As part of his studies in data science, LIV.INNO student Luke Detraux has completed a placement at Mae & Mitchell Bespoke Management (MMBM), investigating how science and technology could revolutionise the care sector.
Over the past 50 years, there has been a trend of moving care-receivers out of hospitals and into community care. During this time, treatments for learning disabilities and mental health illnesses have shifted from pharmaceutical to occupational therapy, with increasing focus on person-centred care, to reflect the current medical understanding of treatment and rehabilitation. However, implementation of new technologies has been slow to keep up with these new techniques. With an ever-increasing dependence on data driven methods, the care sector is ideal for implementing new and creative digital solutions.
Measuring the effectiveness of treatment in the care sector is complex and data-intensive process, with many metrics needing to be considered. This data is essential as it determines future approaches to a supported person’s care and has a measurable impact on their lives. However, with many care providers reportedly overworked and underfunded, often this crucial evaluation is neglected. MMBM recognise that this is not good enough and aim to take a much more scientific, pragmatic approach to care.
Luke’s work at MMBM aimed to efficiently compile many different metrics to measure the performance of the care provider and the effectiveness of treatment. One of the main challenges in this work was that much of the data in this industry isn’t standardised in terms of format or contents. Moreso, due to a cycle of previous placement breakdowns, much of the historic data on service users is missing. The second biggest challenge was that many support workers do not have a background in computer science, therefore any implemented program would need to be user friendly if it was to be implemented. Despite this, Luke was able to find a reliable methodology to produce a quantitative score measuring the effectiveness of treatment of service users in the care system. This work will go towards improving the quality of life of the service users and can be expanded easily even as MMBM grows.
Luke said: “I am very grateful to MMBM for my time there and I have learned a lot about how computing techniques can bolster even the most person-centred services. MMBM is truly at the cutting edge of research in the care sector and have outstanding standards of care because of this.