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Innovation 'Elevator Pitch':
Protect people with dementia from unattended falls, dehydration, malnutrition and hypothermia by hourly checking patterns of normal activities in their kitchens.
Overview of Innovation:
Many older people want to live independently for as long as possible, causing anxiety for family and friends. They are often in denial of their declining capacity, proud and won’t wear pendants. With impaired cognition, many suffer from unattended falls, dehydration, malnutrition or hypothermia. They are admitted to hospital needing longer treatment for poorer health outcomes and greater risk of transfer into a care home.
To make sure that service users are moving around as normal, drinking, eating and warm, Kemuri checks every hour. It alerts families and carers of important changes and provides valuable details for guiding action. Peace of mind results in better outcomes and reduced costs for everybody.
Kemuri does not stigmatise because it looks a familiar Power Socket to the service user. There’s nothing to remember and people continue with normal activities such as boiling kettles and heating food in microwaves or other electrical equipment.

KemuriSense® mains Smart Power Sockets continuously monitor motion, power usage, temperature and humidity and send data via GSM mobile phone signals to the Internet. Mains power loss is automatically reported whilst it continues to report other sensor readings.
The Wellbeing Monitor App informs families and carers of older vulnerable people who:
- Want to live independently
- Reject or forget pendant alarms
- Deny declining capacity
- Show symptoms of dementia
- Remove things they don’t understand
- Need daily monitoring
Predictive analytics check every hour for changes to patterns of motion and power usage. If there are many changes, then alerts may be sent to families, carers or 24/7 response centres.
As stated by a Commissioning Manager at a County Council, “ ... this is a unique product …. I think there’s potential here for both self funder and LA funding as a potential option that fills a gap that conventional telecare does not.”
Stage of Development:
Market ready and adopted - Fully proven, commercially deployable, market ready and already adopted in some areas (in a different region or sector)
WMAHSN priorities and themes addressed:
Long term conditions: a whole system, person-centred approach / Wellness and prevention of illness / Digital health
Benefit to NHS:
Dementia is increasing in the population. Kemuri is a tool for stabilising the wellbeing of older people living alone who are declining in their ability to undertake Activities of Daily Living. Better wellbeing means healthier people, better health outcomes & more efficient use of NHS resources. Institute of Ageing research shows a range of pathways that people take before they are unable to live independently.

Early intervention is proven to reduce costs significantly. Kemuri should be deployed as soon as people are showing early symptoms of dementia. With loss in mobility, falls are inevitable: half those 80+ fall at least once p.a. Falls cost the NHS £2bn p.a. People with dementia tend to forget their pendant alarms/wearable telecare devices. If unable to call for help they may suffer for days before discovery & admission to A&E with medical complications. Kemuri’s hourly analysis of patterns of motion power usage automatically alerts to the risk of unattended falls.
In comparison pendant alarms are ineffective with early stage dementia. Out of 1.6m issued 32% are never worn & only 8% are worn all the time as prescribed. 500,000 unworn pendant alarms waste as much as £80m p.a. Kemuri continuously monitors motion, learns patterns of activity without any cognitive input from the service user.

A value to the NHS of early A&E admission into hospital is better health outcomes & more people discharged back to independent living on average after 12.3 days (discharge to residential care on average 31.7 days, 2.5 times longer).
£5000 could be re-allocated for each episode avoiding discharge to a care home. Unattended falls longer than 24 hours result in stabilisation time, longer treatment & delayed transfers of care. Kemuri preventive telecare with a wellbeing monitor & daily attention will also help to minimise the number of patients suffering the effects of hypothermia, dehydration & malnutrition.
- Cold homes cost the NHS in England more than £1.36bn p.a.
- Dehydration complications include low blood pressure, weakness, dizziness, increased risk of falls, & pressure sores
- Malnutrition costs the NHS £7bn p.a. Risk (in 2010) was 28% in patients < 60 years, 32% 60-79 years & 44% if > 80 years
Kemuri could be funded by the NHS for a few weeks after discharge on the grounds that people admitted in a healthier state are less complex to treat, have improved health outcomes & are less likely to be readmitted, with the ongoing service funded by Social Services or self-funders.
Initial Review Rating 5.00 (1 ratings)
Benefit to WM population:
West Midlands has a population of 5.6 million people covering an area of more than 5,000 square miles. It is a region full of contrasts and diversity. It includes the second largest urban area in the country (Birmingham, Solihull and the Black Country) yet over 80% of the area is rural. It is the second most ethnically diverse region in the country after London. There are probably 40,000 older people who might be suitable for passive wellbeing monitoring. Many of these are admitted to hospital and may not be able to return to their own homes.
