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I have hardly any friends………… (on Bluesky)

Three months ago I decided that it was no longer morally responsible to use Twitter and deleted my account.  Missing the ‘conversations’ on social media and not having a platform to inform the wider world about the latest Bournemouth University Research Blog, I joined Bluesky a week or two later.  The first thing to note is that Bluesky is: (1) much quieter; (2) much more civilised; and (3) much more North American based.  Moreover, at a personal level, I have not really managed to accumulate that many followers, yesterday the total stood at just ten!

 

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

Paper on Nepal reaching 5,000 readers

Today ResearchGate informed us that our 2010 paper ‘Women’s autonomy in household decision-making: A demographic study in Nepal[1] has been read 5,000 times.  This academic paper published in the international journal Reproductive Health is Open Access, hence available to anybody globally with internet access. The study explored the links between women’s household position in Nepal and their autonomy in decision making.  Using existing data (n = 8,257)  from the Nepal Demographic Health Survey (NDHS) 2006 we (Dr. Pramod Regmi and Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen with colleagues from other UK universities) focused on four types of household decision making: (1) women’s own health care; (2) making major household purchases; (3) making purchase for daily household needs; and (4) visits to her family or relatives.

We found that women’s autonomy in decision making is positively associated with their age, employment and number of living children. Women from rural area and Terai region (the southern part of Nepal bordering India) have less autonomy in decision making in all four types of outcome measure. There is a mixed variation in women’s autonomy in the development region across all outcome measures. Western women are more likely to make decision in own health care (1.2-1.6), while they are less likely to purchase daily household needs (0.6-0.9). Women’s increased education is positively associated with autonomy in own health care decision making (p < 0.01), however their more schooling (school-leaving certificate and above) shows non-significance with other outcome measures. Interestingly, rich women are less likely to have autonomy to make decision in own healthcare.

 

Reference:

  1. Acharya, D.R., Bell, J.S., Simkhada, P., van Teijlingen, E., Regmi, P. (2010) Women’s autonomy in household decision-making: a demographic study in NepalReproductive Health 7, 15   https://doi.org/10.1186/1742-4755-7-15

An Audience with… Bob Wilson

Last Monday, the BU Business School and the Sport & Physical Activity Research Centre (SPARC) were delighted to welcome Mr Bob Wilson, OBE, for a special session. 

Launching the annual ‘SPARC Audience with ….’ Series, this inaugural event explored the multiple careers of Bob Wilson: a former Arsenal and Scotland goalkeeper, a presenter and broadcaster, the first ever specialist goalkeeper coach, and founder of the national charity, The Willow Foundation.

Professor Mike Silk in conversation with Bob Wilson OBE

Professor Mike Silk in conversation with Bob Wilson OBE

During An Audience with Bob Wilson, Bob touched on a multitude of topics that are germane to the BU community, covering topics that included the sport media, the life of a professional athlete, (national) identity politics in sport, the development of the women’s game, football as ‘work’, injury, the commercial spectacle of the modern game, and some of the broadcast personalities with whom he has worked.

Bob regaled the audience with stories from his early playing days explaining how his Father refused to let him join Manchester United, insisting instead he completed teacher training at Loughborough College so he could hold down a ‘proper job’. We celebrated some of Bob’s accomplishments, including being an ever present in the 1970/71 double winning season, with Bob sharing his winning medals from both the League and FA Cup final and his international caps. He spoke about the ways in which he was treated by the Scottish press when—as an Englishman—he was picked to represent the Scottish national team. He spoke of losing his older brothers in the second World War and how his family reacted to Bob idolising the playing style of ex-German soldier and Manchester City Goalkeeper, Bert Trautman.

