Immersive Technologies for Healthcare

Course feedback 

“I found the Immersive Technologies for Healthcare course at UCL to be an enjoyable and informative event with strong implications for the future design of hospital buildings and the ways to improve patient care and involvement in their treatment. I felt it elaborated and provided insight into design decisions that are up and coming, but need more exposure to inspire confidence in their viability. Reece Philliskirk, Healthcare Planner, Essentia Trading ltd

The Bartlett Real Estate Institute (BREI) is holding a one-day interactive course that will explore immersive healthcare technologies.

Technological development is one of the mains drivers of health care growth and development. Especially now, when ageing populations put unprecedented pressure on healthcare services, policymakers recognise technological developments as a means to provide solutions to cope with demand, increase the sustainability of healthcare services and satisfy end-users’ increasing expectations.

Course overview

We tend to perceive tech equipment of healthcare as serving predominantly diagnostic or treatment purposes. Yet, lately a wide range of new technologies enhances several aspects of healthcare from facility design to medical training. This increases the need for built environment professionals to understand state-of-the-art advanced technologies and especially immersive technologies. This one-day interactive course will explore the broader context of these technologies, and the opportunities and challenges for the planning and the design of healthcare facilities that derive from employing these technologies in healthcare settings, from teaching hospitals to care homes.

This course would be suited to a variety of professionals and students with an interest in healthcare environments and of multiple backgrounds: architects, engineers, facility managers, healthcare planners, healthcare professionals, healthcare managers with an interest on healthcare buildings. Professionals of the care home sector might also find the course interesting as well as people working for capital planning and facilities and estates of the NHS.

Course agenda

10.30am - 11.00am Opening, coffee and networking

11.00am - 11.30am Introduction by Dr Evangelia Chrysikou (Lecturer - Program Director MSc Healthcare Facilities, the Bartlett Real Estate Institute UCL)

11.30am - 12.30pm ‘Re-imagining Human Building Interaction’ by Ava Fatah gen. Schieck (Reader in Media Architecture and Urban Digital Interaction, the Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL)

12.30pm - 13.30pm Lunch break and networking

13.30pm - 14.30 pm ‘How might gaming technologies (AR, VR and AI) disrupt the design of hospitals and infrastructure for users and hospital staff?’ by Dr Stella Doukianou (Lecturer in Disruptive Technologies, University of Greenwich)

14.30pm - 14.45 pm Break

14.45pm - 15.45pm ‘Immersive Technologies in the Design and Pre-visualisation of Buildings’ by Anthony Karydis (CEO, Mativision)

15.45pm - 16.15pm Key messages – Closure

Overview of presentations

Introduction

The introduction will give a highlight of the general trends on technologies in healthcare and the broader policy initiatives on the subject both in the UK and the broader European Context. Issues such as what are the key initiatives on the field, how they come together, a mention to key stakeholder groups and where the built environment fits in the discussion and especially environments for health, wellbeing and care. How do we achieve seamless environments that could benefit people and promote the sustainability and delivery of the services? Why is this topic important and what we need to be aware? This will introduce the main questions and prepare the ground for the day and the final sum up session at the end.

Re-imagining Human Building Interaction

Ava will explore the notion of ‘interaction space’ in the built environment and outline how, through the introduction of novel digitally mediated interactions, the attention and scale between “artefact” and “environment” shifts. Augmenting it, or potentially disrupting it, with a variety of digital possibilities, in particular the ones that have the capacity to alter senses and or facilitate interactive, whole body, immersive and sensorial experience. These possibilities invite us to rethink the new resulting space of interaction. She will give a brief overview and reflect with the audience on what this could mean for health care environments.

How might gaming technologies (AR, VR and AI) disrupt the design of hospitals and infrastructure for users and hospital staff?

As rapidly evolving technologies have altered user expectations, there is a need to create new health facility design requirements. The adoption of AR, VR, and AI can transform medical devices, building systems, and electronic records. These transformations create workflow challenges, system integration issues and an emergent need for changes in health care design solutions to meet the demand of these gaming technologies. Facilities need to address these challenges and the key staff responsible for the design of hospitals needs to consider them. During this session, we will discuss how these technologies can improve the patient experience and the operational efficiencies in a hospital.

“Immersive Technologies in the Design and Pre-visualisation of Buildings”

Presentation will focus on the ways the existing stat of immersive technologies can be readily exploited in several stages of the design and pre-visualisation of “Buildings” and how these aids the design process and saves time and resources, while at the same time allows to explore options that were not possible with conventional methods, including CAD and current pre-visualisation techniques.

Further information

Who this course is for

The course is for a variety of professionals and students with an interest in healthcare environments and of multiple backgrounds: architects, engineers, facility managers, healthcare planners, healthcare professionals, healthcare managers with an interest on healthcare buildings. Professionals of the care home sector might also find the course interesting as well as people working for capital planning and facilities and estates of the NHS.

Learning outcomes

By the end of this one-day short course, you will:

acquire a broader understanding of how new technologies are expected to influence healthcare delivery
get a glimpse of the potential of these technologies but also the challenges /opportunities for healthcare facility designers
get an overview of the potential of gaming and immersive technologies on hospital environments and end-user experience
have an opportunity to interact with professionals and academics from multiple-disciplines and gain a multiple perspective on the subject
have a hands-on experience with immersive technologies.
Soft outcome:

Increase understanding on working across sectors and collaborating with different disciplines.
As a short course student you won't be formally assessed, but you're expected to fully participate in group work. You'll receive a certificate of attendance on completion of the course.

