Tuesday 17 October 2017 – Lunchtime Seminar with Timothy Woolliscroft (Sheffield Business School, SHU)

Speaker: Timothy Woolliscroft
Title: Improving Healthcare Efficiency Through Smart Community, Utopia or Dystopia?

Tim Woolliscroft has a professional background that includes and connects community health and circus.  His current research approach draws from the professional experience of having worked in health and the creativity he gained working in the arts.  Academically he has studied sociology, business and education at postgraduate level.   He is currently moving towards the end of a PhD that connects the concept of smart community to healthcare efficiency.  This talk is based on some of the ideas that have emerged from this research project.

Like the concept of smart city, the smart community concept is often associated with improving efficiency through revolutions in information technology.  Incorporating ideas like real time monitoring these smart concepts are steps ahead of digital health.  Given this these ideas could hold a key to unlocking healthcare efficiency.  To consider if this is a solution the current NHS funding crisis Tim will be outlining two different visions of the future.  Both imagine a new system formed through harnessing smart technologies and other aspects of the smart community concept.  The first is a utopian vision of the future that takes an optimistic view of how ideas such as the Internet of things and artificial intelligence might help create a brave new world.  The second vision is a little more cynical.  It considers what could go wrong if those who access and control the power of new technology are not entirely benign.  In this talk he draw upon ideas from social theory, science fiction and his own PhD research to underpin these visions and form conclusions.

1.00PM – 2.00PM
TUESDAY 17 OCTOBER 2017
CANTOR 9140

See here for details of other seminars in the series.

All SHU staff and students are welcome to attend the C3RI Lunchtime Research Seminars. If you are from outside of the University and would like to attend a seminar, please email C3RI Administrator to arrange entry