Even doing an industrial PhD, which involves spending time outside academia, a PhD is mainly a research-based educational program, and it is mandatory to earn credits from educational modules at your host university. In my case, I’m based outside academia, in a Private Oncology Clinic (Oncoavanze, Seville, Spain), as part of a European Industrial Doctorate and my secondment is in Academia, in my case, University College Dublin, UCD. Being involved in an educational program me

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In March, I attended the joint British Psychosocial Oncology Society and National Cancer Research Institute’s Psychosocial Oncology and Survivorship Clinical Studies Group annual conference. It took place across two days in Chester, UK, and brought together practitioners, researchers, patient advocates, as well as students, all with the shared interest of enhancing supportive care in oncology and, ultimately, the quality of life of those affected by cancer. Joint BPOS & NCRI

In my last blog post I’ve briefly explained the research topics related to my PhD project and how I aim to design of a physical activity app for breast cancer survivors, while also exploring personalization/tailoring theory to increase user engagement. In this blog post I will provide a brief review of physical activity apps, found in published literature that were specifically designed for this population. I’ve extracted papers from 3 online databases (PubMed, ACM and SCOPUS

This week marks the start of the third year of my PhD, and I’m feeling in a reflective mood…deadlines, presentations, secondments come and go and it’s easy to get caught up in my weekly to-do list. But right now I’m taking a step back to think of the big picture and what my project is all about, and I wanted to share this with you! Every year, nearly 500,000 women in Europe are diagnosed with breast cancer, many of whom will need to have surgery as a crucial part of their tre

Last week of November I finished an 11-months study. It was a qualitative study based mostly on semi-structured interviews. For everyone who doesn’t know me, well, I’m a trained computer engineer with a Masters degree on pervasive computing and sustainable development who is now working on an algorithm to predict the care journeys for future cancer patients. It is not common for engineers to get training in qualitative research, so here I'll present some tips to conduct one.

They say a problem shared is a problem halved. If you have ever felt that weight leave your shoulders after talking through a problem with a friend, you’ll know that there is some truth to this statement. However sometimes it is easier to discuss concerns with a complete stranger than it is with a friend or relative. This may be particularly true as one tries to come to terms and cope with a life changing event, such as being diagnosed with cancer for example. In such situati

In this blog post I will generally describe the main concepts related to my PhD work. European Project CATCH My project is part of the Marie Curie project CATCH - “Cancer: Activating Technology for Connected Health”. The overall aim of the project is to activate technology-supported physical exercise in bridging the gap between cancer survivors’ depleted physical and emotional state, and their ability to return to a fully functional and healthy state. Physical Activity in Can

I recently started practising yoga regularly again, and I'm loving it. Over the course of the summer, I’ve found it increasingly easier to twist into awkward positions with deceptively-endearing names or hold my balance on one leg while impersonating a tree blowing in the wind. What I'm saying is, I’m feeling stronger, more flexible and more relaxed. As I lie on the grass after class (yes, in Seville we do yoga in the park 😍), it doesn’t take long for my mind to go to that p

I have recently returned to Dublin from Seville after 6 months on secondment at Oncoavanze, a private clinical facility which provides oncology services to the people of Seville. The last 6 months has seen me interact and provide exercise rehabilitation services to oncology patients who have completed or are undergoing chemotherapy for a variety of cancer types. This rehabilitation service involved the use of electrical stimulation (NMES) to augment their rehab and improve mu

Nyhavn, the most famous canal in Copenhagen (Denmark) Many people in my professional and personal environment ask me with a real interest: but... what are you doing exactly now? and then I think: How could I explain? In this post I am proposing to make an update about what I am doing right now and what is CATCH programme. I will try to explain it easily, clearly and understandable to anyone. Or at least I'll try. What does CATCH mean? Currently, I am doing the industrial PhD

It has now been a year since I packed up my car and moved to Dublin to start a PhD with CATCH. However this was only the start of the mobility element of my PhD, as I am about to embark on a new adventure by joining Salumedia, a technology start-up company based in Seville, whose expertise lies in developing mobile solutions for the healthcare sector, serious games, and social media. Over the last twelve months, I have been based at University College Dublin where I have been

Prior to any research with humans and especially with patients, research methods should be taken to a committee that will judge whether the procedures meet the ethical requirements of protection for subjects who will be subjected to the intervention. This procedure is mandatory and the specialized journals in the area of medicine and health require that this information be in the text of the article submitted by the authors. But is this really verified? Usually compliance wit

Cancer is the leading cause of death worldwide, only second to cardiovascular disease. It is a disease, which can affect anyone; it doesn’t care if you are young or old, male or female. The number of new cases reported each year is increasing, and this is partly due to our growing and ageing global population. Now things sound bad, but fortunately because of continually improving cancer treatments, long-term prognosis is better than ever for many survivors and people are livi

I have relocated a lot, but none of my previous relocation has been as challenging as my relocation here in Dublin. I’ll come there in a few paragraphs. People say the researcher’s life is boring and lonely, stuck in an office or lab and not getting out of there. While we are stuck at our offices for some time, the rest of it is either flying from one country to another for conferences, short research visits, or doing some field work. I’m doing the latter one here in Dublin.

What is an Irish physiotherapist doing working in an eHealth technology company in Spain? Yep, here I am, starting the second year of my PhD with a 12-month secondment to Salumedia Tecnologías in Seville. I've only been here for two weeks, but let's see if I can use what I've learnt so far to answer some FAQs… Let’s go! OK Louise, what's a secondment? “secondment səˈkɒndm(ə)nt/ noun BRITISH the temporary transfer of an official or worker to another position or employment” A

When one does an academic, scientific or research work, what they are primarily seeking is to learn, deepen and focus on a specific topic. A fundamental part of scientific work is the communication of results and research through publishing papers in scientific journals and the sector to generate an impact on society. As my project partner Dominic O 'Connor points out, in his previous post "as researchers, we have the social responsibility to disseminate the results of our re

As researchers, we are judged on our ability to publish high quality research in peer reviewed academic journals. For the researcher, publication is a valuable commodity, and the more we publish in high impact journals the greater our job prospects. However, although this is important the work we publish in these journals is usually only read by our peers, and unless published open access, can remain blocked behind journal subscription fees making it hard for the public to ac

A year has flown by since the beginning of my industrial doctorate in the European project CATCH. A time spent at Salumedia, a digital health company with an ideal infrastructure to start this journey - details of that experience in my previous blog post. This year helped me step into the field of mHealth and Cancer and to decide the specific area where my research could provide a valuable contribution. Last week, I started my secondment at Oncoavanze, an Oncology clinic also

When I first came to work with physical activity in the CATCH project I came across the Nordic Walking (NW) program of Oncoavanze Clinic, my host institution to develop the research. The program is coordinated by one of my supervisors, Prof. Dr. Matilde Mora, from University of Seville and VidaON association. Surprised to encounter this activity for the first time and especially in Seville, a city that has nothing of Nordic, I tried to learn more about NW and then I understoo