CUHK collaborates with WUN members in digital health

Meeting of the project team. From left: Dr. Jonathan Penm, Prof. Mark Latt and Prof. Simon Poon, USyd; Dr Owen Johnson, University of Leeds; Prof. Kelvin Tsoi and Prof. Allen Lee, CUHK; Dr. Nicholas Fuggle, University of Southampton; and Dr. Zhiyao Duan, University of Rochester.

Digital health (or eHealth) harnesses digital technology to improve people’s health and healthcare services. The topic has been gaining attention worldwide and many advances and applications have emerged. However, there has been limited research on the readiness and capability of adopting digital health.

In 2018, Prof. Kelvin Tsoi of the Stanley Ho Big Data Decision Analytics Research Centre at CUHK was engaged in a project titled ‘The Role of Big Data in Addressing the Determinants of Non-communicable Diseases in the Ageing Era’ led by Prof. Simon Poon of the School of Computer Science at the University of Sydney (USyd). Funded by the Worldwide Universities Network Research Development Fund (WUN RDF), the project investigates the challenges and opportunities arising from eHealth, explores a conceptual model to measure eHealth readiness and capability, and identifies new measures and data for medical screening or monitoring. In addition to CUHK, the project involves researchers of medicine, health, and engineering backgrounds from the Universities of Leeds, Rochester, and Southampton, as well as Harvard University, Stanford University, National University of Singapore, and IBM Hong Kong.

A number of workshops and meetings were held to share insights and exchange ideas, including an International Symposium on Digital Health held at CUHK in May 2019 which brought experts from the healthcare and engineering sectors together to promote interdisciplinary research and discuss topics such as mobile health, AI, and innovations and commercialisation.

Stepping into the project’s second year, the team has taken the collaboration forward by forming an International Society for Digital Health to enlarge its network and encourage research and innovations to advance digital health globally. The team is also working on a white paper titled ‘Interdisciplinary Research for Digital Health: Academic Perspectives from WUN’ and will promote exchange and training opportunities in collaboration with the University of Leeds’ new Centre for Doctoral Training in AI for Medical Diagnosis and Care.

The International Symposium on Digital Health is held at CUHK.