Smarter Cities Challenge – Improving quality of life for Limerick’s older people
Tuesday, July 26th, 2016
Last year, Limerick was chosen as one of IBM’s 17 ’Smarter Cities’ around the world. For three weeks during May, a team of five global IBM experts, from the U.S. and India, assessed current activities being undertaken by Limerick City & County Council and were tasked with developing a set of recommendations to predict and respond to the needs of senior citizens through better management of shared information and in support of the Age Friendly Limerick Strategy.
Limerick City and County has a large and rapidly growing population of senior citizens (people older than 65) and this is expected to increase more than 260% by 2046. While the IBM Team were on the ground, they actively engaged with local authorities, relevant community and service groups and with researchers from the University of Limerick and Limerick Institute of Technology, to analyse and define ways in which the city could improve the quality of life and independence of older people through increased connectivity and improved access to key services. They conducted 46 interviews in the first week, meeting with over 100 stakeholders, all of whom validated the need for an “age friendly” strategy.
At a final presentation at the end of May, the team presented their findings and recommendations to an audience of over 100 people which included Limerick City & County Council and external stakeholders, these recommendations included:
- The creation of a master data management plan to predict and respond to the needs of older people and manage shared information.
- The implementation of a health ‘smartcard’ with a patient record system to allow information to be shared, to coordinate services more effectively, to allow emergency personnel to quick access to adequate and precise treatment.
- The establishment of tele-health/tele-service units to enable the elderly population to connect with service providers remotely from their own home.
- Use of intelligent video and audio analytics to send alerts when abnormal activities – health or security – are detected in home or garden.
Attending the event were left to right, Dr. Nader Nassar, IBM, Peter O’Neill, Country Manager IBM, Deirdre Kennedy, IBM, Marc Silhavy, IBM, Aruna Padmanabhan, IBM, Matt Broomhall, IBM and Nancy Breiman, IBM. Picture: Alan Place/Fusionshooters
A final report will be delivered to Limerick City & County Council by the end of August which will assist the Council in implementing these recommendations.