Blog posts

Keeping OnTrack with stroke rehabilitation

The Helix Centre, part of the Institute of Global Health Innovation, is helping stroke patients to manage their recovery and increase their independence, with a wearable tool that provides support for the rehabilitation of their arm and hand.

OnTrack Rehab is a platform that combines tracking of arm movements through a smart watch with personalised virtual coaching and dedicated clinical support. The system allows stroke patients to convert every-day activities into productive rehabilitation, and stroke therapists to monitor and help guide the patients’ progress. The development of the platform has been led by a multidisciplinary team at Helix including Gianpaolo Fusari (Project Lead) and Clare McCrudden (Engagement Lead).

Fightin’ Thru – Mental Health is worth fighting for

For many young men, opening up about mental health can feel daunting, with many feeling restricted by barriers such as stigma or fear. Those who identify as Black or minority ethnic are also more likely to experience racism, poverty and poorer educational outcomes than those who identify as White. These young people are also less likely to seek help through traditional mental health services.

To tackle this, the Institute of Global Health Innovation (IGHI) teamed up with The Mind Map, a Liverpool-based mental health organisation, and Golden Gloves Amateur Boxing Club in Toxteth, Liverpool, to form Fightin’ Thru. Fightin’ Thru is a boxing-themed campaign using innovative, creative and non-traditional mediums to raise awareness and encourage opening up about mental health in minoritised young men.

The cost of caring: How to support wellbeing in climate careers

Dr Emma Lawrance, Lead Policy Fellow for Mental Health, IGHI and Jessica Newberry Le Vay, Junior Policy Fellow in Climate Change and Health are part of Climate Cares.

In November 2022, we brought discussions about the interconnections between climate change and mental health and wellbeing to COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt – at the 27th United Nations Climate Change Conference. This was only the second time that mental health has been a focus of COP events, with our COP26 Resilience Hub event the first, and overdue. We built new relationships with others who work in the climate change and mental health space, fostering community and collaboration.

A young person’s experience of being involved in the Networked Data Lab

The Institute of Global Health Innovation partners with Imperial College Health Partners (ICHP) and Imperial College London to lead the North West London Networked Data Lab (NDL).

The Networked Data Lab (NDL), funded by The Health Foundation, is a community of data professionals looking to solve the UK’s most pressing health care challenges since COVID-19. The North West London NDL is one of five NDLs around the UK that carries out data analysis on various topics based on local priorities, which were determined through community engagement and by the Health Foundation. Health care data is often fragmented, making reliable analysis difficult, but in North West London we have access to a depersonalised linked data set, via Discover-NOW, covering a diverse population of over 2.5 million.

Lights, camera, COVID-19! Working with young people to explore mental health through film

*CONTENT WARNING – eating disorders, mental health, loneliness*

Dr Lindsay Dewa is an Advanced Research Fellow in Mental Health at the Institute of Global Health Innovation, Imperial College London

We all experienced COVID-19. Being socially isolated from those we loved was really difficult for most of us, and had a real impact on our mental health and wellbeing such as loneliness. 75% of mental health disorders start before the age 24, and young people were already going through challenging transitions: from school into employment, college and university, and maybe new relationships. But then COVID-19 struck and these transitions were made all the more difficult.

Reducing isolation – using co-creation to get people living with dementia online

Our Helix Centre works to translate research into products that improve health outcomes. In this blog Alice Gregory, Designer at the Helix Centre, describes the creation of a ‘Digital Befriending Kit’ and toolkit as part of the Digital Inclusion Innovation Programme run by the Greater London Authority and the London Office for Technology and Innovation (LOTI). This blog was originally posted online by LOTI.

Digital health In settings of extreme adversity: improving quality of care for vulnerable populations

Improving the quality of healthcare delivery is a major priority around the world. However, the barriers to improving healthcare quality can vary significantly by context, environment, and population. In settings such as conflict-affected areas or areas of sustained humanitarian crisis, challenges to improving healthcare quality can be extremely complex. In this blog, the term settings of extreme adversity is used to describe these areas, but other terms such as fragile and conflict-affected and vulnerable states, have also been used in research. This blog is written by Olivia Lounsbury, Quality and Safety Programme Co-ordinator, John Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Using pulse oximetry to monitor COVID-19 patients at home

The beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic was riddled with clinical uncertainty. Technologies which could be used to monitor patients at home such as pulse oximeters were widely adopted by patients. But how safe is it to use a pulse oximeter at home when you have COVID-19? In this blog, we share IGHI’s experiences of being part of the COVID-19 Oximetry at Home Programme. This blog was written by Meesha Patel (Communications and Events Officer, IGHI) and Dr Ahmed Alboksmaty (former Research Associate, IGHI).

Turning up: increasing cervical cancer screening uptake

How do you remember your health appointments? Do you set a reminder on your phone, or wait for a health care provider to send a text? When invited for cancer screening do you book right away, or ignore it or forget as it makes you anxious, or as you have too much else going on?

These are some of the questions Dr Gaby Judah, a psychologist working on behaviour change at the Patient Safety Translational Research Centre at the Institute of Global Health Innovation, considers in her research to encourage people to attend their NHS cancer screening appointments.