A Bit About Us

The FALLS Predict™ initiative was born out of a challenge presented to Andrew Cowen, Founder and CEO, The Future Care (UK) Ltd, while working with Cambridge, Digital Catapult and Cambridge Wireless ‘BOOST’ programme. The original objective was to extend and develop a more robust Cambridge’s LoRaWAN network.

At the time 2016, Future Care was a value added reseller for a vital sign remote monitoring device and ecosystem for seniors. The equipment included a gateway box that was placed in the senior’s home. To extend the Cambridge’s LoRaWAN network all we had to do was include a LoRaWAN gateway board into the box – job done!

However, Andrew Cowen was not content with this simple solution and wanted to explore the potential of health, smart homes and cities. Based on his previous background of working with seniors both as a family care giver and as founder of a home care agency he was more than aware  of the impact a fall had on seniors and the astronomical cost this had on the public purse.

FALL Predict™ was born out of wanting to solve this problem. To achieve this, a consortium as formed, consisting of members across the EU.

IoT Real-time Data Capture

To successfully predict falls we need access to the data generated by house and/or city IoT sensors. In some instances this data can be sent either in real-time or in regulated intervals according to its  relevance.

Big Data sets Integration

To identify the cause of a fall and predict it happening in the future we need access to a wide variety of historical and real-time data sets. For example meteorological real-time data integrated with medical and ambulance data recorded at a time of a fall in a particular are, time and circumstance.  The process is also further complicated by the fact that most data is in dissimilar formats and structures.

To achieve this, is a skill set and data science service in its own right

Data Analytics

Our services offers the best in analysing data for an end objective or to explore what we cannot see. Our approach can either be based on a hypothesis or more inquisitive seeking data hotspots to help us focus and drill down into these areas which may well offer insights we would not have considered.

Data Visualisation

More often than not data is represented in a liner form of juxtapositions of numbers. However this might not with be legible or comprehensible. Visualisation techniques will help us to analyse data relevant to predicting falls and present it in a fashion we understand and can respond to.

Meaningful Interpretation of Data

Data interpretation is critical in data management. Huge amounts of data require a meaningful interpretation so that it can be used to detect patterns and extract relevant information. Without interpretation, it’s just bits of data in anarchy.

Other Smart City Service

While our focus ion on predicting falls and then seeking to prevent them, it does not preclude us for applying these skill and vision to other areas of interest. The same technology and approach can apply to prediction of air quality, or other types of predictive objectives.

Consortium Foundation

The Consortium is made up of experts that when combined prepresent the full compliment of skills and experience necessary to develop this FALLS Predict product and service.

Besides the network of skills and experience helping to develop the FALLS Predict™ initiative, the consortium is made up of representative organisation located both the UK and EU to ensure that the solution meets the demands of a cross section of environmental impacts as well as and location specific challenges.

Our Skills

Product & Services Design

70%

Health & Wellness Monitoring

80%

System Design & Integration

100%

Data Analysis and Visualisation

90%

Collaboration & Project Management

75%
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* The costs of falls are high, both to the individual, carers and society. The health care expenditure for treating fall-related injuries in the EU is estimated to be 25 billion Euros each year.
* A sample of over 200 hospitals across Europe, estimated within the EU, 3.8 million older people/annum attend emergency departments (ED) with a falls related injury; of which 1.4 million are admitted to hospital for further treatment.

EUPHASource: https://eupha.org/repository/sections/ipsp/Factsheet_falls_in_older_adults_in_EU.pdf
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* 1:6 fall-related injuries occur on public roads (mainly side-walks)
* Falls often lead to post-fall anxiety, fear and subsequent dependency on family carers or even admittance into nursing care facilities.

Title of Research: Impact of falls on body and location where falls occurredSource: https://eupha.org/repository/sections/ipsp/Factsheet_falls_in_older_adults_in_EU.pdf
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* The Public Health Outcomes Framework (PHOF) reported 2017-18
* Around 220,160 falls emergency hospital admissions among patients aged 65+, (66.6%) of these patients aged 80+
* Falls – 9th highest cause of disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) in England in 2013 and the leading cause of injury
* Unaddressed fall hazards in the home cost the NHS in England £435+ million
* Annual cost of fragility fractures to the UK, cost estimated £4.4 billion which includes £1.1 billion for social care; hip fractures account for around £2 billion of this sum
* Short and long-term outlooks for patients following a hip fracture, with an increased one-year mortality of between 18% and 33% and negative effects on daily living activities such as shopping and walking.
* Long-term disability review found approx. 20% of hip fracture patients entered long-term care in the first year after fracture
* Falls in hospitals are the most commonly reported patient safety incident with more than 240,000 reported in acute hospitals and mental health trusts in England and Wales
* Falls and fractures in older people are a costly and often preventable health issue

Title of Research: Source: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/falls-applying-all-our-health/falls-applying-all-our-health

Team

The FALLS Predict™ initiative has the following members:

  • Future Care UK

    Future Care UK

    Founder Initiator, Visionary & Consortium Member

    Future Care’s CEO Andrew Cowen is the founder, instigator and vision behind this initiative, contributing to the direction and means by which falls can be predicted.
    To be a positive disruptive force for change and innovation

  • Abertay University

    Abertay University

    Founder Initiator, Visionary & Consortium Member

    A university based in Scotland, with a focus on social impact measurement & RoI
    To be a positive disruptive force for change and innovation

  • Graphics Vision

    Graphics Vision

    Founder Initiator, Visionary & Consortium Member

    A not-profit international membership network, HQ in Germany.
    Our members are international research institutions and innovation driven companies with interests in technologies like Computer Graphics, Multimodal-Multimedia, Visual Interactive Digital Media, Visualization and Simulation. Common to all members is a strong focus on Artificial Intelligence and Machine Vision and Learning. Members are located in Germany, Spain, France, Portugal, Panama and China, employing more than 1.800 researchers.
    To be a positive disruptive force for change and innovation

