Dr. Gabriella Rodolico was involved in the Remote Healthcare System for Diabetes Management workshop. It is a joint effort of Education, Engineering and Medical experts connecting with Schools in Pakistan to explore the issue of diabetes and innovative management solutions.

The project “Remote Healthcare System for Diabetes Management” is an innovative application to measure daily glucose level in patients with Diabetes in a timely and non-invasive manner. The Principal Investigator (PI) is Dr. Qammer H. Abbasi (School of Engineering CoSE) in collaboration with the team at the James Watt School of Engineering, University of Glasgow (Muhammad Ali Imran, Hasan Abbas, Sajjad Hussain, Ahmed Zoha), the Institute of Cardiovascular & Medical Sciences (Naveed Sattar, Professor of Metabolic Medicine) and Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) (Naveed ul Hassan (LUMS PI), Ali Hussain, Muhammad Farooq and Muhammad Omar). 

Dr Rodolico, (School of Education, CoSS), curated the dissemination phase with the main goal to raise awareness of the impact that diabetes has on society and patients in Pakistan as well as in other parts of the world such as United Kingdom (UK), and a final focus on how individuals affected by diabetes, could effectively make regular measurements of glucose level. The target were schools in Pakistan where pupils were engaged with an active learning pedagogy-based lesson remotely delivered by Dr Rodolico and her collaborator Miss Aiasha Khan, probationer teacher (PGDE Biology class 2020-21 at the SoE, UoG) and facilitated on site by LUMS engineer team.

The workshop’s core feature was the delivery of contents in both languages: Urdu and English. Contents were contextualised in both countries’ societies within an ethos of mutual enrichment and respect. Miss Khan's fluency in both languages was instrumental for the implementation of this important aspect (Rodolico, Breslin and Mariani 2021)

The workshop was made of 2 sessions both based on active learning, but with a focus on a discussion activity on part 1, adapted from SSERC, a Scottish local authority shared service that supports practical STEM activities (Let’s talk about diabetes), and on an experimental learning on the refraction of light caused by a glucose solution on part 2 facilitated by the engineers on campus. It began with an introduction of the main topic by Prof. Muhammad Ali Imran, Dean Glasgow College UESTC and Dr. Abbasi. Then, it was handed over to Dr. Rodolico and Ms. Khan who led the 2 sessions. The main goal was to raise awareness of the impact that diabetes has on society and patients in Pakistan as well as in other parts of the world such as United Kingdom (UK) with a final focus on how individuals affected by diabetes, could effectively make regular measurements of glucose level in a timely and non-invasive manner.

The project was presented on the 11/11/2021 at the School of Engineering alongside several other important ongoing research projects. The meeting was attended by Mr Malik Amin Aslam, Federal Minister and Adviser to Prime Minister of Pakistan for Climate Change and Miss Rachel Sandison, Vice Principal, External Relations and a team of delegates from University of Glasgow, Pakistan and Scotland. The Project on Diabetes was much appreciated by the Minister as he mentioned explicitly in his two interviews to Pakistan Media. He assured his support to scale this exciting project in Pakistan.

First published: 30 November 2021

<< Academic News