All Party Parliamentary Group for Assistive Technology launched at Speaker’s House

Last month saw the exciting launch of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Assistive Technology (#AT_APPG) held at Speaker's House in the Palace of Westminster.

CATCH Senior Researcher Dr Peter Cudd attended the event on 6th March, sponsored by Microsoft.

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,”

In order to achieve this goal, Professor Hawley takes us through how CATCH works with partners to develop these technologies. “What we specialise in is working with people who are eventually going to use these technologies so they can shape and influence the design of it. That way you get a product which is far more useable by them and is tailored to their needs as opposed to something that the technologist thinks is a great idea.”

Giving the reader a glimpse of the centre’s valuable work, Mark talks about the innovative research team that’s helping people to live independently and be able to self-manage their conditions through user friendly technology.

One current project developing a new assistive technology in the form of an app is explored in the article: “One such development is helping people with neurological disorders who have lost the ability to speak clearly. We are working on a computer program that uses speech recognition technology tailored to an individual, it understands what is being said when they try to speak and interprets this before speaking out a clearer version.” CATCH is currently working to get this technology commercialised. Find out more about the VIVOCA project on our website.

The Centre for Assistive Technology and Connected Healthcare (CATCH) brings healthcare scientists, engineers, psychologists, computer scientists, architects, and social scientists together in a creative hub that is changing lives for the better.

For more information about CATCH or information related to this article, please contact Laura Murray.

To discover other issues of the Discover Magazine please visit this website: Research at Sheffield Website

Mexican scientists roll out toilet-based glucose monitoring device

Scientists at Mexico's Technological Institute of Chihuahua are rolling out a glucose-monitoring device, Glucosalarm, that attaches to the toilet to give results. As researchers explore innovative tools for diabetes monitoring, scientists in Mexico are developing a smartphone-based device that can measure glucose in the blood by analyzing urine in the toilet.

Two scientists at the Technological Institute of Chihuahua are rolling out a tool, Glucosalarm, which runs through a smartphone and records daily values of glucose by attaching to the toilet bowl. Patients activate the device's sensor through Bluetooth on a smartphone. After urinating, a few drops are deposited on a collector and mixed with enzymes that react with the glucose, producing a color compound. The sensor then measures the intensity of the color and calculates glucose concentrations, sending results back to a phone in less than a minute, the device's creator, Carlos Bernal, said in a statement.

Glucosalarm could offer an advantage over current screening methods, many of which rely on needles to collect glucose readings. The device eschews the need for more invasive technology and also sends alerts to family, physicians, and in some cases, an emergency number if the result is too high, allowing for more comprehensive monitoring.

For further information click here.

EnComPaSS at Hospice UK National conference

Dr Deborah Fitzsimmons

The TaCT EnComPaSS project made a strong impact at the Hospice UK national conference in Liverpool this week.

Dr Sam Kyeremateng (Medical Director) and Judith Park (Deputy CEO) from St Luke’s Hospice, Sheffield were invited by Hospice UK to present this work at the opening session of their national conference at the Convention Centre, Liverpool. A poster describing how the clinical staff will use the technology to deliver care, and how this is being evaluated by TaCT researchers was also presented by Dr Deborah Fitzsimmons.

Dr Sam Kyeremateng (Medical Director)
and Judith Park (Deputy CEO),
St Luke’s Hospice, Sheffield

TaCT researchers are working with St Luke’s Hospice, Sheffield on the implementation of a highly innovative approach to delivering palliative care in the community. Currently, hospice-employed Band 5 nurses can only work in the community under on-site supervision by experienced palliative nurses. This significantly restricts the capacity of the service. During the initial implementation phase, the technology-enabled Enhanced Community Palliative Support Service (EnComPaSS) service model will be deployed and evaluated by CLAHRC-YH to determine the impact on service provision of enabling Band 5 nurses to work independently in the community. Supported by an award of £250,000 from the NHS Nursing Technology Fund, the first phase of the implementation will be completed by March 2016.

My first experience in a research environment.

Codrin Condurache

My name is Codrin Condurache and I am a second year medical student studying at the University of Sheffield. I have just finished a six week placement where I learned about the research process. My research question was “How could the incorporation of opinions from people living with Alzheimer’s disease improve information leaflets.” I chose this because dementia is a growing problem and Alzheimer’s is its most common form therefore I felt that if patients were better informed then care would be made more efficient as information wouldn’t have to be repeated as often.

During these 6 weeks, I have learned the steps that must be taken even before the research begins. There were things I had to write in a grant proposal task that I would have not considered before such as Dissemination and Impact and Ethical Considerations. In future, if I decide to follow a path down research I will have some basic knowledge of how to write grant proposals and so it will benefit me.

Despite not actually conducting any research, my main learning points were how to review literature in a more critical way than I have done in the past. As well as this I have grasped a more thorough understanding of research methodology. I have also learnt to write a questionnaire and an interview topic guide for a semi-structured interview.

I think that learning how to conduct research early on is an important skill because as a doctor it is part of the job to help with research and without doing so the medical profession will plateau and limited discoveries will be found in the future.

My experience during this research attachment has been a positive one as I have learnt many new skills.

Written by Codrin Condurache

Ad blocking software: to enable the disabled?

The guardian reports that flashing images and adverts that inadvertently pop up on our smart device screens are annoying for many people. For those  with photosensitive epilepsy, they are more than annoying! For those with learning disabilities they are distracting. iOS 9 now provides ad blocking software for these reasons. So we can enjoy our devices without being badgered by such advertisements.

Click here to read the full article.

CATCH researchers take their work to the community in Vancouver

Professor Arlene Astell discusses evaluation
concepts with the AAL-WELL team.

Myself (Tim Gomersall) and Professor Arlene Astell returned this week from a successful final meeting of the steering group for the AAL-WELL study in Vancouver, Canada. AAL-WELL is a study about the potential for the new class of so-called ‘ambient assisted living’ (AAL) systems to support older people to maintain everyday activities and meaningful social roles, and our group brings together software engineers, psychologists, occupational therapists, and social scientists to examine the issues from multiple perspectives.

In the meeting, we discussed several key issues about AAL that have yet to be addressed in the research literature. Our colleagues from the Karolinska Institutet (Sweden) spoke about the activities and social roles older people want to master in everyday life, the technologists from Toronto brought their insights on user-centred design along, and the Vancouver-based social scientists and modellers discussed the ethical issues around AAL. For our own part, Professor Astell and I led a discussion about current controversies in evaluation theories and methods for AAL. Evaluation approaches for these technologies are in their infancy, but it is crucial to have a sound basis for understanding their value if we are to gain the promised benefits of the AAL revolution – and we certainly had some lively discussions on how we each understood evaluation from our varied research perspectives!

We didn’t just talk among ourselves while we were in Vancouver. On the fourth day of the meeting, we led a knowledge café in which we presented our research ideas to a residential community of older adults living just outside the city boundaries. This was an especially valuable part of the experience – not only did we get a chance to take some of our ideas out into the wider world, we also got some interesting feedback on them from a community group. In fact, a lot of our assumptions were upended by their comments – for example, it is often said that AAL will help people to live independently, but the residents spoke about the concerns they would have about becoming dependent on technologies, and the problems this would cause if the technologies broke down or became unreliable. If ever there was a clear illustration of how important it is to include the views of older adults when considering how best to support them, this was it.

We were privileged to have met with such great colleagues and participants in this beautiful, rainy, lively city – our discussions framed by views over the Pacific and the sweeping forests and mountainsides of British Columbia. And now, we can’t wait to tell you more about our next research outputs from the study. Watch this space…