Information School News

The University of Sheffield PRIEST study team have been awarded funding to develop clinical risk-stratification tools to help prevent hospitals in low and middle income countries from becoming overwhelmed during the Covid-19 pandemic. Led by Carl Marincowitz from ScHARR, the team also includes our own Professor Peter Bath and Dr Laura Sbaffi. The project is being conducted with a team from the University of Cape Town in South Africa, and aims to develop a risk assessment tool to help emergency clinicians quickly decide whether a patient with suspected COVID-19 needs emergency care or can be safely treated at home to avoid overburdening hospitals particularly in low- and middle- income countries. The project is funded by the International COVID-19 Data Alliance (ICODA). Find out more at this University of Sheffield news story  and this ICODA announcement .

Media: iSchool Video Blog with Professor Peter Bath Professor Peter Bath Interview with Peter Bath, iSchools European Regional Chair, University of Sheffield - #4 from iSchools Inc on Vimeo . iSchools European Regional Chair and Executive Committee Member, Prof. Peter Bath, discusses the effects on working practices for academics during the COVID-19 pandemic and explains how it impacts his research and supervision of his PhD students.

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 ...

Loneliness and Covid-19: Social Distancing Versus Social Isolation Professor of Health Informatics, Peter Bath, was asked to write a piece for Inside Government, on loneliness during the COVID-19 pandemic. The article draws on research Professor Bath has undertaken for the Space for Sharing project  on online sharing for people in extreme circumstances, a portion of which was on loneliness amongst older people. You can read the full blog post here:  https://blog.insidegovernment.co.uk/loneliness-covid-19-pandemic-social-distancing-versus-social-isolation

Tackling the Covid-19 pandemic and the loneliness epidemic together Peter A. Bath, Information School and School of Health and Related Research (ScHARR), University of Sheffield. During the Covid-19 pandemic, the current advice from the government is that we should all be taking social distancing measures and reducing our interaction with other people as much as possible to avoid spreading the coronavirus. Some groups in particular, for example, people aged 70 and over and those with long-term health problems, are being asked to limit their contact with friends and family to protect themselves. Whilst it is good that this can help reduce the spread of the virus, and protect vulnerable people, it also runs the risk of making people feel more isolated and lonely.  We live in an age in which there is what has been called “an epidemic of loneliness”. Older people and those with long-term health problems are not only more vulnerable to the effects of Covid-19, but they are also ...

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 .

The 9th International Conference on Social Media and Society was held earlier this month in Copenhagen, Denmark. Dr Wasim Ahmed, recent Information School PhD graduate (now assistant Professor at Northumbria University) presented his PhD work at the conference and his trip was funded by the Information School. The paper Moral Panic through the Lens of Twitter: An Analysis of Infectious Disease Outbreaks was co-authored by Head of School and Professor of Health Informatics Peter Bath, and Dr Laura Sbaffi. You can access the paper here .

PhD student Wasim Ahmed, Professor Peter Bath, and Dr Gianluca Demartini have recently had a peer-reviewed book chapter published which looked at the ethical, legal, and methodological challenges of researching Twitter. The chapter is now open access, and the abstract and the link to download the chapter are provided below. Abstract This chapter provides an overview of the specific legal, ethical, and privacy issues that can arise when conducting research using Twitter data. Existing literature is reviewed to inform those who may be undertaking social media research. We also present a number of industry and academic case studies in order to highlight the challenges that may arise in research projects using social media data. Finally, the chapter provides an overview of the process that was followed to gain ethics approval for a Ph.D. project using Twitter as a primary source of data. By outlining a number of Twitter-specific research case studies, the chapter will be a valuable res...

Doctoral student Wasim Ahmed recently visited Harvard University to meet Information School Alumnus Ann Hall who is the Director of Communication at The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.  Ann studied at the Information School from 1990 to 1991 graduating with an MSc in Information Studies, where she was a student with our current Head of School, Professor Peter Bath. Wasim noted that it was a great opportunity to look around the iconic Harvard Campus with a dinner at the famous Grendel’s Den at Harvard Square, and was very grateful for the visit.

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 .

You are warmly invited to attend this Saturday's Festival of the Mind event concerned with highlighting the experiences of people with serious health conditions and the support and friendship that can be found in online forums.   Our aims are to: Raise awareness of the benefits and risks of online forums for people with serious health conditions   To bring to life the human stories of people experiencing serious health conditions who develop friendships in the virtual world   To explore how trust and empathy develops within the online world      The play explores the experiences of women living with breast cancer in a unique on-off performance.   The script is based on the findings of research that analysed threads on the Breast Cancer Care online forum and interviews with forum users.   This event is a collaboration between the Space for Sharing research project and the Dead Earnest theatre company. There will be an informal ...

You are warmly invited to attend this Festival of the Mind event concerned with highlighting the experiences of people with serious health conditions and the support and friendship that can be found in online forums.   Our aims are to: Raise awareness of the benefits and risks of online forums for people with serious health conditions   To bring to life the human stories of people experiencing serious health conditions who develop friendships in the virtual world   To explore how trust and empathy develops within the online world      The play explores the experiences of women living with breast cancer in a unique on-off performance.   The script is based on the findings of research that analysed threads on the Breast Cancer Care online forum and interviews with forum users.   This event is a collaboration between the Space for Sharing research project and the Dead Earnest theatre company. There will be an ...