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CoDE wins prestigious project with Mayo Clinic in the US

Published: 10 December 2014 at 09:12

Cultures of the Digital Economy Research Institute

CoDE has been awarded a grant of £25,000 by one of the world's largest medical research centres, Mayo Clinic in the US.

The project extends CoDE's collaborative work with filmmaker Dr Shreepali Patel of Cambridge School of Art, which uses 'creative communication' techniques in non-arts fields.

Shreepali's previous documentary film, The Golden Window, was shown to help educate nurses and patients in aspects of emotion and compassion, through digital art in a healthcare context. The project with Mayo Clinic aims to use this communication technique to assist with educating patients who are undertaking colorectal cancer screenings. Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the second leading cause of cancer-related death in the US. Yet, death from CRC is mostly preventable if patients participate in a screening and surveillance program that is based on colonoscopy. The research is in collaboration with cancer specialist Dr Piet de Groen at Mayo Clinic and will quantitatively analyse the success and value of utilising artistic film in educating patients.

The connection with Mayo Clinic is owing to Anglia Ruskin's Dr Rob Toulson and Dr Shreepali Patel disseminating their creative communication research at the recent conference on smart technology-based education and training in Crete, where they met Dr de Groen and agreed to collaborate.

Dr Toulson explains: 

"The results of The Golden Window research allow us to hypothesize that artistic documentary filmmaking can be used to enhance the levels of engagement and motivation of the general public to volunteer and attend their screenings for colorectal cancer and fully engage in the screening preparation process."

In April 2015 Shreepali and Rob will travel to Mayo Clinic and film the documentary footage, which will be brought back to Cambridge for post-production editing and preparation for clinical testing.