Leader of the Liberal Democrats, Nick Clegg MP, will visit the University of Sheffield tomorrow to learn about technology to support older people.
Mr Clegg will meet Sheffield academics from the Advanced Care Technologies (ACT) programme, which aims to bring together businesses, users, academic and healthcare experts in assistive technology and telecare.
As the population grows older the ass
istive and telecare technology sector, which supports people with mobility or activity limitations, offers one of the most exciting, demand driven opportunities for UK technology for the next decade.
South Yorkshire has one of the largest clusters of medical device manufacturers in the UK. Over 8% of UK firms in this sector are based here. To ensure that the region's businesses are well placed to exploit the rapidly expanding market for assistive and telecare technologies, the European Regional Development Fund part-financed the Advanced Care Technologies programme.
The programme promotes innovative networks and partnerships between industry, user groups, the University of Sheffield and the NHS. The aim is to raise the level of awareness of assistive and telecare technology across the region, whilst investigating the most effective applications to raise the quality of life for South Yorkshire's ageing population.
The project enables South Yorkshire companies to benefit from the fast expanding world market for assistive and telecare technology. ACT helps local businesses to grow through knowledge and research and development, developing new and improved products and systems to support people with mobility or activity limitations.
Professor Tony Warnes, joint scientific lead of the ACT programme, who also works in the Sheffield Institute for Studies in Ageing at the University, said:
"We are very pleased to welcome Nick Clegg to the University and to be able to show him some of the innovative assistive technology being developed. Politicians and governments around the world are taking a keen interest in better ways of delivering better care and more support to vulnerable older people and I believe that new technologies will play a major part in this."
Nick Clegg said:
"I'm delighted to have the opportunity to visit the Advanced Care Technologies programme. I am interested to see for myself some of the innovative products which are being developed by the project in the care and support of frail older and vulnerable people. These are of course vital for supporting the growing needs of our ageing population."
The full article contains 404 words and appears in n/a newspaper.