In addition to appreciating his football career, we spoke about how he transitioned to a career in the media—going on to present programmes such as Grandstand, Match of the Day, BBC Breakfast and Sportsnight on the BBC as well as League Cup, FA Cup, UEFA Champions League and World Cup coverage on ITV. Bob gave fascinating insights into the creation of his own programme, Football Focus, as well as his unique ‘running’ reporting style from coverage of the London Marathon. We heard insights into the tensions and dynamics of live television when Bob told us how he and the production team dealt with being live on air on the Saturday afternoon of the 15th April, 1989 as he fronted Grandstand and bought the country to a standstill with coverage of the unfolding Hillsbrorough disaster.

Bob provided a unique lens into the development of the game of football. He was the first ever goalkeeper coach, staying on at Arsenal after his playing days—juggling coaching with his media career—providing coaching for the likes of Pat Jennings, John Lukic and David Seaman. This was a role he did for free until the arrival of Arsene Wenger as Arsenal Manager who insisted he be paid for his duties. Bob was, in many ways, the pioneer for the plethora of specialist coaches that exist today in the modern game.

Finally, we spoke of the incredible achievements of the Willow foundation, the charity he and his wife, Megs, set up in 1999 in memory of his daughter Anna who died from cancer at 31 years of age. The Willow Foundation—so named after his own football nickname, Willow—provides psychological and emotional support for seriously ill 16-40 year olds through the provision of special day experiences. Bob explained how, to date, the Willow Foundation has in 25 years supported over 22,000 families.

With some great questions from the audience, hilarious stories and insightful discussion, An Audience with Bob Wilson saw staff and students from across the institution engage with a sporting and broadcasting legend.

Unique PhD processes – why they are important.………..

Most people only really think about the processes involved doing a PhD study when they are doing their own unique research project at one specific university. It is often only when talking to other PhD students at a conference or listening to their supervisors reminiscing about doing theirs at a different university and in a different time, that they realise there are important differences in processes between universities, and even across disciplines within universities. This is true both nationally and globally.  These differences can exist at many different stages of the PhD and Bournemouth University academics have written about several of these differences within a national context (1-6).

PhD aspects can differ from the start, e.g. the expected format of a PhD proposal (5) to the very end, e.g. possible outcomes of a viva (4), or whether the PhD includes clinical or practice components to help bridge the gap between academia and practice (2).  Variations across universities also occur in the expected layout and format of the theses (1), or the way supervisors are expected to supervise by different universities (3), or the format or timing of transfer or progress viva(6).

You might ask why this uniqueness of the postgraduate research journey matters? We argue that academics need to celebrate the diversity of the PhD process and of our postgraduate research students and recognise that excellent research can be achieved in different ways. A personalised process can ensure that postgraduate students are successful in achieving their goals.

 

Dr. Orlanda Harvey, Prof. Vanora Hundley, Dr. Vincent Marmion, Dr. Pramod Regmi, Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

 

 

 

References:

  1. van Teijlingen E (2007) PhD theses: the pros and cons (letter), Times Higher Education Suppl. Issue 1808 (August 24th): 15.
  2. Way S, Hundley V, van Teijlingen E, Walton G, and Westwood G. (2016) Dr Know. RCM Midwives Spring 64-65.
  3. Regmi, P., Poobalan, A., Simkhada, P., van Teijlingen, E. (2021) PhD supervision in Public Health, Health Prospect: Journal of Public Health 20(1):1-4. https://www.nepjol.info/index.php/HPROSPECT/article/view/32735/28111
  4. van Teijlingen, E., Simkhada, B., Regmi, P., Simkhada, P., Hundley, V., Poudel, K.C. (2022) Reflections on variations in PhD viva regulations: “And the options are….”, Journal of Education and Research 12(2),61-74. https://doi.org/10.51474/jer.v12i2.624
  5. Wasti, S.P. Regmi, P.R., Simkhada, P., van Teijlingen, E., Hundley, V. (2022) Writing a PhD Proposal, In: Wasti, S.P., et al. (Eds.) Academic Writing and Publishing in Health & Social Sciences, Kathmandu, Nepal: Himal Books: 176-183.
  6. van Teijlingen, A., Marmion, V., Harvey, O., Regmi, P., van Teijlingen, E. (2024) PhD Progress and Transfer Vivas at Universities in the United Kingdom, Journal of Education and Research, 14(1): 104-116, https://doi.org/10.51474/jer/16196

