Blog posts

Being a mental health researcher: ‘Seeing the impact you have makes it all worthwhile’

World Mental Health Day is an opportunity to reflect on what needs to change, but also to celebrate the people who are working to make sure positive change happens. Like Dr Lindsay Dewa, IGHI Research Fellow and mental health expert.

We caught up with Lindsay to find out about her mental health research, her path into academia, and why she’s excited about what the future might hold.

IGHI people: Meet Owen Bray, Patient Safety Project Manager, NIHR Imperial Patient Safety Translational Research Centre

IGHI is home to a team of staff who are skilled and passionate about their roles. Our talented people are the reason we’re able to tackle some of the most pressing global health challenges through cutting-edge innovation.

The hunt for a home coronavirus antibody test

“No test is better than a bad test,” said Matt Hancock.

While we may tire of hearing slogans, the principle here is important.

Coronavirus antibody tests have been hailed as a game-changer for the pandemic and a way forward as we traverse these uncertain times. Antibodies are Y-shaped immune molecules produced by the body in response to an infection. They latch onto the offender – such as coronavirus – in a bid to thwart it. Your body keeps a record of the encounter, so that if it comes across the same pathogen in the future, it can quickly make more antibodies and launch an effective attack.

IGHI people: Meet Sabina Alexandra Negut, Recruitment and Development Officer, Centre for Health Policy and Helix Centre

IGHI is home to a team of staff who are skilled and passionate about their roles. Our talented people are the reason we’re able to tackle some of the most pressing global health challenges through cutting-edge innovation.

Tackling the global burden of road traffic injuries

According to the Department for Transport, between June 2017-18, 1,770 people lost their lives due to a road traffic collision in Great Britain.

But this isn’t an issue that only affects developed countries. It’s a global problem with many low-and-middle-income countries having even higher numbers of victims. Road traffic incidents can result in the loss of loved ones for families and friends, and for those who do survive, they can mean sustaining life-changing injuries and trauma. These impacts stretch beyond the individual, affecting economies and put pressure on health systems.

Third Eye Intelligence: Buying time for people with organ failure

It’s been almost a month since Imperial PhD student Sam Tukra won IGHI’s Student Challenges Competition (SCC).

His healthcare innovation, Third Eye Intelligence, an artificial intelligence (AI) driven platform that predicts a patient’s risk of organ failure impressed the competition judges. Sam’s pitch earnt him the top prize of £10,000. But behind every start-up, there is a journey full of twists and turns.

Remote care: is digital health tech here to stay post-COVID-19?

Digital technology has been poised to transform the way that healthcare is delivered. Yet uptake and implementation has been slow; in the UK alone for example, almost a quarter of hospitals still use paper rather than electronic records.

But when COVID-19 hit, health systems were forced to rapidly adapt and use technology to deliver care remotely, where face to face appointments were no longer possible. While it’s impossible to predict when the COVID crisis will be over, will remote care become the ‘new normal’ post-pandemic? And if digital-first health technologies are here to stay, what are the implications for patients?

Newly launched IGHI research, supported by Imperial’s COVID-19 Response Fund, will explore these important questions.

Older people are no more COVID cautious

Grappling with a novel virus that reared its ugly head barely six months ago, the world is facing many uncertainties. The SARS-CoV-2 virus is proving unpredictable and the pandemic is fast-moving. But one thing we do know is that older people bear the brunt of the impacts of COVID-19. The elderly are disproportionately affected, with those over 65 accounting for some 80% of hospitalisations due to the disease. And one in five over-80s with COVID-19 will need to go to hospital, compared with one in 100 individuals under 30.

What’s it like to… work with wearable sensors?

By Dr Benny Lo, Senior Lecturer, MRes Medical Robotics and Image-Guide Intervention, Hamlyn Centre, Institute of Global Health Innovation

I started my research on wearable sensors when I was appointed as a researcher in a UK Trade & Investment (now Innovate UK) funded project, while I was working on my PhD on a completely different topic.

When I first started working on sensor research, the concept of wireless sensor networks had just been introduced. I was one of the first few researchers who started the development of body-worn sensors for healthcare and wellbeing applications. Being one of the pioneers in this emerging field, I have developed a number of novel sensing platforms, and some have been widely used in the research community.