We used Lego to involve children with ADHD and their parents in our research!

Children and young people with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) can encounter a number of difficulties including finding it difficult to concentrate at school, finding it difficult to communicate with others, struggling with change and school life, finding it challenging to form and retain friendships with others…the list goes on!

There are also some really great things about having ADHD such as often having a great sense of humour, being very creative, and when managing their condition in the correct way, can go on to lead extremely successful lives. 

BMedSci Student Jae Wyld to join ScHARR for eight weeks this summer

CATCH Academic Awarded Lifetime Achievement Award

CATCH Academic, Professor Ade Adebajo has been awarded a lifetime achievement award by his specialist society, the British Society for Rheumatology.

Join us on Monday 15th May in the CATCH Home Lab

On Monday 15^th May, join us for tea and cake, any time from 12.00 – 14.00 to discover how you can use this realistic and welcoming facility in your next research project.

Seminar: The ‘Perfect Patient Pathway’: an update from the Sheffield City Region health-technology Test Bed

This week Dr Steve Ariss, evaluation lead for The Perfect Patient Pathway gave a seminar on the progress of the regional Test Bed as part of the ScHARR Seminar Series.

CATCH joins the HSR Seminar Series for March Networking Lunch

This month, the CATCH community were excited to hold our March Networking Lunch in conjunction with the HSR Seminar Series.

Matt Machin, mHealth Applications Manager in the Centre for Health Informatics at the University of Manchester was our guest speaker at the event with his talk entitled “Improving Health in Long-term Conditions with Smartphone Apps and Wearable Devices”.

More than 30 academics, researchers and industrial partners joined us within ScHARR’s home, Regent Court, to hear Matt’s 45 minute talk. During this, Matt explained to the audience about the platforms they have developed and the projects associated with these and explored the potential future healthcare applications of these technologies.

Following the event, Melanie Rimmer from ScHARR shared that “It’s good to see developers and researchers working closely to develop evidence-based, well-evaluated apps that are more likely to be beneficial for people with long term conditions.”

The next Networking Lunch will take place on Wednesday 3rd May in the ICOSS Conference Room, University of Sheffield from 12.15 - 14.00. We’re delighted to welcome Professor Annalu Waller, Chair of Human Communication Technologies from the University of Dundee.

Please contact Laura Murray if you would like to attend.

Hundreds gather at Professor Luc de Witte’s Inaugural Lecture to discover “Technology: who cares?!”

More than 200 guests joined Professor Luc de Witte last Friday in the iconic Diamond Building for his Inaugural Lecture: “Technology; who cares?!”

The event celebrated the arrival of Prof. de Witte as one of the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health’s “big-hitters” where he shared how technology can, and will, play a major role in future health and care around the world.

Prof. Dame Pamela Shaw, Vice President and Pro-Vice Chancellor Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health at the University of Sheffield introduced the lecture. Prof. Dame Shaw seamlessly linked Luc’s lecture to the Care 2050 development and the approaches that CATCH, ScHARR and the wider University may take.

Having joined CATCH in October 2016, Luc is already working to put Sheffield at the heart of innovation and reiterated his belief that Sheffield has all the assets to become a key player here in healthcare during this lecture.

Luc received a great response from the audience when he addressed what assistive technology (AT) really is. “How many of you are wearing glasses?” he quipped to realisation around the room that AT doesn’t have to be high tech. In a fascinating statistic shared from the World Health Organisation however, only 10-15% of those in need have access to AT.

Part of the Sheffield Festival of Science and Engineering, Professor de Witte’s lecture attracted members of the public, partners and colleagues from across Europe as well as University of Sheffield staff and collaborators.

It’s safe to say that Prof. de Witte’s Inaugural Lecture was very well received and the buzz that it had generated was clear at the reception that followed.

We’d like to take this opportunity to say a special thanks to the Public Engagement team at the University, notably Nicola Strafford, Public Engagement Manager as well as Kathryn Rooney, Personal Assistant to the Dean of ScHARR for their tireless efforts that contributed heavily to the success of this event.

If you would like to find out more about Professor Luc de Witte’s research or are interested in collaborating with CATCH, please contact Laura Murray.

Looking through the Tobii Pro Glasses

Last week, CATCH had a detailed training session in our Home Lab for our newly purchased Tobii Pro eye-tracking equipment from Scott Hodgins, Director of Acuity ETS Ltd., authorised resellers for Tobii the UK. The glasses were purchased with kind support from the EPSRC Capital Investment for Robots and Autonomous Systems scheme.

