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On 16 June, the DHI showcased 10 Years of Meaningful Co-design at The Glasgow School of Art Highland Campus Summer Show titled ‘Inclusion’. The show also included 19 exhibits from 100 GSA Design Innovation students, centred on collaborations with Moray businesses and charities including Moray Waste Busters, SurfABLE Scotland and Forres Heritage Trust. The event was attended by business leaders, community organisations, local residents and school pupils, and by Richard Lochhead, Minister for Small Business, Trade and Innovation, and was a celebration of the contribution of communities across Moray, the Highlands and wider Scotland in shaping the future of health and wellbeing through collaborative working with researchers at the Innovation School.

"30 Years with Type 1 Diabetes: 153,300 Finger-Prick Tests, 61,320 Injections, and 180 Extra Daily Decisions - My Journey with a Lifelong Condition" - Grant Reilly Diabetes is a long-term medical condition that is growing in prevalence in Scotland, and globally, and is and will continue to have considerable impact and expense on healthcare systems in the years to come. Technological advances have also become more common in recent years with the introduction of implantable blood glucose sensors so you can view your sugar levels in real time without the need to finger-prick blood test and insulin pumps that automatically release insulin into your system without the need for continual injections. These innovations have greatly improved my ability to manage my condition within tight parameters and hopefully reduce the likelihood of long-term side effects of diabetes (.e.g., permanent eye and kidney damage and the potential need for amputation) and the cost on the NHS to look after me as I grow older. However, these technologies come at a cost – a financial one – that often means that those living with the condition struggle to get access to them or are not empowered and educated enough on how to best manage their condition. This could all change by thinking differently about how we deliver our healthcare. After 28 years of clinic appointments and the continual focus on prescribing medication to improve my health I decided to take it into my hands and managed to reduce my Hba1c to one point off being non-diabetic and all I did was use my own data that came from my medical devices (insulin pump and blood glucose machine) and off the shelf consumer devices and apps (that we all use on a daily basis) including smart scales, bluetooth blood pressure monitor, MyFitnessPal , fitness and activity tracker and sleep monitor. By overlaying and looking at all my data I learned to identify trends and activities that positively or negatively affected my diabetic control. Who would have ever thought that by reducing your bedroom temperature by 2-3 degrees centigrade that it would have a positive impact on blood glucose levels! - If you want to know more about that, just ask me! Now, people may say I am proactive and probably extremely focused/ privileged to be able to do this and that many people living with diabetes would not have that luxury. While this may be correct to some extent, the majority of people do have access to SMART devices (and use them alongside their medical devices) on a daily basis to track their fitness and nutrition. They just need to be re-educated on how some simple changes could help them. Others may say that not all people are that motivated to help themselves and that is also the case, but by allowing those who are, to self-manage their condition, you could in theory remove me/ them from clinic appointments, etc… time which could be re-allocated to provide extra support to those who need them. You could then, to really think outside the box, consider prescribing technology and/ or alternative health and wellbeing services to citizens, in their own communities, which could take pressure off the NHS. We could employ gamification and incentivise citizens to share their data to improve their health and gain access to different services.  This may be seen as way off becoming a reality, but it is a nice vision to have, where citizens are empowered to self-manage and improve their own health by using and sharing their own data! This ties in very nicely with the work that the Digital Health & Care Innovation Centre (DHI) undertakes, empowering citizens to self-manage their medical conditions by owning, sharing and utilising their own data through personal held data stores and health records. They also run a #DigiInventors Challenge that not only inspires and empowers young people to identify and develop entrepreneurial and digital skills while raising awareness of career opportunities in the digital health and care sector, but also gets them to identify the health challenges that they face and come up with ideas that could be transformed into real digital health and care solutions. It also aligns with several of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals - Food Health & Wellbeing, Quality Education and Industry Innovation and Infrastructure. Scotland is an innovative country with many people looking to collaborate and co-design solutions that will not only improve the health of Scotland’s citizens but also give us opportunities to attract inward investment and solutions that could be exported globally. Diabetes is a focus of DHI and they are helping to transform diabetes care in Scotland through innovation. You never know, the next generation of digital diabetes solutions might be developed by our young people and could truly disrupt the way health and care is delivered by the NHS and other health and care providers. Grant Reilly , is a Type 1 Diabetic with over 30 years lived experience. He is the founder of the Ganesha Gear Diabetic Bag Of Life , Head of Communications & Marketing for the Digital Health & Care Innovation Centre , and a volunteer member of the TEDxGlasgow Team.

Exploring the impact of innovative solutions on the experiences of people living with diabetes in Scotland. Transforming diabetes care through innovation is an on-going project undertaken by DHI on behalf of the Scottish Health and Industry Partnership (SHIP) and Scottish Diabetes Innovation and Technology Group to seek an understanding of the current diabetes innovation landscape and future priorities for innovation. The project builds on early research undertaken by DHI which asked professionals and people with Diabetes to identify key challenges facing Diabetes Care Services across NHS Scotland. This design led project aims to capture insights and learning to gain an understanding of current innovations being undertaken in Scotland and how these might impact on the experiences of people living with diabetes in the next five years. It will identify gaps in the Diabetes Care Landscape and the findings will go on to inform future open innovation calls by the Scottish Government in 2023, ensuring the impact is maximised and person centred. Four Design-Led Workshops Across Scotland Four design-led workshops have been held across Scotland to explore the challenges facing people living with diabetes and the professionals who support them. The workshops brought together healthcare professionals and people with lived experience to engage with the current innovation landscape, share insight from their experiences, generate ideas and determine the priorities for future innovation. Separate workshops were held for type 1 and type 2 diabetes, as our initial research (a Survey and interviews with people living with diabetes, health professionals and innovators) highlighted differing priorities and the need for a separate approach to innovation. Workshops were held in Glasgow and the Highlands to explore the different challenges faced in rural and urban settings and the potential that digital holds to overcome them. “It’s unfortunate they (type 1 and type 2 diabetes) share a name as they are starting from somewhere completely different.” – Workshop participant Diabetes Innovation Landscape Map and Prioritisation Activity A diabetes innovation landscape map was created to offer a visual interpretation of the vast array of innovations and acted as the basis for discussion. A prioritisation activity invited participants to individually reflect on the challenges they felt needed most investment. Participants co-created an innovation brief that reflected what was important to them and framed the challenges they felt that, if tackled by innovators, would have the most impact. To date, key challenges identified include the need for more robust mental health support for people living with diabetes, the role of data and digital technologies to improve experiences, the need for more support for lifestyle changes and education , and the aspiration for more flexible and person-centred care pathways . “People can’t engage in healthy behaviour if they are anxious or depressed. The foundation of diabetes care is self-care or management.” - Workshop participant Next Steps: Virtual Workshops and Industry Engagement We are delving into the detail and analysing the rich insights and ideas generated through these in-person sessions. Our next engagement will be a virtual workshop , aiming to share and build on the work to date and engage with people living with diabetes and healthcare professionals who could not attend in-person sessions. We will also hold a session which seeks to engage with representatives from industry to gather their feedback on the diabetes innovation landscape, and the challenges from their perspective.

A unique aspect of the DHI, and a factor differentiating it from similar institutions, is the role played by design and in particular, design innovation across the portfolio of activity. As a founding partner, the Glasgow School of Art has embedded design and creative practice as a differentiating capability within the organisation. How the DHI engages with citizens to understand and define requirements is a design-driven activity, allowing for the development of scalable, adoption-ready solutions using an approach that is person-centered rather than technology driven. The design team, who come from a range of backgrounds, are engaged throughout the innovation pipeline and across all DHI activity. Throughout the development process, the practice of developing artefacts, interactions, and experiences is used to elicit knowledge, incorporate individual and social experience as well as to acknowledge observable behaviours and processes. This activity is undertaken in pursuit of goals that often cannot be defined at a project's outset, a common challenge associated with complex health and well-being projects. The effectiveness of a design-driven engagement approach can be seen in projects of varying sizes across the full portfolio of activity. From projects with local government exploring how digital technology and design can support transformative care for people living with frailty through collaborations with a major pharma company, a participatory design approach is being used to collaborate with partners to define the scope and inform future services. The DHI will continue to explore and extend the role of design in defining, design-led innovation through structured collaboration with others, generating research output and solution concepts that can be adopted and integrated at various touchpoints across the health and care spectrum delivering the right digital solutions that allow services and industry to get better ready for scale - ‘Transforming great ideas into real solutions’.

