Dr Khaled Goher is Senior Lecturer in Robotics and Automation, Programme Leader for Biomedical and Mechanical Engineering at the School of Engineering, University of Lincoln, and the founding lead of the Biorobotics and Medical Technologies Laboratory (BMTec). His principal research lies in the field of developing adaptable hybrid soft-rigid prosthetics and healthcare technologies for the elderly and people with disabilities. He shares with us here the size of the opportunity economically and – more importantly – socially.

The World Health Organisation's Decade of Healthy Ageing (2020-2030) is an opportunity to bring together governments, civil society, international agencies, professionals, academia, the media and the private sector for ten years of concerted, catalytic and collaborative action to improve the lives of older people, their families and the communities in which we live.  It is not a hard to see why digital transformation in healthcare is arguably the single most positively impactful step change of emerging technologies and is considered as one of the pillars of smart cities of the future.   

Populations around the world are rapidly ageing, presenting us with both enormous challenges and exponential opportunities alike. The ageing society is increasing the demand for primary health care, long-term care, and new innovative engineered assistive technologies, which will require a larger and better trained workforce, and acceleration of multiple environments to be made more age-friendly.  Despite the scale of the investment required, these changes can also enable and unlock the volume, quality, and variety of value and contributions which older people bring when correctly supported, whether it be within their family, as volunteers within their local community, continuation within the formal or informal workforce, or to the many more societal enrichment more broadly.   

The market potential of the elderly is likely to be the largest growing global demographic.  According to the UN 2015 report World Population Ageing, there were 125m people aged over 80 in 2015, with this projected to reach 202m globally in 2030. Meanwhile 1m over-80s are projected across Europe by 2030, rising from 34.6m in 2015, and by then representing more than 8% of the population. Additionally, by 2030, the number of people aged over 60 years will grow by 56% to 1.4bn, growing from 901m in 2015, and the number of people over 80 years old is growing even faster.  According to Zion Market Research, the overall global disabled and elderly assistive technology market was valued $18.70bn in 2017 and is expected to reach $30.82bn by 2024.  

It is not hard to see why digital transformation in healthcare is likely to have the single most positive impact of emerging technologies and an essential pillar of smart cities of the future.  It is a rapidly growing industry with a global total market size anticipated to reach US $210bn by the end of 2025.  The NHS long-term plan therefore is prioritising and underpinning the importance of digital transformation in the future of healthcare in the UK (see the LEP commissioned public enquiry blog on this locally within this edition). The primary motives for using digital approaches are multiple: to reduce cost, enhance performance, promote internal efficiency, improve smart production processes, add value to a supply chain, create a new product or service, adapt to new changes, manage competition, and stimulate demand. 

Here at the School of Engineering we are pioneering and piloting adaptable prosthetics for children and the development of lightweight, yet novel and powerful soft actuators for assistive technologies in collaboration with industry which is leading developments in wearable devices with the potential to deliver new business models in this field.  

Meanwhile, ongoing technological advancement offers a strong pathway to impact in terms of the development of new business models and standards for digital commercialisation of wearable devices and better involvement of elderly in society and workforce (social welfare, social cohesion and national security), while collaborating with this group in the development process of innovative engineering solutions, reaching a wider market and bringing a visible and measurable contribution for UK productivity while easing  pressure on health authorities.   

Dr Khaled Goher 

Programme Leader/School of Engineering/ University of Lincoln