The University of Manchester’s Digital Futures platform, in collaboration with the Christabel Pankhurst Institute, hosts a seminar series with speakers from different disciplines who have done exemplary work on understanding, identifying, or addressing digital health equities.

Seminars are online and happen bi-monthly on the 2nd Wednesday of the month from 1-2pm. You can find information and recordings from previous talks below, and information on upcoming events on the digital health equities seminars page.

December 2025 | A co-production approach to understanding diversity issues in digital research

Speakers

Anita Banerji, Jasmine Folz, Ella Kaye, and Pauline Karega

Summary

Research Software Engineering is an establishing profession in UK HE, with Research Software Engineers (RSEs) developing software for research purposes, whether that is smaller scripts, larger applications, or public/patient facing applications. Recent survey data shows that the majority of those who identify as RSEs in the UK are white men. In fact, the percentage of white men in RSE is higher than in tech generally, indicating that there are likely barriers to those from marginalised identities achieving their potential in this important area of digital research.  Addressing this diversity gap is needed before the narrow identities associated with software become further entrenched and to ensure this growing profession has a future labour pool that represents and can respond to the needs of an increasingly diverse society with high quality and high impact research.

To improve inclusivity and equity in RSE-related roles and careers, we need to understand the experiences of underrepresented groups in these professions. To do this, we have turned co-production methods back towards research culture, working with RSE-related professionals from underrepresented groups to develop our research aims, methods, and findings. We have also engaged social science expertise to ensure rigorous methods and an understanding of wider structures and issues in academia. In this presentation, the team members will share their experiences of cross-disciplinary co-production: the barriers, benefits, and early findings.

This work is funded through the UK Software Sustainability Institute (SSI). The SSI’s work is best described by their tag line “Better Software, Better Research”  as the institute was founded to advocate for research software engineering as a profession, software as a research output and good software practices in research. You can read more about the SSI here, our Inclusive EDIA research strategy here, and our co-production partner experiences here.

Speaker bios

Anita Banerji starting her research career in medical image analysis. She is now interested in cross-disciplinary approaches, bringing in social science methods to improve research culture and opportunities for underrepresented groups in digital research. She is currently a research associate based at the University of Manchester and working for the Software Sustainability Institute.

Jasmine Folz is a social anthropologist working as a research associate in the Human Computer Systems group at the University of Manchester. Her research interests are broadly concerned with understanding the intersections of technology, work, identity, and political economy. She has conducted research with software professionals in the US, UK, and India.

Ella Kaye is a Senior Research Software Engineer in the Department of Statistics at the University of Warwick. She works to increase sustainability and EDI (Equality Diversity and Inclusion) in the R Project. She also runs rainbowR, a community that connects, promotes, and supports LGBTQ+ people who code in the R language.

Pauline Karega is a PhD student in Earth and Environment Sciences and Computer Science at the University of Manchester. She co-leads an initiative to increase awareness of Bioinformatics and Open Science in Kenya.

Watch a recording of the seminar on YouTube: A co-production approach to understanding diversity issues in digital research

November 2025 | Bridging the divide in pain management in Pakistan using digital tools

Summary

Pain is a complex and personal experience that affects people and societies worldwide. Yet, how pain is expressed, understood, and managed can vary greatly across countries and cultures. As a result, digital pain assessment and management tools developed in one context may not be suitable for use in another without adaptation.

This seminar will explore how adapting digital tools for local contexts can promote more inclusive and equitable digital health solutions globally.

Speakers Adeela Shahid, Saira Khan, and Salman Imami will share preliminary findings from a collaborative project between the University of Health Sciences (Lahore, Pakistan) and the University of Manchester, focused on adapting a UK-developed digital self-reporting tool (the Manchester Digital Pain Manikin) for people living with chronic pain in Pakistan. They will talk about (a) how social, cultural, and systemic barriers affect equitable access to digital health tools in Pakistan, (b) the impact of these inequities on patient engagement and clinical outcomes in digital pain assessment and management, (c) what patients and healthcare professionals need from inclusive digital pain interventions, and (d) strategies to enhance digital pain equity, including culturally and linguistically tailored approaches and the use of data visualisations.

