About the project
Project summary
The MALT Project: Overcoming the Barriers to Mainstreaming Assisted Living Technologies was funded by the Technology Strategy Board through the Assisted Living Innovation Platform, with support from the Economic and Social Research Council from 1 June 2011 to 30 November 2014.
A multi-disciplinary consortium of researchers and technology industry experts from the University of Sheffield, the University of Leeds, the University of Manchester and the Advanced Digital Institute, delivered the project.
The overall aim of this programme of research was to identify, explore and seek to overcome the key barriers to delivering telehealth at scale within four sites in the Yorkshire and Humber region.
There were four main workstreams within the project:
This is the legacy website for the project. It includes summaries of the research completed, key findings and links to all outputs (tools, resources, academic research articles etc) – all of which are free to access and download.
For more information about MALT, contact Lizzie Coates, former project manager at the University of Sheffield.
Key messages
The key messages from across the MALT project can be thought of as problems or barriers and solutions or recommendations.
Evidence and evaluation
Problem: There are ongoing difficulties in demonstrating evidence of benefit from telehealth, and a lack of consistent and robust evaluation data.
Recommendation: There is a need for an improved and consistent evaluation dataset that reflects the diverse aims of telehealth and needs of stakeholders.
Stakeholders and rationales
Problem: The stakeholder map for telehealth is complex, varies between services, and is changeable over time. This creates confusion over who should lead telehealth implementation and how benefits can be realised.
Recommendation: Greater recognition of the complexity and diversity of stakeholders (and their varied functions, motivations and rationales) is important.
Staff adoption
Problem: Uncertainty amongst clinical staff about the benefits of telehealth limits adoption and acceptance, especially where they act as the gatekeepers to patients.
Recommendation: Raising awareness of telehealth and its potential benefits to clinical practice will help increase adoption, provided that implementation is also well supported.
Patient acceptance
Problem: Uncertainty amongst potential patient and carer users about the availability and value of telehealth limits acceptance.
Recommendation: Improving awareness of telehealth and its perceived benefits for patients and carers will help stimulate demand amongst the general public.
Business models
Problem: There is not, and will not, be one single effective business model for telehealth.
Recommendation: Scenario planning provides a useful mechanism and process for developing business models that take into account the key issues in telehealth, and can help secure seed funding and sustainability.
Implementation
Problem: Existing implementation has not taken into account the complexity of the commissioning, delivery, management and acceptance of telehealth, or the links between these domains.
Recommendation: Greater recognition of the complexity and interrelatedness of operational, organisational and financial barriers to the acceptance of telehealth is a critical first step to expanding services.
People
People who worked on the MALT project and their profiles and roles during the project completion. This list is not maintained and information may be out of date.
Alan Brennan
The University of Sheffield
Alan is a Professor of Health Economics and Decision Modelling at the School of Health and Related Research (ScHARR).
He is a member of the team looking at establishing cost-effectiveness at scale of ALTs in the financial modelling workstream.
He holds an MSc Operational Research from the London School of Economics and a BSc Mathematics from Imperial College London. He has previously worked in the NHS, leading the Trent Operational Research Unit before joining ScHARR in 1994.
Email: a.brennan@sheffield.ac.uk
Bridgette Wessels
The University of Sheffield
Bridgette is the Director of the Interdisciplinary Research in Socio-Digital Worlds (IRiS) and is a senior lecturer in the department of Sociology at the University of Sheffield.
Her work in MALT focuses on overcoming barriers to uptake of ALTs in the staff adoption workstream.
Bridgette has worked on a number of international projects on the digital world, and has published extensively on the subject.
Email: b.wessels@sheffield.ac.uk
Chris Armitage
The University of Manchester
Chris is a professor of Health Psychology at the University of Manchester, working on predicting and changing health behaviour.
His role in MALT focuses on patient engagement in the patient acceptance workstream.
He holds a PhD from the University of Leeds and a BA (Hons) from the University of Wales, Swansea.
Chris Clegg
University of Leeds
Chris has worked at the University of Leeds since 2006, where he is Professor of Organisational Psychology and Director of the Socio-Technical Centre.
His role in MALT is as the lead for the business modelling workstream, looking at viable service and business models for ALTs.
