Dr Judith Hocking

Judith's work is informed by scientific literature and co-design processes. Her prior clinical experience spanning over 20 years - with much of this including working in multi-disciplinary settings with clients living with acquired or developmental disability - undergirds her comitment to elevating the voices of both clients and clinicians.

Judith has a keen interest in supporting client-centred goal-setting and attainment and client motivation. These key precepts undergirded her PhD in which a motivational chatbot called 'RehabChat' was co-designed and developed for supporting goal-setting and attainment by clients receiving brain injury rehabilitation. RehabChat provides a conversational user-interface and is intended to be used with clinician oversight alongside usual rehabilitation care. Following her PhD, Judith was part of a research team conducting further feasibility trial of RehabChat in brain injury rehabilitation clinic settings, and usability consultation with clinicians and people with lied experience of acquired brain injury. This  project was funded by the Lifetime Support Authority (grant #R2229). Judith has also participated in research appraising the safe and effective use of Large Language Model technology to support personal health and wellbeing, and in research investigating stakeholder perceptions and experiences of health and disability service provision for people living with ongoing disability following significant trauma from motor vehicle accidents. 

Currently, Judith is working in the Digital Health Research Lab (College of Medicine and Public Health) to construct methodological guidelines for the development of bespoke LLM Agents for health sector use.