Dr Jennifer Lynch
“My work isn’t about pushing AI as the answer to care staff shortages. It is looking at how this tech can support older people to live as they want to, promoting independence and choice.”
Dr Jennifer Lynch is a Senior Research Fellow in the Centre for Research in Public Health and Community Care at the University of Hertfordshire. Her research is focused on how technology can be used to support the delivery of care for older people.
Recent projects include a fellowship exploring how local authorities can use digital solutions to provide care as well as using machine learning and smart sensors in the homes of older people to enable early intervention and support if they needed it – helping them continue to live at home rather than be admitted to hospital or a care setting.
Jennifer has also been involved in a new project, assessing the effectiveness of remote monitoring and ‘virtual wards’, where patients are given equipment to record observations and have virtual consultations from home. This is particularly relevant as the NHS recovers from the effects of the pandemic.
Summarising her research focus, Jenni says “The potential of technology far outstrips our imagination or the potential ways it can be applied in the care of older people, but my work is focused on exploring what the right balance is for patients, their families, and society”.