Fees

Standard Fee.
£250.00
Student Fee.
£195.00

Course team

Course leader - Dr Evangelia Chrysikou DiplArch, MA MARU, PhD

Evangelia is Lecturer (Assistant Professor) at The Bartlett Real Estate Institute, UCL in London, Program Director of the MSc Healthcare Facilities and a medical architect. She specialises in healthcare facilities, holding a rare PhD on mental health facilities from UCL and a former Marie Curie H2020 Fellow.

She has been actively involved in policymaking, being Coordinator on D4 Action Group of the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing (EIP on AHA) of the European Commission (EC) and consulted, on behalf of the EC, the Hellenic Ministry of Health and the Centre of European Constitutional Law on legislation regarding mental health facilities.

Her work on therapeutic environments has received prestigious international awards (Singapore 2009, Kuala Lumpur 2012, Brisbane 2013, Birmingham 2014, London 2014, Vienna 2017). Her research on mental health, ageing, accessibility and mental health, autism, social inclusion, healthcare, welfare and wellness facilities, medical architecture, medical tourism planning spans in several countries of the world (UK, France, Belgium, Greece, Middle East, Japan, New Zealand etc.).

Currently, she is the PI on the Butterfield award of the Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation and a CoI at a Marsden Fund from the Royal Society of New Zealand. Evangelia authored national guidelines for mental health facilities in the community for Greece on behalf of the EU. Additionally, she authored the books ‘Architecture for Psychiatric Environments and Therapeutic Spaces’ & ‘The Social Invisibility of Mental Health Facilities’, a healthcare architecture editor, reviewer, active member of several professional and scientific associations and a TED-MED speaker. She is also Member of the Board at the Scholar’s Association Onassis Foundation.

View Evangelia's academic profile.

Ava Fatah gen Schieck MSc, FHEA

Ava Fatah is Associate Professor (Reader) on the MSc Architectural Computation programme in The Bartlett School of Architecture, and expert in Media Architecture and Urban Digital Interaction at University College London.

Ava brings knowledge and expertise in the areas of the built environment and human-computer interaction (with mediation through Mixed Reality, AR, VR, and Ubiquitous Computing.

The main focus of Ava’s research has developed over the last 17 years through research and teaching positions she held at The Bartlett (UCL) the UK’s largest faculty of the built environment. Ava’s research has the overarching goal of developing a framework for the integration of digital media (situated and mobile) and architecture with the focus on action research and co-creation with end-users communities in the real world setting. This involves developing a sound theoretical footing that combines architecture, urban design and interaction design and deriving design principles that are well-founded, empirically tested where she investigates the design, implementation and evaluation of experiences mediated through interactive digital technologies.

Her research is practice based where she leads a unique longitudinal living ‘Media Architecture’ lab environment in which she investigates responsive and location-based computing within the urban context. Ava lectures internationally and has published extensively on the transformation and acquisition of urban space through new media. She has been instrumental in building a network of key players (academia, media art, and the industry) that address spatial, social and interactional issues in the design and implementation and evaluation of mediated interactions. She was chair on Media Architecture Biennale 2012, 14, 16 and 18).

View Ava's academic profile.

Dr Stella Doukianou

Stella is a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) for Disruptive Technologies in the University of Greenwich. Stella’s expertise is in Serious Games and VR/AR. From concept to evaluation, she is working to gamify experiences with a focus on using AR and VR, bringing together creativity and technology. She has worked in several EU (FP7 and HORIZON 2020) funded research projects for energy efficiency, culture, and IoT, focusing on the development of gamification frameworks or the effectiveness of serious games. Before she joined UoG, Stella was working as a research consultant for a couple of IT software houses in London, specialising in games that can be used for assessment, engagement, awareness and behavioural interventions.

Anthony Karydis

Anthony (MSc, Aeronautics, Cranfield, BSc, Electronic Engineering, University of Sussex) is founder and Managing Director of London-based Mativision.

Anthony has 30+ years of working experience including developing software for fighter aircraft simulators in France, managing multi-national European R&D projects, lecturing on Digital Media related subjects at University level and managing high-tech companies.

He invented Mativision®, end-to-end technology for production & distribution of interactive 360-video and VR/MR experiences, used by global clients including Viacom/MTV, Samsung, Facebook, Google, Fox, Universal, Vodafone, Novartis, Unilever, Jeep, Coach and others. In 2016, Mativision executed the world’s first live stream of a live surgical operation and then launched VLIPPmed, a global VR- content distribution platform for Medical Training (100,000 installations worldwide).

He is a Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society, holding its highest distinction of Accredited Senior Imaging Scientist (ASIS/FRPS), Senior Associate Member of the Royal Society of Medicine, member of the Royal Television Society and has a passion for cats, Jazz & Blues, electric guitars and vintage UK and Japanese motorcycles.

 

For enquiries about the content of the course, contact the course leader Dr Evangelia Chrysikou.
For enquiries about the logistics of the course please email brei.healthcarefacilities@ucl.ac.uk.

Top image: Photo by rawpixel on Unsplash