A digital innovation first trialled in 2016 at a luxury Las Vegas hotel is not the obvious forerunner for modern home-based telecare services for elderly and vulnerable people in Scotland. But fast forward eight years and an idea that sprang to life at the Nevada resort’s five-star Wynn Hotel has had profound implications for how we use technology to support those most in need.
Using Amazon’s Alexa as a means of communicating with guests in their rooms would become the bedrock for the tech giant’s Smart Properties solution – technology that lets property owners or managers use Alexa-enabled devices at scale. This technology is now being used by councils in Scotland to support the transition to digital home telecare.
Stephen Milne, director of strategic projects for CENSIS, the not-for-profit innovation delivery organisation for digitalisation and enabling technologies, explained how an early trial of Amazon Alexa in Falkirk is now being scaled up around the country thanks to development work from CENSIS.
“We noticed that that several local authorities were using Amazon Alexa to deliver tele-care on a very small scale, but were struggling to deploy and manage lots of devices that would allow the idea to scale,” Milne told an audience at the AWS: Gateway to Innovation event at Edinburgh’s Everyman Cinema last month.
And with the recently signed national Alarm Receiving Centre (ARC) contract, a joint initiative between Scotland’s 32 local authorities, it gave CENSIS an opportunity to plug Amazon Alexa technology into a scalable programme of digital telecare innovation.
“Local authorities, in particular, needed a way to see and manage the consumer technology, for example to monitor device connectivity and ensure it was connecting to the cloud-based telecare response centre,” Milne said.
An initial consortium of five councils – Glasgow, South Lanarkshire, Falkirk, Fife and Perth and Kinross – provided the impetus to integrate Amazon’s Smart Properties solution with the likes of the ARC platform, and tailor it for social care use cases. The service will be available to telecare platforms outside of the national platform.
Some of the functionality that was highlighted at the event included a remotely-enabled wellness check on care recipients in their homes, and a family and friends calendar which broadcasts announcements about upcoming visits, and even reminders to take medication.
Telecare response centres will be provided with the ability to call users directly and vice versa to create a personal experience for users. For those without home wifi, connectivity hubs will be available to enable them to get online.
One of the beneficiaries of that programme has been the Glasgow Health and Social Care Partnership (HSCP). Glenda Cook, planning manager for Glasgow City HSCP, highlighted a “demographic imperative” for change.
With one in 13 of the working adult population employed in Scotland in the social care workforce, and the growth rate of the over-65 population far outstripping the growth of the adult working population, the current model of provision is not sustainable.
Combined with an “innovation inertia” from the traditional telecare industry in relation to their digital products, she said partnerships like her own have looked elsewhere for more responsive social care provision.
Cook, who painted a picture of a sector with dwindling resources, said: “In our consumer lives, we use technology all the time but when it comes to caring for people, it’s not the first port of call. And we really need to address that.
“There is still a reliance on statutory services solving the problem with another human being coming in and helping, and we need to change that reality, the generation of carers that are coming through are very tech savvy.”
By changing the model of provision – through innovations like the CENSIS-supported programme, in partnership with the Amazon Alexa team and Amazon Web Services (AWS) – it can help colleagues move from reactive care and “firefighting” to a more proactive one, she added.
“If we can harness digital technology effectively, it can facilitate a radical transformation in care services, and that’s what makes the project with Amazon and CENSIS so exciting.”
Opportunities for using technology in a co-ordinated fashion across local government social care were also highlighted.
David Brown, business relationship manager for digital health and care at the Digital Office for Scottish Local Government, said programmes like the CENSIS-Amazon one were examples of a “Once for Scotland” approach.
“It’s about doing something once and doing it with one or two service providers in the sector, and then sharing the learning across Scotland to simplify some of the challenges and to accelerate uptake and adoption of digital technologies,” said Brown.
As well as standardising the cloud ARC platform, the move to digital telecare allows greater use of improved integration in the tech stack, with solutions like Alexa – which is quick and easy to deploy in homes – providing a potential opportunity to reduce hospital discharge wait times.
“Currently, services attempt to arrange an installer to access the property and set up traditional telecare equipment, which can delay hospital discharge if the patient is unavailable,” said Brown.
“With Amazon Alexa, patients can potentially be discharged immediately as services can be set up remotely. This accelerates discharge and potentially enhances their quality of life.”
“The AWS team have been blown away by the collaboration between the digital office, councils and CENSIS. I’m looking forward to seeing what comes next,” said Adrian Hanley, local government account lead for Amazon Web Services.
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