IoT for Health & Social Care: Predictive Analytics & AI

Subscribe to IoT Leaders

Subscribe now

Subscribe now

Subscribe now

Transcript

Intro:
You’re listening to IoT Leaders, a podcast from Eseye that shares real IoT stories from the field about digital transformation, swings and misses, lessons learned, and innovation strategies that work. In each episode, you’ll hear our conversations with top digitisation leaders on how IoT is changing the world for the better. Let IoT Leaders be your guide to IoT digital transformation and innovation. Let’s get into the show.

Nick Earle:
So, welcome to the IoT Leaders podcast with me, your host, Nick Earle CEO of Eseye. And I’m delighted to be joined this week by Pete Kerly, who is the UK Managing Director of Everon. Now, we’ll get a lot more into everyone and what they do, but at the top line, this is about IoT making a difference in the community and particularly around assisted living and bringing the worlds of social care and healthcare together. And it’s a very, very good story. It really is something that we can all resonate with and I think you’ll really enjoy it. So Pete, with that intro, welcome to the IoT Leaders podcast.

Peter Kerly:
Thank you, Nick. Nice to be here. Nice to have the opportunity to speak.

Nick Earle:
Absolutely. And for our listeners, subscribers, we were going to record this about three, four weeks ago. It was all set up, and then we didn’t because you gave me a very good reason why you couldn’t record. And if you don’t mind, maybe we could start there, because you’ve just done something really wonderful, I think. And it’s something which I really admire you for. So maybe you can… Because you’ve been on a bit of a trip, haven’t you?

Peter Kerly:
Yes, indeed. Yeah, myself and two colleagues, we drove a three and a half ton van with medical aid down to the Ukraine border to support the troops locally. And also, part of the stock we took down were hospital ventilators, which was much needed after some of the hospitals being bombed and equipment being destroyed. But yeah, it was a worthwhile trip. We worked out we were in the van for 54 hours together. So we got to know each other extremely well.

Nick Earle:
You probably got to know a little bit more about people than you planned.

Peter Kerly:
Yeah, we do. Yeah. Some good, some bad, but no, all seriousness, it was a worthwhile trip. And we crowdfunded, we’ve raised over 11 and a half thousand pounds. So we financed four trips since, and we will probably be financing several trips more over the coming week. So the response has been fantastic.

Nick Earle:
Such a terrible situation, and to do something tangible like that I think you have everyone’s admiration. I know those ventilators, I’m sure, were put to use pretty quickly weren’t they?

Peter Kerly:
They were indeed. We got pictures back within 24 hours and there was a one-month-old baby on one of those ventilators, which brings it home and as you say, makes it tangible.

Nick Earle:
Well done again. And actually, I guess one of the reasons you did it is health and care in the community is at the heart of what Everon does. It’s what you’ve done for many years, 25 years, I believe. So maybe we could start there and just say a little bit about what Everon do and your background before we actually get into the IoT part.

Peter Kerly:
No, sure. My background is that I’ve been in health and social care. It’s actually over 30 years, Nick, I’ll take the 25.

Nick Earle:
I’m just out of university myself, by the way.

Peter Kerly:
And I started back in the day when social alarms, probably whatever will remember, a pendant around the neck, press a pendant, calls for help over a landline telephone line. That model has been around for 35 years. So I’ve worked with the market leaders in that, and I guess the market attracted me because it was actually making a difference to people’s lives. And so I’ve stayed in the industry because it is a lovely industry, mainly working with public sector to deploy such projects. And the big move for me came two years ago when I joined Everon, because their offering is very different. They’re based in Finland with operations in Sweden, and the Nordics general are very well respected for their models of care. And they’ve always delivered digital solutions. They’ve never sent an analog solution since they started in 2000.

Nick Earle:
They were the leaders of the whole wireless, mobile phones, Nokia, Sony Ericsson. I mean, they’ve been at the forefront for 30 years.