 

Speaker @ NLP Healthcare Summit 2025: Evaluating LLMs in Understanding Image Series Textual Narratives

📢 This is a short and final notice that already today 02 April 2025 I am going to showcase the advances made a part of Marking Medical Images with NLP at Bournemouth University and National Centre for Computer Animation, Bournemouth University at NLP Healthcare Summit 2025.

🗓️ Save an event in Google Calendar: https://lnkd.in/eHfMyRUk
⏲️ Time: 8.10 PM (Europe / London Timezone)

🙌 Feel free to join and ask me any related questions

> What is going to be about?
> We overview the problem of extracting image series acquisition aspects from short text medical reports in the domain of HCC liver cancer imaging. Our focus is to evaluate performance of various stock LLM model in out-of-the-box condition using instruction based approach. The goal is to answer the question: to what extent we can trust LLM for retrieving medical aspects and depending of the scale of LLM.

Dr. Nicolay Rusnachenko
Research Fellow at Centre For Applied Creative Technologies PLUS (CFACT+)
Bournemouth University

BU Research Project named in BCP Domestic Abuse Strategy Consultation document

A team of researchers from Bournemouth University (Dr Terri Cole, Dr Louise Oliver, Dr Orlanda Harvey, Anisha Sperrin and Dr Jane Healy) are working with BCP Council on a Perpetrator Programme Review Project- This project aims to review local, national and international programmes for perpetrators of domestic abuse and literary review, alongside stakeholder engagement to make recommendations of a best practice model for a perpetrator programme.

The project is mentioned in one of three draft strategy documents that are out for public consultation.

“The three proposed strategies are as follows:

The draft Preventing Domestic Abuse Strategy 2025-2030 is the overarching strategy to our response to domestic abuse across the BCP area, detailing our proposed priorities and how we aim to take our plans forward with partnership agencies.
The draft Domestic Abuse Safe Accommodation Strategy 2025-2030 is focused on the provision of safe accommodation in the BCP area for survivors of domestic abuse who need support around their housing needs.
The draft Domestic Abuse Perpetrator Strategy 2025-2030 is focused on how we respond to perpetrators of domestic abuse across the BCP area. The strategy aims to prevent people from perpetrating domestic abuse, thereby preventing the harm caused to individuals, children and society.”

Here is the link to the consultation webpages, there is the option to consult on all or some of the three strategies.

https://haveyoursay.bcpcouncil.gov.uk/domestic-abuse-strategies

Promoting Human-Centred Design in Drowning Prevention

The Department of Design and Engineering at Bournemouth University has a reputation for its Human-Centred Design (HCD) work.  In our interdisciplinary Sonamoni project we have HCD at its centre.  The Sonamoni project is coordinated by Bournemouth University in collaboration with the University of the West of England (Bristol), the University of Southampton, and the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI), Design Without Border (DWB) in Uganda and Centre for Injury Prevention and Research, Bangladesh (CIPRB). The interdisciplinary team at Bournemouth University covers three faculties and six academics: Dr. Mavis Bengtsson, Dr. Kyungjoo Cha, Dr. Mehdi Chowdhury, Dr. Yong Hun Lim, Mr. John Powell, and Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen.

Last month two staff from CIPRB, Notan Chandra Dutta and Mirza Shibat Rowshan visited DBW in Uganda, as part of so-called South-South learning. Their objective was to share (1) knowledge and experience of using HCD techniques and (2) best practices of drowning prevention in both countries. Utilizing HCD techniques, Sonamoni is working to identify and prioritize potential solutions, develop prototypes, and assess the acceptability of the interventions to reduce drowning deaths among old children under two in Bangladesh.

