The human sense of smell is powerful, it makes an important and yet often undervalued contribution to our life and wellbeing with a unique link to emotions and memories. Smell dysfunctions or loss (even temporary) give rise to a range of problems, which can affect personal safety, enjoyment of food, personal hygiene, and can cause serious mental health disorders, including depression, anxiety and social isolation. In Europe and the USA, around 20% of the general adult population has some form of smell dysfunction and this number rises to 75% for people aged between 70–80 years. According to the World Population Prospects, 1 in 6 people in the world will be aged 65 years and over by 2050. The negative effects of smell dysfunctions have recently been experienced by a larger global population due to the impact of COVID-19. Regardless of a temporary or chronic smell dysfunction, there is an unmet need for digital smell care applications that empower individuals and healthcare professionals to properly care and treat negative effects. Recent research has shown that smell training can make a difference to people’s health, personal and emotional wellbeing, and can even improve cognitive capabilities in older age. This ERC PoC project enabled OWidgets to develop the first proof-of-concept prototype for a digital smell training application (SmellHealth). The PoC consists of a highly accurate and reliable smell-delivery system and dedicated SmellHealth App. The project team successfully evaluated and iterated the PoC design both with experts in the healthcare domain as well as potential target users aged 60 years and older. The device has been demonstrated at a range of academic, end-user, and industry events. Early end-user engagement results were published in the Digital Health Journal (DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1177/2055207622112906(opens in new window)). The direct engagement with relevant stakeholder and potential customers lead to various follow-up activities around the commercialisation routes beyond the lifespan of this project.
