A health economic evaluation of Minder

In 2019, there were 748,000 people living with dementia in England. This population typically has complex care needs, placing considerable strain on the health and social care systems as well as on individuals themselves and their carers/families – at an estimated total cost to the UK of £37.4 billion a year.

Minder is a remote care platform that aims to improve the quality of life for people with dementia and their carers. It uses home sensors to detect an individual’s activity at home, and builds a model of ‘usual activity’ through use of artificial intelligence, allowing any deviations to be detected and flagged for follow-up, enabling early prevention. Minder has been developed by the research team at the UK DRI Care and Research Centre based at Imperial College London and the University of Surrey, in partnership with Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS Foundation Trust.

Recognising the benefits that Minder could have for people living with dementia, the UK DRI commissioned Edge Health to undertake a health economic evaluation of Minder. Through engagement with stakeholders and experts in the field, as well as review of existing evidence and literature, we built an understanding of the impacts that Minder could have on the health and social care systems, as well as on individuals with dementia and their carers. By modelling the costs associated with each of these impact pathways, we were able to estimate the Benefit Cost Ratio of Minder among the dementia population in England.

As part of their translation exercise, the UK DRI realised the need to have cost benefit figures at local population level. Through development of an adjustable model, enabling selection of specific geographies and dementia populations of interest, we were able to provide the UK DRI with a dynamic output demonstrating the value that Minder could bring for local populations, and the return on investment that could be made. This work will facilitate wider rollout of the technology in England, which if successful would allow a range of benefits to be realised across a large population of individuals, with huge benefits for health and social care systems.