News
Guide Dog Fundraising
28/3/2024
Stockport /South Manchester Guide Dog Fundraising group were invited to The School of Pharmacy to talk about how The Guide Dog Association select puppies, their training programme and then how they are matched to and go on to work with a person with sight impairment.
Three beautiful dogs came to the event, Rupert a trainee, along with Oak and Brandy two working guide dogs and their owners Dianne and Jenny.
The events’ pop-up shop raised £52.13, any further donations can be made by scanning the QR code below – please add reference ‘SOP’ our cumulative donations will be updated – Thankyou!
FLAG-Me Access 2 Expertise Funding (March – July 2024)
29/02/2024
We have secured £19,740 to work with consultants at SafeHand around preparation and completion of our Digital Technology Assessment Criteria (DTAC) which aims to provide confidence around new technologies that have been developed to help with patient care that interface with NHS systems.
FLAG-Me Seedcorn Funding (April – July 2024)
19/01/2024
We are delighted to announce £10,000 funding has been awarded to Dr Lisa Riste by NIHR School for Primary Care Research to prepare and submit an application to NIHR Programme Development Grant which if successful will see the team from The University of Manchester and FLAG-Me Community Interest Company carrying out a feasibility study in community pharmacies in Greater Manchester. IN addition this will also cover submission of results from the forthcoming community pharmacist and pharmacy technicians survey in Greater Manchester.
ESRC/UKRI Funding (Sept 2023 – June 2024)
28/09/2023
Dr Lisa Riste has been awarded £62,500 as part of the Healthy Ageing Catalyst award for her project ‘ “Empowering older people to avoid medication-related harm: a co-produced community pharmacy solution”. This will enable the team to move forwards the work on FLAG-Me Vision and will fund a second group of Imago Software Students to work on the developing FLAG-Me Sound to support people with hearing impairments in community pharmacy.
Zinc Catalyst will provide entrepreneurial support throughout the programme around commercialising products created for the benefit of patients and the wider NHS ecosystem.
Good Luck to all our Imago Software Students
24/05/2023
As we enter the exam season here at The University of Manchester, I’d like to thank all the Imago software students who have helped us create the FLAG-Me Vision code and website and wish them well.
You have done an incredible job, taking our original concept and working with our sight impaired public contributors and pharmacists to turn it into a reality.
Please know that so many people I’ve spoken to recently think you have created an ‘awesome product’ and we’re looking forward to the next phase funding so we can start real-world testing in pharmacies to help make a difference to medication safety for people with Vision Impairments.
Our success at the Outstanding Contribution to PPIE Awards
13/07/2022
On 12th of July 2022, the Faculty of Biology, Medicine & Health (FBMH) at the University of Manchester held its annual celebration of Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement (PPIE).
This year’s theme, “Intersectionality and Inclusivity: From Buzz Words to Reality” explored how together we can create an inclusive and supportive environment for all.
The team at Flag-Me received great attention during the final part of the event, receiving the Highly Commended Award in the group category. We would like to thank everyone for the support both inside and outside of the event and a huge congratulation to the other winners!
Funding support from FBMH Research Collaboration Fund
19/12/2021
Today the Find Logo and Give Medication Advice (FLAG-Me) team was awarded £5,000 from the FBMH Research Collaboration Fund.
This funding will be used for collaboration with Imago software team to develop demo software which displays an internationally recognisable VI logo. This will help pharmacists identify visually impaired patients and respond to their additional needs to prevent medication safety errors.
In addition, 2 patients with visual impairments will also support the project as advisors, providing their unique insights and expertise as part of the visually impaired community.
Lastly, it will support plans to generate similar solutions for patients with hearing impairment and/or cognitive impairment, or any combination of these.
Flying Starter Award for the FLAG-Me project
20/08/2021
FLAG-Me today received the news that they have been chosen to receive £3,020 Flying Starter Award from The Masood Entrepreneurship Centre at The University of Manchester.
This will fund a short project with Imago software students from Department of Computer Science to work with patients with vision impairments (VI) and community pharmacists.
Together they will co-produce a ‘walking skeleton‘ for a pharmacy alert,
which notifies pharmacists which patients have VI and therefore might benefit from a 1:1 consultation to improve medication safety.
This idea arose from co-design events funded by NIHR Greater Manchester Patient Safety Translational Research Centre (PSTRC) which brought together patients and pharmacists to look at the problems they encountered around medication safety and what solutions might help.
Dr Lisa Riste, Research Fellow from PSTRC said, “I am very grateful to MEC for this award, which will start to turn the concept of FLAG-Me into a reality“.