Taking a break: doctoral summer schools as transformative pedagogies

This chapter focuses on the doctoral summer school as a challenging pedagogy for doctoral education, in which the traditional supervisory relationship and the disciplinary curriculum are deconstructed through intensive group processes. We draw on our experiences as pedagogues on the Roskilde University Graduate School in Lifelong Learning which has hosted an international summer school for the last ten years. We describe the new learning spaces created and explore the democratic group processes and the collaborative action learning in-volved when discipline and stage of study are set to the side in this multi-paradigmatic, multi-national context. Despite the wide range of participants in terms of length of study, focus and methodological approach, the respite from supervisory pedagogies and the careful critiques of multi-national peer ‘opponents’ is often transformative in the doctoral students’ research sub-jectivities and continuing journeys

Biomedical Informatics Applications for Precision Management of Neurodegenerative Diseases

Modern medicine is in the midst of a revolution driven by “big data,” rapidly advancing computing power, and broader integration of technology into healthcare. Highly detailed and individualized profiles of both health and disease states are now possible, including biomarkers, genomic profiles, cognitive and behavioral phenotypes, high-frequency assessments, and medical imaging. Although these data are incredibly complex, they can potentially be used to understand multi-determinant causal relationships, elucidate modifiable factors, and ultimately customize treatments based on individual parameters. Especially for neurodegenerative diseases, where an effective therapeutic agent has yet to be discovered, there remains a critical need for an interdisciplinary perspective on data and information management due to the number of unanswered questions. Biomedical informatics is a multidisciplinary field that falls at the intersection of information technology, computer and data science, engineering, and healthcare that will be instrumental for uncovering novel insights into neurodegenerative disease research, including both causal relationships and therapeutic targets and maximizing the utility of both clinical and research data. The present study aims to provide a brief overview of biomedical informatics and how clinical data applications such as clinical decision support tools can be developed to derive new knowledge from the wealth of available data to advance clinical care and scientific research of neurodegenerative diseases in the era of precision medicine

An online narrative archive of service user experiences to support the education of undergraduate physiotherapy and social work students in North East England: An evaluation study.

Background: Patient narratives are a viable process for patients to contribute to the education of future health professionals and social workers. Narratives can facilitate a deeper understanding of the self and others through self-reflection and encourage transformative learning among students. Increasingly, accounts of health and care are available online but their use in health and social work education requires evaluation. This study explored the experiences of stakeholders who contributed to, developed and used an online narrative archive, which was developed in collaboration with five universities and healthcare providers in the North East of England (CETL4HealthNE). Methods: Realistic evaluation principles were used to underpin data collection, which consisted of semi-structured interviews, a focus group and observations of educators using narrative resources in teaching sessions with different professional groups in two universities. Participants included educators, storytellers, narrative interviewers, students and a transcriber. Data were analysed thematically by two researchers and verified by a third researcher. Findings: Stakeholders reported that listening to patient narratives was challenging. The process of contributing the story was a positive cathartic experience for patients, and the powerful storyteller voice often evoked empathy. Students commented on the ability of the online audio-visual narratives to enable them to see the patient holistically, and educators reported that narratives provided a means to introduce sensitive topics. Conclusions: The use of a locally generated online narrative archive is beneficial for storytellers, students and educators, providing an opportunity to influence healthcare professional training. Care needs to be taken when exposing individuals to potentially sensitive narratives

An Introduction to the Integrated Community-Engaged Learning and Ethical Reflection Framework (I-CELER)

Cultivating ethical Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics researchers and practitioners requires movement beyond reducing ethical instruction to the rational exploration of moral quandaries via case studies and into the complexity of the ethical issues that students will encounter within their careers. We designed the Integrated Community-Engaged Learning and Ethical Reflection (I-CELER) framework as a means to promote the ethical becoming of future STEM practitioners. This paper provides a synthesis of and rationale for I-CELER for promoting ethical becoming based on scholarly literature from various social science fields, including social anthropology, moral development, and psychology. This paper proceeds in five parts. First, we introduce the state of the art of engineering ethics instruction; argue for the need of a lens that we describe as ethical becoming; and then detail the Specific Aims of the I-CELER approach. Second, we outline the three interrelated components of the project intervention. Third, we detail our convergent mixed methods research design, including its qualitative and quantitative counterparts. Fourth, we provide a brief description of what a course modified to the I-CELER approach might look like. Finally, we close by detailing the potential impact of this study in light of existing ethics education research within STEM

Advancing Biomedical Frontiers: Unveiling The Potential Of 3d Bioprinting In Organ Regeneration

