The Best of RAT, CATCH and TaCT, 2016

The University of Sheffield Rehabilitation and Assistive Technology Group (RAT), Telehealth and Care Technologies (TaCT) Theme and the Centre for Assistive Technology and Connected Healthcare (CATCH) have had a busy 2016...


January

CLAHRC Director from Sheffield Invited to NIHR Parliamentary Open Day: Professor Sue Mawson was invited to represent all of the CLAHRCs in England to celebrate the NIHR's 10th Anniversary

Building on Palliative Care Services: The EnComPaSS project (Enhanced Community Palliative Care Support Services) has 

developed a short video (see below) to explain in what way the project 
aims to help build on current services to enable staff resources to be 
used more effectively and more efficiently so that patients can die at 
home, rather than hospital, if they wish.

February
In conversation with Sheffield MP Paul Blomfield: 

The University of Sheffield welcomed Sheffield Central MP Paul Blomfield on a visit to meet with leading health service researchers.

Strong CATCH / RAT / CLARHC representation at the Yorkshire and Humner Allied Health Professional Conference, 2016

Innovative Canadian palliative care approach implemented by U.K.-based hospice: EnComPaSS (Enhanced Community Palliative Support Services), which is led by Deborah Fitzsimmons from Western’s Faculty of Health Sciences, provides effective and cost efficient care for UK patients and their families in their own homes.

March

EnComPaSSing the Palliative Care Congress in Glasgow: The EnComPaSS palliative care project went live at St Luke’s Hospice, Sheffield on January 18^th. Within the first month, 120 patients received 152 technology-enabled palliative care visits from Hospice community nurses. This achievement was celebrated at the 11^th Palliative Care Congress at the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre, Glasgow.

April

University of Sheffield to host prestigious European conference on Assistive Technology in 2017

AcTo Dementia website launches: the primary focus is to recommend Accessible Touchscreen apps for people living with dementia.

May

Newborn screening – BMJ award finalists: A prevention category featured in this years BMJ awards and the CLAHRC supported Newborn Screening was short-listed.

June

Pioneering technology designed to help transform independence will be showcased in Sheffield later this year at the UK's leading assistive technology conference: The Technology for Independence (T4I) Conference will be hosted by the University of Sheffield to showcase Assistive Technology (AT) related research and service innovation across health, education, employment and daily living.

Patient and public involvement event for stroke survivors and their carers: the Centre for Assistive Technology and Connected Healthcare (CATCH) held a patient and public involvement in research event for stroke survivors and their carers in the newly opened Diamond Building at the University of Sheffield.

CATCH researchers take part in the UKspeech conference in Sheffield: 140 speech technology researchers took part in the 5th national UK speech conference on 20-21^st June 2016. This year, the conference was organised by the Speech and Hearing Group, Department of Computer Science at the University of Sheffield.

July

Mario Muñoz Organero - my time in CATCH: For the last year here in CATCH we have been highly fortunate to be joined by visiting Professor Mario Muñoz Organero from Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Spain where he is an Associate Professor in Telematics Engineering.

Professor Mark Hawley, Director of CATCH features in the current edition of the University of Sheffield’s Discover magazine: Speaking to the publication, Professor Hawley shared the centre’s aims: “Our goal is to help older people, people with disabilities and people with long-term health conditions to help themselves through the use of carefully designed and relevant technology,”

August

Consent Support Tool published!: We have published the Consent Support Tool, a practical resource designed to help health researchers seek informed consent from people with communication disorders. The tool provides a communication screening test, which researchers can use to identify potential participants’ communication needs.

AcTo Dementia World Tour: Researcher Phil Joddrell recently took the AcTo Dementia project on a world tour. Phil attended the 15th International Conference on Computers Helping People with Special Needs (ICCHP) in July to present work related to the AcTo Dementia project.

September

Dr Peter Cudd celebrates Research Institute Technology and Disability’s 25th anniversary in Germany: The Research Institute Technology and Disability (FTB), one of the founding members of the Association for theAdvancement of Assistive Technology in Europe (AAATE) celebrated its 25^th anniversary in Düsseldorf, Germany.

CATCH Director, Prof. Mark Hawley attends Technology and Healthcare Innovation Symposium in the Netherlands: CATCH Centre Director, Professor Mark Hawley travelled to the Netherlands to join a symposium to mark the career of Professor Luc de Witte who leaves his role as Director for the Centre of Expertise on Innovative Care and Technology (EIZT) this week to take up the role of Chair within CATCH.

October

Professor Luc de Witte joins CATCH with big plans for the future: On Monday 3rd October we were delighted to welcome Professor Luc de Witte to the CATCH team.

CATCH’s Simon Judge awarded Honorary Fellowship in RCSLT annual honours: Simon Judge, Senior Clinical Scientist at Barnsley Hospital and Honorary Research Fellow within CATCH was last night presented with an HonoraryFellowship in the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists’ (RCSLT) annual Honours Ceremony in London.

November

The Urban Slums Project team’s visit to India: As part of our international project “a mobile diagnostic and screening toolkit for urban slums settings”, a workshop was conducted on the 18^th-19^th of October 2016 in Bangalore, India.

