The Acceptability of Quantum-Inspired Imaging for Remote Monitoring of Health & Disease in Community Healthcare (QUEST)

Conference:

SAPC ASM 2023 - Brighton

Talk Code:

6D.4

Presenter:

Karen Wood

Twitter:

@gppcglasgow

Co-authors:

Katie I Gallacher (1), Terrence J Quinn (2), Heather Fraser (3), Emma McIntosh (3), Jonathan Cooper (4), Muhammad Imran (4), Daniele Faccio (5), Frances S Mair (1)

Author institutions:

(1) General Practice and Primary Care, School of Health and Wellbeing, University of Glasgow, (2) School of Cardiovascular and Metabolic Health, University of Glasgow, (3) Health Economics and Health Technology Assessment, School of Health and Wellbeing, University of Glasgow, (4) James Watt School of Engineering, University of Glasgow, (5) School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Glasgow.

Problem

Monitoring of health is important for the prevention of morbidity and mortality. Ideally, health monitoring would not depend on visiting a hospital or clinic, but instead be seamlessly integrated into everyday life at home. A problem with existing technology is that it can only monitor what is in the ‘line of sight’, can be expensive, and may feel intrusive, for example wearable technology.

Approach

The Universities of Glasgow and Lancaster are developing new healthcare technologies that allow for continuous, remote monitoring of activity and movement. Instead of traditional cameras, we are utilising radio-waves in the environment. We have developed a system that uses intelligent reflective surfaces to allow for the monitoring of movement throughout a person’s home. Another technology measures how well the heart is working. The system shines a laser on a person’s neck to observe how the movements of blood vessels interfere with the laser beam to determine the strength and rhythm of the heartbeat. These technologies aim to identify issues before a crisis develops, such as a fall or a myocardial infarction. A critical stage in the development process is to explore the acceptability, risks and benefits of these new technologies with key stakeholders. Members of the public and health professionals will be recruited to participate in focus groups and individual interviews. A sampling frame will ensure diversity in participant characteristics including age, gender, ethnicity, socio-economic status, morbidity and frailty status. Health professionals will be sought from a range of backgrounds (primary and secondary healthcare, social care). Data will be analysed thematically with coding clinics held to discuss key emerging themes.

Findings

Data collection is due to commence in the second half of 2023.

Consequences

This work will provide much-needed insight into the issues that must be considered when developing, testing and implementing these new technologies for health monitoring in the home. For example, the ethical issues of home monitoring, facilitators and barriers to its use and impact of data interpretation on health service workload must be considered. Such technologies could aid transformation of the way health monitoring is undertaken to improve the prevention, prediction, diagnosis and treatment of a range of conditions such as Parkinson’s Disease, heartbeat irregularities and frailty. They could aid the assessment of physical health, measure proxies for mental and social health, and transform rehabilitation strategies and fitness monitoring.

Submitted by:

Karen Wood

Funding acknowledgement:

UKRI – Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council