Edinburgh Napier University’s School of Health and Social Care and School of Computing have partnered with the Advanced Care Research Centre at the University of Edinburgh to deliver an ambitious and critical review – to establish a map of the current digital landscape in Scottish care homes.
During November, the Landscape Assessment of Data and Digital Readiness of Scottish Care Homes (LADDeR) study will invite all adult care homes in South East Scotland to provide details about their digital connectivity, the systems they use to collect and store resident data, and how this information is shared with other healthcare partners.
The study, led by Senior Research Fellow Lucy Johnston from the School of Health and Social Care and Associate Professor Alistair Lawson from the School of Computing, supports the aims of the Digital Approaches in Care Homes Action Plan and will play a key role in supporting the development of strong digital foundations for Scottish care homes.
Care home data is collected by a range of different systems that can vary home to home. The lack of standardisation across the sector creates barriers to data access for those looking to meet the needs of residents, and monitor and develop services, as starkly exposed during the COVID-19 pandemic. By providing essential information about the current care home data landscape, LADDeR will inform future digital approaches and better enable technological innovation and information sharing to support care home residents.
Building on their previous work on care home data, the researchers are collecting information from the 250 adult care homes in Edinburgh and the Lothians, Fife, and the Scottish Borders through an online mapping template. Care homes in South East Scotland should look out for the emailed invitation. It takes less than minutes to complete and make sure their home is included on the map! The results will be analysed and made available on a bespoke data dashboard.
The cross-school research team includes Dr Lynda Anderson from the School of Health and Social Care, and Dr Paul Lapok and Heidi Koikkalainen from the School of Computing. The study is funded by the Data-Driven Innovation Programme.
For further information please email l.johnston@napier.ac.uk