December
26th Alzheimer Europe Conference: Becky Field (Researcher, PhD student and Occupational Therapist) attends and gives presentation

Advent Calendar - first half summary

We’re already halfway through the CATCH Advent Calendar and Christmas is fast approaching. In case you missed any of the days here’s a summary for your perusal.

Day 1: A mobile diagnostic and screening toolkit for urban slum settings

CATCH investigators are leading this project which aims to outline the development of a multifunctional and modular diagnostic and screening toolkit to be used in the urban slums of India and other low resource areas and be operated by non-medically trained people.

Day 2: Emego

In collaboration with GSPK Design, Barnsley Hospital’s Assistive Technology Team and Devices for Dignity, the Emego project is developing and evaluating an innovative new EMG switch which senses muscle activity and has the potential to give people with severe physical disabilities control and independence.

Day 3: Technology for Healthy Ageing and Well-being (THAW)

The project is focused on developing technology to support good mental health in later life by increasing availability and accessibility of technology for this segment of the population.

Day 4: CloudVent

CloudVent is a project in collaboration with Therapy Box which will provide a cloud-based speech recognition technology for people with Spinal Cord Injury (SCI). Those with such an injury are hugely dependent on carers, family and friends. CloudVent will provide a proof-of-concept that Sheffield’s cloud-based speech recognition technology can be adapted to work for people with SCI that use ventilators to breathe.

Day 5: STAR (Speech Therapy Articulation Rehabilitation)

In collaboration with Barnsley Hospital and Therapy Box, STAR will deliver new computer-based articulation therapy using apps for tablet computers, which patients can use to administer their own therapy. The apps developed by STAR will allow patients to receive more speech therapy without increasing demands on speech therapists’ time.

Day 6: Collaboration Aiming to Build Occupational Therapy research (CABOT)

The CABOT project confronted researchers with real world clinical issues and problems to solve. In the second phase, project teams comprising OTs from the Sheffield NHS Foundation Trust and CATCH academics were formed to get these ideas into a stage where research funding could be applied for.

Day 7: SMART Clothing

SMART Clothing is a Falls and Fracture Prevention programme in collaboration with Armourgel Medical Ltd who are developing a new line of preventative and predictive medical products. CATCH are currently working with older adults in Abbeyfield supported living schemes to co-design hip protectors and test adherence and feasibility of the garments.

Day 8: SMART Stroke

The SMART 2 Personalised Self-Management Rehabilitation System uses a set of sensors to capture motion while stroke survivors practise vital rehabilitation exercises. The system instantly relays feedback on how fast they are walking, distance travelled, steps taken and whether there is equal weight distribution in their step and balance.

Day 9: AcTo Dementia

PhD project AcTo Dementia is focused on improving the accessibility of touchscreen apps for people living with dementia. Devices featuring touchscreen interfaces are considered to be intuitive and therefore ideally suited for use by people with a dementia diagnosis. The challenge is in identifying suitable and accessible apps on these devices from the vast range available.

Day 10: Valuing Active Life in Dementia (VALID)

VALID is a project looking at the possible benefits of a programme of occupational therapy for people who have been diagnosed with dementia and those who regularly support them. Occupational therapists assist people to continue to participate in activities despite the difficulties that they might be experiencing.

Day 11: Neural Response Control

This project is exploring the detection of neural responses for use in robotic technology as a new controlling signal. Brain signals will be recorded while the user monitors the actions of a robot arm to see if the desired actions are performed.

Day 12: IN-LIFE

IN-LIFE is a Horizon 2020 European project which aims to prolong and support independent living of older adults with cognitive impairment, through interoperable, open, personalised and seamless ICT solutions. This project will address the challenge of turning existing research efforts into reality for real people across Europe.

Don’t forget to join us tomorrow: look out for the newsletter, #CATCHadvent Tweets and Facebook posts.

University of Sheffield Short Courses Run by the Rehabilitation and Assistive Technology group and CATCH

Real-world evaluation course is run for the fifth time on the 2^nd and 3^rd March 2017. The course is focused on evaluation methods designed for complex health and social interventions/programmes.

Experiential Research Approaches (ERA) is a newly developed course. It is run for the first time on the 1^st and 2^nd February 2017. The course is focused on qualitative research with emphasis on context-dependent and values-based methods. 

Click here or here to find out more.

Information and Communication Technologies: trip to China

Gail Mountain participated in a UK/China workshop in August.  Funded by the British Council (Newton Fund), our hosts were the University of Sichuan, Chengdu.  The workshop topic was concerned with use of information and communication technologies to benefit an ageing population.  Professor Ray Sheriff, Professor of Electrical Engineering obtained the finances and organised the UK delegation.

The workshop encouraged participation from early career researchers from a wide range of disciplines from both the UK and China and provided a fantastic opportunity for cross cultural collaboration; the image below shows our workshop group.   UK delegates were from a range of universities across the UK.  We hope that this venture will lead to research projects with China in the future. 

china,

 As well as engaging in a stimulating workshop programme, the visit also involved cultural exchange, with one of the highlights being a visit to see the world famous pandas at Chengdu.