Chris has been a Co-Director of the Rolls-Royce University Technology Partnership for Design since 1998 and he is Chairman of the Socio-technical Group of the British Computer Society.
Email: c.w.clegg@leeds.ac.uk
Duncan Ross
University of Leeds
Duncan works in the Centre for Innovation in Health Management at the University of Leeds.
His role in MALT is as an advisor for the business modelling workstream, looking at viable service and business models for ALTs.
Duncan started his professional career as a general medical practitioner, then worked internationally, focusing on projects involving leadership and management systems strengthening. He then worked in the NHS, holding executive level positions in commissioning and as a Deputy Chief Executive of a PCT.
Email: d.ross@leeds.ac.uk
Gail Mountain
The University of Sheffield
Gail is Professor of Health Services Research in the School of Health And Related Research (ScHARR) at the University of Sheffield, and also has an honorary chair in Occupational Therapy research at Sheffield Hallam university.
Her work in MALT focuses on overcoming barriers to uptake of ALTs in the staff adoption workstream.
Gail worked as an occupational therapist before commencing a research career at the University of Leeds. She has also worked for the Nuffield Institute for Health, College of Occupational Therapists and Sheffield Hallam University.
Email: g.a.mountain@sheffield.ac.uk
Huw Jones
ADI
Huw joined ADI in 2011 after working in senior positions in the health and public sector for over 20 years and as a consultant working with telehealth and telecare for four years.
He has a clear understanding of health policy and practice and has worked extensively with buyers, manufacturers and users of telehealth and telecare.
He works closely with the MALT industry panel in the business modelling workstream.
Email: hlj211163@yahoo.co.uk
John Eaglesham
ADI
John is Chief Executive of ADI, and has previous worked in product delivery, engineering management, and senior management.
John has a BSc in Physics and an MSc in Electronic Systems Design.
He is a member of the TSB’s Assisted Living Innovation Platform steering panel and works closely with the MALT industry panel in the business modelling workstream.
Email: john.eaglesham@adi-uk.com
Kingra Lowrie
The University of Sheffield
Kinga is a PhD student in the financial modelling workstream of MALT. Her PhD project looks at factors which may moderate cost-effectiveness of telehealth technology for COPD.
The main components of the study are cost effectiveness and financial modelling, and a qualitative component looking at patients' preferences and adherence.
Kinga obtained her MSc in Public Health from Collegium Medicum Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland (2010).
Before starting her PhD, Kinga worked for the International Knowledge Transfer Consortium Project (Poland) and CLAHRC-SY in the diabetes theme.
Email: k.lowrie@sheffield.ac.uk
Mark Hawley
The University of Sheffield
Mark Hawley is Professor of Health Services Research at the University of Sheffield, where he leads the Rehabilitation and Assistive Technology Research Group. He is also Honorary Consultant Clinical Scientist at Barnsley Hospital, where he is Head of Medical Physics and Clinical Engineering.
Over the last 20 years, he has worked as a clinician and researcher developing and evaluating assisted living technologies for disabled people, older people and people with long-term conditions.
Mark is the Principle Investigator for the MALT project.
Email: mark.hawley@sheffield.ac.uk
Praveen Thokala
The University of Sheffield
Praveen is a research fellow in the School of Health And Related Research (ScHARR), working in the Health Economics and Decision Science section.
He is a member of the team looking at establishing cost-effectiveness at scale of ALTs in the financial modelling workstream.
He holds a MASc from the University of Toronto and a PhD from the University of Southampton.
Email: p.thokala@sheffield.ac.uk
Sarah Gorst
The University of Sheffield
Sarah is a PhD student in the patient acceptance workstream of MALT. The title of her PhD is ‘What predicts end users’ (patients’) acceptance of telehealth?’
She holds a BSc (Hons) Psychology from Edge Hill University (2010) and an MSc Research Methods in Psychology from University of Liverpool (2011).
After completing her undergraduate degree she worked as a Research Assistant at Edge Hill University.
Email: pcp10slg@sheffield.ac.uk
Simon Dixon
The University of Sheffield
Simon is a Professor of Health Economics in the School of Health And Related Research (ScHARR), working in the Health Economics and Decision Science section.
He is a member of the team looking at establishing cost-effectiveness at scale of ALTs in the financial modelling workstream.
