News Archive 2017
Using Alexa to reduce loneliness and isolation
Gerry Hodgson, Dec 2017
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This month saw our first Amazon Echo Show installation. The Echo is part of our Connected Care programme to support independent living for elderly and vulnerable people. It's a hands-free voice-controlled speaker that can play music, make calls, answer questions, send and receive messages and provide information such as news and weather reports.
In our first implementation the user has been playing puzzles, making video calls to his family and asking Alexa to find out more about what's in the news. His favourite message was on Christmas Day when Alexa wished him a Merry Christmas and told him to wear trousers with an elasticated waist to make sure he had room for his Christmas lunch!
Time to celebrate
Gerry Hodgson, Dec 2017
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2017 has been an incredibly busy year for us, so it was great to take some time out of the office to celebrate our successes with an amazing Christmas meal and to look ahead to the future. I look forward to sharing some of our plans with you all in the New Year.
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Chas, Paul, Matt and Will
Enfys and Nigel
Say cheese (and crackers!)
A digital future for Technology Enabled Care
Alyson Scurfield, CEO TSA, Nov 2017
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By 2025, analogue telephone services will be switched off as the UK’s telecoms infrastructure is upgraded to digital connectivity. This shift has major implications for the technology enabled care (TEC) sector and the 1.7 million people who rely on telecare in the UK.
The paramount concern of TSA is that the reliability and safety of telecare and social alarm services is not compromised: that lives are not put at risk.
This White Paper calls on the TEC sector to get ready for the shift, upgrade their systems and recognise the opportunity digital connectivity represents to devise new service and product offerings. Simply replicating the analogue service in the digital world will miss that opportunity.
This White Paper also calls on government, regulators and telecoms organisations to work with the TEC sector to agree and mobilise a plan to manage the transition and realise the full potential of digital technology.
Above all, TSA wants to ensure the transition is handled well, that vulnerable people are not put at risk and the potential of a digital future for health and care is realised.
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Download the white paper here.
Connected Health
Gerry Hodgson and Sharon Weeks, Oct 2017
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We've had an incredible few days at the TSA International Technology Enabled Care Conference meeting committed health campaigners and sharing ideas with other companies working in this field. We all want to use technology to improve the wellbeing of the most vulnerable people in our society. It was a privilege to be part of it.
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Here are some of our favourite moments:
Sharing a joke with Bryn Morgan from Biodose
Gerry on stage explaining how our Connected Care platform can reduce hospital admissions for UTI's
Putting People First - news from the TSA Conference
Gerry Hodgson, Oct 2017
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We're at the TSA International Technology Enabled Care Conference this week demonstrating some of the latest developments to our Connected Care platform. We are also talking to some of the industry's key influencers in this area to ensure that, when it comes to healthcare technology, we always put people first. If you are visiting the conference please come and say hello, we're on Stand 16.
TSA Chief Executive Alyson Scurfield opens the conference
TSA President Paul Burstow explains the implications of the 4th Industrial Revolution
Get on your feet for National Fitness Day
Clare Flanagan, Sept 2017
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National Fitness Day is on Wednesday 27th September here in the UK and key sponsor ukactive has partnered with music licensing company PPL to launch the Official National Fitness Day 2017 Playlist.
The playlist includes classics from The Jacksons and Run DMC as well as recent hits from the likes of Calvin Harris and Avicii, based on fitness sector music reporting data from PPL.
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Last year’s National Fitness Day got over a million people active across 18,000 events. This year gyms and leisure centres across the UK will once again open their doors to offer a range of free sessions. There will also be events in schools, workplaces and local communities.
ukactive CEO Steven Ward said: “National Fitness Day is a fantastic chance to spotlight physical activity and the role it plays in creating a healthier nation. These free events across the country provide a chance for everyone to experience the fun of fitness and carry forward healthy habits.