Scotland’s world-leading work in Digital Health was showcased as the Moray Rural Centre of Excellence launched The launch of the Moray Rural Centre of Excellence for Digital Health and Care Innovation was marked today with an official visit from UK and Scottish Government representatives. Iain Stewart MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Scotland and Richard Lochhead MSP, attended the launch which took place at The Glasgow School of Art’s Highlands and Islands campus. On the visit, Mr Stewart and Mr Lochhead were able to see first-hand some of the world-leading research in the key area of digital health and learn more about future innovations, particularly in the area of co-design, which are being made possible through a major investment from the Moray Growth Deal. Among the projects that were showcased were SCOTCAP a video capsule endoscopy developed to replace or complement existing colonoscopy services. The £5 million project, a UK Government investment, aims to support the remobilisation of health and care services and the economic recovery of the Moray region through investment in research and innovation activities aligned with the digital health and care agenda. It is the first Moray Growth Deal project to commence. The Digital Health & Care Innovation Centre, a world-leading collaboration between The Glasgow School of Art and the University of Strathclyde, will be spearheading the development and delivery of the projects alongside key strategic partners. The Moray Rural Centre of Excellence for Digital Health and Care Innovation will house a state-of-the-art, demonstration and simulation environment (DSE) and an enabling cloud infrastructure. There will also be a spread of five co-designed “Living Lab” testbeds across the Moray region. The Living Labs, which will be open to all, will focus on thematic areas including co-managed health and wellbeing, care in place, mental health, and smart housing and communities, reflecting the priorities identified through stakeholder engagement. All research and development will be co-designed ensuring that the end-user has a vital voice in the development of the products and services. The person-centred needs at the heart of programmed activity will deliver real-world evidence that will enable the innovations to be embedded in local services, potentially scaled to other parts of Scotland, the rest of the UK and globally. The specialist innovation skills offered will help support Moray to create a dynamic and creative digital health and care cluster, enhancing recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic and securing the provision of sustainable public services whilst creating inclusive growth through the creation of new jobs, development of future skills and equitable access, whilst also contributing to the Net Zero ambitions of Scotland and the UK. The multi-million-pound investment of the Moray Growth Deal - a contribution of £32.5 million each from the UK and Scottish Governments is set to be bolstered with further funding from regional partners, contributing to Moray’s economic growth. Fuller details on the eight projects being delivered over the lifespan of the Moray Growth Deal are available online.  UK Government Minister for Scotland Iain Stewart said:  “Digital innovation in healthcare has huge potential for improving the quality, accuracy, timeliness and cost of diagnosis and treatments in our NHS. "This will have a particularly positive impact for Moray's communities, who will benefit greatly from advancements in remote medicine. "The UK Government is investing £5m in this exciting initiative that will put the region at the forefront of new technologies and practices and is part of the £2 billion we are putting into projects levelling up across Scotland." Richard Lochhead, MSP, said:  “This is an exciting development that will boost Moray’s profile as a centre of digital healthcare and innovation with some of Scotland’s leading institutions coming together to make it happen. For many years Moray has been spoken about as an ideal location for testing digital healthcare innovation given that we have all sizes of populations as well as being largely rural at the same time. I hope that local residents are amongst the first to benefit from such innovations.” Professor George Crooks OBE, Chief Executive, Digital Health & Care Innovation Centre, said: “The development of a Rural Centre of Excellence will not only become a catalyst for innovation and the development and delivery of next-generation digital health and care products and services, that will benefit the people of Moray but will ensure they will also be made available both nationally and internationally”. “Our aim is to establish Moray as a key part of the international digital health and care ecosystem, creating a supportive environment for Scottish and UK businesses to start up and or grow as well as become a focus for inward investment. DHI through its international networks has already stimulated significant interest in this initiative and will be seeking to consolidate emerging opportunities over the coming weeks and months.” Convener of Moray Council, Councillor Marc Macrae, said:  “The official launch of the MRCE is a significant milestone in delivering the Deal here in Moray. The prospect of Moray being an international leader in digital health is hugely exciting and made possible due to the investment and vote of confidence in Moray's economic potential.” Professor Irene McAra-McWilliam, Director of Research and Innovation at The Glasgow School of Art and Director of the GSA’s Forres Campus said: “As a founder member, the GSA has been helping to deliver pioneering work in digital health through the DHI for the last decade, and here at our Forres campus for over 5 years. The outcomes of this ongoing collaboration with the University of Strathclyde are powerful examples of the world-leading research being undertaken by Scotland’s universities, which were recognised in the recent UK-wide Research Excellence Framework. Through the DHI we are delighted to be part of this new, important partnership with Moray Council, supported by both the UK and Scottish Government. It will harness the potential of digital and virtual innovation and put co-design at the heart of the development process, giving people a real voice in the products and services which will support both their future health care and the local economy.” Additional information including arrangements for media bids:  The Full Moray Growth Deal document is available on the MyMoray website. Interview bids for: o Richard Lochhead MSP can be submitted to richard.lochhead.msp@parliament.scot   Iain Stewart MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Scotland, should be submitted to: katya.speight@ukgovscotland.gov.uk and Paul Malley paul.malley@ukgovscotland.gov.uk   Convener of Moray Council, Councillor Marc Macrae, should be submitted to pr@moray.gov.uk with the preferred time detailed Chairman of the Digital Health & Care Innovation Centre: John Jeans CBE and CEO of the Digital Health & Care Innovation Centre: Professor George Crooks OBE should be submitted to morayrce@dhi-scotland.com   The Digital Health & Care Innovation Centre (DHI)  The Digital Health & Care Innovation Centre is a national resource, funded by the Scottish Government and the Scottish Funding Council. A world-leading collaboration between The Glasgow School of Art and the University of Strathclyde, its focus is innovation in digital health and care helping the people of Scotland live longer, healthier lives while providing sustainable and inclusive growth for our economy. This activity includes attracting inward investment and trade missions with Scottish businesses. We collaborate, co-design and transform great ideas into real solutions that have benefits to the system and Scotland’s citizens. We have several key assets open to our partners including our DHI Exchange, that provides access to open architecture to quickly prove data integration. This can often lead to the opportunity to gain access to a variety of Real-World Environments and living lab testbeds. We work extensively with the Scottish Government, NHS, Local Government, Academic Institutions, Commercial organisations (SMEs through to Enterprise-level organisations) and our Citizens, who are at the heart of what we do and why we do it. We have a proven track record on the delivery of next-generation digital services focussed on empowering citizens to make better health and wellbeing choices, accessing services on their own terms and delivering more of their own care.

