BBC World’s “The Health Show” filmed a feature using the inflatable operating theatre Studiohead created for Imperial College London. This version of the surgical training simulation features an Angioplasty; a wire is inserted through the artery in the thigh to unblock an obstructed blood vessel.

In normal cases the patient is under local anaesthetic during the procedure, and so in this set up, we have concealed an actor under the simulated patient to create realistic pressures on the clinical team.

The large ‘C-arm’ is an X-ray machine that allows the cardiologist to see the blood vessels, the blockage, and the inserted stent. We recreated a portable simulation of this imposing equipment, which is linked to a virtual reality simulation of the heart and blood vessels shown on the screens, created by Imperial College engineers.

In creating the simulation, we spent time observing real angioplasty’s in hospitals in London and Oxford to decide how to recreate the procedure in a realistic, but low-cost and portable way.

The resulting simulation provides an immersive training environment for clinical teams that recreates the pressures of the real thing, as well as a valuable tool for engaging the public about this increasingly common operation that is often used following a heart attack.

You can see the feature from “the Health Show” here:
http://rockhopper.tv/programmes/756

Studiohead have been successful in the Design Council’s most recent Design Challenge. Together with Louise Wilson, Ifung Lu and Meike Walcha, we entered a proposal to create a brand new tool to help families living with dementia. The tool, provisionally called Grouple, will be a combination of a website and physical products that help families and friends co-ordinate their care for someone with Dementia.

At the heart of the concept is the idea that we can make caring and sharing for someone with dementia more accessible and less daunting for people on the periphery of the care network, and that by providing the tools to do this, we can enhance the lifestyle of the person with dementia and relieve the pressure on their primary carers.

You can see an animation of our original concept here. We have made it public in order to gain feedback, so don’t be shy with your comments.

We are at the start of this very exciting project, and we will be undertaking considerable user-research to refine and improve our ideas, and will be producing a prototype for public display at the end of March.

We are undertaking this challenge with support from BT Innovate & Design, and Jewish Care.

We will keep this news page and our facebook page updated as the project develops, so do check back regularly.

For more information on the Challenge, and to read about the four other successful proposals please visit www.designcouncil.org.uk/dementia

If you are near Stoke Newington on Friday evening, do pop by! There will be excellent Christmas present buying opportunities.

Studiohead have just completed a new website for Events and Consulting company Unwired Ventures. Unwired specialise in creating events and knowledge centred on the worlds of work and technology, advising some of the world’s best known organisations. Their new website needed to reflect the forward thinking nature of their business, be simple to keep up to date with their ever-growing global events calendar, and embrace all that is new in the world of social networking.

We designed an understated, but elegant background and layout, to make full use of photographic content, an expandable, newspaper style front page, and a simple, consistent top-bar navigation…

Not only does the site help promote new events, but we have set up WorkTech TV, to show some of the best talks from previous events…

View the site at unwired.eu.com

Studiohead and Imperial College Division of Surgery are holding a public performance at the Camden Arts Centre on Sunday 19th June.

We will explore through Simulation and Improvised Music what happens when you have a heart attack, and are rushed by ambulance to a Catheter Lab to have an artery unblocked.

Quite Spectacular is series of live, heart stopping, surgical demonstrations by the Imperial College medical school and designers Studiohead, staged to co-incide with Christine Borland’s explorations into the use of the human body in medical science.

You are having a heart attack. Your life is passed from hand to hand as you are rushed into hospital by ambulance. You find yourself lying on a bed, while a surgeon inserts a wire into your leg. You are scared, but you witness a miracle, you watch someone saving your life.

The afternoon sees Camden Arts Centre playing host to the ‘inflatable operating theatre’ simulating the angiogram procedure. Visitors will be able to watch the entire process and even take part to experience what it is like to put your life in someone else’s hands or even insert a virtual stent into yourself.

Performances at 1.00pm | 2.00pm | 3.00pm

For more information and to reserve a space:
http://www.camdenartscentre.org/talksandevents/?id=101093

Studiohead’s operating theatre featured in Jamie Oliver’s Channel 4 production ‘Dream school’. Dream School’s science teacher, Professor Robert Winston invited Roger Kneebone and the team from Imperial College to give a practical lesson in Surgery to inspire children to re-engage with education. As one young lady put it, “Oh my god that was soooo gud, that was amaaaaaaazing!”…

Studiohead director Matt Harrison led a team in December’s 48 Hour Inclusive Design Challenge,as part of Desgin Korea 2010.

“Best presentation prize went to Team iPop led by Studiohead’s Matt Harrison for a mainstream device and smart phone application inspired by their profoundly deaf design partner, that enhances the cinema experience for everyone by projecting subtitles on to a pair of glasses with an embedded transparent video screen.”

In 48 hours the team researched the needs of a deaf person in the cinema environment, and came up with a design concept that can open up the world of cinema, not only to deaf people, but foreigners, language students and twitter users! An open source app delivers real time subtitles in any language, augmented onto the cinema screen through a pair of glasses. The whole process is managed through your smart phone that listens to the soundtrack of the film, and matches it with an online database of film scripts.

For more information about the Challenge, and the design please visit:

http://www.hhc.rca.ac.uk/3565/all/1/Seoul-2010.aspx

The ‘Distributed Simulation’ surgical environment designed by Studiohead and the team at Imperial College were invited to appear in an upcoming channel 4 program called “Dream School”. The program follows a group of teenagers, all of whom left school with no qualifications, and aims to re-engage them with education, getting them interested in a range of subjects through inspirational teachers and teaching methods. In the episode that was filmed yesterday the team at Imperial College, led by Dr Roger Kneebone, were invited to give an insight into surgery and the medical profession using their simulated environment. They encouraged the students to participate and experience the roles of different clinicians during a simulated surgical procedure.

Studiohead director Cian Plumbe who believes in design involvement throughout the development process, took this mantra to new levels by appearing as a stab victim in the dramatic introduction to the class aided by the work of medical special effects artists ‘Health Cuts Ltd’.

The program, the brainchild of Jamie Oliver, that included Science lessons with Professor Robert Winston and English lessons with Simon Callow will air sometime in February / March next year.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-11452711