Letter from Dr Rebecca Shipley and Professor Ann Blandford

We are delighted to announce that the UCL Institute of Healthcare Engineering (IHE) and the UCL Institute of Digital Health (IDH) are combining expertise to form one Institute that will unite UCL’s health communities working across disciplinary boundaries in engineering, computing, data sciences, health sciences, clinical practice, global health, behavioural sciences, social sciences, ethics, law, physical space and education.

The new and evolved Institute of Healthcare Engineering will build on the progress made within both Institutes, with a focus on transforming lives through digital and medical technologies. It provides an exciting opportunity to draw together the existing synergies between these communities and create a coherent identity for engineering and digital health at UCL.

The merge will consolidate a successful partnership between the Institutes exemplified by a recent strategic Symposium event to tackle the challenges around ageing healthily.

The IHE’s governance structure will evolve to reflect the merge with Dr Rebecca Shipley (Vice Dean Health, Faculty of Engineering Sciences) as Director supported by three Deputies to represent digital health (Professor Ann Blandford), clinical representation, and translation. The translation-focused and clinical-focused Deputy Director roles will be advertised imminently.

Six delivery groups will be established in Research, Careers, Translation & Industry, Engagement, Education and Global to steer direction and drive results. We welcome expressions of interest to join these groups or to be involved more openly in management. Interdisciplinarity is at our core and we are committed to ensuring an inclusive board that represents the diverse strength of UCL’s healthcare engineering activity and that best positions us to deliver impact.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has contributed so constructively to the merge process, in particular the IDH Executive and Steering Groups, IHE Management Board, UCL Senior Management Team members, and also Marilyn Aviles, Georgie Cade and Alice Hardy for their invaluable support and delivery.

We look forward to growing our communities together and are excited by the opportunities ahead. As always, we welcome your thoughts and are contactable at healthcare-eng@ucl.ac.uk.

Best wishes,
Dr Rebecca Shipley and Professor Ann Blandford