The Scottish Dementia Research Consortium (SDRC) and the Digital Health & Care Innovation Centre (DHI) hosted a two-day event that encapsulated keynote speakers and interactive workshop sessions, which focused on technologies for brain health and dementia prevention. This collaborative event was classified as the June Healthy Ageing Innovation Cluster Event. Innovative technologies that support and enhance brain health are growing as fast as the changing needs of those with dementia. Scotland is a hub of technological innovation. We, therefore, have the knowledge, experience and expertise among us to leverage this wealth of innovation to support those affected by dementia, or are at risk of developing the condition. For this reason, the SDRC and DHI have organised the Technologies for Brain Health and Dementia Prevention workshop to bring together the communities involved in such innovation. The workshop allowed communication and ideas exchange among people from different disciplines, perspectives and career stages. We discussed ideas of how supportive technologies can best meet the needs of people affected by dementia. We also encouraged discussions on theories and applications of emerging technologies with an emphasis on brain health. Speakers and their talks: Meet our speakers and learn more about what they'll be talking about. Professor Craig Ritchie Professor Craig Ritchie is a Professor of Psychiatry of Ageing at the University of Edinburgh, Director of the Edinburgh Centre for Dementia Prevention and Director of Brain Health Scotland. His primary research interest is the maintenance of brain health in mid-life to mitigate the risks of initiation and progression of degenerative brain disease that may lead to dementia. He is Chief Investigator on the PREVENT Dementia and European Prevention of Alzheimer’s Dementia Research Programmes. Talk: TouchPoints for Technology in the Brain Health Movement The Brain Health Movement envisages a population focused on taking action to achieve and maintain optimal brain health. As well as helping well-being across the life course, this should function to reduce the risk of brain diseases including neurodegenerative diseases. Technology can be used to help achieve and maintain brain health and also be used to detect subtle early changes that may help guide people to interventions to mitigate the risk of further decline secondary to disease. Potential non-traditional technological detection methods will be introduced. Professor Roma Maguire Professor Roma Maguire is a Professor of Digital Health and Care at the University of Strathclyde and Director of the Health and Care Futures initiative. She is also co-lead of the Health Technology Cluster.  Her research interests include Digital Health, Remote Patient Monitoring, Supportive Care, Predictive Modelling and Values-Based Medicine.  She has significant experience in the co-design, development, evaluation and implementation of person-centred remote patient monitoring systems using patient-reported outcome measures (PROMS) to optimise symptom management, promote adherence to medicines, support wellbeing and improve quality of life.  Her research spans several clinical specialities including cancer, dementia, cardiac and respiratory disease and palliative/end-of-life care.  She has led several multi-site supportive care and digital health studies in the UK and across Europe. Talk: Health and Care at the University of Strathclyde As a technology-focused university, the University of Strathclyde has a breadth of technical expertise that can accelerate healthcare innovations. I will provide an overview of the context we host at Strathclyde to support research on Health and Care. Professor George Crooks OBE Professor George Crooks is the Chief Executive of the Digital Health & Care Innovation Centre, Scotland’s national innovation centre for digital health and care. He leads an organisation that is tasked with delivering innovation in digital health and care that will help Scotland’s people to live longer, healthier lives and create new jobs for the economy. He was previously the Medical Director for NHS 24 and Director of the Scottish Centre for Telehealth & Telecare. George was a General Medical Practitioner for 23 years in Aberdeen latterly combining that role as Director of Primary Care for Grampian. George is on the Board of the European Connected Health Alliance. He is currently a Board member and past president of the European Health Telematics Association. He is also an adjunct Professor of Telehealth at the University of Southern Denmark. George was awarded an OBE in the Queen's New Year Honours List 2011 for services to healthcare. Talk: Back to the Future We will explore how learning from the past can secure a better future empowered by next-generation digital tools and services. Professor Lynne Baillie Professor Lynne Baillie has a PhD and MSc in Computing. She has been successfully involved in the user-centred design of home, mobile and rehabilitation technologies for over fifteen years. She has a strong track record in research management and leadership at a senior level in two countries (Austria and UK). She has been awarded grants from research councils (UKRI, FFG), international companies (Orange, Telecom Austria, Alcatel-Lucent, Siemens, Microsoft and Vodafone), charities (Heritage Lottery Fund, CHSS), and Governments (local, national and EU). In last five years she has started working in the Human Robot Interaction (HRI) area, and is the lead for HRI and health for the new National Robotarium. Talk: Exploring Socially Assistive Robots and Sensory Feedback for Cognitive Decline Prevention Cognitive training has the potential to slow cognitive decline, which, with the growing population of older adults, would help alleviate the growing strain on the healthcare system. However, access and engagement barriers can limit the potential impact of this therapy. We undertook a Participatory Design workshop that included older adults and therapists as collaborators to assist in designing an engaging cognitive training system through integrating socially assistive robots and sensory feedback. Findings indicate the system should gear towards success and give the users autonomy over components of the interaction. Dr Mario A Parra Dr Mario A Parra graduated as a Medical Doctor in 1993 and as a Clinical Neurophysiologist in 1997. Worked at the Cuban Neuroscience Centre and different University Hospitals in Cuba and Colombia. Clinical work focused on neuropsychological and neurophysiological aspects of dementia syndromes and other neurological disorders. PhD I Human Cognitive Neuroscience completed in 2005 at the University of Edinburgh. Three consecutive Postdoctoral Fellowships from 2010 until 2015 with Alzheimer’s Society. An Assistant Professor in Psychology at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh from 2015 until 2018. Currently a Senior Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow. Co-direction of the Latin American and Caribbean Consortium on Dementia. Member of the Executive Committee of the Scottish Dementia Research Consortium where he co-leads the Informatics and Technology Theme. His research focuses on the mechanisms underlying normal and abnormal cognitive ageing and cognitive and behavioural changes in neurodegenerative diseases, with emphasis on Alzheimer’s disease. Leads projects investigating functional brain changes (fMRI, EEG, ERP, Brain Connectivity) in the course of dementing illnesses and other brain disorders. Actively involved in the development of cognitive tests and novel technologies for the early detection of dementia and to promote brain health. Talk: Technologies for assessment of cognitive and functional abilities: from the lab to the real world Technologies for in-person and remote assessments of cognition during real-life tasks are growing rapidly. Many barriers still preclude their wide use. Are these technologies equally reliable when used in the lab and at home? What are the views of those expected to benefit from such technologies? I present a series of studies carried out to explore these outstanding issues. Professor Ruth Aylett Professor Ruth Aylett leads research on Computer Science at Heriot-Watt University. She has worked in AI and robotics for more than 30 years, researching digital narrative, affective computing, intelligent graphical characters and human-robot interaction. One of of her recent projects examined whether robots could help with improving social skills for adults with high-functioning autism and she has just started a project looking at digital narrative as an aid to reminiscence therapy for adults with early-stage dementia. She is the joint author of the popular science book ‘Living with Robots – What Every Anxious Human Needs to Know’ published in 2021. Talk: Therapy, diagnostic evaluation, modelling – AI and robot technologies in brain health I will briefly present three examples of applying advanced technologies: robots for stroke rehabilitation, virtual environments with embedded knowledge for diagnostic assessment of dementia, and neural nets for modelling Parkinson’s disease. Dr Mauro Dragone Dr Mauro Dragone is an Assistant Professor at the Research Institute of Sensors, Signals and Systems (ISSS). His research focuses on building smart environments combining Artificial Intelligence with Internet of Things and Robotics, especially for assisted living applications. He initiated and led the EU project RUBICON (FP7-ICT-269914), a €2.5M project which investigated cognitive architectures for self-learning Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) systems. At Heriot-Watt, Drthe Dragone set up the Robotic Assisted Living Testbed (RALT) – a `Living Lab’, part of the UK National Robotarium, designed to facilitate