Health in a Handbasket Podcast

Smell plays a vital role in our physical and mental health - from our enjoyment of food and perfume to our ability to detect smoke or gas. Even our romantic relationships are affected by scent. 

As we get older, our sense of smell naturally decreases, which is associated with cognitive declines. However, there might be things we can do to prevent this from happening and train our sense of smell. 

In episode 1, we speak to Giada Brianza who is developing a smell training device that could help people track and develop their smell abilities over time.

Listen to the episode and read the show notes here.

AI is starting to play a part in our every day lives - it's there when we unlock our phones with Face ID or we use ChatGPT and other variations. But how can we use AI in healthcare, safely?

Peter Woodward-Court is using AI to help radiologists diagnose patients from scans. He'll be covering what AI is, how it works and how we can use it safely.  

Listen to the episode and read the show notes here.

Diabetes is the leading cause of death and disability worldwide, and diabetes prevalence is increasing.

In this episode we talk to Ken Li, Assistant Professor of Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare at UCL, and Melissa Connolly, who has type one diabetes and blogs about her experience. Ken’s doing something amazing – he’s working on a device that just makes life easier!

As a type one diabetic, Melissa always has to keep an eye on her blood sugar levels. If it’s too high or too low, she has to adapt her day according to the readings. Imagine wanting to go for a run but you can’t because your body hasn’t been able to regulate its blood sugar for that to happen.

In today’s podcast we talk about all that. We discuss what it’s like living with diabetes, what Ken’s device can do, what devices are already out there and what the regulatory landscape looks like and why we can’t think of a device today and get it tomorrow.

Listen to the episode and read the show notes here.

In this episode, Ferdouse speaks to Shoba Poduval about health inequalities among ethnic minorities – including childbirth and mental health treatment – and wonders how digital technology could help the situation. 

Listen to the episode and read the show notes here.

Peter Snow develops systems to help people with phantom limb pain and other conditions. He is also using gaming software to create training tools for surgeons, allowing them to practice complicated procedures in a safe environment. 

We chat to Peter about how he started his career (from winning RoboCup to surviving the recession), to his future ambition to work within the NHS. 

Listen to the episode and read the show notes here.

Lymphedema is a debilitating, incurable condition which causes excessive swelling in the limbs, and disproportionately affects cancer patients.

In this episode, we chat to Katherine about the device she's working on to make the lives of those with lymphedema better. She also talks to us about her experience of being a British Asian woman and how she stumbled on (as you do) becoming an engineer. 

Listen to the episode and read the show notes here.

Medical Imaging is the term given to the way in which we can image the body. Think X-rays of your teeth, big MRI machines, or ultrasounds. All these forms of imaging use small doses of radiation to see inside the body.

Charlotte Maughan Jones and Liam Collins-Jones (no relation!) are working to see the light. They're using medical imaging to scan the body for tendon damage, as is the case with Charlotte, and autism, as is the case with Liam. You might be wondering how they're doing this because isn't x-rays just for bones so how are we able to see the small, fleshy tendons? And how do we use medical imaging to diagnose autism? They're all questions that we'll be answering in this podcast.

Listen to the episode and read the show notes here.

The care problem. It’s a problem addressed by every Prime Minister yet we’re still here with an ageing population and more and more people needing care with not enough carers to care for them. So, what are we actually doing about it?

In this episode we talk to Bea about the care crisis in the UK, why she’s working on diagnosing rare forms of dementia and how there’s a certain lack of community in the UK, the "S" word and how we’re going to solve all this. It’s a meaty episode and we hope you enjoy It as much as we enjoyed recording it. 

Listen to the episode and read the show notes here.