The University of Birmingham’s Human Interface Technologies team (HIT) picked up a top award at the West Midlands Academic Health Science Network’s Celebration of Innovation awards event at the NEC’s Hilton Metropole on Thursday 20 July.
The award was presented by Brigadier Tim Hodgetts CBE, the UK’s Defence Medical Services Medical Director, and was given to the team in recognition of their innovative research and development into the use of Virtual and Mixed Reality technologies for civilian and military rehabilitation and for military defence medic training.
The HIT team saw off stiff competition from Birmingham NHS Genomic Centre and Keele University to win the Innovative Team of the Year award.
Professor Bob Stone, Director of the HIT team accepted the award along with Research Fellow Dr Cheng Qian and PhD student Vish Shingari. All three members of team have been closely involved in projects with Queen Elizabeth Hospital and Heartlands Hospital to determine how virtual technology can support healthcare rehabilitation.
Established in 2016 by the West Midlands Academic Health Science Network, the Celebration of Innovation awards are designed to recognise and celebrate the work of individuals and organisations in developing better healthcare and economic benefit for the region, and the ceremony provided an opportunity to celebrate achievements from across the West Midlands. The awards ceremony was the centrepiece of the WMAHSN’s annual stakeholder event, which brought to life the 2016/17 Annual Report and showcased programmes supported and introduced by the WMAHSN over the past 12 months.