Information School News

“We know that people with disabilities experience a lot of inequities in both their health outcomes and the quality of the healthcare that they receive”, says Dr Denis Newman-Griffis, Lecturer in Data Science at the Information School and co-author of ‘ A roadmap to reduce information inequities in disability with digital health and natural language processing ’, a paper published in PLOS Digital Health. This narrative paper is co-authored by Dr Max Hurwitz, Dr Gina McKernan, Dr Amy Houtrow and Dr Brad Dicianno, with whom Dr Newman-Griffis worked during their post-doctoral research in biomedical informatics at the Department of Physical Medicine Rehabilitation at the University of Pittsburgh. It looks at what the sources and causes of this disparity in care experienced by people with disabilities are. Previous research shows that similar disparities are prevalent across race, class, gender and geographical lines as well, but little work has been done specifically in the area of disabil...

University of Sheffield part of new £3.4 million health data initiative to address major health challenges News Academics from the University of Sheffield will help to lead a new initiative which will benefit patients across the north of England The Better Care North Partnership aims to improve care and services for patients, in particular, some of the most vulnerable patient groups The partnership is a collaboration between 15 universities and hospital trusts across the north of England Academics from the University of Sheffield will help lead a new innovative health data analytics initiative in the North of England that will benefit patients across the UK and address some of the most challenging health issues facing patients and the NHS. Health Data Research (HDR) UK has announced today (29 April 2020) £3.4 million of funding for the Better Care North Partnership (HDR UK North), which includes a £1.2 million investment from HDR UK and £2.2 million from the partner ...

The 18th International Symposium for Health Information Management Research (ISHIMR) is being held this year in Kalmar at Linnaeus University. Scientists from all over the world gather to discuss e-health. The overall conference theme for ISHIMR 2020 is "Using digital information for better patient health, care and well-being". The deadline for the submission of poster and paper abstracts has now passed but you can register to attend by clicking here . The deadline for registration is 31st August. The conference is free to attend. We welcome submissions relating to research and development on the conference theme in its broadest sense. The topics of interest for the conference include, but are not restricted to: • Strategies for the Management of Health Data and Information • Health Knowledge Management Strategies • Health Informatics Systems • Clinical Decision Support Systems • Tracking Activities and Health • Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery in Healt...

Between June 18th and June 24th, Dr Efpraxia Zamani and Dr Laura Sbaffi travelled to Malawi to carry out fieldwork for their GCRF QR Pump Priming grant on promoting support networks for informal caregivers of people living with HIV in Malawi. The project focuses on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal #3: ‘Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages’, and seeks to develop a collaborative network among caregivers, academics, NGOs, local authorities and health trusts for the support of caregivers of people living with HIV/AIDS in Malawi. Malawi is third in world-wide rankings with respect to HIV-related deaths (more than 35,000 deaths in 2017), with 10.6% of the adult population in 2016 being affected by HIV. HIV/AIDS requires a lot of self-management for monitoring symptoms and conducting a healthy lifestyle, while being self-reliant. As a result, considerable support is required to help patients make decisions, adjust their behaviour and adapt to the...

Last week saw the first presentation in a series of joint talks between the Information School's Health Informatics and Information Systems Research Groups in Sheffield. and Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda.The talks aim to promote research collaboration and knowledge sharing. Dr Laura Sbaffi and Dr Efpraxia Zamani are organising this series and chairing the Sheffield presentations, and Prof Josephine Nabukenya will be chairing the presentations from Makerere. In this first session, PhD student Liliana Sepulveda offered the audience a great overview of her PhD research on "An experiential study of the human-technology relationship between informal caregivers of people with dementia and assistive technologies". There will be similar virtual meetings every month and the next schedule one is for Tuesday 11th June, when a PhD student from Makerere will be presenting their work. More details will be forthcoming. You can view the recording of the session here: ...

Head of School Professor Peter Bath and Research Associate Dr Sarah Hargreaves recently wrote an article for The House , Parliament's weekly publication which is distributed to every MP and Peer in Westminster. The House is apolitical and answerable to a cross-Party editorial board. It carries exclusive high profile interviews, unique articles from Parliamentarians and policy information. Professor Bath and Dr Hargreaves wrote an article about their Space for Sharing project , including their new information sheets and the play that has been developed. The publication was distributed today, 11th March. You can read this week's issue here , and the Space for Sharing article here .