During the visit, Notan and Shibat participated a four-day ideation workshop with the fisher community near Lake Victoria, organized by DWB. In the workshop, different HCD tools were used along with other group activities to generate and refine ideas for the solutions. The generated ideas were recorded by visualization tools. Notan and Shibat also attended a session on the principles of creative facilitation of HCD, including the need to understand the problem, role of the facilitator and other stakeholders.  Various visualization tools were discussed, e.g.  ‘journey maps’, ‘stakeholder map’, ‘context map’ and different types of sketches.  Notan shared CIPRB’s experiences of managing the best drowning prevention practices and its challenges from Bangladesh context.

This international project funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) through their Research and Innovation for Global Health Transformation programme, also includes a BU-based PhD student, Mr. Md. Shafkat Hossein.  Last week Shafkat presented our Sonamoni project in lecture to BU Engineering students at Talbot campus.

 

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

Centre for Midwifery & Women’s Health

First paper by PhD student

We are delighted to announce that Bournemouth University (BU) and University Hospitals Dorset NHS Foundation Trust (UHD) Clinical Match-Funded PhD researcher, Leila Kattach, has published her first academic paper. This milestone marks an important step in Leila’s research journey and highlights the impactful work being carried out within our clinical research community.
The paper, titled Nurse-Led Models of Service Delivery for Skin Cancer Detection: A Systematic Review, was published in the Journal of Advanced Nursing yesterday (April 1, 2025) [1]. This research consolidates evidence on nurse-led models for skin cancer detection, comparing their effectiveness to physician-led care and highlighting their potential benefits in terms of accessibility, cost-effectiveness, and patient satisfaction.
The systematic review, co-authored with Heidi Singleton, Steven Ersser, Debbie Holley, Ian Pearson, and Abdulrahman Shadeed, rigorously analyzed studies from 1992 to 2024, assessing the role of nurses in diagnosing, treating, and supporting skin cancer patients. The findings demonstrate that nurse-led models can complement or even substitute traditional physician-led care, offering high diagnostic accuracy, improved access to care, and enhanced patient education.
Key highlights from the study include:
Comparable diagnostic accuracy between nurses and ophthalmologists in skin cancer detection.
Increased accessibility and reduced waiting times for patients through community-based, nurse-led services.
Significant cost savings associated with nurse-led care delivery.
Patient preference for nurse-led models, citing convenience and enhanced education on self-examination.
The study also emphasizes the need for further research and standardized national guidelines to scale and integrate nurse-led models effectively into healthcare systems.
Leila’s research has strong implications for policy and clinical practice, advocating for:
✅ Enhanced dermatology nursing training to equip nurses with advanced skills in assessment, diagnosis, and treatment.
✅ Development of Dermatology Nurse Consultant Training Programmes to support professional development and independent practice.
✅ Support for community-based care to enhance accessibility, particularly in underserved regions.
✅ Standardization of nurse-led models to ensure consistency and high standards across healthcare settings.
Leila Kattach’s research has a PhD studentship jointly funded by BU and UHD NHS Foundation Trust. The study was conducted in collaboration with academic dermatology experts, specialist clinicians, and a patient representative with lived experience of melanoma, ensuring a patient-centered approach.  Leila’s work paves the way for further exploration into nurse-led service delivery models and their long-term impact on skin cancer care, cost-effectiveness, and healthcare workforce sustainability. We look forward to seeing how her research evolves and contributes to improving patient care in dermatology.
👏 Congratulations to Leila Kattach and the research team on this outstanding achievement!
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
Reference:
  1. Kattach, L., Singleton, H., Ersser, S., Holley, D., Pearson, I. & Shadeed, A. (2025), Nurse-Led Models of Service Delivery for Skin Cancer Detection: A Systematic Review. Journal of Advanced Nursing.[online first]  https://doi.org/10.1111/jan.16854

 

RKEDF: ECRN – ECR & PGR online drop-in surgery

Weds 23rd April, 13:00-14:00, online

Given the recent proposals shared with staff, we recognise that this is a time of uncertainty for many of us at BU. This is an open session for all BU ECRs and PGRs to discuss any issues relating to their career development or the ECR experience with peers in the network, and receive advice and guidance (where possible) from the network’s academic leads.