Email: s.dixon@sheffield.ac.uk
Lizzie Coates
The University of Sheffield
Lizzie is the MALT Project Manager, and is based in the School of Health and Related Research, working in the Rehabilitation and Assistive Technology Research Group.
Prior to joining the MALT project in July 2012, Lizzie was working in the Department for Work and Pensions managing and delivering policy evaluation of employment services.
Lizzie's background is in health services research and social research, and she has worked in a range of roles in academia and government. Lizzie also has a Masters in Health Economics and Management from ScHARR, and a PhD in Sociology from the University of Surrey.
Email: e.coates@sheffield.ac.uk
Jo Nicholson
The University of Sheffield
Jo is a research associate in the School of Health and Related Research, working in the Rehabilitation and Assistive Technology Research Group.
Jo is working full-time on the MALT project and is a member of the patient acceptance workstream; exploring the user perspective on barriers and facilitators to telehealth, and engaging end users, carers and frontline staff in interventions to promote change.
Jo’s background is in health services research, and she has a Masters of Research and PhD in Social Policy from the University of York.
Kathryn Mackellar
The University of Sheffield
Kathryn is currently providing clerical and administrative maternity cover for Samantha Humberstone on the MALT project. She is based in the Rehabilitation and Assistive Technology Research Group in the School of Health And Related Research (ScHARR) four days a week.
Kathryn also provides clerical and administrative support one day a week within Health Services Research on The PAINTED Study - Pandemic Influenza Triage in the Emergency Department and the pre-hospital non invasive ventilation (NIV) for acute respiratory failure.
Email: k.mackellar@sheffield.ac.uk
Lucy Bolton
University of Leeds
Lucy is currently providing maternity cover for Helen Hughes. Lucy has worked at the Socio-Technical Centre (STC) at Leeds University Business School since January 2009 as a Researcher in Organisational Psychology.
She graduated from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne in 2006 with a degree in Psychology, and then went on to achieve a Masters in Occupational Psychology in 2008 from Nottingham University.
Besides the MALT project, Lucy’s most recent work is currently exploring change in the area of Cost Engineering within Rolls-Royce from a people, roles and organisational perspective.
Lucy is currently a Practitioner-In-Training of the BPS Division of Occupational Psychology.
Email: l.bolton@lubs.leeds.ac.uk
Pete Dodd
The University of Sheffield
Pete joined the School of Health And Related Research (ScHARR) as a research associate in health economic modelling at ScHARR in 2013.
He is working on analysing the patient-level data from HES that will quantify disease progression and interactions with services for the MALT modelling.
Pete has a BA and MMath in mathematics from the University of Cambridge, a PhD in theoretical physics from Imperial College London and a BSc from the OU.
He has previously worked as an infectious disease modeller at Imperial College London and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
Email: p.j.dodd@sheffield.ac.uk
Olubukola Otesile
The University of Sheffield
Olubukola has worked as a Research Assistant within the Rehabilitation and Assistive Technology group based in the School of Health and Related Research since 2012.
She holds a degree in Pharmacy (B.Pharm) from the University of Lagos, Nigeria and a Masters in Public Health (MPH) from the University of Sheffield.
Bukola is currently a member of the staff adoption workstream, particularly exploring staff acceptance of telehealth.
Prior to this, she has worked on the STARTING MoTOR project within the Telehealth and Care Technology (TaCT) theme of CLAHRC-SY, an impact evaluation of KT-EQUAL activities and a service evaluation of the PARO seal robot.
Email: o.otesile@sheffield.ac.uk
Rebecca Pieniazek
University of Leeds
Rebecca is a part-time researcher on the MALT project based at the University of Leeds.
She is currently completing a PhD at Leeds university business school, on organisational resilience. The work is underpinned by socio-technical thinking and practice.
Prior to this she completed an undergraduate degree in Experimental Psychology at the University of Oxford and an MSc in Organisational Psychology at the University of Leeds (distinction).
Rebecca has also worked as researcher within the following areas:
the workplace enablers and barriers of using motivational interviewing in clinical practice
resilience
the Deepwater horizon British Petroleum oil spill
the socio-technical design of technology aids for people living with wounds and also dementia
Email: bn11rlp@leeds.ac.uk