Health and Wellbeing

Health is a domain of immense significance to society. Interactive technologies are used almost universally in clinical practice, preventative education and the treatment of chronic conditions. However, current healthcare systems are under-performing: they are often unreliable, difficult to use, and they do not address the needs of clinicians and patients adequately. We are missing many opportunities to innovate and improve people's experiences of health and wellbeing. The Health & Well Being theme includes research into novel health technologies; investigating the positive and negative impacts of technology on work-life balance; making interactive medical devices safer and more effective; and supporting those suffering from chronic pain to maintain a regular exercise programme.

Projects

The VoiceViz project: Collaboration with GOSH

Developing novel technologies for digital health with Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH)

We are collaborating with Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH), studying, designing and deploying novel technologies for different application areas in digital health. This year GOSH launched DRIVE (Digital Research, Informatics and Virtual Environments) - a brand new living lab where novel technology interventions can be investigated and evaluated in a safe environment to see how they might be effectively used by clinicians and patients. The Living Lab can be set up in various ways to enable clinicians, students, families and their sick children (who are about to be released from ... Read more…

EnTimeMent

ENtrainment and synchronization at multiple TIME scales in the MENTal foundations of expressive gesture

EnTimeMent (EU H2020 FET project, 2019 to 2022) aims to radically change scientific research and enabling technologies for qualitative analysis, entrainment, and prediction of human movement based on a novel neuro-cognitive approach of multiple, interactive timescales. This approach will afford the development of computational models for the automated detection, measurement, and prediction of movement qualities from behavioural signals based on multi-layer parallel processes at non-linearly stratified temporal dimensions. It will radically transform technology for human movement analysis. EnTimeMent's innovative scientifically-grounded and time-adaptive technologies operate at multiple time scales in a multi-layered approach. Read more…

GetAMoveOn: transforming health through enabling mobility

EPSRC Network+ focusing on movement as a locus for health

About The GetAMoveOn Network+ was funded by the EPSRC (EP/N027299/1) and ran from June 2016 to May 31st 2021. It brought together an interdisciplinary community of researchers and practitioners: human computer interaction, health psychology, behaviour change, sensor networks, data analytics, interactive visualisation, sports and exercise science, and citizen engagement. Team Professor Anna Cox, UCL (PI) Professor Ann Blandford, UCL (CoI) Professor Ian Craddock, Bristol (CoI) Professor m.c. Schraefel, Southampton (CoI) Professor Lucy Yardley, Southampton (CoI) Purpose Our purpose was to address the EPSRC Grand Challenge of "Transforming community health ... Read more…

WEISS Centre

Wellcome Trust / EPSRC Centre for Interventional and Surgical Sciences

Wellcome Trust / EPSRC Centre for Interventional and Surgical Sciences Read more…

i4Health CDT

The Centre for Doctoral Training in Intelligent, Integrated Imaging In Healthcare (i4health) includes a focus on how to make advanced imaging technologies usable, useful and used in practice. Read more…

FAST

FAST: systems-based engineered methodologies for providing joined-up treatment in the public health sector.

NHS England produced a publication in its 65th anniversary year (2013) entitled 'The NHS Belongs to the People: A Call to Action'. It articulates the aspiration to deliver the very highest standards of patient care against the reality that the projected total cost of running NHS England will rise from £95Bn in 2013 to £137Bn in 2020, whilst the resource will only rise to £108Bn in the same period. There are a number of factors that are leading to rising costs, and the Call to Action highlights poorly joined-up care ... Read more…

CARED

Contextual Awareness, Response and Evaluation: Diabetes in Ghana

Type 2 diabetes (T2D) affects approximately 6% of adults in Ghana resulting in poor mental and physical health, premature death, and increased costs for individuals, families and healthcare services. The CARE:Diabetes project represents a research collaboration between public health specialists, historians, social scientists, economists, political scientists, psychologists, pharmacists and engineers to understand the contextual drivers and consequences of T2D in three urban communities in Accra, Ghana. This will include research into the historical, political and physical context of T2D, giving us insights into how environmental, economic and social ... Read more…

HERMES

HERMES: Teleophthalmology-enabled and AI-ready referral pathway for retinal disease One in ten of all patients referred to hospitals in the UK are for problems involving the eyes. Many of the most urgent referrals are for problems in the retina, a light-sensitive layer at the back of the eye which allows us to see. We can now detect and diagnose these diseases earlier than ever before thanks to a technology called Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT). This light-based technology is safe, comfortable and quick. Excitingly, OCT is increasingly being installed in high ... Read more…

