Welcome to our 2025 SPECTRA pages to hear our latest news and activities!
We look forward to hosting our workshops and public engagement sessions in addition to widening our collaborations, so do get in touch if you are interested in collaborating…
March
Youth Voice Panel Workshop – Friday 14th March
We had the pleasure of working with the fabulous Heriot-Watt Engage Team in collaboration with the GRI in Health and Care and young people from the Youth Voice Panel who interacted with our cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT)-inspired digital and card games in an inspiring workshop based around AI and robotics. We featured our SMILE project, Digital Resilience: SMILE funded by the European Union under Grant Agreement No°101080923 and young people got a chance to interact with our digital game during its development and add their valuable impressions.
April 2025
SMILE AGM in Valladolid, Spain
The SMILE team had a very successful annual meeting from 2nd-4th April in the beautiful city of Valladolid, hosted by our partners INTRAS who also hosted a public engagement session that we had the pleasure of participating in.
Edinburgh Science Festival
Our wonderful RA Helen led our Project SMILE inspired public engagement events at the Edinburgh Science Festival, ‘Meet the Sustainability Scientists’ event at Dynamic Earth, on April 7th.
May 2025
AI and Robotics Panel
Helen was busy again this month, this time joining colleagues at Panmure House to help to facilitate the Youth Panel in exploring a range of themes related to AI.
SMILE Mental Health Webinar
Mel was also busy participating in the Mental Health Dialogue series!
MIND Comic!
We were delighted to have a MIND feature included in the Global Research Institute in a new Health and Care themed comic created by Dekko Comics in collaboration with HWU Engage.
June 2025
Global Research in Health and Care Technologies Showcase
We combined our MIND work with our M.E.L. work to demonstrate our digital health work at the Global Research in Health and Care Technologies Showcase in the National Robotarium on 5th June.
January 2025
2025 got off to a great start for M.E.L. with a 1st prize award from the Association of Anaesthesia 2025 Innovation in Anaesthesia, Critical Care and Pain Award for preliminary investigations into hologram-assisted thoracic epidural insertion using an augmented reality headset. Professor Graeme McLeod attended the Associations Winter Scientific Meeting to accept the award and present our work.
Medical Education Lab
June 2025
Global Research in Health and Care Technologies Showcase
We combined our M.E.L work with our MIND work to demonstrate our digital health work at the Global Research in Health and Care Technologies Showcase in the National Robotarium on 5th June.
2025 Publications
January 2025
McLeod, G., McKendrick, M., Portelli, R., Husz, Z., James, G. & McKendrick, G. (2025) Hologram-assisted thoracic epidural insertion in the Thiel soft embalmed cadaver: proof of concept simulation study. British Journal of Anaesthesia. Published online 22/01/2025, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bja.2024.11.039
February 2025
McLeod, G., McKendrick, M., McKendrick, G., Portelli, R., James, G., & Husz, Z. (2025). An RCT investigating the learning curves of anaesthetists performing hologram-guided thoracic epidural insertion on the Thiel soft-embalmed cadaver. British Journal of Anaesthesia, 134(2), 617-618. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bja.2024.11.007