Now is the time to change our approach to innovation around ageing

George MacGinnis, challenge director, Health Ageing UK Research & Innovation, writes about the need to change the approach to innovation around ageing, and what The Trailblazer Scheme can offer. 

It is time for the UK to reframe its perception of an ageing society and see it as an opportunity rather than a problem. Never before has there been such a requirement to inject more innovation into how we create technology to help us age better.

It is expected that a third of children born this year will live to see their 100th birthday and by 2040 it is projected that around one in seven people in the UK will be over the age of 75, rising from one in 12 today.

However, despite the over-50s accounting for 76% of the UK’s financial wealth and nearly half of all consumer spending, the products created for this group are often not adequately designed for our longer lives and can lack appeal.

There is clearly a gap in the market for innovative tech solutions for the UK’s ageing population. We want, and indeed need, to encourage more innovators from across the UK to be part of the movement to transform how we age.

Last week, UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) launched The Trailblazer Scheme, a landmark funding competition to boost innovations that will enable people to live better for longer.

Led by UKRI and funded by the government’s Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund, there is £40 million available to fund solutions that will help people to enjoy at least five additional healthy, independent years of life. Anyone with a good and scalable idea can apply, from businesses to public sector organisations to social enterprises.

The Trailblazer Scheme represents one of the largest innovation investments of its kind in the UK and is a major milestone for the government’s £98 million Healthy Ageing Challenge. It supports the mission for people to enjoy five more years of healthy, independent life by 2035, whilst narrowing the gap between the experience of the richest and poorest.

An example of how technology can provide innovative support for healthy ageing, is smart speakers, such as Amazon’s Alexa. Even just a few years ago it would have been unthinkable to own a piece of technology which you could interact with and seek health advice from. Smart speakers are a brilliant example of an innovative piece of tech, which although hasn’t been designed with healthy ageing in mind, will increasingly help to support us as we get older.

Innovators also need to look beyond the practical. From wearable tech aimed at keeping people active for longer, to homes and environments which aid independent living, designers need to consider what older consumers want from products, not just need. Factoring taste in when creating products and services enables businesses to tap into what the consumer is ultimately prepared to pay for.

I look forward to seeing how innovators will take on the challenge and how we can transform later life into a healthy and more active stage, taking full advantage of the extra years that come from the success that is our longer life expectancy.

Already on the rise across the UK is the advancement of AI and machine learning in providing better healthcare. Despite initial concerns, increasingly clinicians are conscious that machine or automation-based healthcare enables a host of benefits due to the many innovative projects underway.

Examples of this include companies such as Gendius which is developing apps and artificial intelligence to measure and improve outcomes for patients with diabetes. The app, which is already available on Apple and Android, uses machine learning to predict disease progression and then help manage risk. Another exciting organisation, Mind over Matter MedTech, is improving early diagnosis in dementia by trialling novel, low-cost and portable brain imaging technology. This tests patients’ personalised risk for developing the condition at least a decade before any clinical symptoms would appear, potentially reducing the chance of a cycle of irreversible neuronal death. Artificial Intelligence applied to smart home technology is transforming how people can be supported to remain independent and living in their own home for longer. There is even interest in using innovative robotic exoskeletons to help people get around, and to help a single carer provide care that would currently need two people.

Not all the innovations need to be the stuff of science fiction. Good design applied to everyday challenges such as hearing loss and poor balance could make a huge difference.

Importantly, these innovations enable people to remain independent, removing the need for support from family carers, as well as allowing practitioners to concentrate tight care resources on the most serious cases, a critical benefit of introducing more innovation into the ‘problem’ of providing care to our ageing society.

Understanding and embracing the enormous potential of digital technologies and Artificial Intelligence is fundamental to creating a healthcare system suitable for 21st Century demands. As our ageing population is growing, and will continue to do so, it is important we address these demands.

The Trailblazers programme isn’t about providing a more efficient and cost-effective service to the end user. It’s an opportunity for companies with innovative technologies and services to fulfil and ever-increasing demand from older consumers.

Our vision is to enable businesses, including social enterprises, to develop and deliver products, services and business models that will be adopted at scale, to support people as they age. This will allow the next generation of older people to remain active, productive, independent and socially connected for as long as possible.