Cardiometabolic disease interventions

Digital interventions for cardiometabolic disease in South Asians- a case study for opportunities, risks and inequalities in digital health: The NHS needs to use digital technologies, such as apps and websites, to help deliver healthcare. This can help some people, but some people may be disadvantaged. It is possible that delivering healthcare digitally, i.e. using digital health interventions, could widen current health inequalities. One group that may be disadvantaged by digital health is South Asian people. Our three-year project focuses on digital health interventions for cardiovascular disease and diabetes. ... Read more…

STIs

Digital pathways for STIs

Within a digital NHS, sexual healthcare systems need ways of helping people get into the right care pathway for their needs. For some, ideal pathways to appropriate care are online, for others face-to-face, or a combination of both. Currently people are getting less or no choice in available care pathways. This could make things worse and cost more. Some people with the poorest sexual health already find it hard to engage with existing services; we need to make sure nobody is left behind as NHS care shifts online. We aim ... Read more…

UCL Institute Healthcare Engineering

Medical and digital technologies to improve health and wellbeing

UCL IHE is a network of researchers, projects and research centres united by a shared interest in the potential of medical and digital technologies to improve health and wellbeing. Our expertise spans health and medicine; data and computational sciences; the human sciences; and legal and policy matters. More importantly, we work in interdisciplinary consortia to address complex research problems of practical relevance to the future health of people and populations.

ECLIPSE (Exploring the Current Landscape of Intravenous Infusion Practices & Errors)

studying medication practices with infusion devices, to document the variety of existing practices and deliver recommendations for best practice in different situations.

ECLIPSE (Exploring the Current Landscape of Intravenous Infusion Practices & Errors) is a research project funded by NIHR (2014-2017) studying medication practices with infusion devices, to document the variety of existing practices and deliver recommendations for best practice in different situations. For more information visit the project website at www.eclipse.ac.uk Read more…

iSHOP

i-sense HIV Online Pathway project (within the EPSRC-funded i-sense IRC).

i-sense HIV Online Pathway project (within the EPSRC-funded i-sense IRC) to investigate user needs for support for self-testing and engaging with care, enabled by novel digital tools. Innovations in testing techniques (based on advanced nanomaterials) have now reached a point where it is realistic to offer HIV tests that can - at least in principle - be self-administered. However, these tests raise questions such as: given the complexity of the condition and its management, how can people be supported in correctly interpreting data, and how can care pathways be reconfigured ... Read more…

Contraception Choices

designing a digital intervention to support informed choices of contraception

The study aims to develop and test ways of supporting women to make informed choices of contraception including long-acting reversible contraceptive (LARC) methods. These include the intrauterine device (IUD or coil), intrauterine system (IUS or Mirena), implant and injection. We know that LARC methods are at least 20 times better at preventing pregnancy than pills or condoms. But uptake of LARC has been slow and many women are not even aware of these methods. Other women have unfounded concerns about the effects of LARC e.g. on weight gain or future ... Read more…

CHI+MED

an EPSRC-funded project to improve the safety of interactive (programmable) medical devices, such as infusion pumps. By understanding more about device design and human factors, medical errors can be reduced thus saving lives.

Our goal was to learn more about medical devices and how people design, buy and use them in the real world. From this understanding we investigated how to reduce the likelihood and consequences of human error. We worked with patients and their carers, nurses and other medical practitioners, manufacturers who create medical devices, NHS staff who purchase them and regulatory bodies who oversee patient safety. Throughout our six year programme we also worked with a wide variety of people who are linked by interactive medical devices which deliver essential medication. ... Read more…

The Emotion & Pain Project

developing an intelligent system that will enable ubiquitous monitoring and assessment of patients’ pain-related mood and movements inside (and in the longer term, outside) the clinical environment.

One of the main challenges facing healthcare providers in the UK today (and in Europe) is the rising number of people with chronic health problems. Almost 1 in 7 UK citizens experiences chronic pain, some due to chronic diseases such as osteoarthritis, but much of it mechanical low back pain (LBP) with no treatable pathology. 40% of these people experience severe pain and are very restricted by it. The capacity of our current health care system is insufficient to treat all these patients face-to-face. Pain experience is affected by physical, psychological, and social ... Read more…