{"id":12332,"date":"2019-04-05T14:13:19","date_gmt":"2019-04-05T13:13:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ounews.co\/?p=12332"},"modified":"2019-04-05T14:13:19","modified_gmt":"2019-04-05T13:13:19","slug":"world-health-day-spotlight-on-ou-research","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/education-languages-health\/health\/world-health-day-spotlight-on-ou-research\/","title":{"rendered":"World Health Day &#8211; spotlight on OU research"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As we mark <a href=\"https:\/\/nationaltoday.com\/world-health-day\/\">World Health Day<\/a> on the 7 April, The Open University&#8217;s Research Team takes a look at the research that has shaped and influenced the health sector.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Removing stigma about abortion<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Research by Professor\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/research\/people\/lh22784\">Lesley Hoggart<\/a>, led to the creation of the <a href=\"http:\/\/mybody-mylife.org\/\">MyBodyMyLife<\/a> exhibition, a space in which anyone could share their stories. This has contributed to opening up conversations about real experiences of abortion, to enable all to speak, to listen, and to understand without judgment.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Talking about \u2026 sex and relationships<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Sometimes sex can be difficult to talk about, especially for a young person with a life-limiting or life-threatening condition.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/people\/se2445\">Dr Sarah Earle<\/a>, founding member of The Open University Sexuality Alliance, is leading\u00a0<em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/research\/news\/researching-needs-seriously-ill-young-people\">Talking about \u2026 sex and relationships: Young people speak out<\/a><\/em>, which speaks out for all children and young people who are expected to have short lives.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/healthwellbeing.kmi.open.ac.uk\/special-interest-groups\/sexuality-reproduction\/\">Read more about OU research in Sexuality and Reproductive Health<\/a><\/p>\n<h2>Making decisions about end of life care<\/h2>\n<p>Death is a reality for everyone, but do you know what you would do if faced with a life or death decision?<\/p>\n<p>This is why <a href=\"http:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/people\/esb79\">Dr Erica Borgstrom<\/a> has developed a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.open.edu\/openlearn\/health-sports-psychology\/health\/life-and-death-decisions\">\u00a0Life or Death Decisions interactive<\/a>, which draws on her research about advance care planning, with input from colleagues <a href=\"http:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/people\/rlj25\">Dr Rebecca<\/a> Jones and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/people\/ml8646\">Dr Mathijs Lucassen<\/a> about same-sex relationships in later life.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Let\u2019s talk about death<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Death can also be one of those subjects that people tiptoe around which is why <a href=\"http:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/people\/esb79\">Dr Erica Borgstrom<\/a> has also focused on the language used.<\/p>\n<p>Watch the video to hear what Dr Borgstrom\u2019s research has revealed:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Why language about end of life care matters\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/3IlVpZtURG0?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/healthwellbeing.kmi.open.ac.uk\/special-interest-groups\/death-and-dying\/\">Find out more about OU research into Death and Dying<\/a><\/p>\n<h2><strong>Improving outcomes along the way<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The stresses of life can take their toll between birth and death.<\/p>\n<p>STEM researchers, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/research\/people\/db2298\">Dr Duncan Banks<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/research\/people\/mb32799\">Dr Mohamed Bennasar<\/a> are addressing this through a new research project with Professor Kardos Risk from Milton Keynes University Hospital. The project &#8220;prediction model in patients with suspected coronary artery disease based on contemporary stress echocardiography data using artificial intelligence&#8221; hopes to use clinical databases and machine learning techniques for improving patients\u2019 outcome with chest pain.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Using virtual assistants for end-of-life care<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>OU Health and Wellbeing Priority Research Area Research Fellow, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/research\/people\/hrm93\">Dr Hannah R. Marston<\/a> and independent researcher Julie Samuels have published a paper, <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2227-9032\/7\/1\/49\">Creating Age-Friendly Communities: Housing and Technology<\/a><\/em>, which examines the national and international age-friendly frameworks for older adults who are carers of dependents with disabilities. The central theme of the paper is how the use of virtual\/personal assistants (like Google Home, Amazon Echo and Alexa) can enhance the quality of end-of-life care.<\/p>\n<h2>Find out more<\/h2>\n<p>About OU research into <a href=\"https:\/\/healthwellbeing.kmi.open.ac.uk\/special-interest-groups\/digital-health-wellbeing\/\">Digital Health and Wellbeing<\/a><\/p>\n<p>About OU Research in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/research\/themes\/health-wellbeing\">Health and Wellbeing<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As we mark World Health Day on the 7 April, The Open University&#8217;s Research Team takes a look at the research that has shaped and influenced the health sector. Removing stigma about abortion Research by Professor\u00a0Lesley Hoggart, led to the creation of the MyBodyMyLife exhibition, a space in which anyone could share their stories. This [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":12333,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[862,1042,1525,1640,1904,2403,2454],"class_list":["post-12332","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","tag-faculty-of-wels","tag-health","tag-news-home","tag-ou-home","tag-research","tag-wels","tag-world-health-day"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12332","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12332"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12332\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12333"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}