data collection and user-driven design and testing of innovative and practical solutions for healthy ageing and independent living. He is involved in EU projects developing new benchmarks for assistive robots, and he is one of the UK Co-investigators of the EPSRC Healthcare NetworkPlus EMERGENCE. The network is bringing together researchers, businesses, end-users, health and social care commissioners and practitioners, policy makers and regulatory bodies in order to build the knowledge and capability needed to enable healthcare robots to support people living with frailty in the community. Talk: IoT, Cloud and Robotics for Ambient Assisted Living Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) is a term used to describe technology and processes designed to create a supporting environment for elderly people and sustain physical and mental health. In this talk, I will discuss how Robotic, Autonomous and Interactive Systems (RAIS) are increasingly proposed as part of AAL design. In the first part of my talk, I will provide an overview of ongoing initiatives involving the Cognitive Assistive Robotic Environment (CARE) group at the UK National Robotarium. For us, the term ‘Cognitive Assistive Robotic Environments’ embodies a vision: a future where humans are supported by smart environments that can not only sense and react to user behaviour, but can proactively engage and cooperate with them using autonomous, robotic and interactive systems (RAIS) technology. Relevant projects include: (i) non-intrusive home activity monitoring systems using Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology, (ii) autonomous agent and tele-presence robot interfaces, which are being used to develop cognitive assessment and cognitive assistance systems; and (iii) novel design methods for non-zoomorphic social robot companions exploiting 3D knitting material and soft robotics. In the second part of my talk, I will describe our efforts to create an open and remote access living lab for AAL, targeting the fast co-creation of socially acceptable, scalable and affordable solutions to support the care of vulnerable people. I will present the experience and the result of a pilot event (the Robotic + Care Mashup), which we run in May 2021, and discuss how the project has enriched our innovation but also our learning and teaching capacity, and how it has set an example for how innovators, academia and the care sector can be pulled together to co-produce AAL concepts. Dr Sarah E MacPherson Dr Sarah E MacPherson  is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Psychology at the University of Edinburgh, UK. She completed her PhD in cognitive neuropsychology at the Department of Psychology, University of Aberdeen, UK, and postdoctoral training at the Department of Psychology, University of Aberdeen and the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, UK. She is a past Board member and Treasurer of the British Neuropsychological Society and a Board member of the International Neuropsychological Society (INS). She is currently the Chair of the Education Committee of the INS. Her research focuses on the neuropsychological assessment of frontal lobe functions including executive functions, social cognition and memory and involves the study of patients with focal frontal lobe lesions or neurodegenerative conditions, as well as healthy older adults. She has developed the updated Cognitive Estimation Test (CET, MacPherson et al., 2014), the Edinburgh Social Cognition Test (ESCoT, Baksh et al., 2018) and the Virtual Reality Everyday Assessment Lab (VR-EAL; Kourtesis et al., 2020). She has authored over 75 papers and book chapters well as co-authoring, “The Handbook of Frontal Lobe Assessment” (2015) and co-editing the book, “Cases of Amnesia:  Contributions to Understanding Memory and the Brain” (2019). Talk: The Virtual Reality Everyday Assessment Lab (VR-EAL): Adopting immersive virtual reality in the neuropsychological assessment of cognitive functions In clinical practice and research, patients are typically assessed using paper-and-pencil and computerized tests. However, these tests display several limitations and discrepancies between the observed performance in the clinic/laboratory and the actual performance of individuals in everyday life. Moreover, assessments that take place in real-world settings have several limitations (e.g., they are time-consuming to set up; they lack experimental control over the external situation). Immersive virtual reality (VR) technology has the potential to allow clinicians and researchers to gather behavioural data with a high degree of control within an ecologically valid environment; this is particularly important in the assessment of executive functioning, memory, and attention. In my talk, I will discuss some of the considerations when using VR in neuropsychological assessment before introducing the Virtual Reality Everyday Assessment Lab (VR-EAL), a neuropsychological test battery in immersive VR. Dr Kieren Egan Dr Kieren Egan is a Research Fellow at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, United Kingdom, and has a number of research interests spanning across: digital health, dementia, informal caregivers and healthy ageing. Kieren has previously worked at the World Health Organization in Geneva including working on the development of iSupport (a digital skills and training programme for carers of people with dementia). He has a long-term interest in improving the likelihood of candidate interventions reaching societal use including through the use of evidence synthesis techniques, innovative methodologies and participant co-design. Talk: Brain Health Technologies - do we really need co-design? Our global population continues to both grow and age where there is an ever-increasing need for citizens to take an active role in both understanding and managing their own health and wellness. Brain health is no exception to this, where there are a number of innovative spaces emerging including through adaptive technologies, technologies to enhance brain health and assistive technologies. Co-design and coproduction have been around for decades as a way to actively involve all stakeholders in the design process. But is this approach really necessary for emerging technologies? This talk will discuss brain health technologies through the lens of co-design, and whether there is value in this approach for all stakeholders concerned. Dr Aleksandra Vuckovic Dr Aleksandra Vuckovic  is a Reader in Rehabilitation Engineering at the University of Glasgow and a Co-director of the Scottish Centre for Innovation in Spinal Cord Injury. She holds an MEng in Electrical Engineering from the University of Belgrade, Serbia and a PhD in Healthcare Technologies from the University of Aalborg, Denmark. She was also a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Aalborg and at the University of Essex, UK. Dr Vuckovic's research interest is in neuromodulation and neurorehabilitation through Brain-Computer Interface. Talk: Brain-Computer Interfaces for neurorehabilitation of sensory and motor functions Brain-Computer Interface (BCI), is a novel form of neurotechnology, designed to compensate a loss of sensory-motor functions or to provide strengthening or modulation of preserved neuro-muscular pathways in patients with impairments of the Central Nervous System. In recent years, advances in BCI technology facilitated its translation to community centres and to patients’ homes. In this talk I am going to present two case studies, (i) BCI neurofeedback for treatment of central neuropathic pain and (ii) neurorehabilitation of upper limbs through BCI with functional electrical stimulation. I’ll discuss issues of implementing technologies in clinical and community settings. Professor Naeem Ramzan Professor Naeem Ramzan is a full Professor of Artificial Intelligence and the Director of the Affective and Human Computing for Smart Environment (AHCSE) Research Centre, University of the West of Scotland (UWS), U.K. He received the M.Sc . degree in telecommunications from the University of Brest, France, in 2004, and the Ph.D. degree in electronics engineering from the Queen Mary University of London, London, U.K., in 2008. He has authored or co-authored more than 200 research publications, including journals, book chapters, and standardisation contributions. He has authored a book and co-edited some books as well. His research interests are cross-disciplinary and industry-focused and include AI/machine learning, affective computing and multimedia processing, analysis and communication, video quality evaluation, brain-inspired multi-modal cognitive technology, big data analytics, affective computing, the IoT/smart environments, natural multi-modal human-computer interaction, and eHealth/Connected Health. Prof Ramzan’s article was awarded the Best Paper Award 2017 of the IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems for Video Technology and a number of conference papers were selected for the Best Student Paper Award. He has been a Lead Researcher in various nationally or EU sponsored multimillion funded international research projects (total funding as PI secured over £20m). He has been awarded the Scottish Knowledge Exchange Champion Award 2020 and numerous other awards, such as the Staff Appreciation and Recognition Scheme (STARS) Award for Leadership in 2019 and awarded STARS Award 2015 and 2017 for Outstanding Research and Knowledge Exchange (the University of the West of Scotland) and Awarded Contribution Reward Scheme 2011 and 2009 for outstanding research and teaching activities (the Queen Mary University of London). He is a senior member of IEEE, a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (HEA), the Co-Chair of MPEG HEVC verification (AHG5) Group and a