Podcast: An unsung hero, digital mental health, and acting on patient feedback

In this edition: We explore Sir Ernst Chain’s role in penicillin, apps tackling mental health, and an algorithm making sense of patient feedback.

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News: Obesity injections and bat faces – We discuss a new treatment for obesity that provides an alternative to surgery, and meet some handsome bats with an interesting evolutionary story.

The story of Sir Ernst Chain – The founder of Imperial’s biochemistry division, Sir Ernst Chain, was a German-Jewish refugee who played an important role in bringing penicillin to the masses. We speak to his son Benny Chain, who grew up at Imperial and now carries on his father’s work, at the interface of biology and computer science.

Digital options for mental health help – What stops people accessing traditional mental health services and how can digital services step in? We discover how innovations such as the Shout app are helping fill the gap, with positive responses especially from young people.

Streamlining patient feedback – Hospitals receive thousands of comments on their care, but it can be difficult to process them all. We speak to Imperial researchers who have created an award-winning algorithm that analyses comments and is already improving patient experience.

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The podcast is presented by Gareth Mitchell, a lecturer on Imperial's MSc Science Communication course and the presenter of Click Radio on the BBC World Service, with contributions from our roving reporters in the Research Communications group.