Design for Health and Wellbeing

The Design for Health and Wellbeing Research group (DHW) aims to build collaborative partnerships for developing research that informs the evidence base for practice and improves health and wellbeing.

The research group seeks to address the changing needs of medical research and society, including: 

• social factors and health (prevention, intervention, individual, and collective wellbeing)
• medical device development and additive manufacturing processes
• health management and communication of health - including telemedicine
• biomaterials - including dental, cardiovascular, ophthalmics and orthopaedics. 

Existing research focuses on the:

• development of medical devices
• the utilisation of new and innovative smart technologies and materials. 

Current projects include the development of responsive ocular prosthetics, patient stroke rehabilitation systems, cricothyrotomy devices, the manufacture of artificial muscles and personal physical activity/inactivity monitoring (quantified self).

The DHW research group lead innovative research linked to the combined use of Computer Aided Design (CAD) printing systems and layer manufacturing techniques to produce medical devices which have a uniform composition. We have already established strong links with the Nottingham University Hospital and Medilink (East Midlands). We also have active involvement with the Biomaterials Special interest group as part of Biomat-IN, which is a collaboration of five European clusters working to foster innovation in the area of biomaterials through transnational cooperation. 

We are looking to generate research income through the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), NIHR i4i fund, EPSRC, the Stroke Association, Wellcome Trust and European Framework Programme Seven and other European Commission initiatives.

Research Group Leader
Philip Breedon
Email
Telephone: +44 (0)115 848 6424