Registration has now closed please email Rachel Kerr if you would like to be added to the waiting list.
A joint event between CW and the NIHR Brain Injury MIC*
Augmented and Virtual Reality applications are increasingly proposed for the prevention and treatment of brain injuries. At a time when technology is rapidly evolving, this event will bring together leading clinical experts to define areas of unmet needs and potential applications of the technology. It will also provide an opportunity for commercial providers and clinical teams to showcase their technologies and on-going applications.
The brain injury pathway focusses on acquired brain injury typically from stroke or accidental or repeated impacts to the head. The consequences of these injuries are multi-faceted including physical, cognitive and emotional deficits which may or may not be successfully treated through rehabilitation. To reduce the burden on society the Brain Injury MIC is interested in technology interventions for all aspects of the pathway including prevention, pre-hospital medicine, emergency care, intensive care and rehabilitation.
Prevention has the potential to deliver the greatest return on investment. This can include the prevention of falls, particularly in the elderly. Can we predict patients at risk of falling and intervene to reduce risks? Concussion, especially in young children as well as elite sportsmen, is difficult to diagnose. Can we develop tools to simplify this for application in the schools or A&E context with the ability to monitor recovery or the need to intervene? Rehabilitation is dependent on the deficit resulting from the brain injury. Virtual reality can be applied to support recovering lost physical capabilities as well as emotional deficits by recreating difficult environments. VR might also be used in the developing of supportive environments for those living with long term disability. Gaming environments to support cognitive learning and retraining are also important.
The event will be supported by members of patient advisory groups as well as key personnel from grant funding and investing organisations who will provide critical advice on proposed products and applications. The event is designed to encourage networking and future collaborations as well as provide for supportive exhibits of products.
Nb: The NIHR MedTech Co-operative is interested in technologies that can be applicable to brain injury patients, so is not limited by condition.
The NIHR Brain Injury MedTech Co-operative provides a “go-to” centre of expertise for understanding the Acquired or Traumatic Brain injury care pathway and for the development of medical technologies to support prevention and improving patient outcomes.
The NIHR Brain Injury MedTech Co-operative aims to:
- Find: Identify areas of unmet need throughout the brain injury pathways that might be amenable of a technology-based innovation.
- Facilitate: Promote the generation of innovative solutions through the facilitation of interdisciplinary communication and collaboration between the NHS, academia, industry and public organisations.
- Foster: Support the translational pathway of viable solutions from initial concept to successful market adoption and sustainable clinical impact.
The NIHR Brain Injury MedTech Co-operative is one of the eleven MedTech Co-operative and In Vitro Diagnostic (MICs) funded by the NIHR across the country. The MICs facilitate collaboration with patients, carers, NHS, charities, academia, inventors, SMEs, business angels and medtech companies. The MICs catalyse innovation in clinical areas of unmet needs for NHS patients and is committed to develop new concepts, demonstrate proof of principle and devise re- search protocols for medical devices, healthcare technologies and technology- dependent interventions.
The NIHR Brain Injury MIC will build on the significant achievement of the NIHR Brain Injury Healthcare Technology Co-operative (HTC), 2013-2018. The MICs are here to support SMEs/start-up to access the wider NIHR, get in touch directly to find out more.
Website: www.brainmic.nihr.ac.uk
Twitter: @NIHRBrainMIC
*As this is a collaborative event, your registration data will be shared with NIHR purely for the purpose of event logistics. View NIHR privacy policy.
