In this latest episode of Idea Drop’s Innovation Insights series, our Co-Founder and CRO, Jonny Fisher interviews Grahame Smith, Mental Health Nursing Academic, and Rafaela Ganga, Senior Research Fellow, at Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU).
Grahame is the founder and lead for the centre for collaborative innovation in dementia, an accredited health living lab within Liverpool John Moores University. Rafaela works alongside Grahame in the living lab. They work closely with local, national and international research and entrepreneur centres to facilitate and validate health innovations to develop solutions for everyday challenges.
This episode explores the crossovers between innovation, technology and social care. Grahame and Rafaela share insights into their user-centric and evidence-based innovative process. They give us an inside look into current projects like “House of Memories” that exemplify the benefits of inclusive innovation and technologies that are fit for real-life purposes.
Topics also include the use cases of technology in innovation, including retrofitting to overcome social challenges. But also the risks of technology that all innovators should be cautious of. They explore exciting trends in the social care space, including immersive and avatar technologies, and its in-home applications to improve the lives of people living with health conditions.
The interview concludes with great advice from Grahame and Rafaela that all innovators should take into consideration when planning their next initiatives. This can be summarised into three key points:
- Listen to user need
- Work on the evidence
- Ensure that the evidence is robust