Book your place HERE

For further information on this event or joining the ECRN, please contact RKEDF@bournemouth.ac.uk

Nepal Family Cohort Study dissemination event

Colleagues working on our Nepal Family Cohort Study (NeFCoS) presented baseline data at a dissemination programme held today (March 28th) in Everest Hotel, Kathmandu.  Bournemouth University is a key partner in this unique long-term follow-up study in Nepal.  Our large international team is led by Dr. Om Kurmi, Associate Professor Research in the Centre for Healthcare and Communities at Coventry University.  The Bournemouth University (BU) team comprises Dr. Pramod Regmi (Principal Academic-International Health), Dr. Edwin van Teijlingen (Professor of Reproductive Health), Dr. Rebecca Neal (Principal Lecturer in Exercise Physiology) and Dr. Vanora Hundley (Professor of Midwifery).
The Nepal Family Cohort Study (NeFCoS) is a multidisciplinary cohort study into the prevalence, incidence, and determinants of various diseases from childhood to adulthood in children and their parents for over two decades.  NeFCoS is a longitudinal study which recently started collecting health and well-being data, and which will collect data repeatedly from the same individuals at certain intervals for years to come.
Today’s programme included a range of academics and policy-makers introducing aspects of the study and its preliminary findings.  Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen did a short presentation offering ‘Special Remarks on Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health’.  To date we have published one academic paper in an Open Access journal on the research protocol of this work [1].
Reference:
  1. Kurmi, O.P., Chaudhary, N., Delanerolle, G., Bolton, C.E., Pant, P.R., Regmi, P., Gautam, S., Satia, I., Simkhada, P., Kyrou, I., Sigdel, T.K., Hundley, V., Dali, P.R., Lokke, A., Hubert Lam, K.B., Bennett, D., Custovic, A., van Teijlingen, E., Gill, P. Randeva, H., O’Byrne, P.M., and Nepal Family Cohort Collaborators Group, Nepal Family Cohort Study: A Study Protocol, BMJ Open 14:e088896. doi:10.1136/ bmjopen-2024-088896

When is a ‘new’ paper no longer new?

This week we had two new academic papers published online.  The first paper was an education one ‘PhD Progress and Transfer Vivas at Universities in the United Kingdom‘ [1] and the second focused on ‘Knowledge, Attitude and Practices of Masters Level Students in the COVID-19 Pandemic[2].  The first paper clearly states “Article History: Received: 10 Jan 2024; Revised: 17 Feb 2024; Accepted: 26 Feb 2024”, the online information for the second paper states: “Published 2024-12-31”, i.e. both are clearly identified as 2024 papers.

The problem for the authors is that both only appeared online this week.  For example, today (27th March 2025) Nepal Journals Online (NepJoL) reports the publication of the latest issue of Education Quarterly, Volume 5 Issue 1, the one in which we published, as 24th March (see picture below).  The reason this happens is because the journal editors experienced problems in the past year and did not manage to publish an issue in the calendar year, which makes the publication history look less professional.  To avoid having a year missing the most recently published issue is given an official 2024 publication date.

In a world full of problems the minor inconvenience of papers being backdated is twofold for academic authors.  First, we can not really announce the publication of a a new Bournemouth University paper since the dated stamped on it is last year’s.  Secondly, paper can’t be used for the REF as the acceptance date is also set in the past, for papers to be acceptable for inclusion in REF 2029 typically papers need to be made available on Open Access within three months after the acceptance date .

