On Friday 15th March the LEAP Hub hosted ‘What is the LEAP Digital Health Hub?’, an afternoon of activities for the University of Bristol’s Digital Health and Care CDT students. The aim of the event was to provide an overview of the LEAP Hub’s activities and objectives. We also wanted to share the potential benefits that the Hub might offer the students.
The afternoon began with a lunchtime talk (over pizza) from the Hub’s Director, Prof Ian Craddock. Ian ran through the progress of the Hub so far and the outlined plans. He also talked about the research themes that have emerged from discussions with Hub partners.
The students then moved onto an interactive workshop with Dr Hanna Isotalus and Dr Karen Dawe, lead and deputy for the Hub’s Skills and Knowledge programme. They began with a competitive icebreaker using LEGO (a LEAP favourite!) and a digital health solution prompt focused on animals.
For the first hour, the students then worked on two Skills and Knowledge themed tasks. Firstly, they had to discuss the steps involved in making a digital health product or service. Each group then presented their ideas and identified the potential training needs required. The second task was to design a poster for a course that could become a part of the Hub’s training catalogue. Key topics covered included; regulatory pathways, use of AI and global markets. The groups then pitched their course ideas and voted for their course of choice.
The second hour of the workshop focused on the Fellowships programme. The session began with a discussion about the benefits of internships, fellowships and industry experience. Each group was then assigned the task of designing an event that would bring value to a hypothetical LEAP PhD fellow. The groups were given a target audience of either pre-fellowship, active fellow or post-fellowship. Examples of added value included mentoring experience, industry contacts, goal-setting and administrative support.
We ended the afternoon with a wine reception and some time to chat informally about the Hub’s relationship with the Digital Health and Care CDT cohort.