[31.01.2007 first posted on silicon republic]
Intel has confirmed that healthcare forms a major part of its company strategy, following the announcement of a US$30m research initiative with IDA Ireland into systems that could help older people to live in their own homes for longer.

The Technology Research for Independent Living (TRIL) centre, which was announced yesterday, will combine Intel research with researchers at three Irish universities: University College Dublin, Trinity College and National University of Ireland Galway.
The centre will operate partly from Intel’s Leixlip campus and there will be between 50 and 100 dedicated researchers attached to the project, although this is not a traditional ‘jobs’ announcement. It’s envisaged that this will be a ‘virtual centre’, allowing researchers to work from their own academic base. Some observational research will also take place in people’s homes.
Jim O’Hara, general manager of Intel Ireland, stated at the launch yesterday that health research was strategically important to the company and has the backing of its senior executives. “It’s not a small pet project that hangs off the end of other strategies,” he said.
Initially, the TRIL centre will focus on three key areas: social connection, falls prevention and cognitive function. With the world’s population ageing rapidly – it is expected to double to 1.2 billion people by 2050 – these are seen as pressing concerns, especially as healthcare for the elderly is often very costly. “If you prevent falls you prevent and delay transfer to residential or hospital settings which are the most expensive part of expenditure on health,” said Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Micheál Martin TD.
Cross-disciplinary teams will work on each of these areas. The work will be underpinned by ethnographic research, observing older people in their homes, that will inform all of the participants about their requirement that the research needs to serve.
Another element of the project is the idea that simple technology, already available today, can be used to keep older people in their homes for longer and to prevent or offset physical and mental deterioration.
According to Professor Richard Reilly of UCD, who is also TRIL centre director, this could be something as simple as sensors in the home which would alert a relative to the fact that a tap was turned on in their parent’s or grandparent’s house – indicating that the person is active. In the US, Intel has already worked on a medication dispenser which has a chip inserted in it. Whenever the user takes their medicine, it sends a text message to a caregiver or family member, reassuring them that they are following their prescribed dosage.
“We’re asking: ‘how do we change the paradigm from waiting for people to get sick to preventing things from happening?’ Business as usual in healthcare is not going to work,” said Eric Dishman, general manager of the health research and innovation group at Intel.
Intel and IDA Ireland are providing the TRIL centre’s budget of US$30m over three years and Reilly confirmed that the centre would also be seeking further funding under the EU Seventh Framework.
It’s envisaged that the centre will lead to real breakthroughs, such as turning particular technologies into business ideas or spinning off academic work into a campus company. It also intends to publish peer-reviewed research on its website, www.trilcentre.org, and will make this available to academics in other countries working on related areas as well as to members of the public.
Dishman said he hoped the centre would be making substantial progress over the course of the next 36 months. “I think three years from now we’ll be able to say: ‘this works, this doesn’t and this is ready for prime time.’”
Minister Martin said it was one of the largest research efforts of its type in the world. “This type of collaboration between industry and academia is essential to the business ecosystem we’re building in Ireland,” he said at the launch. “It’s strategically very important because it’s marrying the corporate goal of Intel with, if you like, the corporate goal of Ireland.”
He also expressed the hope that such a flagship project would help to attract more students into these areas of science and technology research.
By Gordon Smith