Voting Member of the British Standard Institution (BSI). In addition, he holds key roles in the Video Quality Expert Group (VQEG), such as the Co-Chair of the Ultra High Definition (UltraHD) Group, the Co-Chair of the Visually Lossless Quality Analysis (VLQA) Group, and the Co-Chair of the Psycho-Physiological Quality Assessment (PsyPhyQA). He is also the Co-Editor-in-Chief of VQEG eLetter. He has served as a Guest Editor for a number of journals. He is also a Founding Associate Editor of the Journal of Quality and User Experience (Springer) and an Associate Editor of a number of Journals. He has chaired/co-chaired/organised more than 25 workshops, special sessions, and tracks at international conferences. Talk: Physiological signal processing for human-centric applications Iain Aitchison Iain Aitchison  is an internationally recognised leader in the fields of innovation and design management, working at the intersection of consulting, education and research. Over the last 15 years, he has consulted clients including British Gas, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, Institute of Directors, Lenovo, Mars Inc., NHS Highland, Samsung, Unilever, and Yamaha—leading design research and strategy projects in over 15 countries around the world. On a mission to help organisations realise their innovation potential, Iain has also helped build several long-term internal education programmes to enhance the user-centred design capabilities of client teams. Through his experience in academia and the boards of public bodies, Iain has extensive experience working in the public sector in Scotland, including initiating comprehensive digital transformation programmes. Day 2 - Workshop themes and questions Theme 1: Adaptive technologies, precision medicine and interventions This theme will encourage discussions around technologies that aim to adapt to the changing needs of those affected by neuro-progressive diseases. These hold the potential for person-centred assessments and interventions. Such adaptive capabilities are envisaged to equip people are risk of dementia with more resilience to the course of this long disease process. Are relevant theories from relevant fields thoroughly considered and incorporated? Theme 2: Technologies to enhance brain health The advent of VR/AR, Wearables/Sensors, Cognitive Prosthetics, Reminiscence Technologies, and other technologies is creating unprecedented opportunities to move assessments and interventions from the lab to the real world. Such technologies retain a great deal of control regarding how experiences can be directed and measured while achieving greater ecological validity. How well do they capture and incorporate relevant interdisciplinary knowledge. Theme 3: Assistive technologies There is a growing interest in technologies that can support people with disabilities to live safely and independently whether at home or in care facilities. We are witnessing a rapid growth of Ambient Assisted Living, Smart Environments, Living Labs, Tele-presence and Tele-care, Cognitive Robotics, just to mention some key examples. Are these meeting the ever-changing needs of those affected? Theme 4: Co-design and co-production for brain health technologies The Scottish Brain Health and Dementia Research Strategy aims to encourage a paradigm shift whereby researchers and members of the public come together to become co-designers, co-producers and co-beneficiaries of research. This paradigm shift is urgently needed in the field of healthcare technologies. Can limited PPIE account for limited adherence and compliance, increased biases, and poor attitudes towards healthcare technologies? Key Points & Questions for Discussion Technology can be used for the detection of early changes in the brain secondary to neurodegeneration. Are relevant theories from relevant fields thoroughly considered by and incorporated into novel technologies? Can healthcare technologies meet the ever-changing needs of those affected by neuro-progressive Brain-Computer diseases? Technology can be used to help track changes in the brain in response to interventions to improve brain health What does it take for wider Brain Computer Interface (BCI) adoption? Can Neurofeedback be an effective treatment for chronic pain in general? What other neurological conditions might benefit from BCI neuromodulation? Technology can be used to identify the presence or occurrence of risk factors for poor brain health. How well do available technologies capture and incorporate relevant interdisciplinary knowledge? Is physical interaction or motivation the bigger contribution of the use of robots in stroke therapy? Given known issues (navigation, self-invisibility, eyestrain, fatigue) with VR headsets, does their use really add value? How can we follow up on possible insights into brain disorders suggested by neural-net-based modelling? What does good/excellent co-design look like (in dementia and brain health)? How can we best learn from working with citizens, not just in one project, but also over many years together? Can limited PPIE account for limited adherence and compliance, increased biases, and poor attitudes towards healthcare technologies? What are the technological concepts involving robotic, autonomous, and interactive (RAIS) technology? What is the potential value of healthcare technologies to support and enhance brain health, and why? What are the key concerns and barriers to achieving the above potential? How do you envisage open ambient assisted living (OpenAAL) laboratory will help address healthcare challenges? How could we improve OpenAAL concepts, increase the involvement of stakeholders, and promote collaboration and innovation in this sector? How can modern technologies enhance ecological validity? VR or AR, which would best suit older adults with cognitive impairments What have we learned about the use and impact of healthcare technologies during the COVID-19 pandemic and how we should use such knowledge? What strategies should we follow to train the new generation of professionals who will support the deployment and implementation of technologies along the healthcare pathway? Post event resources Summary Workshop summary document: Presentations Professor Craig Ritchie - Touch Points for Technology in the Brain Health Movement: Professor George Crooks OBE - Back To The Future: Professor Lynne Baillie- Exploring Socially Assistive Robots and Sensory Feedback for Cognitive Decline Prevention: Dr Mario A Parra - Technologies for assessment of cognitive and functional abilities - from the lab to the real world: Professor Ruth Aylett - Therapy, diagnostic evaluation, modelling – AI and robot technologies in brain health: Dr Mauro Dragone - IoT, Cloud and Robotics for Ambient Assisted Living: Dr Sarah MacPherson - The Virtual Reality Everyday Assessment Lab - Adopting immersive virtual reality in the neuropsychological assessment of cognitive functions: Dr Kieren Egan - Brain Health Technologies- do we really need co-design: Dr Aleksandra Vuckovic - Brain-Computer Interfaces for neurorehabilitation of sensory and motor functions: Professor Naeem Ramzan - Physiological signal processing for human-centric applications: Iain Aitchison - Design, Technology, Design Thinking: Posters Agent-based Memory Prosthesisto Encourage Reminiscing: ICT- Robotic Architecture for Cognitive: Factors influencing acceptance of technology across age - Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic: RadioMe - Adaptive Radio for People with Dementia Living in Their Own Home: Virtual Reality Assessment:

The Digital Health & Care Innovation Centre, Moray Rural Centre of Excellence (RCE) for digital health and care innovation will support the remobilisation of health and care services and the economic recovery of the Moray region, by investing in research and innovation activities aligned to the digital health and care agenda. With £5M from the Moray Growth Deal , the RCE is the first of the Moray Growth Deal projects and a transformational investment in research and development. The online (soft) launch of the RCE took place on 23 March 2022 where we presented our vision, launched our Living Lab challenge areas and invited everyone to participate in our centre activities, which include, R&D, supporting business innovation and developing the skills base needed for a digitally enabled health and care sector. Janette Hughes , DHI’s Director of Planning and Performance, opened the event with an overview of the journey for the development of the centre concept and the overall aspiration of the RCE, as well as the potential for the citizens of Moray, rural residents beyond the local area and the key activities that are planned. Janette’s introduction was followed by perspectives from Madeline Smith , Director of Strategy at Glasgow School of Art who has a campus in the Moray area and are strategic DHI collaborators. Madeline focussed on the importance of design-led innovation and the skills base needed to support digital health and care transformation. DHI’s Commercial Innovation Lead, Karim Mahmoud , then gave a presentation on the centre’s key objectives and proposed activities and summarised the Living Lab theme areas, the approach to engagement and the citizen-focused research and development opportunity. Karim also issued an open invitation to reach out to the RCE for collaborative opportunities which could include twinned Living Labs, skills development, knowledge exchange/transfer, and innovation projects. Those interested in keeping up to date with the RCE are invited to join DHI’s network and select the "Moray Rural Centre of Excellence" checkbox. The virtual event gathered more than 40 attendees and raised the interest of the audience who actively asked questions and shared their thoughts and comments in the chat.

