Care technology provider joins innovation pop-up to launch in UK market

Sensio AS, a provider of care technology in the Nordics, has joined the Innovation Pop-Up at the Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust to launch its RoomMate safety sensor in the UK.

It is designed to help care homes and hospitals improve falls prevention and promote independent living among the ageing population.

Falls are a huge problem for the NHS, causing an estimated 76,000 hip fractures and costing £2bn every year, equivalent to around 1% of the total NHS budget. The problem is being exacerbated by the increasing prevalence of dementia in the UK with sufferers more at risk of falls.

Sensio is set to pilot the RoomMate care technology at five sites in England and Wales.

So far, the Oslo-based company has deployed 10,000 safety sensors at 220 care settings across Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Iceland.

Company spokesman, Sven Seljom, said: “We have been very well received in Leeds and have showcased our safety sensor to many different stakeholders.

“The Innovation Pop-Up is an exciting arena with lots of opportunities for entrepreneurs, researchers and clinicians who are interested in exploring new technology in care and seeing how it can develop services.”

The trust launched the Innovation Pop-Up in 2021 to bring together entrepreneurs, researchers and clinicians to create, evaluate and adopt new products and services to transform health and social care and drive economic growth.

To date, it has worked with 150 companies, identified 30 collaborations and 10 funding opportunities, and developed trade links with Israel, Norway, Spain, Canada, Japan, Switzerland, the USA and Taiwan.

David Brettle, chief scientific officer at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust and founder of the Innovation Pop-Up, said: “We are happy to welcome Sensio to our growing community of health tech companies at the Innovation Pop-Up.

“We are helping to establish our trust as the ideal gateway for bringing innovative new technologies to the NHS market for the benefit of patients, providers and economic growth.”

RoomMate is a brick-sized device with a 3D sensor based on infrared light.

It provides automatic notification of potential hazards, such as patients leaving their beds, opening doors, falling or calling out for help; anonymous digital monitoring with in-built privacy to check up on patients, talk to them and quickly determine if they need help; and activity monitoring to identify abnormal activity such as disturbed sleep, frequent toilet visits or excessive bed rest.

RoomMate aims to help organisations tackle “digital fatigue” by removing lots of different devices such as fall cords, panic buttons and motion sensors that need maintaining and replacing them with a single passive sensor and a dashboard for care staff.

Sensio is majority owned by Norwegian private equity firm Longship AS and has made a series of care technology acquisitions including Safecall, Vestfold Audio, Hospital IT and RoomMate AS as part of its growth strategy.