The Tobii Pro Glasses 2 are a wearable eye-tracking system which, as well as recording the wearer’s view of the world, can also wirelessly stream a live view to a computer. Ultra-lightweight, user-centric design promotes natural viewing behaviour and ease of use, giving researchers insight into where wearers direct their gaze when interacting with their environments.

The Glasses are suitable for all ages. A strap at the back and different bridge fittings customise the glasses to practically any size of head or shape of nose. Their design ensures they also fit on top of most conventional spectacles.

At CATCH, we research, develop, evaluate and implement new technologies to enable people to live well and age well. We are very pleased to have available two pairs of Tobii Pro Glasses 2 in our Home Lab for researchers to now use for their projects.

For many applications, the recorded video showing the wearer’s focus will be all that is required. But the Tobii Pro Lab software package offers a range of sophisticated tools to help researchers to design their experiments, record and manage their data, replay videos, and interpret and present their results. So, for instance, functions can be applied to the video to identify gaze fixations, while automatic mapping of the video data onto snapshots help to aggregate the wearers’ views on a visual field.

CATCH researchers are hoping to use the equipment to explore how humans communicate with other humans and with machines and robots.

In the photos above, Phil Joddrell, PhD student from CATCH, is interested in tracking how users view games designed for use by people living with dementia (l); and Dr Emily Collins, a Research Fellow from Sheffield Robotics, is interested in using the glasses to track how humans interact with robots (r).  

We now encourage members of the University and our collaborators to make good use of the eye-tracking equipment. They are available for use either in the Home Lab or can be booked for short-term use outside.  

For more information, or to book some time with the glasses, please contact CATCH Centre Manager, Simon Butler.

For more information about the Tobii Pro Glasses 2 please see the Tobii website here.

Technology: who cares?! events - less than three weeks away!

Technology: who cares?! Two exciting events from CATCH, taking place as part of the Sheffield Festival of Science & Engineering, are less than three weeks away.

We're excited to introduce our event collaborators - download the poster here.

Join us at 5.15pm on Friday 10th March for Professor Luc de Witte’s ScHARR Inaugural Lecture entitled “Technology, who cares?!” at the Diamond building, University of Sheffield. Booking is required - book your place here.

On Saturday 11th March from 10am - 3pm, bring all the family and visit us in the Sheffield Winter Garden to experience our "living room of the future" and meet our collaborators:

• Alzheimer's Society

• GSPK Design

• Barnsley Hospital

• Devices for Dignity

• Lab4Living

• NIHR CLAHRC Yorkshire and Humber

• Sheffcare

For more information about this event, visit the #SFOSE website or contact Laura Murray. No booking required.

Please share this news story with your networks and print the poster for display on your notice boards. Thanks!

Prof Luc de Witte delivers a lecture as part of ScHARR seminar series

Prof Luc de Witte, CATCH Professor and renowned name in the field of technology and innovative healthcare, was the guest of the last ScHARR seminar series on Tuesday 14th February.

Luc delivered a fascinating talk entitled “Health in Slums: Challenges and potential solutions” to a packed audience. This talk aimed to give more insight into the challenging living conditions of the slums’ communities and to discuss potentials solutions to reduce the burden of ill health due to these conditions. Luc also discussed the current projects running as part of the Health in Slums programme, and some of the future plans for ScHARR and CATCH.

The seminar was attended by many ScHARR staff and students from different sections and has instigated some interesting discussions about the topic.

Luc will return for a public talk on Friday 10th March 2017 for his Inaugural Lecture entitled "Technology; who cares?!" in The Diamond as part of the Sheffield Festival of Science and Engineering. Booking is required - please secure your place here.

For more information on ScHARR seminar series, please click here or contact Sarah Abdi.