Professor Josephine Nabukenya, Chair of Health Informatics in the Department of Information Systems, School of Computing and Information Sciences at Makerere University, Uganda, has paid a five-day visit to the Information School as a guest of Dr Laura Sbaffi and Dr Pamela Abbott, representing the Health Informatics and Information Systems Research Groups, respectively. Josephine’s visit follows on from a five-day research visit made by Drs Sbaffi and Abbott to Makerere University in April to establish research collaborations, which were initiated between Professor Nabukenya and Professor Peter Bath, Chair of Health Informatics and Head of the Information School. While visiting the School, Josephine met researchers mainly in the Health Informatics and Information Systems research groups and presented a seminar on “Transforming Uganda’s Healthcare and Ecosystem Using Health Informatics Research”; details of the seminar are here . She also spent time exploring current research ...

Doctoral student Wasim Ahmed and Professor Peter Bath , pictured below, from the Health Informatics Research Group, recently delivered a talk at a CERN workshop in Geneva . The talk was based on the industry and academic perspectives on social media research ethics, and the also talk highlighted the approach that has been undertaken by the University of Sheffield.  Wasim Ahmed , pictured below, also presented a poster on his PhD research during the CERN workshop. Wasim’s poster was based on his PhD research which is examining how people talk about infectious disease outbreaks such as Swine Flu and Ebola on Twitter. Wasim also touched on the benefits of engaging with research blogs such as the LSE Impact blog .

In collaboration with Western Sydney University, second year PhD student, Wasim Ahmed , from the Health Informatics Research Group recorded an audio lecture on software that can be used to capture data and analyse data from Twitter. The lecture was provided for a group of masters’ students on the Digital Research and Social Data Analytics (ST1007.1) specialisation. The lecture was originally disseminated to students in August 2015. The slides are available on SlideShare and have proved to be very popular with over 1,541 views to date. The slides can be accessed here.

Wasim Ahmed, a first year PhD student at the Information School and member of the Health Informatics Research Group, has recently been featured in a White Rose Doctoral Training Centre (DTC) newsletter in the White Rose DTC PhD Researchers In The News section. The newsletter highlights Wasim’s recent impact activities such as his LSE impact blog post , his very successful research blog and his management of both the @iFutures2015 and the @DataPowerConf Twitter accounts, including the moderation of a Twitter chat which was a first for a University conference. The feature highlights Wasim’s membership of the ‘New Social Media New Social Science’   network, and his management of the @NSMNSS Twitter account which has over 3,600 strong followers comprised of researchers across disciplines from around the world. The newsletter also acknowledges collaborations Wasim has set up with researchers across continents from Europe, the Americas, and Australia which have generated po...

The Information School has been well represented at this year's ISHIMR 2015 conference . This year's conference is taking place in York between 25 and 26 June, and focuses on the theme of "Health Informatics for Enhancing Health and Well-Being".  ISHIMR 2015 has been jointly organised by the Faculty of Health and Life Sciences at York St. John University and the Information School, University of Sheffield. A number of staff and students have presented at the conference: PhD students Tom Poulter, Eliza Mazlan, Wasim Ahmed, Catherine Ebenezer, Jean Stevenson, Adelina Basholli and Tomi Dimitrovski MSc Health Informatics alumni Paul Warner Professor Peter Bath and Dr Julie Ellis, who are presenting a poster on the ESRC-funded 'A Shared Space and a Space for Sharing' project  More information is available on the ISHIMR 2015 website .

On Tuesday 28 April Professor Peter Bath will speak as part of the British Council's Science For All Talks in Istanbul, Turkey. The series focuses upon popular topics in science and Professor Bath will speak about big data and health, specifically focusing upon the importance of big data in healthcare and peoples' lives.  He will also examine the experiences in the UK and in Turkey surrounding big data and health.  Big data and data science technologies are increasingly being used in the healthcare sector to gather patient data and provide a more complete picture of a patient which can help to inform care coordination, population health management, and patient engagement. The event takes place in the Istanbul Modern Cinema Hall at 19:00.  Further information is available on the British Council website .

