Scotland's Digital Health & Care Institute (DHI), a collaboration by NHS24, University and Edinburgh and Glasgow School of Art is inviting the "unusual suspects" of Scottish IT to explore the care sector, in an attempt to widen commercial involvement in the burgeoning field of digital medicine.
The two-day Long Term Care Revolution Live event in Edinburgh next week is aimed at companies which are active the IT sector but who have not yet considered health-related technology as a source of growth. It will showcase opportunities in areas such as remote medicine, avatars, care robots, interactive and "sensory homes".
The event's promoters present successful case studies such as 'mylittleone' - the first product to be taken to market by DHI. A remote monitoring system, mylittleone was launched last November, allowing parents of premature babies to watch them via a secure webcam service whilst in an intensive care baby unit,
DHI, which was launched in October 2013, is hosting the event at the RBS Conference Centre at Gogarburn for "businesses, academics, policy makers and investors" to examine the commercial opportunities afforded by breakthroughs in health technology in a spirit of open innovation to inspire a new generation of cutting edge health technology"
A spokeswoman said: "Given Scotland's reputation for innovation and the growing tech sector, there's a huge opportunity here for businesses to get involved. The long term care market is currently worth over £20 billion to the UK economy and estimated to rise to £30.5bn by 2020."
"Changing demographics and lifestyles, coupled with tightening public sector budgets mean that current approaches to long term care are unsustainable. The challenge requires private sector input to create affordable digital health technologies that will enable people to take more personal responsibility for their health and live independently for longer.
The event will give start-ups and early stage businesses the opportunity to pitch their ideas to an expert panel at 'Pitch Perfect', with winners receiving a 12 month NatWest and RBS Mentorship programme of "meet ups and connections, access to the bank's knowledge base and links to external networks".
Participants will also find out how to take full advantage of Innovate UK's £4 million SBRI Long Term Care Revolution National Challenge, which provides funding to UK businesses for the development of innovative new products, services and systems that "disrupt the institutional long-term care model".
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