My research attachment at ScHARR

Pim Taleongpong

Pim is a second year medical student who worked with Miss Lauren Powell to produce a review about the use of apps with children and young people with ADHD. This is how she found her experience:

I was placed within the School of Health and Related Research (ScHARR) for six weeks and worked on a project titled “Children and young people with ADHD – is there an app for that?”. During this time, I performed a scoping review to find out if there is evidence to suggest that apps can be beneficial in the management of paediatric ADHD. We have found that there are many apps for children and young people with ADHD most of which serve as a tool to help children with self-monitoring, time management, task scheduling and cognitive training. There are also apps that are designed for clinicians to help with decision making and treatment planning for patients with ADHD. These apps have great potential to improve ADHD management in children and young people

As a medical student, this was both an educational and eye opening experience for me as I began with very little knowledge about scoping reviews and also ADHD. Over the past six weeks I have had the chance to develop my critical appraisal skills and learnt new techniques to perform enhanced literature searches. It has been amazing to see how rapidly technology is changing medicine in the 21^st century, this has reinforced to me how important it is to be aware of new and unconventional treatments. I have thoroughly enjoyed my time at ScHARR and believe that the skills that I have learnt will positively impact on my future practice.

Written by Pim Taleongpong

20 for 20: scholarships available for postgraduate Masters students

Celebrating 20 years of the University of Sheffield's School of Health and Related Research (ScHARR).
In honour of this, ScHARR is offering 20 students due to start their studies in September 2016, a £1000 scholarship to go towards their Masters fees.

The deadline is 28th July, 2016 

Please click here for further information.

20 for 20: scholarships available for postgraduate Masters students

Celebrating 20 years of the University of Sheffield's School of Health and Related Research (ScHARR).
In honour of this, ScHARR is offering 20 students due to start their studies in September 2016, a £1000 scholarship to go towards their Masters fees.

The deadline is 28th July, 2016 

Please click here for further information.

Job Opportunity: University of Sheffield

A job opportunity has arising within the School of Health and Related Research (ScHARR), Health Services Research, for a Administrative Assistant.

Post Ref  UOS012940

​Salary £18,212 - £20,400 per annum pro-rata

17.5 hours per week

This post is fixed term until 31st December ​2017

Closing Date is 11th March 2016

The supporting documentation can be viewed and the online application accessed via this link.

Job Vacancy: Research Associate, University of Sheffield

A job opportunity has arisen within the School  of Health and Related Research (ScHARR), Health Services Research, for a Research Associate.

Post ref:  UOS012873

Grade: 7

Salary:  £29,824 - £37,768 per annum.  Potential to progress to £41,255 per annum through sustained exceptional contribution.
 
This post is fixed term with a start date of 1st April 2016 and an end date of 31st March 2018.
Closing date: 19th February 2016 

The supporting documentation can be viewed and the on-line application accessed via this link.

  
  

20 for 20: scholarships available for postgraduate Masters students

Celebrating 20 years of the University of Sheffield's School of Health and Related Research (ScHARR).
In honour of this, ScHARR is offering 20 students due to start their studies in September 2016, a £1000 scholarship to go towards their Masters fees.

The deadline is 28th July, 2016

Please click here for further information.

AAATE 2015: Assistive Technology, Presidency & Budapest

Amy Bouchier, Claire Bentley
& Phil Joddrell. Photos by Tamás Thaler

Various members of RAT and CATCH presented at the 13^th AAATE (Association for the Advancement of Assistive Technology in Europe) conference in Budapest, Hungary, in September. Our topics included guidelines for evaluating digital technologies for people with dementia, barriers and facilitators to assistive technologies, creating and engaging collaborative communities on assistive technology, and selecting research opportunities through knowledge exchange. It was really interesting to go to a conference with such a global feel – not least through the WHO GATE initiative meeting to which Prof. Mark Hawley was invited – and with such broad expertise and enthusiastic participation.

Also representing Sheffield, from the Teaching Hospitals Trust, was Laura Evans and Sally Fowler-Davis who were invited speakers, talking about the adoption of assistive technology from a clinical rehabilitation perspective.  They reflected in two presentations on their range of experiences in clinical, leadership and managerial capacities in relation to AT and gave personal examples from their national and local experience, this included the recent successful collaboration between CATCH and Occupational Therapy at Sheffield Teaching Hospital Foundation Trust.

Congratulations are due to Dr. Peter Cudd, who was named as the next President of the AAATE! Peter will take over this role from Jan 2016.

Dr Peter Cudd, Photos by Tamás Thaler

We also found time to take in some of the sights of the beautiful city of Budapest.

We are looking forward to the next AAATE conference (Sept 2017) and hope to see you there!

Written by Claire Bentley, Dr Peter Cudd, Phil Joddrell & Surinder Bangar.