The Health and Social Care (HSC) R&D Division and the Connected Health Innovation Centre (CHIC) based at Ulster University are jointly hosting a series of workshops to facilitate access to Northern Ireland’s clinical and healthcare expertise by the health and life science sector to identify emerging unmet needs.
The first in webinar the webinar series will focus on emerging unmet needs relating to the health & well-being status of populations and the potential to utilise technology to address such needs at the individual level, whilst also showcasing local industry successes targeting these areas.
Poor health due to modern living eg. sedentary lifestyles, poor diet, poor choices/negative behaviours have been well recognised as growing challenge, pre-pandemic. The situation has been exacerbated during the Covid pandemic due to intermittent local lockdowns and more sedentary lifestyles causing disruption to our overall physical wellbeing eg. no regular commute, gyms have been close, access to parks, nature, outdoor exercise, local beauty spots has been limited.
Covid-19 pandemic restrictions and lockdowns have caused disruption to our daily lives has had a knock-on effect on our physical and mental health too. For example, physical activity amongst adults has fallen by a quarter and a third of adults have gained weight during lockdown. Facts like these exemplify why it’s crucial to consider both mental and physical wellbeing in tandem when focusing on improving whole health.
Healthcare systems are anticipating a surge of societal health issues to emerge post-pandemic. Meanwhile outside healthcare systems the health and wellness industry, already a booming $4.5 trillion business, has seen particularly marked change as housebound consumers adapt to life without gyms, fitness studios or easily accessible doctors’ offices, and reconsider overall what it means to be well in the age of a pandemic.
The goal of the event is to build relationships between the HSC clinical research staff, industry and academia, with a view to increasing both collaborative research and technology commercialisation through the matching of clinical need with technology solutions.
To read more and register for this event click here.