CATCH researcher Dr Steve Ariss joins ground-breaking improvement initiative

CATCH researcher, Dr Steve Ariss has been selected to join Q – an initiative aiming to support continuous improvement in the quality of care for patients.

Help to raise awareness for dementia

On Friday 19th May, drop into the CATCH Home Lab in the Innovation Centre, Sheffield (S1 4DP) for a cup of tea and some cake to create more awareness for dementia and raise money to support those trying to find a cure and support the care of people with the condition.

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.

University of Sheffield named among best places to work in UK for second year in a row

• University of Sheffield named as one of the best not-for-profit organisations to work for in the UK for a second year in a row
• Sheffield is the only university to be included in the list
• University also awarded a Best Companies two star accreditation status for employee engagement

The University of Sheffield has been named as one of the best places to work in the UK for a second year running by The Sunday Times.

The institution has also been awarded a Best Companies two star accreditation status, which recognises outstanding levels of employee engagement at the institution.

The accolades are part of The Sunday Times 100 Best Companies, an annual ranking and survey of Britain’s top employers. Its publication each year is a highly anticipated event in the UK’s business calendar.

The University has been ranked in 25th place in the Best Not-For-Profit Organisations To Work For 2017. Sheffield is the only university to feature in the list and has climbed in this year’s ranking after being listed in 32nd place last year.

The ranking is widely acknowledged as one of the most extensive studies into employee engagement in the UK.

Sheffield’s position in the list recognises the hard work, innovation and dedication shown by staff across the University, which has helped to cement its position as a globally leading university.

Andrew Dodman, Chief Operating Officer at the University of Sheffield, said: “This ranking by The Sunday Times shows that the University of Sheffield is one of the best places to work in the UK and is an organisation where talented staff from all over the world are given a platform to succeed and become leaders in their fields.

“We have worked hard to create an environment in which staff can pursue the extraordinary in a creative and diverse workplace. The city of Sheffield has also contributed to this ranking by being such a great place to live. It’s friendly, vibrant, modern and fun, which provides the perfect setting for one of the world’s best universities with a talented workforce.”

Professor Shearer West, Provost and Deputy Vice-Chancellor at the University, added: “I am delighted that the University has been recognised in this way. We are only as strong as the people who work here. People who teach students, carry out research, and who support vital work from running our libraries and laboratories to student accommodation and IT provision.

“It is our dedicated and talented staff from around the world who make this institution a place of high educational standards and an excellent place to work.”

Sheffield’s position as one of the best companies to work for in the UK follows the University being recognised as a top employer for workplace equality by the leading LGBT charity Stonewall.

Staff at the University are also involved in world leading innovations within their chosen fields. Recent highlights include:

• Archaeologists at the institution who made an extremely rare discovery of a Black Death plague pit revealing new insights into how the pandemic affected communities across the UK during the 14th century.

• Sheffield scientists who were part of the international team which detected gravitational waves for the first time – a discovery which is opening an unprecedented new window to the universe.

• Researchers at the University made a breakthrough in the fight against antibiotic resistance by developing a new treatment to prevent bacterial skin infections. Unlike conventional antibiotics, this new therapy doesn’t directly kill bacteria, so doesn’t encourage the evolution of resistance.

The Sunday Times 100 Best Companies lists were published in The Sunday Times on 26 February 2017.

The 2nd Workshop for the Urban Slums Project team in India

Last month, Prof. Luc de Witte and Prof Mark Hawley joined project partners in Bangalore, India for a 2nd workshop as part of our international project “a mobile diagnostic and screening toolkit for urban slums settings”.

18 participants from our local partners attended the workshop, held in Bangalore Baptist Hospital, Bangalore. This included technology experts, health professionals and community health workers with experience working in urban slums.

The workshop aimed at reaching a consensus between the team and project partners on the design of the mobile toolkit.  Many exciting discussions were undertaken covering a range of topics from key consideration in the design of the toolkit, the toolkit content, to the tests and technology that will be included.

At the end of the workshop, the team agreed on the next phase of the project which will include designing and evaluating a basic prototype of the toolkit.

For more information about the project, please visit the link below:

http://www.catch.org.uk/current-project/urban-slums-settings/

Written by Sarah Abdi (Centre for Assistive Technology and Connected Healthcare) Email: s.q.abdi@sheffield.ac.uk

Sheffield Occupational Therapy Clinical Academic (SOTCA) network meeting

A meeting of the Sheffield Occupational Therapy Clinical Academic (SOTCA) network was held on 26^th January 2017. The network was started by Laura Di Bona and aims to provide peer support, form collaborations and consider service developments.

Occupational therapists based in Sheffield Health and Social Care NHS Foundation Trust, Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, Sheffield Children’s Hospital, Rotherham Housing Services, University of Sheffield, and Sheffield Hallam University attended. All were interested in or to pursue research, and ways to combine research with clinical practice. There was a great variety of clinical and research experience in the room with people at different stages of their careers. Some had done research MSc modules, some MSCs, some were studying for PhDs, and some had submitted applications to the NIHR clinical academic pathway doctoral fellowship programme. Sam Armitage (Occupational Therapist, Sheffield Children’s Hospital), Laura Di Bona (University of Sheffield & Sheffield Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust) and Professor Gail Mountain (Professor, University of Bradford) all gave informal presentations about their research journeys. It seemed that carving out a clinical academic career required resilience, commitment and flexibility, and that there wasn’t one clear, established ‘pathway’ to follow, the presenters had all created and responded to opportunities.  Everyone  agreed to meet again, perhaps with presentations  - possibly related to Occupational Therapy and assistive technology research, or the MSc in Clinical Research – to be confirmed.  

Any occupational therapists, or occupational therapy students interested in doing  research, service evaluation/development are welcome! You can come for general interest and/or use the group for support, for example project ideas, funding applications, conference or publication submissions...

The next meeting is planned for  Thursday 27^th April 5-7pm at the Assessment and Rehab Centre  (ARC) in Nether Edge although this will be confirmed nearer the time.

SOTCA has a new website at: http://www.catch.org.uk/current-project/sotca/ . If you are interested, please log on to it and register your details with our new Mailchimp account so you can be sure to hear about future work of the group. Also, please follow us on twitter 

Written by Becky Field

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