The development and use of Digital Technology and Advanced Data Analytics in health research is a cross-cutting strength of the HRI that has direct and indirect impact on the Institute’s research activities.
The HRI has a strong tradition of incorporating digital technologies in health research, and we see these technologies as an important
enabler of a healthy society with equitable healthcare for all based on technology-enabled prevention, early intervention and health service provision within the community.
Technological activities that have applications across our research areas are conducted by the HRI in diverse areas such as the design and development of medical devices, hemodynamics, the use of advanced data analytics for diagnosis and treatment, and the design and optimisation of medical software workflows.
Moreover, through the Rapid Innovation Unit, a research group comprising UL and ULHG colleagues that aims to apply cutting-edge 3D printing technologies to address unmet clinical needs, HRI members have access to state-of-the-art rapid prototyping facilities and an avenue towards licensing and commercialisation.
Over the next five years, we aim to drive technological and data analytics innovation through focused collaboration amongst our multidisciplinary membership across and with our external partners. We recognise that digital innovations, in particular, play a vital role in enhancing treatments and therapies and thus help to sustain and improve the health of the population.
Our interdisciplinary membership is ideally positioned to drive such innovation and make a lasting impact on the healthcare solutions of the future, including personalised ones. This aim is underpinned by the ambition to create robust data collection, storage and processing facilities at university level.
The lead for this research area is Prof. Katie Crowley.
Katie is an academic in the Department of Computer Science and Information Systems at University of Limerick. Her research interests include Affective Computing; Human Computer Interaction; Psychophysiology and Wearables; Health Information Technology and IoMT. She is the Course Director for the MSc in Health Informatics in the University of Limerick and she teaches a number of modules on this course.
She has experience working with, and in industry, including securing national funding for industry partnerships (SFI). She has been a team member in multi-disciplinary international research projects co-funded by industry and national funding bodies and has led projects as Principal Investigator and Senior Researcher. Dr Crowley regularly works in interdisciplinary teams working across disciplines and domains, forging strategic relationships and multi-disciplinary partnerships, and building effective research consortia.