This guest blog has been produced by Chris Wright, National Advisor for Digital Mental Health/ Head of Programme Digital Mental Health, Scottish Government. In the last 18 months, the use of digital mental health services such as computerised Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) has increased massively in Scotland, ensuring access to much-needed treatment. Over the last 12 months, more than 50,000 referrals and self-referrals have been received across our digital therapy services. Digital treatments for common mental health conditions also expanded from a single treatment in early 2020 to 21 treatments in 2021. This was made possible by building on existing service infrastructure, introducing new digital platforms and delivering therapy in innovative ways using existing technical solutions such as Near Me. Alongside the increase in digital treatments came an increase in reach - where digital mental health extended into many different contexts including support for long-term health conditions, adult and child services, perinatal and across a range of conditions including depression, anxiety-related disorders, stress, panic, OCD, insomnia and phobias. All of these services were made available via referral. In addition, new self-referral pathways were introduced for selected treatments, with over 11,000 self-referrals received in the last year. Such rapid development of digital solutions brings its own risks, and we recognise the need to build on the progress we have made by investing in a sustainable service infrastructure and addressing the needs of our workforce. These aspects are crucial to embed digital innovations appropriately and encourage acceptance, otherwise, we risk losing the momentum digital has gained and regress back to attitudes and levels of use pre-COVID. In addition, an appetite for innovation needs in itself to be continual and sustained if we are to maximise opportunities for the use of new digital solutions and technologies in support of health and wellbeing. This requires the development of structures that promote innovative thinking, build cross-sector relationships, and create opportunities and partnerships while ensuring that any innovation genuinely benefits the individuals who use digital services within mental health. To further expand our horizons and capabilities in this area, DHI is partnering with the National Digital Mental Health Programme to formally launch a national Digital Mental Health Innovation Cluster in March 2022. After the launch, free membership of the cluster will be offered to all interested parties via our wider networks. Through the cluster, we aim to ignite powerful collaborations of shared interest, aligning expertise and skills from policy, health and care providers, education, academic and industry partners to drive forward activity centred on a common purpose. We will gather and share global and local insights, and identify and develop innovative products and services while building knowledge to overcome key challenges for mental health and wellbeing. The cluster will provide dedicated space and time for interaction with the local mental health ecosystems and knowledge exchange and attract a wide range of stakeholders from across different innovation communities. Connecting people together while providing direct links into government policy and national implementation programmes. The aim will be to identify and develop technologies suitable for use across all areas of Scotland and when delivered at scale have a clear evidenced impact on mental health and wellbeing. The cluster will comprise representatives from Civic organisations, Academic institutions, Citizens, Commercial industry, Healthcare professionals/ Care providers and the Third sector.

Who would have thought when we sat down with our families over the festive period in 2019 that our world would be changed so dramatically by the spread of the coronavirus? The global pandemic has brought several issues into clear focus for me, and I would like to share my reflections. In most countries, I believe the lack of investment in health protection and digital support systems has been brought into sharp focus. It does not seem to matter how coherent a government’s policy may be or its legislative activities in respect of Covid-19 management, the individual behaviour of each and every one of us has been the main determinant in the effect the virus has had within our communities. It is notable how the use of digital tools and services have increased exponentially, primarily in how we have been leading our day to day lives – how we stay in touch with family and friends; carry out day to day tasks like shopping, educating our children; and support many of us in working from home. Even health care systems around the world, never really known for their speed or enthusiasm for adopting digital technology enabled solutions, have moved at an unprecedented rate in exploring, developing and deploying technology supported solutions for safe and effective health and care services for the populations they serve. While the global challenges presented by coronavirus have taken a significant toll in both mortality and morbidity on our fellow citizens, we have recognised the importance of individual behaviours and the need for collective responsibility in how we conduct our lives for both personal and the common good. The coronavirus has demonstrated the effect that digital technologies have in influencing those behaviours, for good and bad!   It has evidenced how digital tools and services can play a significant role in the support of transformational service change across health and care. However, we cannot afford to be complacent. While we are heartened by the rapid speed of adoption of video consultations across community and hospital care in many countries, we must remember that these technologies have been around for the last twenty years or more, and the time from invention to implementation is no different from that of penicillin, which took around 16 or more years prior to its acceptance. In that case it took a world war, in our case the global pandemic! We cannot afford this lengthy delay in adoption to be our future. Technology affords us the opportunity to activate, engage and empower citizens ethically and effectively.   We can support people to make better informed health and wellbeing choices, through the provision of easily accessible information and advice. By developing solutions that allow the blending of consumer generated data with formal health and care data, we can develop a true picture of the lived experience of our population. If we took the even bolder step of supporting our citizens to take full control and become the point of data integration by giving them the tools to curate their own data, we could enable them to: make better informed health and wellbeing decisions access formal public services including health care on their own terms become active participants in the delivery of their own health care By doing this through a process of conversations and consultation, we could build both geographical and virtual communities of care to support our citizens. The Covid-19 pandemic has challenged the world to not only behave but think differently.  If its legacy is a global community better informed and enabled to use digital tools and services as part of their everyday life, in ways that can add real value to each of us as individuals, and to the communities in which we live, I believe we have a better chance of developing health and care services that are fit for the future.

Co-designing and developing the National Notification and Digital Tracing Service to support test results delivery for people in Scotland. The Challenge On 11 March 2020, the World Health Organization declared the outbreak of a global pandemic and in the same week the Digital Health & Care Innovation Centre was commissioned by the Scottish Government to support Scotland’s digital response. We collaborated with Public Health Scotland, NHS National Services Scotland, NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde, NHS Lothian, Storm ID and Sitekit to co-design and develop the National Notification and Digital Tracing Service to support test results delivery for people in Scotland who had been tested for Covid-19. The Objectives Partnership and Collaboration - Developing the National Notification and Digital Tracing Service would require several partners to work collaboratively and at pace. Collaboration was key to ensure that, within a matter of weeks, people would be able to receive test result notifications via digital channels. Secure Integrations - With pace being a priority, the National Notification and Digital Tracing Service needed to leverage existing technologies, services, and capabilities to securely provide COVID-19 test result notifications to people who had been tested. It was agreed to focus on using the NHS National Services Scotland Integration Hub, the GOV.UK Notify service and the National Contact Tracing Management System. Channel Shift - From the outset, the National Notification and Digital Tracing Service needed to be architected for scale and flexibility so that it could respond to evolving public health requirements and meet the diverse needs of the public and the range of NHS Boards. A key part of this was to expand on DHI’s co-design findings to date – focusing on how the people of Scotland could help to co-manage their own contact tracing digitally, improving the efficacy and sustainability of the contact tracing effort. The Insight The National Notification and Digital Tracing Service was developed at pace and was well received by tracing and clinical staff in 12 NHS Boards. Results were routed to dashboards developed for each NHS Board, allowing test result delivery teams to search and filter over test results. Feeds were set up by individual NHS Boards to allow them to control which people received notifications, excluding inpatients and those in care homes for example. Rules were established to automate results delivery to help speed up contact tracing efforts with a manual option to address any exceptions. More than 2 million test results from UK Lighthouse Labs and Scottish Labs have been ingested by the service, resulting in more than 2 million page views of the citizen-facing web application. Responding to demand, the service was updated to give people the ability to share details of contacts they had come in to contact with, to help accelerate vitally important contact tracing work to slow and break transmission of the virus. Interim findings show that for people who were notified of a positive test result, 45% went on to use the digital service to provide details of those they had been in contact with and of those, 75% self-reported their contacts and settings within 60 minutes of receiving their positive test result notification. The service is currently undergoing a full evaluation by the University of Glasgow. The Technology The National Notification and Digital Tracing Service leveraged the Lenus Health Platform that supports secure health data exchange and was developed using Microsoft Azure PaaS to allow for rapid delivery, agile infrastructure deployment and to support scale-out during peak demand for resources. Secure integrations with the NSS Integration Hub, GOV.UK Notify service and the National Contact Tracing Management System were vital. With these technologies and integrations in place, the National Notification and Digital Tracing Service acted as a vital bridge between NHS systems, data and an individual, providing information in a timely and secure way. This allowed each person to act rapidly on the result of a test in support of government and clinical guidelines to help control the spread of the virus during the pandemic. The Methods DHI has been developing the DHI Exchange - a new demonstration and simulation environment to support the de-risking of new digital services while leveraging common, person-centred data-sharing infrastructure. The methods involve rapid co-design, prototyping and system integration activities to help get from an idea to an integrated proof of concept quickly. These methods were put to the test for this Covid-19 response with the National Notification Service moving from idea through procurement, scoping, funding approvals, co-design, service mapping, prototyping, integration, full production development, full governance (clinical safety, information governance, data protection, equalities impact, security) and into production for every NHS Board in Scotland in 51 days end to end. This has provided DHI and its partners with the confidence that we can digitally transform a national service swiftly when the environment is conducive. DHI now looks to build on this to support health and care service remobilisation into 2021 and beyond.