Technology Showcase Presenters
| Organisation | Presenter | Profile |
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Shreepali Patel, Story Lab, Anglia Ruskin University |
The Power of Immersive Storytelling – Clinical and Patient Needs. This talk will look at two projects. The Golden Window (a short film exploring the patient / carer relationship and cooling techniques for babies experiencing traumatic birth through a heightened and immersive visual and sonic landscape. The second project, a VR project ‘The River’ made for hospice and immobile patients – part of a pioneering VR experience for healthcare professionals to engage with patients and their families in a different way. We will discuss the technical parameters of the filmmaking process – how we made both projects with the patients / carers as the primary audience. |
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Brigitta Zics, SoftV Ltd |
SoftV Ltd is a dynamic digital gamification company formed in 2013 with the aim to gamify Neuroscience and related Medical Applications including Apps and online services of benefit to the wider public and patient community. |
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David Fried, Evolve Ltd |
Evolv is a certified medical device manufacturer specializing in developing rehabilitation technologies using the latest in virtual reality, motion capture systems and gamification. Our flagship product VirtualRehab is a pioneering cloud-based telerehabilitation platform that uses gaming to complement traditional rehabilitation and has been used by thousands of patients in over 150 centres in 20 countries around the world. Our solutions empower patients by allowing them to take an active role in their rehabilitation, thereby improving adherence to treatment and ultimately leading to improved patient outcomes. |
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Szczepan Orlowski, Animorph Ltd |
VR Training for Nurses - A mobile VR communication training app for hospital staff working with young people suffering from cancer. It aims to increase confidence in interactions with patients. This empathy tool will improve the patient experience, and turn the knowledge of medical staff into innovative best-practice immersive training. |
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Szczepan Orlowski, Animorph Ltd |
AR Navigator - Wearable Augmented Reality app for Magic Leap One glasses that uses computer vision to recognise real life objects, and present users with the information about them using speech synthesis. The prototype has many potential use cases such as helping people navigate their surroundings. |
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Alex Kiderman, Neuro Kinetics Incorporated |
RESCUE-RACER utilises the most promising and technologically-advanced concussion assessments currently available, including NKI’s innovative I-PAS™ (I-Portal® Portable Assessment System), which will be demonstrated by the company’s Chief Technological Officer. |
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Jen Martin, Oxford VR Ltd / Mental Health: NIHR MindTech MIC |
Many people with mental health conditions find day-to-day life extremely frightening and this has a devastating impact on their life. VR provides a way to quickly and safely take people into these situations and help them learn how to overcome their fears through psychological therapy, and excitingly, research shows that the learning in VR translates to the real world. In this session we will introduce the gameChange project, which is using VR within NHS services to transform the lives of people with psychosis and also allow delegates to try out OxfordVR’s new fear of heights intervention. |
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Stephanie Rossit, University of East Anglia | Portable patient-led virtual reality tools for assessment and rehabilitation of spatial neglect Spatial neglect is a highly prevalent and severe neuropsychological disorder defined as a failure to respond to the side of the space opposite to the side of the brain lesion. Neglect is major predictor of disability, yet, conventional assessments lack sensitivity and there are no recommended effective treatments for the disorder. Virtual Reality (VR) provides an interactive platform with strong potential to enhance detection sensitivity and increase rehabilitation adherence. Together with an industry collaborator (Evolv Rehabilitation Technologies), we are developing and testing new tools for the diagnosis and treatment of neglect using portable low-cost motion-tracking VR technology. |
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Isabel Van De Keere, Immersive Rehab |
Dr Isabel Van De Keere is the Founder & CEO of Immersive Rehab, a digital health startup that focuses on the creation and development of physical & neuro-rehabilitation programmes in Virtual Reality that improve patient recovery. The goal is to increase the effectiveness of physical & neuro-rehabilitation, to reduce referral times, to make rehab fun and engaging, and to have a better patient outcome. Following a long physical rehab period Isabel went through herself due to a work accident, she decided to start Immersive Rehab in September 2016. |
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James Christofides and Rick Kendrick, DisplayLink XR | The first truly wireless adaptor reference design for VR HMDs such as Vive and Rift. Current headset's support 1.5 megapixels per eye and a data rate of about 6Gbps. Combining massive video data capability with very low latency means DisplayLink's current chipset (supporting 4K resolution and 24Gbps video bandwidth) is ideally suited to VR head mounted displays. |
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