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Digital health research cluster

Our vision is to lead research in collaboration with engineering colleagues, commercial partners and citizens to create health technologies that are accessible for people using health services and their families; and demonstrate evidence of improvements in health, well-being and social care outcomes.

Research interests

Healthcare delivery in 2030 will be vastly different from today. People will be living longer, with multi-morbidity. Integrated care will be central to delivering complex care to this dynamic population and the social context of people’s lives remain the key determinant of how health services are planned and delivered.

Technological innovations will transform the way we diagnose, treat and manage disease. Delivering care closer to people’s homes will be the norm and hospital-based care will be for the seriously ill.

Our research focuses on creating and investigating on technological solutions to improve access and delivery of health care. We are interested in developing personalised models of care that will lead into delivery of patient centred care.

Research areas

  1. Internet of things and technology integrated health care system
  2. Remote monitoring and management of conditions
  3. Digital solutions (apps, wearables, monitors) for patients support
  4. Predictive risk modelling
  5. Digital access to primary/community care services (e.g. electronic medical records and e-consultations)
  6. Digital access and technology use by vulnerable and hard to reach groups.

Methodological expertise

  • User-led co-design
  • Behaviour change interventions
  • Data mining
  • Predictive risk modelling
  • eHealth system development
  • Evaluation and implementation
  • Creating a living laboratory and simulated environments to provide test beds for new technology.

Research projects

  1. Unlocking data to inform public health policy and practice: Exploring barriers and creating solutions for public health intelligence using integrated datasets across Kent, Sussex and Surrey (KSS). (J Armes)
  2. Virtual consultations for people with learning disabilities, their families and healthcare providers: Using Experience-Based Co-Design to explore experiences, adapt, develop and implement best-practice guidance and training resources. ARC KSS Towards Changing Practice. (Mold, F., Cooke, D., Armes, J., Cox, A.)
  3. The role of Electronic Frailty Index in improving outcomes for newly diagnosed Cancer patients undergoing systemic Chemotherapy treatment - EfFICACY study. (Armes J.)
  4. AI Health and Care Award Technology Specific Evaluation Team for the evaluation of DERM (Skin Analytics). (Armes J.)
  5. Methodologies for evaluation of digital health interventions employed to improve management of long term conditions. (N Gityamwi J Armes)
  6. CLUSTER: Discover, replicate and validate biomarkers for prediction of treatment response to drive stratified medicine approaches in JIA and JIA-uveitis. (Geifman)
  7. MICA: NURTuRE - changing the landscape of renal medicine to foster a unified approach to stratified medicine (Geifman)
  8. Identifying biomarkers that improve disease detection in companion animals (Geifman)
  9. Emergency medical services Streaming-Enabled Evaluation In Trauma: the SEE-IT Trial (Taylor, Lyon, Maben, Magnusson, Munro) www.surrey.ac.uk/SEEITstudy
  10. Non-inflammatory proteomic signatures of COVID-19 (Geifman)
  11. Web-based self-management to reduce distress after prostate cancer [Sara Faithfull and Jane Cockle-Hearn]
  12. Developing and trialling a life-long approach to promote diabetes self-management amongst adults with type 1 diabetes-DAFNEplus [Debbie Cooke]
  13. The BEAT diabetes program - an online, supported self-management for adults with type 2 diabetes [Debbie Cooke]
  14. Data driven digital decision-making tool for pharmacists to provide a physical assessment and lifestyle prescription for men with prostate cancer [Agnieszka Lemanska]
  15. TIHM: Technology Integrated Health Management [Payam Barnaghi (PI, 5G Centre), Emma Ream and Rahim Tafazolli (from 5G Centre)]
  16. Randomised controlled trial to evaluate electronic symptom management using the Advanced Symptom Management System (ASyMS) Remote Technology for patients with cancers [Jo Armes (PI) and Emma Ream]

Collaborations

The digital health research grouping has a range of multidisciplinary collaborations with patient/public groups, academic organisations and health providers and networks across Kent, Surrey and Sussex, and industry both nationally and internationally. It also contributes to the digital innovation theme of the Applied Research Collaboration (ARC) for Kent, Surrey and Sussex.

Areas of interest for doctoral study

We welcome approaches from people wishing to undertake postgraduate research here with us.

We particularly welcome enquiries in the following areas:

  • Remote monitoring and management of symptoms in cancer and other long-term conditions
  • Predictive risk modelling
  • Decision support systems for healthcare professionals
  • Biosensing to support improved health outcomes for patients
  • Online Access in primary care both in terms of patients’ access to medical records or online services, and use by healthcare professionals
  • Digital systems/solutions to support student and staff mental health and wellbeing.

Please contact Freda Mold (freda.mold@surrey.ac.uk) and Jenny Harris (jen.harris@surrey.ac.uk), our postgraduate research directors, if you are considering postgraduate research.

Publications

Researchers

Research theme lead

Jo Armes profile image

Professor Jo Armes

Professor of Cancer Care and Lead for Digital Health

Research theme members

Anand Ahankari profile image

Dr Anand Ahankari

Lecturer in Maternal, Child and Family Health

Ayse Aslan profile image

Ayse Aslan

Postgraduate Research Student

Elizabeth Barley profile image

Professor Elizabeth Barley

Professor of Mental Health Sciences and Nursing

Gayasha Batheegama Gamarachchige profile image

Gayasha Batheegama Gamarachchige

Postgraduate Research Student

Alison Callwood profile image

Dr Alison Callwood

Senior Lecturer in Integrated Care (Midwifery)

Theopisti (Theti) Chrysanthaki profile image

Dr Theopisti Chrysanthaki

Lecturer in Integrated Care/ehealth

Jane Cockle-Hearne profile image

Jane Cockle Hearne

Research Fellow

Christos Dadousis profile image

Dr Christos Dadousis

Research Fellow in Health and Biomedical Informatics Research Group

Simon Downs profile image

Simon Downs

Paramedic Field Lead & Lecturer (Paramedic Practice)

Sara Faithfull profile image

Professor Sara Faithfull

Visiting Professor of Cancer Nursing Practice, Lead for Clinical Innovation

Hongxin Gao profile image

Hongxin Gao

Postgraduate Research Student

Nophar Geifman profile image

Professor Nophar Geifman

Professor of Health and Biomedical Informatics

Faith Gibson profile image

Professor Faith Gibson

Professor of Child Health and Cancer Care

Nyangi Gityamwi profile image

Dr Nyangi Gityamwi

Research Fellow

Richard Green profile image

Dr Richard Green

Surrey Future Fellow

Jenny Harris profile image

Dr Jenny Harris

Senior Lecturer in Cancer Care and Health Statistics

Athena Ip profile image

Dr Athena Ip

Research Fellow

Haomiao Jin profile image

Dr Haomiao Jin

Lecturer in Health Data Sciences

Agnieszka Lemanska profile image

Dr Agnieszka Lemanska

Senior Lecturer in Health Data Science

Freda Elizabeth Mold profile image

Dr Freda Elizabeth Mold

Senior Lecturer in Integrated Care

Caroline Nicholson profile image

Professor Caroline Nicholson

Professor of Palliative Care and Ageing

Claire Price profile image

Claire Price

Postgraduate Research Student

Emma Ream profile image

Professor Emma Ream

Professor, Director of Health Sciences Research

Yvonne Smyth profile image

Yvonne Smyth

Postgraduate Research Student (PhD)

Cath Taylor profile image

Professor Cath Taylor

Professor of Healthcare Workforce Organisation and Wellbeing