If left unsolved, a perfect storm of health and social care challenges will define what tomorrow’s society looks like. Computer science innovation has the potential to make sweeping improvements across the field – and the University of Portsmouth is at the forefront.
Our wide-ranging research into health and wellbeing tech is driven by advances in medical informatics, machine learning, wearables, smart environments and data science. People of all ages, around the world, are feeling the benefit.
Pioneering new uses of data to save vulnerable patients
Research by Professor Jim Briggs, Professor David Prytherch and their team at the University, in collaboration with Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust, has helped create a model that rapidly converts patients’ vital signs data into a simple measure of their physiology.
The model forms the basis of the National Early Warning Score (NEWS) – recommended for use across the NHS by the Royal College of Physicians and the relevant NHS parent bodies. This flags up a patient’s deterioration to clinical staff, who can then take appropriate action to improve the patient’s condition.
NEWS was also recommended by the World Health Organisation for the monitoring of COVID-19 patients during the pandemic. Thanks to this pioneering research, lives are being saved worldwide.
Challenging taboos so women can beat cancer
For Dr Judith Fletcher-Brown, overcoming breast cancer began a journey of discovery. On a celebratory holiday in India, she learned the country has the fastest growing incidence-rate of breast cancer in the world. Even worse, half of those who develop the disease die from it. Cultural taboo means many women don’t know how to self-examine or even what to look for.
Now Dr Fletcher-Brown is leading the development of a new strategy to normalise breast examination in India. In collaboration with colleagues in India, she is exploring consumer and marketplace factors that act as barriers to breast health equality. Understanding how creative tech and social marketing practices can be implemented will improve community-led education and save lives.
Empowering moves for children with disabilities
Children with disabilities can struggle with a lack of independence, barriers to communication or frustration at being unable to control their own movement. This can have a huge psychological and emotional impact. Professor David Sanders and his team set out to make a difference. They developed a system that mounts onto powered wheelchairs, transforming them into intelligent powered mobility devices.
The technology uses a Raspberry Pi computer which responds to vocal cues from the user, allowing them to independently control the movement of their wheelchair. Over 2,000 children and young people with disabilities are now experiencing a higher quality of life because they are able to act more independently.
Giving people with cancer more certainty
Every year around 43,000 people are diagnosed with bowel cancer in the UK alone. Now, thanks to developments with artificial intelligence (AI), we can give patients more certainty about their prognosis and greater confidence in the care they’ll receive.
Professor Adrian Hopgood and Dr Shamsul Masum collaborated with Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust to harness AI’s power. Together we built an algorithm that can accurately predict how much time an individual will spend in hospital, the likelihood of readmission, and their survival time post-surgery. This capability opens doors to improve communication, counselling and planning, for more personalised care.
Introducing graduate-entry medical degrees
Launched in 2024, our new medical degree course enables biomedical life science graduates to study for a fast-track degree in medicine over four years. In partnership with King’s College London, we train doctors who are compassionate, well rounded and highly skilled in the use of new and emerging technologies. Medical students benefit from our strong partnerships with the NHS, an innovative curriculum and state-of-the-art facilities including advanced anatomy simulation suites.
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