Peter Kerly:
Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. And it’s a very different model that’s been in the UK for a long, long time. And the model within the UK is very reactive, which means that somebody presses a button or there’s a centre that picks up when something has happened. So for instance, fall detectors, they’re picking up a fall and sending a message when it’s too late. The person’s had the fall, and they end up, eight times out of 10 within the secondary care arena, at a huge cost to the health authorities.

Peter Kerly:
Whereas, what we are trying to do is deliver a proactive service where we use artificial intelligence to detect lots of visits to the toilet for instance, whether there could be a bladder infection. We can detect somebody leaving our property at preset hours, where there’s early set-on dementia. So it can raise an alert that says they leave the property. And then the appropriate pathway can be deployed and it detects falls and slumps, and the technology will build a pattern of daily living and any deviations from that can raise an alert. So it’s really about, as I said earlier, is developing that proactive service so we can get to people before they become a burden to the health and social care arena.

Nick Earle:
It is interesting that on a previous podcast, we talked about another Nordic company, Essity, which some of our regular listeners, as they say, will know what I’m about to say, but the world’s second largest paper company, but they actually, because they make paper, they make nappies or diapers and they do for the, you talk about urinary tract infections for care homes, the idea of sensing changes in the chemical constituents of the urine for residents, and therefore giving alert before the patient actually feels uncomfortable to actually send the doctor to them so you can anticipate it.

Nick Earle:
But that’s one very narrow thing, a very important thing because somebody at that age, when they then go into house hospital, A, it can be pretty serious. B, they can often catch something in hospital or fall out of bed themselves. It has massive implications. It’s a billion a year segment, the elderly incontinence market, as it’s called.

Nick Earle:
But it’s a very narrow one. But what you are describing is actually more ambitious and that’s the idea of an AI model that tracks personalised behaviour. And it’s almost more like the security industry where you do anomaly detection behaviour, but it’s based on an individual, not a device. It’s not like the device is transmitting more data than it should do, or the device is sending something to an IP address.

Nick Earle:
By the way we see lots of that. We’ve had a device that was sending data to China recently, and it didn’t say in the spec it’s sending data to China. I’m sure that was just a coincidence. But anyway, but the security industry’s around the device. You’re doing almost like a personalised behaviour model of what is the definition of normal behaviour for individuals?

Peter Kerly:
Well, that’s a very good point because the market up until now has been almost a one size fits all. You get this technology and that’s it. But there are people living within supported housing environments that have very different needs, and sometimes their needs to get better. So their conditions will improve, and they don’t need so much technology. And sometimes they will deteriorate and very quickly. And that’s why our technology is designed to be able to deploy, what you described with the nappy, we’ve also got another relationship with a company called Accurate that has an electronic mug that detects how much liquid is actually taken by the residents.

Peter Kerly:
So you can monitor hydration, and it’s really building a package around the person rather than just saying, “This is the technology and this is the solution.” And that’s the way forward. So our proposition is more service-led than technology-led. And it’s going to be very bespoke to those individuals.

Nick Earle:
It’s sort of a people-centric IoT model. Thinking almost IoP, the Internet of People.

Peter Kerly:
Yeah.

Nick Earle:
Some of the other things that we’ve been talking about in this series are around healthcare, smart healthcare and devices, but you’re also aiming for a completely different demographic. If you take something like the Apple Watch or other offerings. They’re sort of aimed towards frankly, the healthy people wanting to monitor their fitness or their signs and they communicate to the phone and then you get all your data. I’ve got some smart scales. I’m sure I overpaid for them, but anyway, I can track my body mass index. I don’t know what it means, but I can track it. And it goes up and down. I have no idea why it goes up or down. It seems to be unrelated to my lifestyle, but it does. But I’m using it as a healthy person who is just curious. You’re actually applying these capabilities to people who actually are not IT savvy. They’re not IT literate. They don’t like technology. They didn’t grow up with technology.

Nick Earle:
The old saying that technology is only technology if you were born before it was invented. So for my kids, or at least anyone born after 2007, the iPhone isn’t technology, because it was always there. But this group of people, I’m sure they’re not all towards the end of life, but a lot of them, it’s technology and they’re not natural technology users. So maybe you can talk through how you do it. And then from there we’ll get into what the benefits are in particular of bringing these two worlds together that you’ve mentioned, social care and you’ve mentioned health.

