behaviour.
Find out more about Milbotix.
Peggi’s founder Glenda Devlin knew the potential of reminiscence therapy for those diagnosed with dementia, including her Aunt Peggy. The Peggi app, is designed using findings from clinical research into reminiscence therapy, and has evolved to become an award-winning app aimed at building connections and reducing loneliness.
Glenda, a qualified social worker with 20 years’ experience in health and social care, wanted to equip other families with the tools that had improved her aunt’s wellbeing in her final years.
Peggi is supported by Barclays Eagle Labs.
Insight: An effective idea which helps staff understand and empathise with patients, contributing toward creating an easier and more effective care environment between staff and patients.
Find out more about Peggi.
TL Tech Smart Home Solutions founders Caroline and Thomas Laurenson develop digital solutions that transform lives with smart home technologies to empower people.
Regardless of age, technical ability or finances, this creates a unique caring and entertaining home environment. The company have created Kindspace, a holistic wellbeing skill for Amazon Alexa, designed to track and improve wellbeing that raises awareness of key wellbeing indicators and supports the formation of new habits.
They are supported by Barclays Eagle Labs, and based in Aberdeenshire, Scotland.
Insight: Understanding the key indicators that measure wellbeing and measuring them effectively, can save significant time and resource.
Find out more about TL Tech Smart Home Solutions.
Bellevie co-founders Trudie and Violaine aim to create a new future for care and support work.
Their vision is a future that works for both the skilled professionals providing support, and for the people and families being supported. The key to achieving this vision is to attract people with the right soft skills and values.
The person-centered values of their Wellbeing Support Workers has attracted Innovate UK funding and resulted in a 9.9/10 rating on homecare.co.uk.
Insight: Focusing on the employee experience is critical to delivering high quality care in the short and long term.
Find out more about Bellevie.
Umbrella Insight founder Louise Newman, recognised that customers want, and businesses want to provide, a great experience. To achieve this, listening and acting on feedback is important. To gain feedback, quick, simple, engaging and cost-effective tools are needed which led to the creation of Umbrella Insight.
The Umbrella Insight platform provides a holistic approach to feedback and loyalty enabling businesses to easily engage and communicate with employees in every aspect of their journey experience.
Insight: Simple technology can be easily embraced by staff and make a huge difference, allowing them to really feel they are being heard.
Find out more about Umbrella Insight.
AdaptEco
AdaptEco have a comprehensive resource of pioneering technology companies, and advisory services within their specialist network, working collaboratively to build and deliver bespoke smart care solutions.
A large number of care services are still using traditional analogue telecare as the main technology offer. This traditional approach to try and support the challenges of managing an ageing society and more complex needs has fundamental flaws - It's inflexible, one size fits all approach, very often only allows you to intervene once a problem has occurred.
Being analogue also presents challenges with the forthcoming analogue to digital switchover in 2025.
My Eco System, directed by Christian Geisselmann, provide high quality advisory and implementation across a breadth of sectors keen to make best use of assisted living technology to enhance independent living amongst older people and vulnerable groups.
Their services are available to developers of housing and accommodation services such as integrated retirement communities, care and nursing homes and specialist accommodation provided by Registered Social Landlords (RSLs).
They can also support local authorities and their NHS partners to design and implement leading edge solutions that interface with mainstream care management systems. The team includes consultants, assistive technologists, assessors and integrators with a very long experience of public and private sectors as well as housing markets alongside some of the very best and most innovative technologies such as NOBI.
Find out more about My Eco system.
Burns Gym was founded by Tony and Joe Burn. Based in Glasgow, they have developed innovative active healthy ageing programmes specifically for care homes.
Their Functional Exercise Classes interact via Zoom, removing physical interaction with external visitors and eliminating risk for residents and staff in care homes. The workouts are developed from 35 years of coaching experience and in line with the CAPA (Care About Physical Activity) initiative introduced by the Care Inspectorate.
Insight: Home based activity benefits the staff as much as the residents.
Find out more about Burns Gym.