Our approach

The SCALS study currently consists of six organisational case studies, each an English health or social care organisation that is striving to introduce a technology-supported service(s) to support independent living in people with health and/or social care needs.

Our approach is to work with clinical and social care teams, and where appropriate, to help them consider how these technology-supported services can best be anchored in patient experience, co-created with those who use them, integrated into other aspects of care, and evaluated so as to feed into ongoing learning and development.

We do this by using qualitative methods, such as interviews and observing stakeholder meetings. Our approach includes speaking with patients about their experience of using technology, and speaking with policy makers to understand the national-level context in which these technologies are evolving.

Each case-study involves three levels of investigation:

1. In-depth studies of people's experience of, and efforts to use, assisted living technologies
2. Research with an organisation involving a cycle of asking a question, collecting data, analysing data, initiating change and collecting more data to assess progress. This is called action research.
3. Exploring the wider national and international context for assisted living technologies and policy through engagement with wider society.