Theatre Workshops for Dementia and Remote Speech Therapy Screening for Children Among Five Pilot Projects Selected by Smart D8

• Pilot projects selected to focus on speech and language, community health, disability support, dementia and medical administration.
• Latest selection of Pilot Projects follows three years of success, having reached over 6,000 citizens in and around Dublin 8.
• Smart D8 is led by The Digital Hub, St James’s Hospital, Dublin City Council and Smart Dublin. 

A remote screening platform for children in need of speech therapy, a cloud-based system to streamline the medical management of homeless people and theatre workshops for people with dementia are among the five pilot projects selected by Smart D8 to transform health and wellbeing in Dublin 8. 

Smart D8, an urban health initiative using innovation to improve and sustain community health and wellbeing in Dublin 8, has announced a record number of successful applicants from its fourth pilot call. 

The fourth call follows three years of successful projects that have enhanced community health and wellbeing in Dublin 8, with 12 projects already bringing long-lasting and positive impacts to the local area over the past three years.  

To date, projects have reached over 6,000 citizens in and around the Dublin 8 district and originally stemmed from community-led research that identified unmet population health and wellness needs.

Continuing the success and growth of the initiative, the five pilot projects selected are:

• Kids Speech Labs, which was founded by Dr Shona D’Arcy, addresses the critical issue of extensive waiting lists for children’s speech and language therapy in Dublin. Through a remote screening platform, speech and language therapists can identify areas of need in children’s speech and offer support and resources to parents while they wait for appointments.
• Dublin Simon Community, will soon be opening a 100-bed medical facility at Usher’s Island in Dublin 8. The organisation aims to combat issues in paper-based hospital administration at the facility by implementing a digital medication management system through Digicare. Coordinated by Eavanna Maloney and Naomi Nicholson, the cloud-based application seeks to streamline management, reduce admin, enhance patient care and minimise health complications for a vulnerable population who often face barriers to accessing healthcare.
• Led by Lyndsey Watson and Sonia Neary of Wellola, Portasana® aims to transform Population Health by offering a patient-facing digital care pathway solution, which empowers and educates patients, supports self-management and reduces face to face hospital appointments. The initiative fills critical gaps in mainstream healthcare practice by enhancing patient care. Wellola are collaborating with St James’s Hospital to provide digitised care pathways for chronic disease management to improve population health outcomes across Dublin city.
• Initiated by Dr Jenny Fortune, CP-Life Research Centre at RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences will develop an innovative web dashboard to serve as a directory of local services and supports for citizens with disabilities. The pilot will empower disabled individuals through crowd-sourcing and knowledge sharing, reducing barriers to access to essential services and improving overall health and wellbeing in the community.
• The Brain Health pilot, led by Dr Nicholas Johnson and collaborators at Trinity College Dublin and the Global Brain Health Institute, will create an educational and awareness program using theatre workshops with Dublin 8 residents affected by dementia. The pilot aims to raise awareness of dementia and preventative activities, destigmatize the condition and empower citizens to take control of their cognitive health. In collaboration with OT Platform and extended partners, the pilot aims to position Dublin 8 as a pioneer in dementia prevention and serve as a model for brain health initiatives city-wide.

Jack Lehane, Smart D8 Ecosystem Manager, said:

“Each year we receive excellent applications for our pilot calls and this year was no exception. With a record five successful projects, we are delighted to see the growth of Smart D8 take shape and we are confident that these pilots can address key issues affecting the Dublin 8 community and beyond. Cross-sectoral collaboration that enables healthcare innovation mixed with scalable potential is at the heart of Smart D8 and this year’s projects will greatly enable this. We look forward to working with the chosen projects and seeing positive impacts foster in the local community.” 

Each Pilot Project will receive support of up to €12,500 in resourcing to advance their existing work. 

The Smart D8 consortium is led by The Digital Hub, St James’s Hospital, Dublin City Council and Smart Dublin, together with the Guinness Enterprise Centre, HSE Digital Transformation, Tyndall National Institute, St Patrick’s Mental Health Services, Trinity College Dublin Research & Innovation, Trinity Translational Medicine Institute, National College of Art & Design, and Health Innovation Hub Ireland.

Owing to its success, previous initiatives include Menopause and the City, which launched in 2023 and aimed at enhancing the education of women and their family and friends about menopause so they can be empowered to manage their symptoms, Heart of Our City, which aimed at improving awareness and management of cardiovascular disease in the community, and MoveAhead, which pioneered motion-analytics technology built specifically for children to improve movement skills.

For more information on Smart D8, visit https://smartd8.ie

Photo: (L—R) Eavanna Maloney (Dublin Simon Community); Dr Jenny Fortune (CP-Life Research Centre at RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences); Dr Nicholas Johnson (Trinity College Dublin / Global Brain Health Institute); and Dr Shona D’Arcy (Kids Speech Labs). Smart D8 selection also includes Lyndsey Watson and Sonia Neary (Wellola). Picture by Orla Murray (Coalesce, 2024).