Tanglewood Care Homes continues to set the gold standard in the care home sector as it becomes the first care home company in Europe to test game-changing fall detection technology.

The care provider, which is Lincolnshire’s largest private care home company, is testing the new technology at its flagship care home in Spalding, Lincolnshire – Cedar Falls – a regional centre of excellence for dementia care.

Pioneered in the UK by healthcare technology start-up FrontDoor, in partnership with Korea-based Kardian, the technology is a radar system which is placed on the ceiling of a bedroom.

The system monitors movement and can detect falls, heart rate and breathing patterns using advanced artificial intelligence driven algorithms.

Nike Ajewole, Operations Director for Tanglewood, commented: “Technology has an immense power to transform our sector and improve the wellbeing of elderly people. We are thrilled to be partnering with FrontDoor and others on this ground-breaking system.

“The technology we have at Cedar Falls has the potential to be rolled out in community care as well as care homes. The system affords residents the independence they want, while providing carers and loved ones the real time information they need for peace of mind. It was a no-brainer for Tanglewood to get involved.”

The trial is currently in its second phase and FrontDoor is working with Tanglewood to test the monitoring and detection rates of the system. The companies are also collaborating on an app for carers and family members.

Tom Shelbourn, Founder of FrontDoor, said: “Technology is key to solving the increasing challenges in social care, from combatting rising costs to tackling loneliness and isolation. It is invaluable to have a forward-thinking partner like Tanglewood on board.

“Elderly people in the past have relied on wearable technology to send for help if they have fallen – but many do not like wearing these devices, or simply forget to. Unlike bulky wearable solutions, our radar sits discreetly on the ceiling and is not reliant on the user at all.

“The radar’s ability to monitor heart rates and breathing in a contactless way is incredibly exciting to us. Prevention is very much the future and this technology can help us predict and prevent emergencies such as falls and heart attacks before they happen.”

All the live data collected by the system is fed back to a monitoring system FrontDoor is developing with close input from Tanglewood. It is expected to be finished in early 2019.