In the UK, average life expectancy is continuing to rise. With this rise comes an increase in health problems for the elderly, placing more demand on our struggling health service. One of the main pain points for the health service is the limited availability of hospital beds. This often results in patients being prematurely released from hospital and professional home care being put in place.

Typically, one patient will have multiple carers assigned to their care and they will visit frequently but for short periods of time. Family members often take on the care role to supplement professional care.

Currently, there is no easy method of communication between those responsible for providing care i.e. between multiple professional carers and the patients family members, unless a family member is present when the carer visits. This can lead to worry and stress for family members and ultimately impact the quality of overall care.

My proposal for this project is to design and build a simple to use application that targets these difficulties in communication. The idea is that carers will use the application to fill in short, patient orientated questionnaires that are then stored by the application for later review. Family members will receive notifications of activity on the application.

The information captured could include whether patient had eaten, washed, changed or taken their medication. Alongside these objective indicators of care, the carer could capture subjective measures such as the patients mood or whether they???d advise a family member to visit.

The goal of the application would be to have a less fragmented patients care, giving family members reassurance when going about their daily lives, ensuring that they are fully informed and able to address any issues. For the patient, the app would help to provide a balance between professional care, family involvement and independent living.