Older people are at the focus of Kemuri wellbeing monitoring. Hourly and daily pattern analysis reduces risk and extends the period that they can continue to live independently at home. Everybody has access to information that reduces the risk of unattended falls, dehydration, malnutrition and hypothermia. Alerts are automatic without older people having to change their life style. A familiar power socket is not stigmatising or intrusive. There are no wearable devices to remember or unfamiliar sensors to be discarded. Discharge from hospital could be accelerated with a KemuriSense Power Socket pre-installed.
Families and carers use the Wellbeing App for peace of mind. At any time of day, from anywhere in the World, people can view the changes to patterns of behaviour. There’s an option to receive alerts after more changes than usual. They can enquire about wellbeing with full knowledge of the predictive analysis and decide on appropriate action. Some of the tragic outcomes of unattended falls are avoidable with hourly monitoring. Additionally, it’s possible to confirm that domiciliary carers have provided drinks and meals at the time they were ordered.
Service organisations benefit from accurate data. Sheltered housing wardens, domiciliary care providers and alarm response centres have full access to the Wellbeing Monitor and can prioritise their care calls. Kemuri is efficient to deploy. The portable model is operational in ten seconds with no skill required. The fixed model can be installed and tested within 15 minutes. There are no rules to enter because the system learns patterns of activity. Alerts are automatically sent to response centres or users of the app.
Current and planned activity:
Manufacturing batches of 100 units for trials/sales to housing associations/telecare service providers. First trials are in sheltered accommodation in County Durham in conjunction with Durham University (part of EU funded Erasmus+ project)
Controlled clinical trials required to collect evidence to support the benefits claimed (reducing impact of falls). Sample sizes to account for significant number of subjects continuing to live normally without any falls requiring intervention. Access to medical records/cost of treatment/health outcomes/discharge data/subsequent care pathways required
Kemuri collects accurate lifestyle data that can be used in clinical trials of drugs dispensed to people living independently including people with cognitive impairment/physical disability not able to record times of events/ambient conditions. KemuriSense power sockets can collect data for several years, in dementia trials it may be possible to identify rates of decline & use it to modify the care regime
What is the intellectual property status of your innovation?:
Kemuri has patents pending; GB1417259.7, effective date of 30 September 2014 and PCT/GB2015/000275, International Filing Date of 30 September 2015.
Note that the patent applies to more devices than a power socket. It covers the internal electronics and components, which could be incorporated into any equipment consuming significant amounts of power.
Kemuri and KemuriSense are registered trademarks.
Return on Investment (£ Value):
high
Return on Investment (Timescale):
2 years
Regulatory Approvals:
The KemuriSense Smart Power Socket has been tested for EMC (Electro Magnetic Compliance) and CE certification.
The product only measures ambient conditions and does not require certification as a medical device.
Commercial information:
We are building batches of 100 for field trials with availability in January 2017.
The projected sales shown in the table below.
The growth accelerates as more telecare resellers become customers.
Current and potential telecare users: The Strategic Society Centre undertook a major quantitative research project entitled Who uses telecare? published in 2012 to explore usage of telecare among older people in England and identify potential users of telecare. It provided a conservative estimate based on 2008 data that among the over-50s in England, there were well over 1 million telecare users. However, by mapping individuals with similar conditions, the report was able to identify around 2.5 million more individuals living alone who may be able to benefit from telecare, and potentially as many as 4.1 million with conditions that could merit the use of telecare.
Further, the report stated that around 30% to 50 % of current telecare users paid for their telecare themselves or with the help of a family member. Among private and non-privately funded telecare users, it appears there is little difference in incomes. This suggests that relatively low income is not a barrier to individuals and their families funding telecare themselves or that most users can contribute to the cost of telecare support.
The report made recommendations to policymakers to aim to boost the usage of telecare to at least double current prevalence focusing on individuals living alone. It also recommended that policymakers and the industry should focus on targeting informal carers, including both cohabiting and non-cohabiting family carers as potential beneficiaries of greater usage of telecare.
Global telecare market: The global telecare market is valued at c. £1 billion per annum and is forecast by the Deloitte Centre for Health Solutions to grow at a rate of 5% per annum from now to 2018. The factors contributing to growth and market attractiveness are related to government initiatives and funding and the public willingness and receptivity towards technological advancement. The UK is the leading market for telecare products and services, with the UK telecare market share of up to 25% of the global market. Other prominent markets for telecare in terms of ageing populations that demand such services include France, Italy and Benelux (comprising Belgium, Luxemburg and the Netherlands).
