Professor Luc de Witte
Health and Wellbeing | The University of Sheffield
Professor Luc de Witte led Pitch-In’s Health and Wellbeing theme. Luc is a professor of Health Services Research in the School of Health and Related Research (ScHARR) at the University of Sheffield.
His research is on healthcare innovations using technology, with a focus on long term care. He moved from the Netherlands to Sheffield in October 2016. In the Netherlands he was a professor of care technology at two universities, and director of a large innovation network with about 35 partners in health and social care, industry and academia. He also chaired the management board of the national Centre for Care Technology Research, a collaboration of four large institutions in the Netherlands.
In Sheffield he works in the Centre for Assistive Technology and Connected Healthcare, trying to contribute to building an innovation ecosystem here as well.
Alongside his work in Sheffield and the Netherlands he works on a research and development programme in India called ‘Health in Slums’ that focuses on improving the living situation and access to affordable healthcare for people in low resource settings.
Luc’s main interest is in how technology can help to develop sustainable healthcare models. He has a special interest in assistive technology for people with disabilities, a field he has worked in his whole career. He also does research into the potential of robotics in health and social care and in the application of digital health technologies to support people with a chronic disease or disability to self manage their health.
He has supervised more than 30 PhD students in these fields and is currently supervisor of 12 international PhD students. He has co-authored more than 250 publications.
Luc is president of the Association for the Advancement of Assistive Technology in Europe and editor of the journal Technology and Disability. He is a member of the board of governors of a large elderly care organisation with 25 locations in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. He is also a member of the board of governors of the Sheffield Teaching Hospitals.
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This Pitch-In project sought to develop and deliver a series of workshop events aimed at facilitating interactions to raise awareness of the capabilities and potential of IoT for care applications.
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IoT could have huge implications for future care provision; however, it raises a number of serious practical and philosophical questions which Pitch-In will attempt to answer.
The Centre for Assistive Technology and Connected Healthcare (CATCH) at the University of Sheffield held an afternoon workshop reviewing the challenges and opportunities regarding use of the Internet of Things for care.
The University of Sheffield has won a bid which will fund a new project, in collaboration with the universities of Oxford, Cambridge and Newcastle, to drive forward collaboration exploring the Internet of Things.