Photo caption: l - r Tim Robinson, Eva Cares, Anna Lewkowicz, Skirbeck Court Home Manager, Vic Rayner OBE, NCF, Kirsty Youngs, Nottingham Community Housing Association.

Eva Cares is a new concept and product in development created by Tim Robinson, Founder and Technology Lead. Tim partnered with Anna Lewkowicz, OSJCT and Kirsty Youngs, Nottingham Community Housing Association, as part of the National Care Forum (NCF) Care Innovation Challenge 2024. Eva Cares is one of five ideas (from an initial cohort of 12), which received £500 and mentoring from the care sector and attended The Care Show 9 - 10 October as a finalist in the challenge. 

Anna, Home Manager at OSJCT care home Skirbeck Court in Boston, and Kirsty, Housing Association Manager, were matched with Tim to bring their considerable experience in health and social care. Anna and Kirsty have been able to give Tim practical and technical advice to ensure that the product can be tailored to the needs of the care sector and help Tim with assessing the product’s features and reporting.

Tim was inspired to develop the tool when his elderly father, David, moved into a London care home, earlier this year. David is blind and diabetic, and despite Tim’s best intentions, his father struggled to use common technology such as Alexa. Tim hit upon the idea of a phone call as an easy, familiar technology which his father could use regularly. By also using artificial intelligence (AI) Tim created a social conversation tool, which monitors trends of mood, self-care, and health indicators. The tool creates a report which can be reviewed by family members and health professionals.

Tim said: “Eva Cares offers an easy way for older people to share their thoughts and daily experience at home, or in a care setting. The technology feels very natural to the person having a conversation with ‘Eva’ or another persona, but its main potential lies in the way it can monitor and report on the self-disclosing information about health and self-care trends. Reports can be shared with health professionals or family members, and urgent issues identified, which can then be looked into by a carer or loved one.

“Conversations with Eva can be as long as the older person wants, and this helps health care professionals or relatives to make best use of their, often highly pressured, time.”

Anna said: “Eva Cares is very exciting. A call with ‘Eva’ felt very natural to me and provided good advice on ways to keep healthy and active. 

“The tool has great potential to complement professional and family care for older people. The dedication and care provided by teams in OSJCT is unparalleled, but we are very open and supportive of innovations such as Tim’s, which can be used in many scenarios to boost what is available.” 

Kirsty said: “I can see so much potential for Eva Cares in supporting a whole range of care and support services. With the ever-increasing staffing shortages and an aging population, AI is going to be the way forward. Eva can complement staff teams, providing time to chat which is not something every carer has time to do. Eva can assess and prompt and then send a report to the care manager or family member. The biggest surprise when you speak to Eva is she is so natural and friendly – you actually feel like you are talking to a person.”

About Eva Cares

The ‘Eva’ product is designed to support with simple needs and escalate any concerns quickly. It is designed to complement the valuable work of care employees and is not replacement for human contact.

Eva offers support that is complementary to professional or unpaid carers, and it can be a vital link, with the ‘intelligence’ to triage concerns and ensure the right care level is in place.

Potential size of the care need: around 2 million elderly or house bound people in the UK report not having had a social conversation in the last month. (Source: Loneliness in older people - NHS (www.nhs.uk)

Eva Cares offers 24/7 scalable and always on support which can alert nominated care employees or family members with concerns and updates.

For more information about Eva Cares visit - EvaCares | Care support