Peter Kerly:
Yeah, indeed.

Nick Earle:
The years of bureaucracy almost. The analog digital. So first of all, let’s start with, how do you do that?

Peter Kerly:
So we deploy what we term a hub into people’s homes and that is a unit that sits on the wall and it has the capability of placing a call on a system, and the residents can speak to the manager of the supported housing or it can go through to a control center and they can talk to those individuals, and respond to their needs. And our commissioners will have locally agreed pathways around that core process.

Peter Kerly:
We then have the ability to add peripherals such as bed sensors, share sensors, fall detectors. And you know, if they trigger a call it’s put through the hub, which identifies the root cause. And again, the locally agreed pathways will take over.

Peter Kerly:
What we are now doing is supporting that technology by the use of cameras, polymorphic sensors. So, it looks exactly like a camera, but it’s monitoring a room or a house and you can monitor specific areas as doors, areas in the living room where they may fall, their bed, side tables, et cetera, et cetera. And it will detect and build a pattern of active daily living. And as I said earlier, any deviations from that will place a call onto the system.

Nick Earle:
If I can jump in. I’m glad you explained polymorphic sensors. It’s not a word I use every day. I’m going to assume that a lot of people don’t know what a polymorphic sensor is, but essentially, am I right, that you’re sort of anonymization, you’re tracking the thing without recording the thing, is that a good way to put it?

Peter Kerly:
Absolutely. In simple terms, it’s converting the image of the resident into a stick person. So it’s not filming. There’s no recording of what’s happening. It’s literally just monitoring the movement and converting that into data. And so there’s, in terms of any privacy, there’s no concerns around that privacy. And nobody can go into that camera and it’s all very, very secure.

Nick Earle:
So you also were talking about the ability to sort of have a modular approach to add things on bed sensors, fall sensors. Is the kettle switched on? I guess your earlier example, are they drinking enough? You are actually an AI company. It’s interesting what sort of company is Everon. I know the segment that you’re in, the community care broadly, but really your secret sauce, your IP, appears to be this AI software layer model.

Peter Kerly:
Yeah, no, absolutely. Absolutely.

Nick Earle:
And the ability to then add on partners, I guess, people who are maybe listening to this and say, “Well, I make a device that does this. I make a device,” and then this idea of almost like an SDK or an open interface into your platform.

Peter Kerly:
Yeah, no, absolutely. This market has been criticised for years. The fact that it’s not open, interoperability is a big problem, but now we are particularly keen to identify strategic partners that can add value to our proposition. So if there is anybody watching that think there may be an opportunity, I’ll be more than happy to have a discussion. But yeah, our platform is open.

Peter Kerly:
We have APIs and the ability to push and pull data, which is absolutely key. When you want health and social care to work together, you’ve got to position them to take a more of a holistic view on personalised care. So for that they need data, they need maybe even their housing data, definitely health, definitely social care, and maybe even medical records as well.

Peter Kerly:
So I think in quarter three this year, we are releasing new software that will enhance our hubs to take medical devices, vital sign monitoring. So, just to give you a flavor that would be blood sugar, blood oxygen, blood pressure, weight and temperature. So the key indicators to identify an exacerbation of a particular condition. But if you look at the most costly conditions to the NHS, that’s COPD, which is Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, then you’ve got chronic heart disease, you’ve got diabetes and all of those can be monitored remotely with the objective of reducing unplanned admissions into secondary care.

Nick Earle:
And the more you can, as they say in the old cowboy movies, head it off at the puss rather than deal with it after.

Peter Kerly:
Absolutely.

Nick Earle:
The benefits for the individual are huge, but the benefits for the whole ecosystem and the cost and you may mentioned the NHS. By the way, so if I can do a quick shameless advertorial. Of course, we bring people onto our podcast who are a member of the Eseye family. So, it is worth saying that we, of course, we’re very familiar with you as a customer of ours, thank you for being a customer. And we helped you with the device and the connectivity, and optimising all of this and bringing your ideas to reality, and are continuing to do as you go on this journey.

