February 2025

Published on: March 04, 2025

I’m excited to share that we recently presented our paper, titled “Affective Computing in Anxiety Disorders: A Rapid Literature Review of Emotion Recognition Applications”, at HEALTHINF 2025: 18th International Conference on Health Informatics. This paper summarised past academic work relevant to our project, a link to access it will be available shorty. We also had the chance to connect with several attendees who showed interest in our project, asking about what we’re working on and how it’s progressing. It was great to see such enthusiasm!

For those who might not have time to read the full paper, I’ve put together a PowerPoint presentation summarizing the key takeaways. You can access it at the following link:  Rapidlit review AC in ADs Porto Feb2025.pdf

🏛️ Seminar Presentation

Last month, we participated in the launch of the Public Engagement in Research Network at UWE, a new group dedicated to Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement (PPIE). This month, we had the opportunity to present at their first seminar, receiving valuable feedback and insights from experienced colleagues, just in time as we gear up for the more hands-on phases of our co-design journey!

🛠️ Co-Design: Moving from Phase I to Phase II

We did a lot of brainstorming and reflection on how best to analyse the evidence from Phase I. The framework we defined will not only guide our current analysis, but also shape how we interpret the data in future sessions.

Moreover, we’re actively preparing for Phase II: Idea Generation (see image below) by: ✅ Summarizing key insights from Phase I. ✅ Selecting the right tools and techniques to help participants freely express their ideas. ✅ Providing a comprehensive overview of technological opportunities.

More technical details:

  1. A brief overview of our qualitative data analysis methodology:

    🔹 Critical Realist Approach – Balancing structured analysis with participant-driven insights, ensuring a theory-informed yet flexible perspective.🔹 Reflexive Thematic Analysis – Chosen over Grounded Theory and Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis due to the study focus and participant diversity.🔹 Contextual Analysis – Examining publicly available patient-clinician interactions to understand real-world dynamics.🔹 Comparative Analysis – Separating public vs. clinician-carer (“Supporters”) insights to explore differing perspectives.🔹 Usability Testing – Evaluating not just participants’ feedback but also observing how they interact with the co-designed tool.🔹 Roundtable Discussions – Refining findings through brainstorming sessions with researchers and multidisciplinary supervisors.

  2. Our co-design journey, the six phases and the activities in between:

    🔹 Mockup – A static visual representation of the product, app, or website, illustrating how it might look and function. Used to communicate design intent and gather feedback before development.

    🔹 Demo – A presentation showcasing the digital product’s features and capabilities, simulating the user experience.

    🔹 Working Prototype – An early version of the product, incorporating main features to test its unique value proposition.