A consortium led by Onzo has embarked upon a £2.3m project to use smart metering technology to develop future applications and services, using telehealth as an example application.
With governments globally setting targets for the roll-out of smart meters, this project will examine the potential applications for the new communication infrastructure that will be created by the emergence of the smart grid.
In the healthcare sector, the technology is expected to decrease the need for patients to visit their clinician or hospital for regular check ups by providing a secure and wireless method of sending information on health issues such as a person’s weight and blood pressure to their healthcare professional.
Not only could this improve the quality of healthcare provision, but it could mean that both patients and healthcare professionals will be able to avoid the cost and inconvenience of hospital or house visits.
In what was a highly competitive pitch, £1.15m (50%) funding for Project Hydra has been awarded by the Technology Strategy Board and the Engineering and UK Physical Sciences Research Council (ESPRC), with a further investment of £1.15m from the consortium partners.
Onzo is developing the technology alongside eight other partners. The consortium is made up of Onzo, Atmel, Brunel University, Chorleywood Health Centre, Echelon Corporation, Innova Partnerships, Philips Applied Technologies, Scottish and Southern Energy and Silver Spring Networks.
Neil Tierney, Research and Development Director at Onzo, said: “By developing a technology that is effective, secure, simple to use and allows interoperability between devices, Project Hydra opens up opportunities for more than just the healthcare sector. End-to-end connectivity can bring value added services to energy, water, home automation, security and sectors we haven’t even thought of yet.”
Dr Russell Jones, lead clinician at Chorleywood Health Centre, said: “With aging populations and the number of people with long term health needs increasing, the pressure on global healthcare systems is immense. It is becoming harder to deliver the services people need and current telecare developments are small scale and fragmented.
“Project Hydra extends the vision of smart metering, leveraging a cost effective and secure infrastructure to deliver an end-to-end solution that will suit both the patients and healthcare professionals.”