Peter Kerly:
Yeah, no, I think it’s been a very good partnership. We’ve enjoyed working with you and the key there is that we are the only cellular solution in groups living in the UK and cellular in the Nordics as it’s been an accepted medium for many a time. But it’s proven very successful for us. So that’s good.

Nick Earle:
Thank you. And there’s a government, frankly, there is a national initiative, isn’t it? We have listeners all over the world. I get some very interesting emails from, and LinkedIn requests, lots of LinkedIn requests, people who say, “Oh, I listen to your podcast, can we connect?” So it’s not just UK, but the UK’s going through this digital switchover, isn’t it? And that has actually, I think, been a trigger for the opportunity that you face, because we’re going from analog to digital anyway, which is a big thing that the government’s driving, which then sets the sort of base foundational framework. And then you are saying, well, now we’re going to use cellular and not rely for instance, the Bluetooth to the smartphone, smart device. As we said earlier, in your segment, that’s great, but these people won’t use it. So there is this national switchover isn’t there?

Peter Kerly:
There is Open Reach and BT, have a program of upgrading all of their exchanges. I think the target date is 2025. So there are 1.8 million users of assisted living solutions in the UK. And the majority of those are on analog solutions. So they will have to be upgraded for 2025. Most, not all of them, will be hardwired systems.

Nick Earle:
So the digital switch over, the numbers that you quoted are in enormous. The addressable market is absolutely huge.

Peter Kerly:
Yeah, it is.

Nick Earle:
But it seems to me, seems obvious, that it’s not like an ordinary SaaS company startup, the addressable market is tens of millions or whatever it is. The fact is that some of the barriers for most, it would seem to me, the barriers that you face on adoption are often to do with siloed bureaucracy, the way public care in the community works. I mean, you have to connect a lot of people who aren’t used to collaborating with each other, data gets sent between each other serially. It might get there, it might not. You’re actually describing a new world of sharing. Just at the highest level, social and health are completely separated.

Peter Kerly:
Yeah, they are indeed. And the government have wanted them to get closer and get close where they’re actually sharing the tea, coffee, and biscuits, and that’s never really happened. But certainly I’ve seen a change, definitely in London, definitely in Scotland, and the bigger authorities like Birmingham, where they are now working together and planning together and actually sharing some budgets. So I can see that changing enormously. It’s an interesting time.

Peter Kerly:
You talk about barriers. I think one of the barriers is that our solution is so far ahead of what has been the traditional model. It’s almost, it’s not quite concept-selling, but it’s almost an educational process to demonstrate what can be achieved by deploying digital solutions. And they’ve never had that before. So it’s really interesting, but it’s really enjoyable because you see people sitting there and then suddenly the light bulb switches on and they really get into it.

Nick Earle:
And say things like, so this means that instead of doing this, I can do that. Or I just received that.

Peter Kerly:
Yeah.

Nick Earle:
And the light bulb moment.

Peter Kerly:
Absolutely. I’ll give you a good example. We’ve just won, we were very fortunate early on to win a contract with Clarion Homes, and that’s upgrading 200 supported housing schemes. I think it’s a total of 6,000 residents over a period of 10 years, and it’s very, very good for us. They had several drivers, their biggest driver was, every month they refer to their scheme managers, live-smart managers. That live-smart manager had to go round and test, physically test, the scheme once a month. So it took a whole day. So, immediately by using our technology because it is digital, because it’s online and you can see if there’s a problem and it alerts them immediately, it saved them 200 days a month. And they could sort of divert that resource to other things.

Nick Earle:
Peter, I was going to actually refer to that because I was thinking, okay, it’s really obvious. Even at a personal level, you think, well, this is obvious, why hasn’t it happened so far? It is really obvious and a great use of IoT, but then you think, well, who do you sell it to? Who’s got the budget? Who makes the decision?

