Robot education peers in a situated primary school study: Personalisation promotes child learning.

The benefit of social robots to support child learning in an educational context over an extended period of time is evaluated. Specifically, the effect of personalisation and adaptation of robot social behaviour is assessed. Two autonomous robots were embedded within two matched classrooms of a primary school for a continuous two week period without experimenter supervision to act as learning companions for the children for familiar and novel subjects.

Searching for a sustainable process of service user and health professional online discussions to facilitate the implementation of e-health.

Many e-health projects fail to be implemented. We aimed to find a sustainable process of service user and health professional online discussions about e-health to facilitate implementation and identification of needed research. A previously piloted course compared Mental Health participants' views with publications, identifying 'quick wins' and barriers to e-health implementation.

Older people going online: its value and before-after evaluation of volunteer support.

Background: Although Internet usage can benefit older people by reducing social isolation, increasing access to services, and improving health and well-being, only a minority are online. Barriers to Internet uptake include attitude and a lack of knowledge and help. We have evaluated volunteer support in helping older people go online.

The diabetes app challenge: user-led development and piloting of internet applications enabling young people with diabetes to set the focus for their diabetes consultations.

Background: Traditionally, some teenagers and young adults with diabetes have not engaged well at diabetes appointments, giving rise to concerns about long-term health risks. We considered that apps might help this group of patients to improve preparation for, and therefore engagement at their appointments. Although there are already many apps for young people with type 1 diabetes (YPD), we thought that by supporting YPD themselves to develop apps, the resulting products would have greater "authenticity" and relevance.

Development and implementation of a decision pathway for general practitioners for the management or referral of suspected allergy.

Many patients with suspected allergy are referred to specialist care inappropriately. We aimed to develop and implement an online decision pathway to aid General Practitioners' (GPs) management decisions in suspected allergy. Our study involved 1487 GPs, 3 referral management centres, 5 GP system suppliers, 4 primary care trusts, and 1 specialist allergy clinic.

Online anonymous discussion between service users and health professionals to ascertain stakeholder concerns in using e-health services in mental health.

Implementation of e-health in mental health services requires that we are aware of stakeholders' concerns. We ascertained the views of mental health professionals and mental health service users through the (1) development of 12 topics based on the research literature, (2) presentation to 31 participants (19 mental health professionals and 12 mental health service users) and discussion in three 1-week programmes, (3) thematic analysis of transcripts, and (4) comparison with the literature to identify areas requiring attention in e-health implementation. This method of engaging mental health service users and mental health professionals was effective.

Collaborative learning about e-health for mental health professionals and service users in a structured anonymous online short course: pilot study.

Background: Professionals are interested in using e-health but implementation of new methods is slow. Barriers to implementation include the need for training and limited awareness or experience. Research may not always convince mental health professionals (MHPs).

Developing an online learning community for mental health professionals and service users: a discursive analysis.

Background: There is increasing interest in online collaborative learning tools in health education, to reduce costs, and to offer alternative communication opportunities. Patients and students often have extensive experience of using the Internet for health information and support, and many health organisations are increasingly trying out online tools, while many healthcare professionals are unused to, and have reservations about, online interaction.

Methods: We ran three week-long collaborative learning courses, in which 19 mental health professionals (MHPs) and 12 mental health service users (MHSUs) participated.