 

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

Centre for Midwifery & Women’s Health

 

References:

  1. van Teijlingen, A., Marmion, V., Harvey, O., Regmi, P., van Teijlingen, E. (2024) PhD Progress and Transfer Vivas at Universities in the United Kingdom, Journal of Education and Research, 14(1): 104-116, https://doi.org/10.51474/jer/16196
  2. Pasa, R.B., Khanal, K.P., Khatri, B.B., Adhikari, D., Kharel, S., Sharma, M.K., van Teijlingen, E.R. (2024). Knowledge, Attitude and Practices of Masters Level Students on the COVID-19 Pandemic. Education Quarterly, 5(1): 53–72. https://doi.org/10.3126/jeqtu.v5i1.76745

New research evaluating a domestic abuse programme: A collaboration between BU & Yellow Door

A team at Bournemouth University have won funding to evaluate a holistic domestic abuse programme run by Yellow Door in Southampton, a domestic abuse charity. The Early Years Domestic Abuse Programme is run over a 10-week period for mothers/caregivers and their children (under 5 years) who have experienced domestic abuse. The interdisciplinary team at BU consists of Project Lead, Dr Jane Healy, Criminology, alongside colleagues in social work and psychology.

 

Chloe Gilbert, Head of Business Operations and Strategy at Yellow Door stated: “The course is run in 2 parts: the parents course covers the impact of domestic and sexual abuse, effective communication skills, working with challenging behaviour, developing protective behaviours and strategies for keeping mothers, children and young people safe. We then also run separate Thera-play sessions for the children delivered by a qualified Play Therapist. We are really looking forward to working with Bournemouth University to assess the impact of this important work”. 

 

Yellow Door extend their thanks to Rayne Foundation and Charles Hayward Foundation for their support. If you would like to find out more about the project which is running until 2027, please contact: Victoria at Yellow Door, at info@yellowdoor.org.uk.

Collaborative Decision Making

The other members of the research team have strong ties to this field of research having published widely in the areas of domestic abuse, gender-based violence and social work practice. They include Dr Terri Cole and Dr Orlanda Harvey, who will lead on work with professionals, and Dr Stefan Kleipoedszus and Dr Louise Oliver who will work with the children.  Dr Healy will work with the parents/carers, alongside Research Assistant Dr Anna Kopec Massey.

 

This research builds on previous work undertaken in collaboration with Yellow Door (Final Report for Yellow Door and Stop Domestic Abuse) and Harvey, Healy and Cole have previously evaluated domestic abuse services through a number of local and international projects (including: OSSPC “The Other Side of the Story : Perpetrators in Change “, Yellow Door and Stop Domestic Abuse) which have included interviews with adult victim-survivors and focus groups with professionals.

 

The evaluation will contribute substantially to understanding both the benefits and challenges to delivering an Early Years programme to adults and children. The evaluation will produce an evidence-base in relation to this specific programme, in the form of an open-access and accessible research report, published articles and conference presentations, and position it within wider national, international, practitioner and academic context. It will gather information from service users, including children, parent/carers, professionals and practitioners to provide an independent but holistic evaluation of the programme.

teamwork

Presenting Advances in Marking Medical Images at NLP Healthcare Summit 2025

📢 The NLP Heathcare Summit 2025 is nearly in a week. This year, I am looking forward to showcase advances that were made at Bournemouth University in Understanding Medical Concepts via LLM in Textual Series Narratives of Imaging Series ⚕️

In this talk we cover LLM evaluation concepts through the detailed overview of manual reporting directions in liver cancer imaging. We cover radiological imaging aspects that doctors tend to mention ✍️ and see how these aspects could be retrieved by LLM 🤖 by means of NLP and IR techniques. We provide recommendations on model scale choice and findings out of result analysis.

These advances were achieved while at Centre for Applied Creative Technologies CfACTs+ by working on “Marking Medical Image Reports Automatically with Natural Language Processing (NLP-MMI)” project.

Dr. Nicolay Rusnachenko
Research Fellow at Centre For Applied Creative Technologies PLUS (CFACT+)
Bournemouth University