Nick Earle:
And so you’re bringing together different groups, different government departments, councils there in the community. So if that’s not difficult enough, and then you have to say, everyone’s looking at each other wondering who’s going to pay for it. So finding the ROI, the personal ROI, which this is really good for the patient is obvious, but finding the financial ROI is key. And was that the key perhaps in this Clarion contract was to say you needed to show them in this case you saved… That process saving that you talked about, they could divert the funds. I mean, finding that financial ROI in terms of they understand must be a big part of your business.

Peter Kerly:
No, it is. And yes, that was part of the decision process that Clarion took. But also I think they are managing a lot, they have huge assets across the whole of the UK. From a housing perspective, they’re one of the largest housing providers in England. So being able to manage those assets remotely was really key.

Peter Kerly:
I think for me, every local authority has a duty of care and provides technology within supported living environments. The big thing for me, talking about ROI, will be when we deploy our telehealth, as I described earlier. So being able to monitor people in their own homes, their vital signs, if you think every GP knows what I term as a frequent flyer, so that will be somebody with, let’s suggest a COPD, doesn’t manage the condition very well and will go into hospital five times a year, but maybe up to five, six, maybe more nights. So an average hospital visit, an average hospital will be 1500 pounds.

Peter Kerly:
So we know that by monitoring a COPD patient, picking up on an early indicator, which is normally temperature, seeing a slight incline in their temperature and then we will have a locally agreed pathway with the GP, but just by saying to them, “Take your rescue medicine pack.” They’ll take that, which will be antibiotics. And that is the job done. Then nine times out of 10, that will be the end of that exacerbation. So, the real return for me, and we’re talking millions will be within the health arena.

Nick Earle:
Do you think that COVID has accelerated the understanding of this? And what I mean by that is COVID clearly put a lot of pressure on hospitals to free up the beds. And so, what you are describing is the fact that people never get into the bed in the first place. You don’t need the five visits. So do you think to some extent COVID has accelerated the adoption of this technology?

Peter Kerly:
There is absolutely no doubts. It’s changed the mindset of the clinical arena, even down to GP. When did you, previous to two years ago, when did you get a remote consultation from a GP?

Nick Earle:
You couldn’t. My GP, I’ve talked to you about this on Peter’s podcast. I couldn’t, and my GP, and I live in a nice part of the world in an advanced country, UK. But my experience of going to a GP was not only did I have to go to the GP, but actually you had to get there. It opened at 8:30 in the morning, you had to get there about 10 past eight to join the queue of people. Actually go in and say, “Can I have an appointment, please?” So you’re stood outside with people who were sick, in the winter, and it’s raining, and there wasn’t cover. I mean, you drive past it, there’ll be a line of people.

Peter Kerly:
Yeah, no indeed.

Nick Earle:
“Can I have an appointment please?” “Oh, well he or she isn’t free. Sit in the waiting room and we’ll call you.” Now it’s, “Can I have an appointment?” “Yeah, the doctor will call you back, or would you like video?” And that was all obvious a few years ago.

Peter Kerly:
I mean, no indeed.

Nick Earle:
It’s technically completely possible, but COVID made it happen.

Peter Kerly:
Yeah, it did absolutely. Another example of the benefits of our technology and the partnership with yourselves was that when COVID broke, they were developing these and deploying these temporary hospitals. So NHS Digital were looking for solutions that could be installed by the nursing staff. They didn’t want engineers in those environments potentially bringing in infection. And so we ended up installing into separate hospitals across Hampshire and Dorset, because it was cellular-based, because it just plugs into the mains.

Peter Kerly:
So we had the kit delivered, we had an engineer sitting outside in a van, and the nursing staff were installing all of the units, all of the hubs in each room, and deploying the pendants to the patients. So we could see the units coming online. And then we could also see if there was any issues with coming online for some of the units, but it worked really, really well. And they were deployed for six months. They were used as temporary bed space to get people out of hospital before they went home. And what that has done is raised our profile within NHS Digital. We’re now running a couple of other projects with them on the similar basis. It’s amazing how COVID has suddenly pushed things forward for, I would say, something that would normally take another five to 10 years.

