July 2026

Two years ago this newsletter went out to keep MEMoPAD co-design participants informed and engaged with this long-running PPIE project. Over time more and more people asked me to receive news of the project. I then decided to share it on LinkedIn too, and now it reaches over 600 of you. Thank you for interest and support, it fuels my dedication. Here is what this July brought, apart from the hot weather.

⌚ The Phase VI prototype is built and in testing

The watch app and the companion phone app are complete and currently going through testing. This is the version that will run in real life, over weeks rather than hours: emotions logged on the wrist, context added on the phone, and physiological signals recorded continuously in the background.

Participants: an invitation to Phase VI is coming to your inbox in the next few weeks. It will explain what taking part involves, what we ask of you, and what you get back. Keep an eye out, this is the final step we’ve been working towards together for so long!

📄 Our IH 2026 demo paper is published

The demo we brought to Porto last month is now in the ACM Digital Library: Multimodal Emotion Monitoring in Clinical Pathways for Anxiety Disorders, with Dr Miles Thompson , Dr Paul Matthews , Dr Michael Loizou and Dr David Western.

👉 Read it in the ACM Digital Library

🗣️ Talking to counsellors and psychotherapists

I’ve joined the Postgraduate Researcher Forum at the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP), and I’ll be running a session there on Tuesday 8 September, 13:00–14:00. The title: Objective data, subjective conversation: what should a wearable bring into anxiety care?

I’m bringing three questions to it and how MEMoPAD tries to address them: where physiological data could help the therapeutic relationship, where it risks getting in the way, and what would have to be true for a tool like this to be usable in practice. Counsellors and psychotherapists have been the hardest group for this project to reach, and they may have the most to say. If that’s you, come along.

🎬 A short report of our experience with the SmartSocks

Milbotix has published a short case study film about our work with their wearables. Thank you to Matsie Stubbs for interviewing me, and for shooting and editing the whole thing.

▶️ Watch the case study (3 min)

📚 Something for your reading list

🩺 Do doctors actually use wearable data? The AMA surveyed 2,222 physicians across six countries. Almost all of them look at wearable data at some point, but fewer than 6% in any country have integrated it into their workflow. What separates the two groups isn’t enthusiasm or trust in regulation; it’s confidence in interpreting the data and unresolved worries about false alarms and liability. That gap is precisely the one MEMoPAD is trying to design for. 👉 Read the AMA findings

🏥 NHS England published its Mental Health Personalised Care Framework on 17 July, the modern Care Programme Approach. It is the clearest current statement of what “care planned around what matters to the person” is supposed to look like in practice. Worth a look if you’re interested in the system a tool like ours would eventually have to fit into. 👉 Read the framework

🌐 Two roles, both closing 24 August, you might find interesting

Patient & Public Involvement and Engagement Manager - NIHR Research Support Service (RSS), University of York. Grade 7, fixed term. Details Senior Innovation Advisor - Health Innovation West of England, Bristol. Band 7, 12-month fixed term. Details

Two years, twenty-five issues, six completed co-design phases, and the most interesting part still ahead. Questions, thoughts, or curious about Phase VI? Just hit reply.

PS. If you know someone who might like this, please pass it on.

📰 Newsletter archive: https://memopad.luigiandreamoretti.com/newsletter/