“Very little has changed in telecare over the past decade,” Christian Geisselmann, head of Nobi UK, says.
“We’re still giving people pendants and plastic boxes. We’re still doing reactive telecare. We still don’t have any insight or any data. Telehealth and telecare are not joined up.”
With more than 25 years in health and social care, Geisselmann is well placed to lead Nobi’s entry into the UK and Ireland.
Nobi is an AI-driven smart lamp that immediately alerts caregivers when a fall occurs.
Nobi can be paired with smart devices such as blood pressure monitors and scales, automatically feeding into a care resident’s medical file.
The technology represents a new generation of connected care products helping to ready the UK care sector for the coming analogue-to-digital switchover.
“Assistive technology is very often just a tick box that says, ‘have you considered telecare?’ And it goes no further than that,” Geisselmann says.
“But the analogue-digital switchover is getting ever nearer.
“I’ve been saying to local authorities, public sector, nursing homes, all the clients that I work with: this is an opportunity to reimagine technology as we know it.”
Founded in Belgium in 2018, Nobi is now aiming to change the lives of elderly people and their families all over the UK.
The technology is reimagining fall detection for the modern age, providing unique data insights to inform and shape care.
This move away from reactive to proactive care will have far-reaching benefits, Geisselmann says.
“A sensor is great in that it alerts you somebody’s fallen, but what does it tell you beyond that?
“Did they trip up on something? Is there a common pattern as to why they’re falling at a particular time?
“In our recent case studies, care staff have been able to narrow falls down to specific periods and specific client groups.
“One of the big things that’s come out of it is that far more falls occur than you would be aware of without Nobi.
“An individual who has a soft fall may never actually tell the member of staff that it happened.
“Without that insight and data, a nursing home fall log could look dramatically lower than what it is in reality. So there are some really interesting stats there.”
Data gathered by Nobi is helping to improve care practices, too.
Geisselmann cites one example, where staff were able to monitor residents without physically checking on them and disturbing their sleep.
As the device monitors sleeping patterns, they could see that resident sleep quality improved, leaving them waking up feeling more refreshed and, in turn, less prone to falls.
“There are massive benefits here, whether you’re a care assistant, a caregiver or a concerned family-member.”
Staff shortages have been identified as key problem in a growing number of care home in England.
Nobi enables care homes to redistribute their staff to where they are most needed.
“And they’ve been able to do more meaningful interaction and engagement with the particular residents, because they’ve got more resources during the day when they actually need them,” Geisselmann says.
Health and social care can be resistant to change. And, for all its benefits, technology can be a barrier for some.
However, the interoperability of Nobi means the device can be easily integrated into existing systems. There’s no need to change tried-and-tested processes in order to incorporate the technology.
Geisselmann is already speaking with commissioners in the UK who see the benefits of this interoperability.
“Let’s say you’ve got person-centred care software where you keep your residents’ credentials, care plans and medication. There isn’t a problem with integrating Nobi into that.
“By opening up people’s minds to say, look, this is possible, we can do these types of things, people are starting to think differently.
“They’re starting to think about integration, how you can bring different solutions together.
“They know that this approach will improve your efficiency as an operator and improve outcomes for the end user.”
This is an excerpt from our Special Report – Falls Management: Innovations for an Ageing Population
