Health Research from Home runs a webinar series that offers a unique insight into creating and running research studies using smartphones and wearables. 

Our subject areas cover the lifecycle of a research study and delve deep into specific issues affecting our community. 

Upcoming Webinar: Digital Phenotyping in Mental Health

Who: John Ainsworth, Professor of Health Informatics, University of Manchester and Dr James Cunningham, Research Fellow, University of Manchester.

About: John’s career history is not that of a conventional academic; he has a diverse education (BSc Physics, MSc Cognitive Science, PhD Health Informatics) and worked for ten years in industry prior to his academic career. John has worked for Bell Northern Research, Cisco Systems and PA Consulting Group in a wide range of R&D roles in telecoms and data networking. John has been involved in two spin-out companies to develop and commercialise his research – North West eHealth and Affigo CIC.

John works at the intersection of information technology and healthcare research focusing on applying information technology to improving health care and includes:

• Harnessing computing technology to enhance data science   
• Using information technology to improve health services
• Applying emerging computing technologies to create novel interventions

Date: 5 March 2025, 1pm to 2pm (BST)

Book your place (Zoom)

Future Webinars

The Transformational Presentation Unit (TPU)

Who: Nadeem Sarwar and Scott Small, Novo Nordisk.

Date: 7 May 2025, 1 to 2pm (BST)

Book your place (Zoom)

Watch previous webinars 

View our previous webinars on our YouTube Channel. 

Webinar 6: Assessing Body Composition, Fitness and Physical Activity using Smartphones and Wearables

Who: Soren Brage, Physical Activity Epidemiology Program Lead at MRC Epidemiology Unit, University of Cambridge and Tomas Gonzalez, Research Associate in the Physical Activity Epidemiology, University of Cambridge.

About: In our sixth webinar we welcome Dr Soren Brage and Dr Tomas Gonzales from the MRC Epidemiology Unit at the University of Cambridge. They shared details of past, present and future research in which they have collected meaningful data from peoples’ consumer devices as well as research grade wearable devices. 

The discussion included why, based on conversations with public and patient contributors, using at-home methods of collecting research data can be beneficial and the areas of concern for those they are hoping to engage. They also talked about what can be measured using consumer devices, how to make sense of the diversity of consumer devices on the market, and if the data can ever be as scientifically meaningful as research grade models. 

Watch webinar now (YouTube)

Webinar 5: Developing Digital Biomarkers to support Drug Development in Rheumatoid Arthritis and Parkinson’s Disease

Who: Valentin Hamy, Director of Digital Biomarkers Data Analytics at GSK and Aidan Acquah, final year PhD student from the University of Oxford.

About: In this webinar we’re looking at how health research using smartphones and wearables is being delivered in the pharmaceutical industry and academia. We’re very proud to have Valentin Hamy, Director of Digital Biomarkers Data Analytics at GSK presenting, he shares his perspective on how technology can be used to support drug development.

We also hear from a future leader in our field, Aiden Acquah, a final year PhD student from the University of Oxford. He shares his research in the use of wrist worn accelerometery to predict Parkinson’s disease.

Watch webinar now (YouTube)

Webinar 4: Considering Health Equity When Using Digital Technology for Research Data Collection

Who: Dr Sabine van der Veer, Senior Lecturer in Health Informatics, University of Manchester and Research Associate, Syed Mustafa Ali, University of Manchester.

About: One of the most contentious issues in health research using smartphones and wearables is how it may benefit some people while digitally excluding others. We have two expert speakers who will share the methods they employ to design digital tools for collecting patient-generated data for health research in a fair way.

Whether you work in industry or academia, this webinar will help you to design a digital health study that better serves all members of society.

Watch webinar now (YouTube)

Webinar 3: Predicting COPD Exacerbations Using Personal Sensors

Who: Jennifer Quint, Professor of Respiratory Epidemiology and Research Fellow Dimitris Evangelopoulos from Imperial College London.

About: We were thrilled to welcome our partners at Imperial College London for the third webinar in the Health Research from Home series.

Attendees heard how Professor Jennifer Quint, Research Fellow Dimitris Evangelopoulos and their team used wearable technology to discover exacerbations in COPD or Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease. If you want to learn more about how to successfully integrate self-reported data and GPS data into a research project, as well as descriptive and time series data analysis, you can’t miss this webinar recording.

Watch webinar now (YouTube)

Webinar 2: Digital Measures in Parkinson’s Disease

Who: Erin Rainaldi, Head of Sensors Data Science, and Senior Data Scientist, Johnny Ho from Verily.

About: In our second Health Research from Home webinar, we do an in-depth analysis of Verily’s ‘Study Watch and Virtual Motor Exam’ clinical trial.

Living with Parkinson’s disease can be cruel and painful. Through this trial, Verily worked with patients to find ways to make their journey less difficult. From conception and design, to developing and validating digital measures, to lessons learnt and future opportunities. Our speakers share their experiences of using wearable devices to help inform your future research.

Watch webinar now (YouTube)

Webinar 1: Health Research from Home

Who: Health Research from Home Lead, Professor Will Dixon

About: Introducing Health Research from Home – the revolutionary new partnership that will transform the future of health research using smartphones and wearables.

Our first webinar featured Health Research from Home Lead, Professor Will Dixon, who explained why our partnership was created and how we plan to revolutionise the future of health research.

He also shared how he ran his successful research project, Cloudy With a Chance of Pain? The research showed that people with long-term health conditions are 20% more likely to suffer from pain on days that are humid and windy with low atmospheric pressure. This was done using a smartphone app developed by healthcare software company uMotif, participants recorded daily symptoms while the local weather was determined from location data provided by the smartphone’s GPS.

Watch webinar now (YouTube)

If you have any questions about our webinars or you would like to suggest a topic for a future webinar, please email hrfh@manchester.ac.uk.  

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