I am a psychologist by training, gaining my PhD on the impact of dementia on communication from the University of Warwick in 1996. I joined the University of Sheffield in February 2013 as Professor of Health Services Research in the Centre for Assistive Technology and Connected Healthcare (CATCH) after 12 years at the University of St. Andrews.

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Research Interests

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My research focuses on developing creative interventions to support people with dementia and other conditions of ageing to live and age as well as possible. These include CIRCA and Living in the Moment , using touch screen technology to support communication and provide stimulating and engaging activities for people with dementia.

I am also Principal Investigator of NANA (Novel Assessment of Nutrition and Ageing), a multidisciplinary project developing a touch screen toolkit to improve assessment and detection of early signs of malnutrition, frailty and cognitive decline in older adults. I also lead COBALT (Challenging Obstacles and Barriers to Assistive Living Technologies) working with older adults and health and social care staff to engage with and educate the Assisted Living Technology industry to develop products people want to use. I am UK lead for AAL-WELL, an international research programme investigating novel technologies to support people with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) to live well at home. I am also Co-Investigator on In-Touch a collaborative project with researchers and dementia care providers in Rotterdam to explore the potential of i-Pads for providing engaging and meaningful activities for people with moderate to severe dementia.