Southwood is the data privacy partner in a cross-border industrial research project “Early Warning Wearable Devices” (EWWD), to introduce innovative new medical technology and improve social mobility.
The EWWD project will:
- introduce a remote monitoring wearable device which enables healthcare professionals to monitor patients outside of a hospital environment
- provide opportunities for young people in both the UK & France to improve their employability and social mobility through engagement with medical technology innovation and by working alongside the project delivery team
The EWWD (Early Warning Wearable Devices) project is being delivered as a Social Innovation programme with Interreg France (Channel) England and is co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund.
The Interreg France (Channel) England programme aims to fund a number of high-quality cooperation projects between France and the UK. Find out more on their website.
Southwood’s EWWD project will run for 34 months from July 2020 till May 2023.
Programme Summary
The EWWD project encompasses two sub-projects, the ‘Trainees project’ and the ‘Schools Med-Tech project’, which will simultaneously run as the EWWD is being deployed. The two sub-projects directly contribute to the employability and social development goals.
Early Warning Wearable Devices (EWWD)
EWWD is a machine learning, AI driven platform, with a remote monitoring system, to support patients with Musculoskeletal disorders and Types I and II Diabetes. The platform combines AI and gait analysis to deliver cutting edge patient care. The remote monitoring solution will improve the accuracy of treatment plans, providing better care while allowing the patients to remain active outside of the hospital.
The project delivers a capability to enable a clinician via the SaaS AI desktop, in real time to remotely monitor an unlimited number of patients using wearable devices and communicate with them directly to schedule appointments based on necessity. The 2020 COVID pandemic demonstrated the need for remote monitoring solutions to allow clinicians to monitor patient symptoms within an outpatient context. The ability to securely monitor patient’s symptoms remotely creates an interoperable healthcare ecosystem.
The innovation reduces pressure on clinical resources, reduces costs, has a positive environmental impact through the reduction and car journeys to attend clinical appointments (approx. 48M per year) and finally, delivers significantly improved patient pathways and outcomes.
Trainees Project
The EWWD project will also improve employability and increase social mobility in the FCE region by offering 10 young people from the UK & France equal opportunity to train and develop skills in software engineering, product development, project management and communications. Our project aims to give young people with no professional experience the ability to begin a career and provide them with comprehensive training to excel in a developing field. By providing a salary to support these youths through the training project, we hoping to create a more level playing field for people from low-income backgrounds with no prior technology experience, to have the opportunity to participate and grow in the field.
Schools Med-Tech Project
The EWWD Project will identify 40 schools across the UK and France to participate in a ground-breaking, technology competition where students are asked to design a medical technology idea that could better support someone in managing a disease or illness. Project Partners will work with the East Sussex County Council, and local authorities across the FCE region, to launch a competition across participating schools. Pupils will be encouraged to develop their ideas and present them in a ‘dragons den’ style to a selected panel in a series of regional heats. These presentations all progress to a grand finale where the eventual winner will have a prototype of their product developed by Project Partners.
Programme Aims
- To create new smart health solutions which will release the burden on state health systems by improving clinical efficiency and saving money, clinical resources and patient lives.
- To address the decline of prominent industries across the FCE area which will only be further exacerbated due to Covid-19. Prior to the pandemic, there were already high levels of youth unemployment of 27.61% in the France FCE area alone (EuroStat 2018).
- To encourage investment in the Medical Technology sector which currently is growing steadily at around 5.5% per annum.
- To increase social mobility and employability by offering young people from disadvantaged backgrounds the opportunity to develop skills in this growing smart technology environment.
- To develop employment aspiration in young people by involvement in the Schools Med-Tech project & creating opportunities in the rapidly developing Medical Technology sector.
Funding
The project will be co-funded by the Interreg France (Channel) England programme with a European Regional Development Fund contribution of €7.4 million.
Partners
The EWWD programme consists of nine partners and working closely with many more research institutions in France and the United Kingdom. This partnership will enable the proliferation of ideas & innovative design which can be deployed across multiple EU states.
Where to go for more information
For any further information regarding the EWWD project, please contact [email protected]