GW4-PATH: Perception and Attitudes of Technologies for Healthcare

Project overview

Via a mixed methods, this collaborative project will seek to address the paucity of evidence in around Novel Healthcare Technologies by probing the general public’s perceptions towards the use of these diverse NHTs by administering a survey to a nationally representative sample.

Community lead

University of Bath: Steffi Colyer, Alexandra Voinescu

University of Bristol: Gemma Lasseter (PI), Sarah Sauchelli Toran (PI), Sabrina Grant

Cardiff University: Heungjae Choi, Tim Pickles, Jinjing Zhang

University of Exeter: Ben Sherlock

Awarded

July 2019

The UK is facing an ageing population; contributing to an exponential increase in the number of people with multiple long-term conditions and the economic burden placed on the National Health Service (NHS) and society (Office for National Statistics, 2016). Rapid technological innovation means novel technologies are often released onto the UK market without fully considering the general public’s needs. Cutting-edge Novel Healthcare Technologies (NHTs) are being developed by several members of this GW4 collaboration driving innovation in specific areas: (1) Non-invasive blood glucose monitor, (2) miniaturised, laser-based microscope for early diagnosis of arthritis, (3) Virtual reality (VR) as adjunct tool in clinical psychology, (4) phone-based applications (apps) for collection of personal data. Via a mixed-methods approach, this collaborative project will seek to address the paucity of evidence in this area by probing the general public’s perceptions towards the use of these diverse NHTs by administering a survey to a nationally representative sample.