“The day also offers a fantastic opportunity for the physical activity sector to unlock new markets and attract new members by promoting the broad benefits of movement to the length and breadth of the British nation.”
PPL UK Chief Executive Peter Leathem said: “We are delighted to be supporting National Fitness Day. Music can be a great motivational tool when working out.
We hope that this Official National Fitness Day Playlist will inspire people to get active and most importantly, have fun whilst doing it.”
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For more information visit www.nationalfitnessday.com or www.ukactive.com
Albyn Housing Society wins TEC Ready funding
Sharon Weeks, June 2017
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We are pleased to announce that Albyn Housing Society working in partnership with NHS Highland have been successful in winning funding from the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations (sfha) TEC Ready programme. The pilot will test a fully digital approach to incident and behaviour monitoring at home.
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The newly built cluster of digitally enabled ‘Fit Homes’ will be used as the test bed as they have been innovatively designed to be more accessible and adaptable than current housing options. Crucially they are fully digital (digital phone and internet connections are provided via fibre to the premises – there are no analogue connections). This pilot will be specifically targeted at people with long-term health conditions, or who are at increased risk as a result of ageing, who may or may not already be receiving health and social care services.
This pilot will form part of a larger testing phase, the aim of which is to develop a platform that will bring together technology to maximise the benefits of digital telecare for residents across the Highlands and potentially a wider scale.
To read more about this exciting project involving collaboration with Robert Gordon University and the FIT home manufacturer Carbon Dynamic, click here.
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Smruthi Rajmohan welcomed into our Bluemix team
Gerry Hodgson, June 2017
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I am delighted that Smruthi has joined us for her internship during her final year at PES University, Bangalore. She will work closely with Mohan developing our IBM Bluemix and IBM Watson cognitive analytics capabilities.
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She is also a talented Indian classical singer so make a note of this bright star!
Cascade3d IoT analytics launches on IBM Bluemix
Mohan Nair, June 2017
Cascade3d has taken another significant step in strengthening its analytics platform by integrating IBM Bluemix and IBM Watson cognitive analytics capabilities. The dynamic learning ability of Watson allow us to generate new insights into changing behaviours as we improve the support we can provide to vulnerable people living independently.
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IBM Watson allows us to combine unstructured data, such as carer notes alongside weather data, wearables and ambient sensor data. Read more about our Connected Care platform.
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Cascade3d completes integration with Verklizan UMO platform
Harish Kumar, May 2017
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Thank you to the Verklizan testing team for their assistance in completing our API integration with the UMO alarm receiving platform.
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Having amazingly dedicated caring staff on hand 24/7 to support elderly and vulnerable people is a vital piece of the jigsaw to help people live safely and independently. This integration with UMO allows the alerts and messages from Cascade3d Connected Care platform to be posted into the receiving centres from anywhere in the world, 24/7.
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New partnership with Amazon Web Services
Matthew Blackwell, Apr 2017
We’re pleased to announce that we have joined the Amazon Web Services global partner network (APN) and have launched Cascade3d Analytics platform powered by AWS. This will help us to achieve significant growth and scaling for our IoT analytics platform both in the UK and India.
Read more about our analytics solutions.
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Smart Cities
Gerry Hodgson, Mar 2017
I'm at Digital Greenwich this week looking at the data and communication demands of smart cities.
The Royal Borough of Greenwich launched its Smart City strategy in October 2015. Digital Greenwich is responsible for implementing the council's strategy by engaging with companies like Cascade3d which are committed to implementing smart city concepts and sharing the latest IoT thinking and good practice.
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Detox your data
Dawn-Anne McAneny, Will Jones, Suzanne Benton-Bryan, Jan 2017
January is traditionally the time to overhaul your diet and lifestyle but why not make a resolution to check the health of your membership data too?
Accurate, robust data will help you achieve higher sales and reduce operating costs leading to a much leaner business in 2017. To find out more, take a look at our Refresh and Validate products or contact us.
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