About A.D.A.

Dr Lynne Barker is an Associate Professor in Cognitive Neuroscience based at the Advanced Wellbeing Research Centre and Centre for Behavioural Science and Applied Psychology at Sheffield Hallam University. She is a scientist, teacher, writer, innovator and entrepreneur. Lynne has Type 1 diabetes – the autoimmune insulin dependent kind that she developed in adulthood. Managing a new disability after a lifetime of being able bodied was a tremendous psychological and physical challenge – constant pin pricks and blood readings and injections and the awful experience of sugar highs and lows. It’s a tremendously challenging condition to manage. Lynne did her research and got a Continuous Glucose Monitor (CGM) – it is inserted into the arm and sends blood glucose updates every 5 minutes to a smart phone.

This led to her thinking about how something similar, wearable, smart, interactive might help people manage other conditions, for example different types of dementia. She went along to an event where she met Alex the founder of wellbeing technology company Ombeond. They both had similar ideas and a passion to create an aesthetically pleasing life enhancing product that enhances the autonomy and quality of life of people with dementia – and A.D.A. was born. A.D.A. was named by people with dementia who meet at a local Sheffield memory group organised by AGEUK. Lynne and Alex and team were winners of the Longitude Prize in Dementia Discovery phase to develop A.D.A.