Boston calling for Julia
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MORAY’S pioneering use of digital health will be enhanced when Lhanbryde honours student Julia Moreland presents a unique patient survey to world experts in the field.
Julia (34), a Moray College UHI social sciences BA graduate, flew to the Harvard Medical School in Boston this week with mentor Tara French, a psychology lecturer at the college.
She will present her research on how patients use the Internet to access health information to hundreds of delegates at the Medicine 2.0 conference.
Before jetting to the States, Julia told ‘The Scot’: "This is like winning the academic lottery for me. I am totally excited.
"It is a huge conference and 350 presentations will be made over the weekend. I will be making my presentation on Sunday, and I hope it comes across how excited and passionate I am about this research."
While her findings will remain firmly under wraps until Sunday, the fourth year honours student revealed that the aim is to show the impact of the use of Internet and online health tools by patients on GP and other frontline services.
She said accessing health information online can be something of a ‘minefield’ for patients, and she was keen to establish how they accessed information and what decisions that prompted them to make.
To do that she enlisted the support of GP surgeries across Moray, and 10 agreed to take her questionnaires, with the practices at Dufftown and Maryhill in Elgin particularly helpful in raising awareness of the research project.
That elicited 527 responses to the 20-question survey, and Julia has spent the summer poring over the responses.
"We got a lot of rich data and some significant findings," she said.
Funding from Moray College UHI has ensured Julia could attend the conference, with Tara’s previous experience ensuring her submission to present her findings was accepted.
Tara (26) said the timing of Julia’s presentation couldn’t be better.
"With the life science centre opening next year this fits perfectly in promoting Moray as a key player as a digital hub," she said.
"What she has done is fantastic. It is absolutely incredible."
Julia’s Boston trip comes as Moray gets set to welcome other leading figures in the digital health field to Horizon Scotland in Forres next week for an international conference.
Delegates and speakers will include experts from Mozambique, Bhutan, Singapore and representatives from the largest hospital in China.
The event has been backed by the Scottish Government and organised by the United Nations Institute of Training and Research and CIFAL Scotland.
Read the full and exclusive interview with Julia only in 'The Northern Scot'.
