On Tuesday 14th June Medequip Connect hosted their first Innovation Forum in Birmingham. The team arrived early to welcome partners and guests including Enovation who provide our UMO Call Monitoring platform, the Technology-Enabled-Care Services Association or TSA, and Local Authorities such as London Barking and Dagenham, Dorset, and the Wirral. Pastries and coffee promised a great day ahead!
With the aim of sharing news, updates, and best practice relating to Technology Enabled Care, the day mainly consisted of talks and presentations. Enovation set out the roadmap for what’s coming up for the UMO platform, whereas the Wirral imparted some lessons learnt from their digital telecare journey.
Against the backdrop of traditional telecare going digital and demands on services forcing social work and healthcare to become more joined up, opportunities to come together and share proof-of-concepts are invaluable. It gives us the chance to ask what works, what doesn’t work, and illuminate the way forward. Technology Enabled Care is a little bit like the ocean – we’re all swimming at different depths, some moving faster than others.
It might be too early to say ‘post pandemic’ but the Innovation Forum was also well timed, as we anxiously emerge from the umpteenth Lockdown wondering what everyone else has been doing. In this sector it’s really important that we learn from each other. This was the first, but certainly not the last, Innovation Forum as the team received overwhelmingly positive feedback.
So what can we expect from next time? Well, we hope to expand the Forum and invite more colleagues from Health, Housing, and Social Work. As these areas become ‘de-siloed’ and are driven to integrate, it’s crucial that conversations about Technology Enabled Care include a variety of colleagues. We want to include Service Users and their views and lived experience too, making co-production a core part of the process.
The Connect team are excited to make the next Innovation Forum bigger and better. We would also extend our thanks to our partners and guests for supporting and attending our first event. Finally, watch this space! In the business of helping people stay independent for longer, innovation is always at the forefront of our minds.