Ireland, Malta, Singapore, Hong-Kong, Malaysia and Saudi Arabia as potential overseas markets for KemuriSense®, as those territories use British standard socket outlets.
Investment activity:
Kemuri was founded by Dr Leonard Anderson, Russell Anderson and Michael Anderson in January 2014. Together, they worked on the concept for an older person’s carer assistance solution after failing to find a suitable product and service on the market. The Company’s activity to date has been focused on product and web-services development and has been funded from private and public sources. Kemuri’s proof-of-concept project was successfully completed in October 2015, assisted by grants from Innovate UK; £66,734 for a Smart Grant and £5,000 for a Smart Voucher. A £2,000 prize from Kent County Council paid for the first smart power socket prototype.
Dr Anderson has provided an unsecured director's loan facility of £100,000.
Innovate UK sponsored £5000 research with the Institute of Ageing at Newcastle University for the Ethics of Passive Monitoring.
The company raised £545,000 in a private offer via West Hill Capital. The funds are being deployed to refine the core product infrastructure, to develop the mobile app, to recruit staff across operations and to build an online sales platform.
Kemuri has been awarded with €100,000 as a partner in an Erasmus + project for people-centred centred design. Our UK partner is Durham University together with others in Netherlands, Czech Republic and Slovenia
The Company is a growth business and will not be cash generative in the short term as it invests heavily in developing the business in order to generate long-term profitable business relationships.
A key requirement is to find funding for an academic study to collect evidence for the value of predictive analytics for a period of at least one year. Grants are being sought from multiple sources.
Regional Scalability:
Smart power socket production is scalable (batches of 100-1000 p.m) in the Woking production facility (larger volumes achieved by second sourcing manufacture). The Web technology is cloud-based & can be rapidly scaled by commissioning more servers/storage at short notice. WM scale-up can be generated by raising awareness with the following:
- Social Services Commissioners/OTs
- GP Surgeries, Mental Health & Hospital Trusts
- Housing Associations & Voluntary Sector eg AgeUK
- Telecare Service Companies
- Local media/online sales websites
Welbeing, our telecare service partner’s clients include WM local authorities & housing associations, providing installation & call monitoring services to any new customers in the region.
As a start-up our effort is directed to delivering reliable hardware & software with small sample numbers. Our design objective is for KemuriSense power sockets to operate continuously for at least 5 years. First trials have started in County Durham housing associations.
Measures:
In co-operation with an academic research partner, we hope to achieve the following in a trial:
Quality
- Continuous reliable operation
- Avoidance of false alerts
- Recognising unattended falls, strokes or other episodes that result in a carer taking action that saved time and cost for medical intervention.
- Peace of mind achieved for families and carers
- Identifying trends that indicate the risk of hypothermia, dehydration and malnutrition.
- Identifying activity at unusual times of day that lead to helpful family or medical intervention
Safety
- Electrical safety of products after installation in kitchens.
- Security of personal data and avoidance of data loss.
Cost
The trial budget is £500,000. This would include the costs of selection, installation, monitoring, service support and surveying families throughout the trial. Note that his includes detailed data analysis, medical services, the final report and communications.
People
The target group for research is a cohort that has these attributes:
- Reject pendant alarms
- Deny declining capacity
- Want to live independently
- Show symptoms of dementia
- Need daily monitoring
A percentage will be used as a control group who are not included in the Trial. The total numbers are to agreed by the academic research partner from one of the West Midlands universities.
Ethics
Finding volunteer older people and their next of kin will require access to the medical records and adult social care records of older people living alone. This will also be needed during the trial to measure the times and costs of medical treatment. Approval by the Ethics Committee will be required.
Adoption target:
Assuming that there are 500,000 unused pendants in the UK, there are approximately 40,000 candidates for Kemuri wellbeing monitoring in a West Midlands population of 5 million.
500 is a reasonable target for 2017/2018 – with an possibility of growing to 10,000 in 5 years.
Investment sought:
A total investment of £500,000 over two years would provide a trial that provides evidence for wider adoption in the Region. For budgeting purposes, this breaks down as follows:
- £40,000 - Project Management
- £100,000 – Installation and Web services for 120 older people and their families
- £50,000 – Health service costs
- £250,000 – Academic research costs
- £60,000 – Kemuri cost to support the trial.
The findings should be applicable throughout the UK.
The objective is to obtain SBRI funding for the project.
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