This August, trainee clinicians from Qatar University met with engineers at Imperial College London.

Majed Abdulaziz M A Al-Theyab and Mohammed Yousef S Y Al-Hor both student doctors from Qatar were mentored by Dr Talya Porat based at the Dyson School of Design Engineering.

The exchange was made possible by the Clinician Engineer Hub (clinicianengineer.com), an international network aimed at bridging the gap between medicine and engineering.

During their visit Majed and Mohammed were shown the research done at the Dyson School of Design Engineering. This included a visit to the Robotics Lab where Digby Chappell demonstrated his PhD work on improving prosthetic hand control. Dr Aidan Hogg, a Research Associate in the Audio Experience Design Lab, demonstrated his work on spatial audio and 3D binaural sound rendering.

The students also visited the Dementia Care Research & Technology Centre at White City where Sarah Daniels showed them the living lab, a ‘smart home’ for people with dementia consisting of sensors to monitor movement/activities and interactive devices to monitor participants’ vital signs. They also visited Charing Cross Hospital to see how A&E and surgery theatres operate in the UK.

During this period Majed and Mohammed worked on their individual research projects which included a review of primary care Electronic Health Record Systems used around the world and how Covid-19 was visually communicated to the public in the last two years.

Dr Talya Porat said: 'It was a pleasure having Majed and Mohammed join the ‘Human Factors in Healthcare’ group at the Dyson School of Design Engineering. They were very enthusiastic to learn about human factors and how we apply cognitive psychology theories and models to design digital healthcare interventions. I hope we will keep in touch and have more medical students visiting and joining our group'.  

Dr Neel Sharma, Founder and Director of the Clinician Engineer Hub, Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust commented, ‘This exchange between Qatar University clinicians and Imperial College London engineers has proven so valuable in advancing healthcare across the clinician engineer interface. By bringing both expert institutions together, we have been able to gain further knowledge and understanding of the benefits of engineering innovation in medicine and continue on in our mission of developing future clinician engineers.’  

For more information on the Clinician Engineer Hub visit clinicianengineer.com