Celebrating one year of CHIL
As we approach the anniversary of the Civic Health Innovation Labs, launched on December 8, 2023, we take a moment to reflect on the highlights and milestones from our first year.
December 2023
“All in it together”: University launches Civic Health Innovation Labs (CHIL)
The University of Liverpool launched an innovation lab where health and technology experts can work together to drive advances in care and wellbeing. The secure data environment will allow researchers to address local and global health challenges by developing new artificial intelligence (AI) and other data-driven advances.
January 2024
CHIL strengthens health innovation collaborations with South Korea
We were delighted to welcome Professor Hong-Gee Kim, Seoul National University, to sign a Memorandum of Understanding on behalf of his Biomedical Knowledge Engineering Laboratory (BIKE).
February 2024
The Big AI Debate: Who Gets to Decide?
The Liverpool City Region Civic Data Cooperative at the University of Liverpool hosted a public debate on public involvement in data and artificial intelligence (AI).
March 2024
£4.9m secured to advance public health research
The Office for Life Sciences (OLS) has awarded CHIL this significant amount to deliver the ‘Data-Action Accelerator’. This project brings data scientists and engineers working in and around the NHS together with researchers to tackle global problems.
April 2024
Seminar from Prof David Patrick from British Colombia
We welcomed Prof David Patrick, a Infectious Diseases Physician and Epidemiologist from the University of British Columbia to talk about ‘Preventing Childhood Asthma and Allergy: The Neglected Impacts of Antibiotic Stewardship and Human Milk Exposure in Infants’
Healthy Urban Places Award
Funding was announced for an £8m project to create Healthy Urban Spaces in Liverpool and Bradford. The Civic Data Cooperative (CDC) will provide technical expertise to help with the household data linkage of environment data to the cohort
May 2024
Professor Chris Whitty visits CHIL
Professor Whitty, Chief Medical Officer, heard researchers and public advisers present outlines of more than 40 areas of research that are tackling issues that most affect areas of deprivation in the Liverpool City Region.
CHIL Director, Professor Iain Buchan also illustrated the work at CHIL to tackle the rising burden of mental health conditions, the pressures on health systems from more people living longer, the rising threat of antimicrobial resistance, and preparation for the next pandemic.
Contribution to report commissioned by Wellcome Trust
CHIL Director Prof Iain Buchan contributed to the report ‘Catalytic environments to drive progress in digital mental health research’.
June 2024
Delegation from Taiwan
We were delighted to welcome a delegation from the Taiwan Ministry of Health and Welfare to CHIL. Some great conversations exploring civic data science and dynamic biobanks. One of many visits from potential International partners that have taken place through the year.
Funding awarded for international study on epilepsy research
A researcher at the University of Liverpool has been awarded funding for a study to help people with epilepsy understand their antiseizure medications. Dr Gashirai Mbizvo, an NIHR Academic Clinical Lecturer in Neurology, has received almost £300k for his Emerging Leader Fellowship Award from the Epilepsy Research Institute. This will fund a study on the how people with epilepsy can safely stop taking the drug sodium valproate.
#DataSavesLives: talk
CHIL’s Prof Iain Buchan, Prof Dan Joyce, Gary Leeming and Nawal Roy explored how data saves lives in a session on the digital revolution reshaping brain health at The Global Health Network event.
July 2024
Funding for Liverpool researchers to evaluate and improve support for City Region households
Researchers at the University of Liverpool have received a share of £9.7M new UKRI funding announced this week, for projects aimed at ensuring everyone in the UK has a path to economic success and personal wellbeing, regardless of where they live.
The CHESS: Civic Health Equity: from Silos to Systems project will evaluate the health impact of multiple programmes of social and economic support for households across Liverpool City Region (LCR) – including 6 local authority districts with a 1.6 million population.
August 2024
Researchers better understand Structured Medication Reviews
New paper from Lauren Walker and the DynAIRx (Artificial Intelligence for dynamic prescribing optimisation and care integration in multimorbidity) team – one of CHIL’s programmes.
M-RIC’s Public and Patient Involvement launch event
September 2024
Count Me In visit to Aintree Racecourse
The M-RIC initiative featured a stand at Aintree Racecourse, sharing how the project is making it easier for patients and service users to get involved in research so we can improve future care and treatments. Find out more at http://merseycare.nhs.uk/count-me-in.”
October 2024
Playing a key role in Liverpool City Region mission to the US
CHIL Director Professor Iain Buchan played a key role in the Liverpool City Region’s recent mission to the United States to drive trade, investment and tourism.
University and Roche formalise partnership to improve lives for all
The University of Liverpool has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Roche Diagnostics UK and Ireland to advance research and innovation for improved health and community prosperity.
Paper published around the work to develop a segmentation model to identify household with high levels of complex cross-sectoral needs, to plan for integrated care services
November 2024
Four years on – what have we learned from Liverpool’s Covid-19 testing response?
To mark four years since Liverpool led the world’s first voluntary mass testing for Covid-19, The Pandemic Institute has collaborated with Professor Iain Buchan to produce a short film exploring the city’s response, and how we can use data-driven community testing in future pandemics.
Epilepsy Award
Congratulations to Gashirai Mbizvo on winning the 2024 Platform Presentation Award at the International League Against Epilepsy British Branch conference. This national event brings together epilepsy specialists from across the country to discuss clinical and research advancements in this important and common disorder.