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) could contribute to a healthier future if we engage skilled care practitioners in its design and development. The majority of Scottish health and care workers remain passionately committed to providing the ‘right care to the right person at the right time’, however truly personalised care remains elusive within a system facing unsustainable pressure, too many people still experience ‘conveyor-belt’ type services as demand increases. Artificial Intelligence (AI) could contribute to a healthier future if we engage skilled care practitioners in its design and development. AI: Creates potential for new person-centred health and care models embedded in communities Puts more decision-making power in the hands of citizens, making them the primary source of data and insights about their health and wellbeing Supports personalised public health, drawing upon data from health and wider sources to enable people to maintain health, wellbeing and prevent illness Has the capability to generate insights across real-world data from health, social care, education, and citizen-generated data to create new opportunities for integrated health and care Lots of data and information exist within health and care but there is an ongoing need to convert this into insight, knowledge, and action. AI enables us to enrich traditional approaches by combining data gathered for research purposes with real-world data, generated from services and citizens. However, we need to ensure sourced data is fit for purpose. AI and enhanced computing capabilities could support decision-making and early intervention by recognising patterns and interpreting insights from complex information. However, for results to make sense and enable us to act, additional data sources are required, and we need to combine the different strengths of AI and humans. AI is not a panacea to resolve all our data challenges and we need to understand its’ strengths but also its weaknesses to ensure it can add real value. Ethical and regulatory guidance on use of AI in healthcare practice is still emergent, presenting us with the challenge and opportunity of leading the way in using AI for good in improving people’s health and wellbeing. Scotland already has exciting AI-enabled collaborations involving industry, academia, and care practitioners. These projects enable us to better understand the relationship between treatment and social determinants of health and include the further development of machine learning from images captured by the colon capsule pill (SCOTCAP) to aid diagnosis and support the national redesign of outpatient gastroenterology services; the UKRI funded iCAIRD project which is initially exploring clinical decision marking in breast cancer screening; the Right Decision Platform which is using information and AI to support decision making by frontline health and care staff, and enable self-management. The development of AI enabled services shines an uncomfortable spotlight on areas of bias, stereotyping and prejudices that continue to be a negative aspect of human behaviour. To avoid bias being exponentially magnified by AI, trusted, safe and ethical solutions need developed and approaches to generating and collating real-world data need to be reviewed. This requires co-design and collaborative methodologies involving care practitioners and citizens with lived experience to harness the power of AI for social good. This blog piece was first published in the Powering Good - Insights from Nesta’s AI for Good programme report on 03 December 2020

Daring to consider “The art of the possible” a Holyrood Magazine interview with Professor George Crooks OBE, Chief Executive Officer, Digital Health & Care Innovation Centre “It’s really all about helping Scotland’s people live longer, healthier lives and helping our economy to grow,” Professor George Crooks OBE says by way of summing up the work of the Digital Health & Care Innovation Centre (DHI). As Scotland’s national innovation centre for digital health and care, DHI has years of experience in working with partners to address the key societal challenges in the field of health and care – transforming great ideas into real solutions. Well known across Scotland under its previous title, the Digital Health & Care Institute, DHI (a collaboration between the Glasgow School of Art and the University of Strathclyde) has worked for six years to provide engagement, facilitation, project management as well as service, business, technical innovation to increase individual and organisational readiness to harness digital innovation for impactful results. Unveiling its new title, DHI is highlighting that track record of credibility in providing innovation in digital health and care. That expertise proved essential when DHI stepped up to help Scotland’s rapid response to the public health crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. And for Crooks, as the Chief Executive Officer, drawing on those years’ experience was crucial in mobilising DHI’s substantial contribution to the public health crisis of the present. “The challenges facing Scotland are the same as those facing most societies across the world,” Crooks tells Holyrood in a Zoom interview from his Bonnybridge home. “The issues of an ageing population, the increase in long-term conditions and also the lived experience of people in disadvantaged parts of the country, and the health inequalities associated with that. And all the while health and care delivery continues to be stretched, resource-intensive and challenging to deliver face to face. “Those challenges have not gone away during Covid-19. “In fact, in some cases, it has exaggerated them,” he adds. “So, the challenge is: what do we do about it? “That is where digital tools and services are creating real opportunities.” DHI has helped develop innovative technological and service-based solutions for the health and care sector, improving experiences for citizens health and care professionals, as well as creating opportunities to capitalise on its expertise and innovations internationally. Key to DHI’s process is their ‘methodology for success’ - a whole system, creative approach to health and care transformation At its core, Crooks says, is a simple lesson that he learned over his 23 years as a GP: listening. “What we’re all about is how can we create sustainable health and care services?” he says. “And the most important thing I think we can do is this: listen to people. “Listen to citizens, patients, their families and carers, to find out what their real challenges are. “Equally, listen to those who are delivering services and ask them - what is it that would make their lives easier? What are the challenges they are facing? What would a positive and brighter future look like?” And the responses to those key questions are often strikingly simple. “The people of Scotland aren’t asking for the moon,” Crooks says. “They just want to access health and care on their own terms, when and where they need it.” This is a guiding principle and aspiration for everything DHI does, Crooks says. “If we personalise health and care services and make it easier for people to access them on their own terms, and enable people to make better-informed health and well-being choices through the way that information is shared and presented, then we can actually improve health and care in ways that five or 10 years ago we couldn't imagine,” he says. What DHI has learned over its years of innovating, Crooks says, is that success comes when partners go on this journey together. “We have a team of 34 people of which 12 are designers,” Crooks explains. “We work with citizens, health and care professionals, managers and policymakers to get a deep understanding of the current state of service delivery. “And only when we understand what the real underlying challenges are, will we consider what a future service that would be better for everyone would look like. “Only then do we co-design and develop it, and only then do we identify technology to deal with it,” he says. “If you can understand what people’s challenges and fears are and address them within a new digitally-enabled service model, then you’ve got a great chance of success,” he adds. “That’s what we’ve done in DHI since we started six years ago: we have developed an innovation model that takes organisations and individuals on that journey.” This well-established method, and the connections forged across industries, sectors and borders, is what made DHI a natural partner in the rapid Covid-19 response, helping to develop some of the key innovations used by the NHS and our public health teams during the pandemic response. It’s widely acknowledged that until such a time as an effective vaccine is available, that the key to suppressing the virus and saving lives is the Scottish Government’s Test and Protect contact tracing system.” DHI played a leading role in developing crucial parts of that system, including the National Notification Service (NSS) - the text alert system that updates people on their Covid-19 test results - and also a simple contact tracing tool (STT) used by public health teams to assign and record information about cases during the early stages of the pandemic. Working through from the initial research stage right through to the implementation stage under a pressured and expedited schedule, Crooks says that their contribution to the Covid-19 response was proof of the level of professionalism and credibility DHI had already established before the crisis struck. “We were able to do that using our existing infrastructure, our connections with industry and our strong relationships with National Services Scotland and other health boards, to design, develop and expand on that service in a matter of weeks,” Crooks says. Over a period of forty-eight days DHI worked with the Lothian and Greater Glasgow and Clyde health boards, Public Health Scotland, NHS National Service Scotland as well as SMEs Storm ID and Sitekit to power through the development of these digital tools which have become important components of the contact tracing network. Crooks said of the project. “It’s all about partnership, that’s been the key to success. Everything that we’ve done, we haven’t done alone. We’ve done it in collaboration with health boards and with Scottish business.” Speaking of the partnership experience with DHI, Martin Egan, the Director of Digital, NHS Lothian said: “Working as part of the team to deliver the NNS and STT showed the power of a collective ‘can do’ attitude and what can be achieved when faced with a crisis.” “The DHI brought to the table a level of expertise and experience in delivering products and joint working with industry partners, and they provided a safe environment to develop the tools ... As a Department we look forward to working with the DHI on new projects in the future.” William Edwards, Director of eHealth at NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde added: “The collaboration around the tracing and notification service built upon previous successful collaborations and existing infrastructure which DHI, National Services Scotland and other partner organisations have shaped to support Healthcare delivery in Scotland.” With the recent news that over one million Scots have downloaded the Protect Scotland proximity app onto their smart phones, could it be that the pandemic will come to be seen as a watershed moment in the story of Scotland’s digital ambitions? Crooks certainly thinks that the Covid-19 pandemic could be seen as the time in which “digital health and care has come of age”. But, he says, that process is often one of playing catch-up with where the public are at. “Citizens of Scotland have been using mobile technology and digital tools and services to run their day-to-day lives for many years,” Crooks says. “So, is it a surprise that when we deploy user-centred design to develop digital tools and services that are actually useful in the pandemic that people adopt them? Should we be surprised by that? “I don’t think we should,” he says. “That’s the great opportunity we now need to seize upon in Scotland.” “DHI has a remit to ask challenging questions. To bring in policymakers, to bring in thought leaders both in Scotland and internationally, to challenge thinking, to challenge the status quo and to ask the ‘what if’ questions. “And once we’ve asked the ‘what if’ questions, then build a way towards realising that. Not in a hugely expensive way, but by running our simulations - to show the art of the possible. “Sometimes we’ll get it right and sometimes we’ll get it wrong. But if all of that moves us to a better place for you, me, our children and grandchildren, then we’ll have done something meaningful.” This blog piece was first published in the Holyrood Magazine on Monday 05 October 2020.