Nick Earle:
And maybe more. It’s suddenly leaped forward, we’re not going to go backwards. We have another client who’s in a similar arena. And at some point you guys would no doubt be partnering in the US. Of course it’s a different system in the US, you have the clinics and the hospitals, which are profit centers in their own right. But they are the first people to create, you talk about cellular-connected medical grade devices, so the way they do it is they’re called telehealth, also have another company called IQ Health, but they’ve created the world’s first cellular-enabled instruments, like an SPO-2, blood pressure, whatever. And so the idea is that you’re maybe in a hospital little bed for a day or two, and then you go home and they say, “Go to Walmart or Walgreens,” or whatever, CVS, and ask them for this box.

Nick Earle:
And inside the box are six medical instruments that you normally only find in a hospital and instructions. And when you switch it on and they connect cellular. Now in their case, they go to telehealth. Again, it’s a similar AI engine, which gives the data to the clinician so the clinician can make decisions on it. But in both cases, yourselves and their selves, what they need is ubiquitous, i.e., out of the box, single-button press, 100% connectivity.

Peter Kerly:
Absolutely.

Nick Earle:
All of these things have been great in theory. This is my second little advertorial, some of these have been great in theory, but if you’re getting 92% connectivity in your field, that’s 8% of people that you can’t monitor, and so the implications. If you’re selling coffee, 8% of your cups of coffee, if you’re monitoring people, there’s a much bigger implications. So in both cases is the idea of, what we offer, a hundred percent global connectivity from a single SIM is really important, because you don’t want to worry about that, do you? You just want it to work.

Peter Kerly:
Absolutely not. Yeah, no, absolutely not. It’s got to be. And it works. And that model you described in America is definitely the way we have to move in the UK.

Nick Earle:
I think it’ll take time, but you’re actually one of the disruptors, so to speak. Let’s try and bring it to a conclusion. It’s a very exciting area. Polymorphic sensors, internet of people, monitoring things, bringing health and social care together, predicting anomaly detection behaviour applied to elderly people. Very exciting.

Nick Earle:
Any over and above rolling out your current solution to more locations, homes. Is the big push for you guys now sort of this platform thing we talked about right at the beginning? The idea of there’s a whole world of ecosystem partners, a whole world of people. I mean, we see them hundreds, if not thousands, of companies that make products that we could measure everything; how often you, as I said, put the kettle on, but you talk about drinking, opening the fridge. I mean, there’s no shortage of things that can measure behaviour, and wearable devices as well. So is that your strategy, is to have a open platform to allow people to plug in on top? So, in effect, enable them to create a recurring revenue stream on top of your platform.

Peter Kerly:
Absolutely.

Nick Earle:
You win the home, you have the platform and then they can clip onto it and create a recurring… Sort of like the iPhone and the apps.

Peter Kerly:
Yeah, no, sure.

Nick Earle:
Existing living space.

Peter Kerly:
That’s a good analogy. Yeah, no, that’s exactly it. But I think the other big driver for me is because of the reactive model that we have, all the services that are delivered by, I think it’s 145 control centres around the UK, some privately owned, some run by local authorities. They have staff sitting there waiting for a call to come in because when someone’s fallen, they press the button. One of my big objectives is to change that model.

Nick Earle:
Reactive to proactive.

Peter Kerly:
Definitely. And analysing data, rather than just waiting for a phone call to say, “Pete’s fallen.” Looking at data, predictive data, and then providing interventions appropriate at a time before it becomes an issue. And the other thing you’ve got to do as a business is, I think I touched on it earlier is that people suddenly, their conditions suddenly deteriorates, so we have to be agile as a business to be able to deploy the appropriate sensor or technology or service to meet that need. And we’ve got to be able to say to our people, look, your resident is now not needing that technology. We can take it back, they have it on a rental basis rather than forcing them to buy it.

Nick Earle:
Take the barriers away and move it around. Endless possibilities and a great story. Well, it’s a real use case, but at the human level, a great story is one we can all relate to. We’re all getting older and health issues and relatives, and it’s really the promise of IoT to make a change in people’s lives for the better, and communities.