  • CCG

    CCG

    Founder Initiator, Visionary & Consortium Member

    At CCG we believe in the economic enhancement of knowledge as a means of achieving a better society. In this sense, we act autonomously or in a network, positioning ourselves as an 'interface' between the sources of knowledge (Universities) and the economy (Companies), based on strategic partnerships - via projects and services - with knowledge transfer.
    To be a positive disruptive force for change and innovation

  • University of Patras

    Consortium Member

    The University of Patras founded in the city of Patras in 1964 is one of the oldest universities in Greece. It comprises of 30000 undergraduate students, 4000 graduate students, 35 departments, 160 laboratories, 17 clinics, over 700 faculty members, 220 scientific staff members, and 450 administrative staff. The University of Patras enjoys recognition as an Academic Institution with a worldwide impact, attracting thousands of students and a large number of Academic and Research Personnel actively involved in the cutting-of-edge science, Innovation and Excellence. One of the main objectives of the University of Patras is the creation of knowledge through the promotion of the scientific research. University&research activity is supported by its workforce and the state-of-the-art infrastructure and represents the most significant factor for the improvement of Education and Learning. The funding for research at the University of Patras is managed by the Research Committee. UPAT is particularly interested in fostering international relations and, for many years, has managed an average of 150 European projects per year. The University of Patras develops all its activities related to the research in Europe through its European Research Projects Office, a unit in charge of the promotion of EC programs, technical assistance to the elaboration of proposals and management of projects with participation of researchers of the UPAT and it is coordinated by the Vice-Rector for Research and Development.

  • CTCR

    CTCR

    Founder Initiator, Visionary & Consortium Member

    The Footwear Technology Centre of La Rioja (CTCR), located in the Spanish town Arnedo (La Rioja), serves as the hub of the sector and the area, providing with its highly qualified staff and excellent facilities innovative research and development solutions.
    To be a positive disruptive force for change and innovation

  • Know Centre

    Know Centre

    Founder Initiator, Visionary & Consortium Member

    Austria's leading research centre for data-driven business innovative information and communication technologies.
    To be a positive disruptive force for change and innovation

  • Ascalab

    AscaLab

    Founder Initiator, Visionary & Consortium Member

    Ascalab world class expertise, services and technology, help partners to execute their road map and critical / time-to-market R&D projects. We have distinctive passion for the software engineering, integration, automated QA, data management and security.
    To be a positive disruptive force for change and innovation

  • Ciber Voluntarios

    Ciber Voluntarios

    Founder Initiator, Visionary & Consortium Member

    An ecosystem of collective intelligence, integral, disruptive and resilient intelligence that creates processes of social innovation to solve challenges and make citizen initiatives aimed at achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and start to change the world.
    To be a positive disruptive force for change and innovation

  • University of Minho

    Consortium Member

    University of Minho aims to be a University without walls, focusing on the regional, national and international socioeconomic environment. UMinho is a research University, engaged in the valorization of the chain Knowledge-Research, D&I as evidenced by a series of indicators. The ratio between PhD students and academic staff is over 1; the fraction of postgraduate students in the total student population is over 20%; the ratio between research projects and PhDs is over 0.5; around 150 PhDs are awarded every year; the average yearly production of refereed papers in scientific journals is impressive for an eclectic University: above 2/FTE/year; citations are strongly increasing every year; 250 R&D contracts are signed yearly with companies.

  • University of Vienna

    Consortium Member

    The University of Vienna is a research university enjoying high international visibility. Its profile reflects the characteristics of the area it is located in, and understands research as a global challenge. The Juridicum is the Law Faculty of the University of Vienna. It is the oldest and largest legal faculty in the German-speaking world. For more than six centuries, the Law has been researched and taught here. Today the faculty hosts more than 10,000 students and about 600 employees.

  • Brainstorm

    Consortium Member

    Established in 1993, Brainstorm provides industry-leading real-time 3D graphics solutions for broadcast, feature film production and 3D real-time corporate presentations. Brainstorm’s flagship product “eStudio” is unique in the market due to its sophistication, open architecture and versatility, enabling both design and real-time playout of virtual studios and 3D graphics as well as the easy creation of customized products and applications. With headquarters in Madrid and Valencia, Spain, Brainstorm is a global company, internationally oriented and committed to innovation. Brainstorm allocates 25% of the annual income to R&D.
    Brainstorm is also member of the IABM (International Association of Broadcast Manufacturers) and the NAB (National Association of Broadcasters).

  • Walk With Path

    Consortium Member

    Walk With Path prides itself on having social innovation as a primary objective of our
    company. Our mission is to improve the mobility of all people, with a focus on people with
    chronic conditions, a vulnerable population group often isolated from society.
    With Path Feel in development, Walk With Path has significant expertise in the field of
    mobility and medical devices, which will be utilised in this project. As a for profit company,
    Walk With Path is involved in all aspects of product development, including regulatory, go-
    to-market strategies and core product development.

  • Red Ochre Enterprises

    Consortium Member

    Red Ochre is a leading social enterprise consultancy working across the UK and more than 20 countries worldwide. We have supported hundreds of funders (Esmeé Fairbarin, The Big Lottery Fund, The DCLG Hardship Fund, CAN Invest, The British Council, The British Library, The World Bank, NGO Management Switzerland, Project Hope China etc.), statutory bodies (local authorities, NHS Trusts, health and social care providers), innovative social enterprises and responsible businesses (Tech64, MagmaTech, Vidi Media, SenSat, Rocket etc.), and charities, and cooperatives since our foundation in 2004.