Bringing wearable tech to care homes

Callaborating to innovate

One of the ways in which Hallmark strives to fulfil its ambition is by collaborating with start-ups to develop innovative solutions to the challenges facing care homes. It recently partnered with myRipple to reduce the chances of residents becoming dehydrated.

Hallmark’s Chair Avnish Goyal explains: “We pride ourselves on our culture of innovation and willingness to do things differently, underpinned by our vision to be a leading provider of high-quality, relationship centred care.” Avnish says a desire to be ‘fit for the future,’ involves asking challenging questions, such as: What might the future look like? How far do we go? And, how do we justify the investment?

As an example of investment in innovation and creativity, Hallmark recently took part in the Barclays Eagle Labs Corporate Connections challenge. This programme helps larger organisations solve real business challenges faster by enabling them to collaborate with and harness start-ups’ agile solutions. For this particular challenge, Hallmark was exploring ways to measure and monitor their residents’ hydration levels, to reduce the chances of dehydration – a common concern in many care homes.

The Barclays Eagle Labs team helped Hallmark to review the ideas pitched by 32 companies. Although Hallmark spoke to several of these companies to better understand their offerings, it was most excited by myRipple’s solution. This is a wearable, non-invasive sensor that measures nutrient response, including blood sugars, lactate levels and hydration, as they happen and without outside input. The continuous real-time data shows how residents’ bodies use food and drink – and relates this to exercise, activity and sleep. myRipple and Hallmark Care Homes have conducted successful testing and proof of concept, demonstrating that the technology can track hydration trends among care home residents over an extended period.