On Monday 1 December, Professor Peter Bath will speak at the ehealth Institute at Linnaeus University in Kalmar, Sweden. He will speak on ' Information behaviours – how people seek and use health information'.

On Thursday 13 November Professor Peter Bath gave his inaugural lecture entitled '" 1966 and all that": Donabedians's model of quality applied to health informatics'. During the lecture Peter discussed his research in Health Informatics over the last 20 years, focusing on his collaborations with PhD students and colleagues in the University of Sheffield. He described his research into the health information needs and information behaviours of patients, their carers and the general public.  He discussed in detail Wen-Chin Hsu's PhD research into the use of NHS Direct by older people and the results of Healh Ayatolahi's PhD research, undertaken in collaboration with Professor Steve Goodacre from ScHARR, which identified the tension between making patient information accessible to clinical staff in Emergency Departments, while at the same time keeping it confidential.  Peter also described the study he had collaborated on with the Palliative Care section...

On Thursday 13 November 2014, Professor Peter Bath of the Information School will present his inaugural lecture. The lecture is entitled '"1966 and all that": Donabedians's model of quality applied to health informatics' and will be held at the University of Sheffield in the Conference Room of the ICOSS Building, 219 Portobello.  The lecture begins at 17:30 and will be followed by a drinks reception. Entrance is free and all are welcome to attend.  For further details please contact Gaynor Hague by emailing g.hague@sheffield.ac.uk

The second 24 Hour Inspire Event takes place at the University of Sheffield on Thursday 27 and Friday 28 March 2014. Professor Peter Bath of the Information School will be giving a lecture as part of Friday’s programme of activities entitled “Trust me, I’m a website: problems and pitfalls of patients using health information from the web”.   Many of us know someone who has been diagnosed with a serious illness and when people receive a diagnosis they may need information to help them through the illness.   Many patients use the web to find this information and, increasingly, people share information about their condition using social media and blogs. While this can be helpful, not all of the information on the web can be trusted and Peter’s lecture will discuss some potential problems of obtaining health information from the web.

The iSchool's Prof Peter Bath will give a lecture at the 24 Hour Inspire event, which is taking place from 28th February to 1st March, in the Hicks Building here at the University of Sheffield. The event is held in memory of Physics & Astronomy lecturer Dr Tim Richardson, and is in support of the charity he created, Inspiration for Life . Entry to each lecture is £1, or £5 for the full programme, and proceeds go to the Weston Park Hospital Cancer Charity and local hospices. Prof Bath's lecture is entitled "Health Informatics", and takes place at 8am on Friday 1st March. See the 24 Hour Inspire programme for more information.

Congratulations to the School's Director of Undergraduate Programmes, Peter Bath, who has been awarded a Personal Chair. As of 1st January 2013, Peter is Professor of Health Informatics.

The iSchool congratulates Dr Iain Kewley, a student on the MSc in Health Informatics programme and Chief Clinical Information Officer for the Department of Health on the Isle of Man, on his recent appointment to the Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem. Iain's award is in recognition of his work with St John Ambulance in the Isle of Man. Iain has been appointed as Knight Commander in the Order of St John. Further details about Iain's award can be found at: https://www.sja.org.uk/sja/counties/isle-of-man/latest-news/historic-change.aspx and at: http://www.london-gazette.co.uk/issues/60119/notices/1574655/sort=newest Well done, Iain!

Professor Sheila Corrall , Barbara Sen and PhD student Liz Brewster all attended the 12 th European Conference of Medical and Health Libraries in Estoril , near Lisbon in Portugal. Barbara gave a Continuing Education Course on using group reflection to evaluate projects, which was very well received and enjoyed by participants. Liz gave her first plenary, entitled "'Read this, it's good for you!': using qualitative methodologies to explore user needs and strategic aims". Feedback from the audience was highly positive, with one person commenting that it was the clearest explanation and rationale for using qualitative methods that he had heard. Liz was able to attend the conference thanks to the generosity of EAHIL and CILIP's Health Libraries Group Career Development group. Sheila also gave a plenary, providing a framework for development based on positioning the health librarian as a blended professional. This was also well received by the audience, who both ...