Periodic Reporting for period 2 - CATCH (Cancer: Activating Technology for Connected Health)
Berichtszeitraum: 2018-09-01 bis 2020-08-31
Technology advances such as AI enabled behaviour change interventions, gamification based on biofeedback, and neuromuscular electrical stimulation can help address some of these barriers, but more must be done before we can effectively marry the technological capability to the unmet clinical need. We need to understand specific challenges and patient journeys associated with cancer care and how we can help patients better leverage psychological tools to engage more effectively in their own care. We then need to optimize technological tools to meet patients’ rehabilitation needs, and finally, to understand how to bring resultant solutions to market where they can have maximum impact on quality of care. This can only be done by an interdisciplinary programme of research involving close collaboration between researchers in academic, clinical, and industry settings.
To meet these needs, CATCH proposed a programme of 8 interrelated PhD projects that focused on 3 key pillars of investigation, understanding the needs of patients undergoing rehabilitation, development and evaluation of technology enabled rehabilitation models, and understanding how these technology enabled models of care could be brought to the real world in a sustainable way.
CATCH was framed around 3 Research Work Packages that were associated with these pillars of investigation; ‘Understanding the Problem’, ‘Technology Interventions’, and ‘Sell and Scale’. The objective was to deliver targeted research outputs related to each PhD project, as well to use the overall programme as a means of developing a model for interdisciplinary research at the intersection between ICT, clinical, and commercial sectors. Our goal was to produce a cohort of PhD graduates who will drive future innovation in technology enabled cancer rehabilitation through interdisciplinary understanding and innovation.
All research work packages successfully solved their main research related question. Significant achievements were made in relation to enhancing our understanding of the challenges faced in the implementation of cancer rehabilitation and the potential role of behavioural, psychological, and technology supports in addressing these challenges. Three different technology solutions were designed, developed, implemented, and evaluated with patients: the use of personalised recommendations for activity based rehabilitation, the use of real time biofeedback during targeted rehabilitation exercise, and the use of NMES technology in implementation of physical rehabilitation. Advances were also made in the interdisciplinary innovation and business models in the field.
Management ensured that all non-research related work package deliverables and impacts were met and that budgets were adhered to. A “gold standard” model of ESR training was achieved through the collaborative creation of a relative and progressive training programme with events and workshops to meet the evolving needs of the ESRs.
Dissemination progressed well, met its targets, and submitted its final deliverables. The project brand created with an online presence via social media and website was strengthened as CATCH refined its dissemination and exploitation structures through more specific methods as the ERSs increased their academic outputs via conference papers, journal publications, and poster presentations.
New highlights were achieved, including ESR and supervisor involvement in numerous public dissemination activities that targeted the scientific community, patients, and the public and the participation in 3 thematic workshops that were held as part of the IEEE International Symposium in Computer Based Medical Systems (2017, 2019, 2020). Furthermore, the final dissemination conference was incorporated as a special thematic session into a major patient facing conference held by Oncoavanze in Seville in November 2019.
The success of the CATCH programme is best evidenced by the ESRs who have been offered opportunities to further their career development and to continue to engage in research that will have wide reaching, societal impact by advancing knowledge of Connected Health applications and their use towards improving quality of life and by continuing to shift the fight against cancer from sustaining life towards maximizing functional capacity and quality of life.