Nick Earle:
And just a final point, you mentioned the UK. Of course, the demand for this outside of Western countries is also huge. We do a huge amount in Africa, as I think you know, we do fresh water and light and whatever to millions of people in Africa using IoT, and helping design solutions for, that. But the healthcare arena, you’re starting from a much further point back.

Nick Earle:
Any final thoughts on global applicability? I know you’re focusing on the UK right now, and you talk about Nordic, your parent company, Nordic. But if we’re really talking about changing the world, the ability to allow emerging countries to leapfrog, it would seem to me to be an unbelievable prize. So the big prize would be, if we could apply this to third world, emerging markets, seems to be the huge prize. And so it’s not just a Western country opportunity, is it?

Peter Kerly:
No, not at all. It’s a worldwide model, Everon group is ambitious. Obviously the UK has an immediate objective to meet the need or the upgrade for digital platform. But yes, I think group-wide will be planning to look to deploy elsewhere.

Nick Earle:
Finally, any more trips planned in the van with your buddies?

Peter Kerly:
Yeah, I think we’ll be going down in a couple of weeks for another one over a weekend. We’ve hooked up with a local charity, it’s the Canterbury and Ashford, Kent, Ukraine Appeal, run by a young Ukrainian lady who does all the logistics. We just provide the resource and the finance to get the aid down there. So it’s a good match. And it’s nice to see the results of the hard work.

Nick Earle:
For any of our listeners, if they wanted to help you financially just so you can deliver a few more ventilators or do a few more trips in the van, the boys in the van, for 54 hours or whatever it was you said, is there somewhere they could, just a website, they can go to just to contribute?

Peter Kerly:
There is a just giving page, and it’s a Ukraine appeal and I think the amazing thing is, Nick, we asked for two and a half thousand pounds initially, we just wanted to do the one trip. And we’ve raised 11 and a half. It’s fantastic. So, it’s all going to a good cause, but yes, a just giving page, I think it’s called… I didn’t realise you’re going to ask me this, so you’ve caught me on the hop. I believe it’s the “Pete, John and Clive Appeal, the Ukraine Road Trip”. So I’m sure people will find it.

Nick Earle:
Sounds like a film script, Pete, John and Clive, justgiving.com, Ukraine Appeal. I’m sure there’s enough information there for our tech-savvy audience to find it.

Peter Kerly:
They’ll find it, indeed.

Nick Earle:
And really talk about making a living in people’s lives, not through technology in this case, but actually just through basic humanitarian caring. And it’s a wonderful thing. So well done again.

Peter Kerly:
Thank you.

Nick Earle:
Peter, we’re going to leave it there. It’s been very, very interesting. I suspect you might be a repeat guest because in the future there’s so much potential for this. And as I said, I think there’s so many different partners who can say, “Well, if you’ve solved that problem, can I clip onto it and build the ecosystem on top?” Which is what this is all about.

Nick Earle:
So thank you for joining me. Thank you to our listeners. As you know, this has been the IoT Leaders podcast. If you want to do get in touch with me, I don’t have the just giving page, but you can actually find me on LinkedIn, Nick Earle, and you can send me messages and suggestions as many of you are doing. But in the meantime, thank you to my guest, Pete Kerly, who runs Everon in the UK, such a really great story about how IoT is making a difference in people’s lives and indeed what it could do going forward, not just in the UK, but globally.

Nick Earle:
So with that, thank you for listening and I look forward to talking to you.

Peter Kerly:
Thank you, Nick. It’s been a pleasure. Thank you.

Nick Earle:
Thank you.

Outro:
Thanks for tuning in to IoT Leaders. A podcast brought to you by Eseye. Our team delivers innovative global IoT cellular connectivity solutions that just work, helping our customers deploy differentiated experiences and disrupt their markets learn more at eseye.com.

Outro:
You’ve been less listening to IoT Leaders, featuring digitisation leadership on the front lines of IoT. Our vision for this podcast is to be your guide to IoT and digital disruption, helping you to plot the right route to success. We hope today’s lessons, stories, strategies, and insights have changed your vision of IoT. Let us know how we’re doing by subscribing, rating, reviewing and recommending us. Thanks for listening. Until next time.