July 2025

The sun is shining, but we’re still working hard behind the scenes to bring the MEMoPAD project to life! July has been a particularly productive month, full of exciting developments and important milestones. Here’s a quick look at what’s been happening, and what’s coming next.

🪁 Phase IV – Nearly Complete! We’re almost finished collecting insights for Co-design Phase IV, where we’ve been reviewing the first demo of MEMoPAD together. This includes: 📱 The mobile and wearable app designed for personal use (Updated! still not definitive): https://youtu.be/_ZfFJO2GutQ 🖥️ The web app for clinicians: https://memopad-demo.luigiandreamoretti.com/ Your feedback is helping us prioritise which features to include in the working prototype, and which to refine or revisit in future versions.

✅ Ethics Submission for Phase V We’re submitting the ethics application for Phase V, which will involve testing the MEMoPAD prototype in simulated real-world settings. Expect more info in the coming months. Designing the study protocol and refining the activity structure has been a big task, and I’d like to thank my supervisors David Western and Miles Thompson, as well as Mireia Bes Garcia from the University of Bristol’s Department of Imagination, for their valuable input and support.

😴 How Is Sleep Assessed by Wearables? Several of you asked great questions during workshops about how sleep is tracked with wearable devices, so here’s a quick overview: Polysomnography (PSG) is the gold-standard for sleep assessment. It records brain activity, eye movements, muscle tone, and more, making it highly accurate. But it’s also costly, complex, and not suited for everyday or long-term use. Wearables offer a more accessible alternative. Nowadays, they use a multimodal approach, meaning they collect and combine data from different sensors (like motion, heart rate, skin temperature and conductance) to estimate sleep patterns. That said, not all wearables are created equal: different brands use different sensors and algorithms, which can affect the consistency and accuracy of their sleep data. Based on your preference for a smartwatch format in earlier co-design phases, and our need for a commercially available device that supports raw data access, we’ve selected the Google Pixel Watch 2 for this project (no need to own one, we’ll provide it to participants during the next phases). If you’re curious, here’s a clear, science-informed -but not peer-reviewed- video analysis of the device that’s still easy to digest: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcPkd4h8jcc

🤖 Chatbots in Mental Health – Webinar Recommendation In past co-design sessions, we’ve discussed the role of AI chatbots in mental health. Carmel McGrath kindly shared this resource that might interest you. Research Conversations: How are Chatbots Helpful for Mental Health Support? Hosted by ARC West Link to the webinar (16 September 2025 5-6pm): https://arc-w.nihr.ac.uk/events/research-conversations-how-are-chatbots-helpful-for-mental-health-support/