The advent of 3D bioprinting marks a pivotal moment in biomedical research and healthcare, unlocking a realm of possibilities. This abstract explores the transformative potential of 3D bioprinting technology, its diverse applications in medical domains, and the inherent challenges it faces. 3D bioprinting represents a revolutionary fusion of three-dimensional printing precision with the intricacies of biological materials. This groundbreaking technology revolutionizes the fabrication of intricate, customized structures by layering bioinks containing living cells, biomaterials, and growth factors. These engineered constructs faithfully replicate the complex architecture of native tissues and organs, presenting unprecedented opportunities for progress in regenerative medicine, drug testing, and disease modeling. The versatility of 3D bioprinting extends across various medical fields. In regenerative medicine, the ability to craft tissue grafts and organ substitutes tailored to individual patients has the potential to transform transplantation procedures, overcoming challenges like donor shortages and organ rejection. Additionally, pharmaceutical companies are employing 3D bioprinting to generate functional tissue models for drug testing, reducing reliance on animal testing and speeding up drug development processes. 3D bioprinting represents a transformative technology with the potential to advance healthcare through personalized regenerative solutions, ethical drug testing practices, and an improved understanding of diseases.However, the adoption of 3D bioprinting is not without its challenges. The intricacy of the bioprinting process necessitates a profound understanding of cellular biology, materials science, and engineering. Overcoming hurdles related to ensuring cell viability and functionality within printed structures is paramount, along with the imperative to scale up production for clinical applications. Ethical and regulatory considerations also emerge, particularly in the context of printing human tissues and organs

Enabling precision medicine in neonatology, an integrated repository for preterm birth research.

Preterm birth, or the delivery of an infant prior to 37 weeks of gestation, is a significant cause of infant morbidity and mortality. In the last decade, the advent and continued development of molecular profiling technologies has enabled researchers to generate vast amount of 'omics' data, which together with integrative computational approaches, can help refine the current knowledge about disease mechanisms, diagnostics, and therapeutics. Here we describe the March of Dimes' Database for Preterm Birth Research (http://www.immport.org/resources/mod), a unique resource that contains a variety of 'omics' datasets related to preterm birth. The database is open publicly, and as of January 2018, links 13 molecular studies with data across tens of thousands of patients from 6 measurement modalities. The data in the repository are highly diverse and include genomic, transcriptomic, immunological, and microbiome data. Relevant datasets are augmented with additional molecular characterizations of almost 25,000 biological samples from public databases. We believe our data-sharing efforts will lead to enhanced research collaborations and coordination accelerating the overall pace of discovery in preterm birth research

Big data analytics in the healthcare industry: A systematic review and roadmap for practical implementation in Nigeria

Introduction: The introduction of digitization of healthcare data has posed both challenges and opportunities within the industry. Big Data Analytics (BDA) has emerged as a powerful tool, facilitating data-driven decision-making and revolutionizing patient care. Purpose: The research aimed to analyze diverse perspectives on big data in healthcare, assess BDA's application in the sector, examine contexts, synthesize findings, and propose an implementation roadmap and future research directions. Methodology: Using an SLR protocol by Nazir et al. (2019), sources like Google Scholar, IEEE, ScienceDirect, Springer, and Elsevier were searched with 18 queries. Inclusion criteria yielded 37 articles, with five more added through citation searches, totaling 42. Results: The study uncovers diverse healthcare viewpoints on big data's transformative potential, precision medicine, resource optimization, and challenges like security and interoperability. BDA empowers clinical choices, early disease detection, and personalized medicine. Future areas include ethics, interpretable AI, real-time BDA, multi-omics integration, AI-driven drug discovery, mental health, resource constraints, health disparities, secure data sharing, and human-AI collaboration. Conclusion: This study illuminates Big Data Analytics' transformative potential in healthcare, revealing diverse applications and emphasizing ethical complexities. Integrated data analysis is advocated for patient-centric services. Recommendation: Balancing BDA's power with privacy, guidelines, and regulations is vital. Implementing the Nigerian healthcare roadmap can optimize outcomes, address challenges, and enhance efficiency. Future research should focus on ethics, interpretable AI, real-time BDA, and mental health integration

Reciprocity in global mental health policy

In an attempt to address inequalities and inequities in mental health provision in low and middle-income countries the WHO commenced the Mental Health Gap Action Programme (mhGAP) in 2008. Four years on from the commencement of this programme of work, the WHO has recently adopted the Comprehensive Mental Health Action Plan 2013-2020. This article will critically appraise the strategic direction that the WHO has adopted to address mental health difficulties across the globe. This will include a consideration of the role that the biomedical model of mental health difficulties has had on global strategy. Concerns will be raised that an over-reliance on scaling up medical resources has led to a strengthening of psychiatric hospital-based care, and insufficient emphasis being placed on social and cultural determinants of human distress. We also argue that consensus scientific opinion garnered from consortia of psychiatric ‘experts’ drawn mainly from Europe and North America may not have universal relevance or applicability, and may have served to silence and subjugate local experience and expertise across the globe. In light of the criticisms that have been made of the research that has been conducted into understanding mental health problems in the global south, the article also explores ways in which the evidence-base can be made more relevant and more valid. An important issue that will be highlighted is the apparent lack of reciprocity that exists in the impetus for change in how mental health problems are understood and addressed in low and middle-income countries compared to high-income countries. Whereas there is much focus on the need for change in low and middle-income countries, there is comparatively little critical reflection on practices in high-income countries in the global mental health discourse. We advocate for the development of mental health services that are sensitive to the socio-cultural context in which the services are applied. Despite the appeal of global strategies to promote mental health, it may be that very local solutions are required. The article concludes with some reflections on the strategic objectives identified in the Comprehensive Mental Health Action Plan 2013-2020 and how this work can be progressed in the future