The next five years in digital health and social care is a key topic at this year’s Dundee SmartCare Convention, a free event in the Caird Hall tomorrow.

Councillor Ken Lynn, of the Dundee Health and Social Care Partnership, will chair sessions at the event.

“There’s a revolution happening in healthcare,” he said. “New technology can help us prevent illness, keep people out of hospital, let people live better lives for longer.

“We can use technology to remove barriers which can stop people with disabilities fulfilling their potential, and this event is about redesigning the world so that everyone is included.

“It’s a glimpse of the future, certainly, but much of the technology is already here, and on display at the SmartCare Convention. Everyone in care or healthcare should be interested in this.”

The Digital Health & Care Institute is at the heart of the Scottish Government’s plans for change, and its head of business planning, Chaloner Chute, will set out the five year vision.

He said: “Many recent reports have stated that “we cannot continue to do more of the same” in health and care - avoiding change is not an option. The ask from Scottish Ministers when thinking about health and social care service redesign is to think digital first. The benefits of digital are valued and readily accepted in many other sectors, and slowly, there is increasing recognition that the successful delivery of digital public services will spread economic benefit and growth as well as enhancing the experience and engagement of citizens in Scotland.

“The Digital Health & Care Institute is delighted to have the opportunity at SmartCare Dundee to share some of our exciting new developments for co designing digital innovation for health and care in Scotland.”

Ms Boyle is one of six care and healthcare related speakers at the event, which also features 25 exhibitors showing a mix of new and existing technologies which can improve care and help people live independently.

Kevin Hutchison from NHS 24 and Stephen Plunkett (ALISS partnership and development manager) will present the new NHS Inform website; the beta version of the new ALISS system; and will highlight partnership activity to develop a new National Service Directory.

Local IoT solutions provider M2M Cloud and also Three Rings will explain what the Internet of Things can mean for health and social care; and there will be an update on the Florence home mobile health monitoring system now being trialled in Tayside.

Blackwood, which specialises in housing and care for people with disabilities, will be showcasing its co-designed cloud-based solution, CleverCogs.

The pioneering system enables service delivery through a touch-screen home hub and mobile app.

There will also be a discussion session on Dundee’s Technology Enabled Care Strategy led by Alexis Chappell, locality manager at the Dundee Health & Social Care Partnership.

The event is organised by the Dundee Technology Enabled Care Group, which links Dundee Voluntary Action with Dundee City Council, the NHS and others in the Dundee Health & Social Care Partnership. More details at www.dva.scot.