University of Ulster - Home is where the healthcare is

High-tech home-based health monitoring will help alleviate the healthcare pressures of an ageing population. This is the prediction of University of Ulster researchers, who have won £2 million from Northern Ireland's Department of Employment and Learning to develop a collaboration with Dublin City University on intelligent-sensor technology. Jim McLaughlin, director of Ulster's Nanotechnology and Integrated Bioengineering Centre, and Chris Nugent of the Computer Science Research Institute, are working with Dublin City on a new Centre for Intelligent Point of Care Sensors, focusing on cardiovascular analysis. Professor Nugent said: "One of our aims will be that people can take more control of their health within their own homes and will spend less time in hospital and GP surgeries. That will have the potential to save the health service money."