Driving innovation across Asia Pacific

Australian aged care providers have taken out seven categories in Ageing Asia’s 7th APAC Eldercare Innovation Awards.

Bolton Clarke, IRT, McLean Care and Southern Cross Care NSW & ACT each won their segments, with innovations in products, social engagement and technology.

Bolton Clarke’s winning entries for Innovation of the Year – Product and Innovation of the Year – Social Engagement Program, were grounded in the relationships between frontline team members and customers, said CEO Stephen Muggleton.

“Innovation that makes a difference starts and finishes with the customer,” said Mr Muggleton.

“It’s listening to customers and the people working with them every day and supporting those ideas by bringing in people who have deep practice in innovation and service design.

 “We’ve worked hard over the past several years to develop strong design thinking across the group. This also includes growing our network of partnerships, collaborating with customers and experts from diverse disciplines to design services and solutions that meet people’s needs.

“The goal is to better support our customers with solutions that are supportive, respectful and above all individual.”

The CaT Pin, a wearable device targeting loneliness developed by Bolton Clarke in partnership with RMIT researchers, won the Innovation of the Year – Product category.

The technology works by monitoring baseline conversations and word count throughout the day and then prompting social contact when levels drop too low.

One Good Street took out the Innovation of the Year – Social Engagement Program category. The project is an online social networking initiative that improves the lives of older people by strengthening their inclusion, partnering with care organisations to extend their reach within communities and creating connections with carers in the same neighbourhood through peer to peer support.

The emphasis is on an ecology of practical activities, which is unique when compared with many single initiatives working in isolation.

IRT Group won the Innovation of the Year – Productivity for its Business Intelligence, Data and Automation (BIDA) platform and the Best Smart Care Technology Product award for its custom aged care locating device.

BIDA was recognised as a best practice for delivering improved productivity in organisational efficiencies and quality of care provision.

Developed largely in house, BIDA was purpose-built with support from technology experts, Novigi.

“BIDA enhances the daily lives of IRT residents and customers by reducing the administrative burden on employees so they can focus on what they do best; caring for our residents and customers,” said IRT Group CEO Patrick Reid.

“The platform streamlines IRT’s manual processes and provides data analytics that measure the outcomes of IRT’s care delivery to optimise the quality of life for our residents and customers.”

“Since implementing the platform our customer insights have improved, we’ve automated reporting, care outcomes have become more personalised and we’ve experienced operational efficiencies and cost savings.”

IRT also won the Best Smart Care Technology Product award for a custom aged care locating device it’s developing in collaboration with specialist location services company iotTag. The product, currently under concept proofing, is being designed to improve the safety and security of people living with early stage dementia in residential care.

The device or ‘smart tag’ uses a smart phone app and mobile phone network to locate residents who wear it. It can be sewn into residents’ clothing and even go through the wash, or it can be attached to personal property.

Southern Cross Care NSW & ACT’s The 10k Project won Innovation of the Year – Community Care Model, while McLean Care and Deakin University took home Innovation of the Year – Technology as well as Best Solution to Support Ageing-In-Place (Wellness) for their Hector VR driving simulator for aged care.

Hayylo by hayylo Australia was named the Best Smart Care Technology Solution.

ThomsonAdsett was name Architecture Firm of the Year while Koh I Noor, a new aged care facility in Perth by KPA Architects won Residential Aged Care Project of the Year.

In the individual awards, Stephen Muggleton was recognised as a Global Ageing Influencer, while Catherine Daley, CEO of integratedliving Australia was named a Global Ageing Trailblazer at the awards ceremony on 15 May.

1 COMMENT

  1. Hi, I think it’s time to really look into the 10 % administration & another 10% for case management fees from all of the providers of HCP. It’s outrageous how they can charge 10% twice of the total package amount for both fees. These fees are taking nearly half the package amount.
    Kind Regards.

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