Patient-Centric Digital Healthcare

The Patient-Centric Digital Healthcare project investigates critical design, management & institutional considerations around digital technologies, devices & platform use in chronic disease management

About the Project:

This research project addresses the challenges and opportunities for delivering digital healthcare that puts patient rights, accessibility, and care at the centre of this increasingly data- and platform-driven interaction. Digital healthcare is often hailed as one of the promising solutions for reforming healthcare systems and services around the world. For instance, digitalisation in healthcare has contributed to more targeted medical treatment, to extending the reach of treatment outside conventional clinical settings through the growth of the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT), to continuous remote monitoring and condition management via digital platforms and applications. However, digital solutions in healthcare also require a new way of thinking and reconfiguring patient accessibility, rights, and care. How should digital healthcare systems be reimagined and reformed to follow truly inclusive and responsible patient-centricity?

Sponsored by In2Research, the project has been conducted by Faridah Rajitola and Robert Kamara - two third year students at UCL Medical School who have joined STEaPP as Research Assistants on a two-month summer placement.

The project focused on chronic disease management via established and emerging digital technologies and information communication systems. As part of the project, the team conducted a systematic literature review and a horizon scan which were incorporated into a forward-thinking policy paper targeting primary care stakeholders who are increasingly using or prescribing digital chronic disease management.

Team Members

Faridah Rajitola	Robert Kamara

Faridah is pursuing a degree in Medicine with an intercalated Bachelor of Science in Women’s Health at UCL. She is passionate about advancing preventive medicine and streamlining healthcare delivery to empower widespread health and well-being. Faridah’s interest in the project was sparked particularly by the documentary “The Bleeding Edge”, which shed light on the risks associated with poorly regulated medical innovations and emphasised the need to improve patient safety protocols. She is excited to enhance her grasp of communicating research to influence health policy changes through the project. Looking forward, she aspires to contribute to public health initiatives, focusing on policy development and advocacy, leveraging her medical training and research experience to drive systemic improvements in healthcare management and patient outcomes.	Robert is pursuing a degree in Medicine with an intercalated BSc in Mathematics, Computers and Medicine. Coming into the project, he had a specific interest in developing technologies in the healthcare field, especially technologies that ensured that patients received the best care possible. The project provided Robert with the opportunity to explore the world of healthcare policy and what goes into producing the policies to ensure patient needs are fully considered. Being involved with medical technology is something Robert aims to do in his medical career, so undertaking the project has allowed him to get a holistic sense of what is important when developing digital health technologies.

Faridah Rajitola

Robert Kamara

Faridah is pursuing a degree in Medicine with an intercalated Bachelor of Science in Women’s Health at UCL. She is passionate about advancing preventive medicine and streamlining healthcare delivery to empower widespread health and well-being.

Faridah’s interest in the project was sparked particularly by the documentary “The Bleeding Edge”, which shed light on the risks associated with poorly regulated medical innovations and emphasised the need to improve patient safety protocols. She is excited to enhance her grasp of communicating research to influence health policy changes through the project. Looking forward, she aspires to contribute to public health initiatives, focusing on policy development and advocacy, leveraging her medical training and research experience to drive systemic improvements in healthcare management and patient outcomes.

Robert is pursuing a degree in Medicine with an intercalated BSc in Mathematics, Computers and Medicine. Coming into the project, he had a specific interest in developing technologies in the healthcare field, especially technologies that ensured that patients received the best care possible. The project provided Robert with the opportunity to explore the world of healthcare policy and what goes into producing the policies to ensure patient needs are fully considered.

Being involved with medical technology is something Robert aims to do in his medical career, so undertaking the project has allowed him to get a holistic sense of what is important when developing digital health technologies.

Working on this project has been an invaluable experience, and I’m so grateful for everything I’ve learned along the way. It was challenging to navigate a discipline that’s new to me, but I’m thankful for all the knowledge I’ve gained. A big thank you to Dr. Irina Brass for guiding us through the process, and to the entire STEaPP community for being so welcoming and supportive from the start. I’m excited to dive deeper into the world of policy and explore what more I can do in the future! - Faridah

It was so great to be a part of this project – it was an experience that I will treasure dearly. It was a new and interesting challenge to take on, and I learned so much in such a short period of time. Many thanks to Dr Irina Brass and the whole STEaPP department for helping us through this journey, one that I hope will lead to more exploration down the line. - Robert