Clinical trials

The purpose of this trial is to evaluate an intervention designed to improve insomnia and sleep in people living with secondary breast cancer. The study will assess whether the intervention is feasible and acceptable to deliver and participate in, and whether it may improve sleep and related outcomes. The main questions the study aims to answer are: 1. Is it feasible to recruit people with secondary breast cancer to take part in the trial?; 2. Is the intervention feasible for people with secondary breast cancer to use and complete?; 3. Is the intervention acceptable to participants?; 4. Does the intervention improve sleep, fatigue, quality of life, and mental health?; Participants will be allocated to one of two groups: 1. Intervention group: Participants will be invited to attend five weekly sessions with a trained facilitator to receive the intervention. 2. Control group: Participants will receive a Sleep Hygiene Education self-help resource to use over a five-week period. Participants will complete questionnaires, sleep diaries, and sleep monitoring using a wearable device at three time points: before treatment, immediately after the five-week treatment period, and three months after treatment. Participants will also be invited to provide feedback about their experiences of taking part in the study and the intervention through either an interview or survey. The results will be used to determine whether the intervention is feasible and acceptable and whether there is evidence of potential benefits for sleep and other outcomes. The findings will help determine whether further research of the intervention is warranted and if there is further intervention development work required.

The Biomedical Engineering Dept, University of Strathclyde, co-creates rehabilitation technology. In 2023-2024 a clinical study (NCT06787768) was conducted to understand the feasibility of a multi-technology approach to rehabilitation early after stroke. This was successful and leads to the next phase which is to gather preliminary evidence of the effectiveness of this approach by monitoring change in the mobility of patients who receive this intervention compared with usual care which will be gathered through a data linkage project (tracking the outcomes from matched patients from other parts of Scotland who receive usual care).

The minimum guideline recommendations for rehabilitation after stroke are not being met. This compromises individual recovery and increasing the global burden of disability. A multi-technology solution, co-created with people living with stroke, has been shown to be feasible in both sub-acute and chronic populations but has not been implemented as an integrated rehabilitation service. The aim of this implementation study is to assess the ability of a technology enriched model of rehabilitation to deliver guideline recommendations in a range of NHS and local authority settings that provide rehabilitation services to stroke survivors at different stages of their recovery. The findings will be used to co-create a scalable, adaptable, and sustainable model that meets rehabilitation guidelines.

The AMPER (Agent-based Memory Prosthesis to Encourage Reminiscing) system has been built to help people with Alzheimer's disease by improving their memory recall and quality of life. Alzheimer's often leads to the loss of autobiographical memories, which can affect a person's sense of identity. AMPER seeks to address this by creating a digital memory aid that uses an engaging, animated character on a tablet to help individuals with Alzheimer's reminisce about their past. By presenting personally relevant stories, images, audio, and videos, the character helps trigger memories and encourages interaction with caregivers. This is proof of concept study using a randomised controlled trial methodology. Twenty participants will be randomised to the control and 20 randomised to the intervention condition. The intervention group will use a personalised version of the AMPER app with tailored content and the control group will use a non-personalised version without specific adaptations. Over 12 weeks, participants will use the app at home with their caregivers. Researchers will measure changes in their memory and cognitive abilities before and after these 12 weeks. The primary goal is to see if personalised reminiscence improves the perceived quality of the reminiscence experience and autobiographical memory ability compared to the same app with a non-personalised approach. This will be measured using a combination of automatically gathered app use data and weekly caregiver feedback. Secondary goals are to investigate any difference between participants in the intervention and control condition in their technology acceptance, quality of life, self-esteem, everyday functioning and cognitive ability. Feedback from this research will help refine AMPER and inform future studies, with the ultimate goal of creating a widely accessible tool that supports memory and well-being in Alzheimer's patients. Table 1 provides a summary of the study.

The purpose of this observational study is to track the recovery of stance duration symmetry during the first 6 months after stroke using wearable sensors and explore the influence of stroke specific factors (time since stroke, stroke type, location and paretic side).