Hands up for Health

Hands up for Health teaches young children about health, science and health-related careers, by interactively engaging them in hands-on experiments. As part of the programme, I spoke about the topic of diabetes to 20 eight year olds from a local Lambeth school who came into St Thomas’ Hospital in December 2014.

Get in touch

I am always happy to give presentations to the general public and/or students at schools. Also happy to do so remotely. If you are interested, please get in touch.

Outreach

Why public engagement is important.

I have always loved outreach and public engagement activities. Scientific discoveries need to be communicated to audiences across the life-span, and in particular to patient populations on which this research is performed. After all, scientific medical research is only possible thanks to the contribution of the patients and volunteers that are willing to share their medical information with us. This can be as simple as clinical phenotypes, such as age, sex, and information, e.g., on blood pressure, or more complex, e.g., based on their imaging or genetic information. These activities are a simple way for us scientist to give back and show everyone how grateful we are.

Artwork

The visualisation of research is very important when aiming to engage the audience. I have explored a couple of techniques to animate my research, e.g., for conferences. I also was tasked to animate the logo of the developing Human Connectome Project.

Pediatric Showcase

Public engagement in research is not only limited to patients, children and parents. Clinicians who work with their patients are also an important sector which public engagement is trying to reach. As part of a paediatric showcase in the Evelina Children's Hospital, London, I was able to introduce my own research which investigates the connectivity within the developing brain.