UK (United Kingdom) leads world in ‘compassionate’ technology

I’m not sure they can claim world leadership status but some group which calls itself ‘Public’ has indicated the UK (United Kingdom) outpaces its European brethren where ‘compassionate’ technology is concerned according to a May 17, 2018 article by Rick Kelsey for BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) news only,

The UK has more investments in compassionate technology companies than the rest of Europe put together, data from Public – which supports industry start-ups – suggests.

These companies are part of a sector estimated to be worth about £7bn, more than the financial tech sector – the new services such as current account apps disrupting traditional banking.

And the UK technology industry as a whole grew by 4.5% between 2016 and 2017, according to a Tech Nation report released today.

This is nearly three times the rate of UK gross domestic product (GDP), the amount the economy produces, which grew by 1.8% during the same period.

An example of ‘compassionate’ technology from Kelsey’s article,

[An] area where compassionate technology is growing is in combating loneliness in older people.

Technology is often designed for younger users, with touchscreens often failing to work for older users with dry hands, leaving them unable to communicate with others as easily.

“I find with my mobile, I have to sit down very carefully and do all this business,” says 84-year-old Marian, from Bromley. “I can’t do what the children do.”

But now she has a high-resolution screen, called Komp, controlled with a single dial.

It allows her to connect with her grandchildren, who can update it remotely with fresh pictures.

Karen Dolva, head of the company No Isolation that’s behind the product, says: “We’ve been forcing tech made for millennials on to seniors, and it doesn’t work.

“You can’t give them something that is just altered [for older people], you have to start over.”

There was also this (from Kelsey’s article),

The UK technology sector grew 2.6 times faster than the UK economy as a whole last year, new figures show. One of the biggest growth areas was in compassionate tech, with new apps and online services helping society’s most vulnerable.

“I ended up sofa surfing from place to place, so I didn’t really have anywhere [of my own],” 27-year-old Davina tells the BBC’s Victoria Derbyshire programme.

She has been homeless for seven years.

She is training to become an accountant, thanks to funding raised through compassionate technology – a thriving UK sector in which private start-ups are using tech to provide health and welfare services for those most in need.

Maybe not ‘world-leading’, although it seems to me they have a good case for the claim, the combined efforts are quite impressive.

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