°µÍø½âÃÜ Living Lab

Older residents of social housing, developers and researchers collaborating to co-create and test new digital health technologies
woman sat at table in a kitchen on her mobile phone

°µÍø½âÃÜ Living Lab

Older residents of social housing, developers and researchers collaborating to co-create and test new digital health technologies
Title: °µÍø½âÃÜ Living Lab
Funded by:
Funding amount: £150,000
Location: °µÍø½âÃÜ
Project partners: Rachael Fox, ; ; ; ; ;
Dates: 2024 – ongoing
°µÍø½âÃÜ PI: Professor Sheena Asthana  
°µÍø½âÃÜ staff: Kieran Green , Martha Lee , Dr John Downey
 


Led by the °µÍø½âÃÜ's Centre for Health Technology , °µÍø½âÃÜ Living Lab is an innovative, real-world 'lab' where older residents, developers and researchers collaborate to co-create and test new digital health technologies. 
Comprising over 37,000 residents in social housing (i.e., low-income housing) and embedded within , the °µÍø½âÃÜ Living Lab is one of the largest of its kind in the world.

By providing a real-world test-bed for the co-design, piloting and evaluation of digital health technologies, Living Labs can accelerate the adoption and scaling of technologies that work for end-users. With our focus on technology outside the hospital and in people's homes, we are committed to supporting the shift from sickness to prevention and supporting people's independence and wellbeing. This is such rewarding work, of which we are very proud.

Sheena AsthanaProfessor Sheena Asthana
Professor

Objectives

  • Expand reach by attracting wider use of the lab from health and care, academic and industrial partners across the country.
  • Increase stakeholder engagement and a sense of shared ownership across the lab's partners (citizens, the °µÍø½âÃÜ, °µÍø½âÃÜ Community Homes, °µÍø½âÃÜ City Council, University Hospitals °µÍø½âÃÜ NHS Trust and NHS Devon).
  • Mobilise knowledge by refining the Living Lab's approaches to both co-design and evaluation, making them transferrable elsewhere.
  • Influence policy by generating evidence (data, evaluations of usability, acceptability, effectiveness, cost-effectiveness and system fit) to inform local, regional and national policy.
  • Create economic and social value by supporting the creation of marketable innovations, generating new activities (e.g., experiential learning for medical, nursing and allied health professional students) and enhancing local quality of life.
  • Boost research and innovation through strengthening interdisciplinary and intersectoral collaboration.

Context of the issue

Continuing to live at home in older age, in our communities, is a goal many of us share. 
Digital health technologies (DHTs) can support people in doing this by preventing physical and cognitive decline. This shift to prevention, rather than treatment (post-emergency), is echoed in the Chief Medical Officer's Annual Report from 2023 and the NHS 10 Year Plan. Both call for a shift from hospitals to care in the community, sickness to prevention and from analogue to digital.
However, there has been a systematic failure to pilot digital health technologies in community settings. Therefore, scepticism remains about the value proposition of DHTs. So too do concerns that these technologies may remove the human element of care or be difficult for people who lack digital skills or who are on low incomes.

How the project addresses the issue

Digital 'living labs', like ours, have emerged as vital testbeds for digital innovation in the community. There, end-users, health and care staff, developers and academics work together to develop DHTs that really work. They also collect evidence of DHT efficacy, providing the NHS and digital developers with the corroboration needed to scale up technologies and roll them out elsewhere in the country.
Following a year of 'proofing the concept' (from January to December 2025) and funded by Cisco's Country Digital Acceleration Program, °µÍø½âÃÜ Living Lab is now in a position to grow and expand its activities. In 2026, we will develop our wider knowledge networks and influence local, regional and national policy by demonstrating the feasibility of DHTs. 
°µÍø½âÃÜ Living Lab brings the CHT's 'shift left' agenda to life, shifting the focus from treatment in hospital to preventative, community-based care.