The Digital Health & Care Institute (DHI), one of Scotland’s seven innovation centres, today announced a brand refresh and name change, to the Digital Health & Care Innovation Centre. From Monday the 5th of October, DHI will be known as the Digital Health & Care Innovation Centre . The name change, albeit minimal, maintains Digital Health & Care at the heart of what we do, while the addition of Innovation Centre better aligns with Scotland’s six other innovation centres and how impact is delivered. Professor George Crooks OBE, Chief Executive Officer at the Digital Health & Care Innovation Centre, said, “Over our first five years of business, the DHI established itself as an instantly recognisable brand within our sector. Through our expertise and experience in collaborating, co-designing and successfully delivering projects, we have proven ourselves to be a trusted and valued part of Scotland’s digital health and care community.” As we proceed with our Phase 2 business plan it is essential that our brand positions DHI as the organisation to go to with your digital health and care challenges, especially as we expand our international reach and engage further with health and care providers, industry, academia and other organisations from across the globe.” The brand refresh includes a name change, a redesign of our website and enhancements to our logo, font and colour palette. Grant Reilly, Communications & Marketing Manager, said, “We’ve worked closely with Maguires and Screenmedia, two local award-winning creative agencies, to audit, better understand and refine the way we present ourselves and our impact to our key stakeholders. We now have much more impact to share and it is essential that we do this in a professional manner as we continue to grow our networks and our project portfolio.” The Digital Health & Care Innovation Centre (DHI) is a national resource funded by the Scottish Government and the Scottish Funding Council.  It is a collaboration between the Glasgow School of Art and the University of Strathclyde (its host institution).  Our focus is innovation in digital health and care will help the people of Scotland live longer, healthier lives, while providing sustainable/ inclusive growth for our economy.  We collaborate, co-design and transform great ideas into real solutions by providing engagement; facilitation; project management; service, business, technical and innovation that assists in increasing individuals and organisations readiness to harness digital innovation for impactful results that have real benefits to the system and the citizen. Contact information Grant Reilly Communications & Marketing Manager Digital Health & Care Innovation Centre 1st Floor, Suite B, Inovo Building, 121 George Street, Glasgow, Scotland, G1 1RD

With the level of drug related deaths (DRD) across the UK (and Scotland in particular) having reached crisis point, innovative solutions are being sought to address this challenge. This led to the establishment of Scotland’s Digital Inclusion for Drug Related Death Prevention Group - an inclusive network of non-commercial stakeholders – interested in exploring the opportunities of using Telehealthcare and digital technology to reduce drug related deaths (DRD). This collaborative network brings together a wealth of skills, experience and knowledge and comprises representatives from: Drugs Research Network Scotland (DRNS) Drug Deaths Taskforce Digital Health & Care Innovation Centre (DHI) NHS Lothian Scottish Government, Digital Health & Care Division Scottish Drugs Forum University of Stirling University of St Andrews Aberdeen City Alcohol and Drug Partnership “Collaborative innovation to address key health and social care challenges is central to our strategy in  Health Innovation SE Scotland . Drug related deaths are a clear priority and under-researched area given current trends and the links to social deprivation and inequality. This programme provides a real opportunity to improve care and support for people at risk of this tragic cause of death. The programme is an excellent fit for the collaborative working between academic, NHS, social care, and private sector partners which we believe can provide innovative solutions to improve the lives of our citizens.” [Professor Tim Walsh. Director of Research & Innovation NHS Lothian and HISES] Moira Mackenzie, Deputy CEO of the DHI advised “ innovative collaborations like this are invaluable in creating opportunities to utilise technological advances for societal good ”. Tele-healthcare “Telehealth involves the use of telecommunications and virtual technology to deliver health care outside of traditional health-care facilities.” [World Health Organisation] The last decade has seen considerable investment and interest in tele-healthcare solutions to supporting independent living for the frail, elderly and those with long term conditions such as diabetes and epilepsy. No bespoke product is yet commercially available in the UK for the detection of overdose and prevention of DRD.  However, there are several products with potential for the target population of people who use drugs. Vital signs monitoring Technology to monitor vital signs is an obvious application to consider. All opiates supress respiration.  In an overdose the rate of breathing falls such that there is insufficient oxygen in the blood to supply vital organs and the heart stops.  This effect will be accentuated if there has been ingestion of other sedatives such as benzodiazepines or alcohol. There are a few vital sign monitoring devices which are being tested and explored for DRD prevention.  The technologies involved include: Movement/accelerometers for gross motor movement Pulse oximetry which measures blood oxygen levels Heart rate monitors Electrodermal activity which measure skin temperature and sweating Respiration movement– using either sonar or radar Heart rate monitors These technologies are included in devices which can be worn as chest straps/arm monitors/wristband; finger sensors (blood oxygen) and patches that measure ECG and respiration. Challenges to using this technology Having a sufficiently quick response to emergency situations The increasing number of ageing people who use drugs and live alone There has been a rise (in Scotland) in cases in which benzodiazepines and gabapentinoids are implicated in DRD. This may alter the physiological manifestation and time between drug(s) being ingested and overdose effect Acceptability of any potential devices to the target population. Consultation with people with lived experience indicated some people may be wary about wearing any monitors in case of data sharing or police tracking Opportunities to using this technology The big technology companies who operate in the wearables and telehealth sector have not yet shown interest in this application of their technology.  Development thus far has been through small start-up and university spin-off companies but the time to secure the required approvals and licenses for new medical devices may be a barrier for bespoke DRD tele-healthcare devices in the UK. Using existing technologies provides an expedient opportunity if we are to harness the benefits of technology in our current DRD crisis. The Current Situation The types of tele-healthcare currently being tested or considered for people at risk of DRD are: Wearables –wristbands, patches, tags for DRD prevention Room monitors: smartphone apps, monitors for DRD prevention Alert Buttons for emergency response to DRD Smartphone apps for naloxone network emergency response Smartphone apps for information on overdose prevention Smart phone apps for recovery support Professor Catriona Matheson, Chair of the Drug Deaths Taskforce said,  “the application of technology in this area in Scotland is currently very limited and must be developed at pace to meet the challenge of reducing DRD.” Testing and implementing technological contributions to a reduction in DRD in a timely and effective manner will need buy-in from professionals working with people, technologists as well as policy makers. The Drugs Research Network Scotland (DRNS) are coordinating the development and testing of tele-healthcare via the Digital Inclusion for DRD prevention group. If you are keen to develop collaborations in this area, are involved or interested in testing or developing any such technology please get in touch . Blog author: Catriona Matheson, Health Research Consultant, Professor of Substance Use, University of Stirling