Catalyst Based Innovator Winner of Innovate UK Women in Innovation Award

Tallie Bush from Newcastle, founder of lighting manufacturer Circadacare, is transforming elderly care with Heleos, a plug-and-play device, which uses circadian lighting to improve sleep and artificial intelligence-driven monitoring to provide actionable insights to caregivers.

Bush said her innovation promotes independent living, reduces the care home burden, and cuts care costs.

Bush added: “Initially trained as a mechanical engineer, I was uninspired by the jobs I seemed to be heading for. I did a biomedical sciences master’s to help inspire a career with substance. But after an unsatisfying year in industry, I wanted to do something more challenging and cutting edge. So, I went back to university to do my Ph.D, initially in brain-machine interfaces. As I progressed, I realised my passion for neuroscience and spent the rest of my academic research career using an incredibly broad set of neuroscience techniques. The most rewarding work I did was in sleep epilepsy and dementia’s.

“However, I started to think I wasn’t adding enough value to the world with the intricacies of my work, and that perhaps some real-world application might suit me better. I decided that the best way to make the shift to industry would be to get up to speed in machine learning and deep learning. I did this obsessively through a series of online certification courses while nursing my newborn during the pandemic.

“And so here I am – I am always learning, and I am always seeking ways to positively impact people’s lives. I’m a bit of a jack of all trades, master of none. I was in academia –neuroscience – for 15 years doing many different things, and I have now been working on the Circadacare mission for more than two years.

Challenges we are addressing include an ageing population, increasing cases of dementia, both a desire/need for people to age in-place, the challenges faced by unpaid/professional carers, the costs of care, both the financial and high personal cost of falls, technology fragmentation – the list goes on.

“Heleos combines circadian lighting with AI-driven monitoring in a plug-and-play device that goes into standard light fittings. It provides a high-quality rhythmic circadian stimulus to emulate the natural cycle of daily light. This impacts our physiology to help improve sleep/wake cycles, improve mood and engagement, reduce the effects of end-of-day-distress and reduce the risk of falls. Within the light, sensors allow us to provide actionable insights to carers while maintaining privacy and dignity for the individual. Our platform is AI-driven and we are constantly evolving this side of our innovation to improve the quality of insights we can make.

“The societal impact extends far beyond individual homes. By helping people maintain independence for longer, we reduce strain on care homes that are already struggling with capacity, predicted to fall below needed levels by 2030. For local authorities spending £17 billion annually on elderly care, even a small extension of independent living creates significant savings. The human impact is equally important,  enabling family carers – over 700,000 in the UK alone – to better support their loved ones while managing their own lives and careers. This technology could help address the growing care crisis by making home care more sustainable, both practically and financially. To improve the lives of those in care, and those ageing-in-place, through a combination of circadian lighting and AI-driven monitoring.

“Have you ever had a business meeting with only women around the table? Because it’s usually me and a lot of men. I had my first experience of an all-female business meeting only recently. I was utterly disarmed by how different it was. The very language and attitude we adhere to in the workplace seems to have evolved from the male stance. This means if you aren’t male, you’re always trying to present in a way that isn’t natural to you, and consequently find yourself on the back foot very easily.

“We are tiny right now, but we are tackling some of the biggest problems society is facing. We have local, national and global initiatives and agendas focusing on these challenges because they are urgent and complex. Our ambition is to grow from our current small-scale projects to become a global solution that makes a real difference to millions of people’s lives.”

Original article can be found here, Care lighting innovation wins women’s award | Caring Times