In a packed conference hall buzzing with prototypes, provocations and practical debates, the panel “Telecare in Europe: Towards a New Era of Connected Care” offered something increasingly rare in discussions about digital health: nuance.
Moderated by author and broadcaster Carl Honoré, the session brought together two leading voices from the United Kingdom’s technology-enabled care (TEC) sector — Alyson Scurfield, Chief Executive of the Technology Services Association (TSA), and Maxine Potter, UK Director of Careium, one of Europe’s largest telecare providers. Over the course of nearly forty minutes, they mapped the opportunities and obstacles facing European telecare with unusual candour, stressing that the next leap forward will hinge not on gadgets, but on people, culture and collaboration.
Telecare : A Sector in Transformation
Carl Honoré opened by situating the conversation within a festival that proudly embraces the full range of ageing-related innovation — from anti-bed-sore mattresses to a sensor-equipped penis ring (“bedsores to bonking,” he joked). But when he asked his guests what excites them most, neither reached for the shiniest device.
For Maxine Potter, the game-changer is artificial intelligence — not in its abstract, futuristic form, but as a practical tool for preventative and proactive care. AI, she explained, is already helping carers interpret behavioural data from sensors: “We can see if Mrs Smith hasn’t made a cup of tea that morning or hasn’t got out of bed. That gives us alarms and triggers to reach out before something becomes an emergency.”
Alyson Scurfield agreed that innovation is abundant — “the hall is full of incredible ‘bits of kit’” — but warned against starting with technology instead of people. She pointed to her own experience living with diabetes: her glucose monitor is sophisticated, but “does it connect to my care record? No. Does it connect to social care? No.” The real breakthrough, she argued, will come from embedding technologies in wrap-around services, and ensuring they respond to real needs rather than imagined ones.
[Replay] Telecare in Europe: Towards a new era of connected care
Co-production, Not Guesswork
Both speakers returned repeatedly to the principle of co-production — designing solutions with, rather than for, the people who use them.
Careium, according to Maxine Potter explained, conducts in-person visits to understand user behaviour and gather feedback, rather than relying on generic surveys. Many older users, she said, value the human voice so much that they sometimes press their emergency pendant simply to talk to someone.
Alyson Scurfield expanded the definition of co-production far beyond the end user. For her, it includes commissioners (who fund services), family carers, frontline workers, community groups, local authorities, and national policymakers. It is a continuous process: “My needs today as a diabetic might be very different next week after an episode,” she noted.
Co-production, in other words, is not a box to tick — it is a method for building systems that evolve with people.
The UK’s Digital Shift: Progress and Pain Points
The panel offered a candid window into the UK’s massive analog-to-digital (A2D) telecare transition, now in its final year. The shift affects millions of vulnerable people whose alarms and sensors were designed for copper-line telephony.
Maxine Potter described the process as “tough” and “long-anticipated”, emphasising that many stakeholders doubted digital switchover would ever truly arrive. Careium’s strategy centred on planning and partnership, particularly with BT and CSL, to test devices, ensure resilience, and avoid failures during network migrations.
The broader lesson, she said, is that no company can navigate the transition alone.
Alyson Scurfield placed A2D in a wider policy context. The UK’s new government, she explained, is prioritising three areas:
- Supporting people at home and in neighbourhoods
- Shifting from illness treatment to prevention
- Completing the digital transition with a focus on resilience
But she acknowledged significant structural barriers, including “the plumbing” of the system — procurement processes, data flows, and interoperability — and, above all, culture. Technology will not scale, she argued, unless leaders and frontline workers understand that it enhances rather than replaces their roles: “This is transformation… a cultural shift.”
Collaboration Across Borders
One of Alyson Scurfield’s most forceful messages was that international collaboration is long overdue. The TSA, she noted, is unique globally: few other countries have an industry body uniting suppliers, commissioners and service providers under a common quality framework.
Visiting the United States recently, she found that many markets share identical challenges — workforce shortages, siloed services, poor interoperability — yet attempt to solve them separately. She urged French organisations to consider building a joint structure with UK partners to accelerate shared innovation and standards: “These problems don’t change. If there’s appetite in France to work together, let’s do it.”
Potter echoed this, noting that Cairium already works across Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands and France, and sees cross-border cooperation as essential rather than optional: “There’s more than enough room for everyone. Collaboration has to be the focus.”
Reimagining Ageing and Personalisation
Both speakers challenged stereotypes about older adults and technology. Far from fearing digital tools, today’s older citizens increasingly expect modern, discreet solutions.
Potter described strong demand for smartwatch-style devices that blend into daily life instead of signalling frailty. Skirfield broadened this to a philosophy: personalisation should start with a simple question — “How do you want to live your life?” — rather than a list of diagnoses or a box of pre-selected devices.
This approach, they argued, will allow technology to scale sustainably because it becomes part of a values-based conversation instead of a one-size-fits-all product pitch.
AI for Telecare: Tool, Not Replacement
When Honoré raised the “elephant in the room” — artificial intelligence — both panelists firmly rejected the idea of AI replacing human contact in emergencies.
Potter put it bluntly: “I would never want someone pressing an alarm in an emergency and AI answers that call.” At Cairium, AI is used only for non-critical tasks such as medication reminders, alarm-testing prompts, and data analysis—not frontline emergency response.
Skirfield warned against being dazzled by AI without addressing safety, risk and governance: “Before we run off using lots of AI, we have to go back to safety. We need proper guidance on how people are using it.”
Used wisely, she acknowledged, AI can be a powerful tool for reaching otherwise isolated individuals, as shown during the UK’s pandemic shielding programme. But it must serve human judgement, not supplant it.
The One Barrier to Remove…
As the session closed, Honoré asked both speakers what single barrier they would eliminate if they could.
Skirfield did not hesitate: interoperability. Without shared data standards and open platforms, she said, proactive care cannot truly happen. Her call was ambitious: an international interoperability standard ensuring that a person’s data “can be seen when it needs to be seen, anywhere.”
Potter’s response was embedded throughout her earlier remarks: reducing barriers requires more collaboration, early planning, and sustained human engagement, especially during periods of disruption like the digital switchover.
Telecare in Europe : A Sector at a Tipping Point
If the SilverEco festival’s exhibition floor hinted at the future of telecare, this panel illuminated the foundations needed to reach it. Across the discussion, three themes surfaced again and again:
- Technology is not the answer — but it can help us find the answer.
- Human relationships are irreplaceable.
- The biggest breakthroughs will come from working together: across sectors, borders and disciplines.
As Europe prepares for unprecedented demographic change, telecare is no longer a niche industry. It is, as the panelists agreed, entering a “tipping point”: a moment when thoughtful design, shared infrastructure and cultural transformation could make connected care not a privilege but a norm.
Whether Europe seizes that moment will depend less on shiny sensors and more on what Skirfield called “the workforce, the leaders, and the culture we create around change.”
Published by the Editorial Staff on