Examples of our Living Lab projects

Community Connections
The °µÍø½âÃÜ Living Lab launched 'Community Connections', an app designed to help older adults in South Devon stay connected through an online platform. The app has been profiled on .
Developed in partnership with Cisco and Cinos, providing an easy-to-use platform utilising Cisco Webex technology. Building on the success of Deleting Loneliness, successfully trialled in Barcelona, the Living Lab has hosted the first UK pilot of this solution designed to combat social isolation in elderly adults.
The simple interface allows users to take part in a variety of online activities offered by local providers, as well as providing opportunities for connection.
Between January and March 2025, the team engaged over 105 social housing residents and 12 voluntary sector partners in deep-dive co-design sessions. Utilising personas to map gaps in residents' daily lives, and activity provider and resident mind-mapping sessions, this phase confirmed a strong appetite for creative and wellbeing-based online activities on an easy-to-use web app. 
Our mixed-methods evaluation of the pilot (July–October 2025) yielded insights critical to improving the usability and acceptability of the Community Connections platform, a bespoke, codesigned delivery model for future piloting and market roll-out, and evidence of the intervention's effectiveness.
Codesigned software improvements included simplified sign-in options, support features, access to introductory videos for non-live scheduled activities, avatars to hide faces, and a complete revamp and redesign of their "interests" space.
We also found that accessible software was not a silver bullet; a 'Human Bridge' of face-to-face Digital Inclusion Network support and in-person activity sessions was essential to overcoming digital fears and expanding our active participant pool. 
Greater platform use correlated with improved self-rated health and provided daily structure, but loneliness scores remained resistant to change. This highlights that future iterations must prioritise peer-to-peer bonding over facilitator-led interaction. This level of honest, nuanced evidence is precisely what health systems and commissioners need to deploy digital technologies effectively.

Evaluation of Howz passive sensor technology
°µÍø½âÃÜ Living Lab is evaluating the Howz passive sensor technology, designed to support independent living, with 28 residents. A 'Human-in-the-Loop' approach is being deployed, where weekly conversations with residents are used to validate and refine sensor alerts. By grounding the data in lived experience, we can identify the subtle changes in daily routines that signal emerging support needs and map these patterns to practical responses (e.g., a clinical response, social support, or a practical housing repair). Building this database will help Howz fine-tune its algorithms, create a more intuitive dashboard for care providers, and move toward a system that automatically directs residents to the right support before a crisis occurs.
This initiative also serves as a training ground for the future healthcare workforce. By integrating °µÍø½âÃÜ medical students into the research team, the initiative offers hands-on experience in preventative care and digital health. The students' involvement provides an added layer of reassurance for residents and families while preparing the next generation of clinicians to recognise the essential links between housing and health.

The benefits of Digital Health Technologies (DHTs)

In areas where real-time transfer of physiological data from wearables to electronic patient records is already happening, there is growing evidence of significant benefits. For example, technologies are being used to support the early diagnosis of conditions such as:
  • Cardiovascular disease 
  • Neurological disease
  • Pulmonary disease
As the adoption of wearables, personal devices, and sensors grows, the potential for AI-based technologies to monitor individual patient risk and design intelligent intervention triggers will only expand further. 

Examples of DHTs

  • Smart devices and environmental sensors – which enable remote monitoring of the home environment, tracking vital physiological signs and activities
  • Alert systems, like alarms for critical events and more complex risk assessments, such as predicting falls or diagnosing dementia
  • VR – which has proven effective in enhancing various physical, mental, and psychosocial health outcomes
  • Care robotics – which have been found to improve the wellbeing of residents.

Podcast: Making Housing Better

In an episode of the Making Housing Better podcast, Rachael Fox from °µÍø½âÃÜ Community Homes, a key researcher working closely with Dr Kieran Green, discusses the goals and aspirations of the project.
Rachael shares insights on Living Lab's Vision and how they are using assistive health technologies to help residents live safely and independently, particularly older adults managing frailty. Key highlights include discussion of assistive technology, challenges, innovative pilots, and best practices.
 
 
 
 

Project team

The project’s core workstream, led by Professor Sheena Asthana and Dr John Downey and with support from Kieran Green , involves collaboration with citizens, clinicians (primary, community and acute), local authority staff (such as those in social care), the VCSE sector and industry to support the co-design, piloting and evaluation of home-based technologies. 
The second workstream, led by Martha Lee , looks at the potential for System Transformation to collect, analyse and use data from devices for individual case management, service improvement and population health management. It also explores the barriers and enables (technology, processes, culture, information governance and regulatory) to bringing real-time data together in a central command and control system, applying advanced data analytics to setting triggers for action and ensuring safe clinical responses. 
 

Funded by

Centre for Health Technology

Bringing together digital health and health technology expertise from across the University to drive the development, evaluation and implementation of innovative technologies, products, services and approaches to transform health and social care.
 
Centre for Health Technology