Digital health encompasses a broad and evolving set of technologies aimed at discovering new approaches to prevent, diagnose and manage health and medical conditions. It leverages digital tools and systems to enhance healthcare delivery, improve patient care, and promote overall health and well-being.
As the global population grows, many societies are facing challenges in meeting the increasing demand for healthcare services. Digital health interventions are emerging as a solution to this issue. They enhance the efficiency, delivery, and security of healthcare services. Moreover, digital health encourages self-care and self-management by providing patients with self-care information, education, and behavioral support remotely using technological platforms such as the web, mobile apps, and text messaging services.
Examples you may know
There are many examples of digital devices the can be used to monitor our health and wellbeing. For example smartwatches such as Fitbits and apps such as Strava can help us to track movement, sleep patterns, and heartrate, allowing us to easily monitor and improve out wellbeing.
Examples of Research at the University of Southampton
Researchers at Southampton across medicine, engineering, and computer science are leveraging machine learning, genome sequencing, and other computational methods to create new digital health solutions to empower healthcare professionals and patients in managing diseases and promoting overall health and well-being.
myCOPD
COPD is a chronic lung condition that can cause difficulty breathing, coughing, and wheezing. myCOPD is an app that allows patients to easily monitor their condition, as well as understand and manage their medication. This can increase the quality of life of patientis suffering from these conditions, and reduce the risk of deterioration or hospital admission.
Cardiovascular digital twins
This works uses electrocardiogram (ECG) and MRI data to create a digital copy of a person’s heart. This digital representation can then be used to create personal diagnostics and treatment plans in a non-invasive manner, helping to improve the lives of patients following a heart attack.
Other research interests include:
- Aggregating and analysing health datasets to find patterns and insights that can enhance health outcomes.
- Utilisation of tools, such as monitoring devices, to collect and transmit health data from patients at home to digital health services to monitor patients’ health metrics continuously, provide personalized feedback, and offer tailored recommendations based on real-time data without the need of manual input.
- Addressing challenges related to privacy and data security, and ensuring seamless integration of these innovations with existing healthcare systems.
For more, please visit https://www.southampton.ac.uk/research/groups/digital-health
Educational program pathway at the University of Southampton
The biomedical engineering programme at the University of Southampton combines biomedicine, electronics and digital health courses to help address the evolving needs in contemporary society.
The University stands out as one of the few institutions in the United Kingdom to have a Digital Health research group. This feature provides students with the opportunity to learn from academics actively involved in technologies in this area. The programme offers a digital health course, introducing students to the standards, theories and technologies in digital health. This course empowers students to develop m-health and e-health solutions based on healthcare needs and available technology. Students also acquire key data science skills, enabling them to analyse data, build solutions and communicate results.
These skills are developed through exciting projects and a wide range of modules such as:
- ‘Digital Health Principals‘, in which students study the drivers and challenges regarding digital health innovation, as well as how various data collection techniques impact the quality of medical data.
- ‘Machine Learning Technologies‘ and ‘Natural Language Processing‘, in which students learn how to extract information from both complex health-related data sets and written text (such as written medical records).
- ‘Mobile Applications Development‘, in which students learn how to create advanced mobile apps that could be used to allow patients to monitor their health.
For more information on the University of Southampton’s Biomedical Engineering programme, please visit https://www.southampton.ac.uk/study/subjects/biomedical-medical-engineering