Speaker bios

Adeela Shahid is a Professor and Head of the Department of Physiology at Shalamar Medical & Dental College, Lahore, Pakistan. In addition to being a certified Medical Educationist and Medical Editor, she is a Professor at the University of Health Sciences in Lahore and the Editor in Chief of the Journal of Shalamar Medical & Dental College.

Saira Elaine Anwer Khan is an Associate Professor and Head of the Department of Rheumatology at Shalamar Institute of Health Sciences, Lahore, Pakistan. She holds fellowships from the Royal College of Physicians (UK) and certifications from the General Medical Council (UK). She has over two decades of experience in clinical and academic rheumatology, alongside leadership roles within various medical societies, including being the present General Secretary of Pakistan Society for Rheumatology.

Salman Khurshid Imami is a Family Medicine resident physician at Jefferson Einstein Montgomery Hospital in Pennsylvania, US. He previously worked as a Research Associate at the Shalamar Institute of Health Sciences. His academic and research interests lie at the intersection of mobile health, digital health innovation, and pain medicine, with a particular focus on contextually and culturally adapted healthcare technologies.

Watch a recording of the seminar on YouTube: Bridging the divide in pain management in Pakistan using digital tools

October 2025 | Advocating for digital health equity in the academic and digital health sector: developing and implementing charters and strategic intents

Summary

In this seminar, Victoria Betton (co-founder of the Equity Charter), Mahima Kalla (University of Melbourne) and Laura Brown (University of Manchester) will talk about “Advocating for digital health equity in the academic and digital health sectors: developing and implementing charters and strategic intents”. These charters and strategic intents communicate agreed sets of equity-related principles to guide the direction and conduct of digital health innovation and research. By promoting these principles in their respective sectors, the speakers aim to drive equitable digital health innovation (inter)nationally by creating environments that deliver digital technologies that meet the needs of everyone, particularly underserved communities. During the seminar (1-2pm), they will present the motivation behind their initiatives, the equity-related principles in their charter/strategic intent and how these have been formulated and agreed, and implementation activities and plans. The seminar will be followed by a panel discussion (2-2.30pm) on how best to implement a digital health equity charter/strategic intent at universities, including the University of Manchester.

Speaker bios

Dr Victoria Betton specialises in people-centred design, systems thinking and digital strategy, with a focus on driving meaningful adoption of technology in health and care. She is Director for Digital, Data & AI at Health Innovation, Kent Surrey Sussex and co-founder of the Equity Charter. She brings over thirty years of experience across the NHS, local government, the third sector, and digital health startups. A qualified social worker and certified coach, Victoria blends deep sector knowledge with a passion for inclusive innovation.

Dr Mahima Kalla is a Research Fellow within the University of Melbourne’s digital health studio, The Validitron. She is a qualitative researcher, specialising in digital health co-design and digital health equity. She helped start and is the Melbourne Lead of the Digital Health Equity Hub within the  International Collaborative for Translational Digital Health: a trilateral collaboration between the Universities of Manchester, Melbourne, and Toronto that aims to develop and implement new technologies into health and social care settings. Her digital health equity workshop curriculum has been delivered internationally across Australia, the UK (University of Oxford), and India (Apollo Hospitals – India’s largest network of private hospitals).

Dr Laura J.E. Brown is a Senior Lecturer in Psychology in the Division of Psychology and Mental Health at the University of Manchester. Her research broadly aims to characterise what it means for diverse groups of older people to live and age well, and to develop interventions and strategies that support this. This includes the use of digital technology to advance evidence-based care, training, and assessment. Laura is also the Manchester Lead of the Digital Health Equity Hub within the  International Collaborative for Translational Digital Health. 

Watch the recording on YouTube: Advocating for digital health equity in the academic and digital health sector

September 2025 | Exploring barriers to digital inclusion for remote monitoring of rheumatoid arthritis: Lessons from a multi-centre randomised controlled trial

Summary

This seminar will share insights from the digital inclusion workstream of the REMORA2 trial – a stepped-wedge cluster randomised trial testing the effectiveness of REMORA, a co-designed smartphone app that enables regular symptom tracking integrated into the electronic health record for people living with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). View the trial protocol.

The digital inclusion workstream aims to identify barriers to digital inclusion for individuals eligible to take part in REMORA2, through interviews with patients who could not, or chose not to, use the app. These interviews provided insight into how social determinants of digital health inequities are reflected in the experiences of people living with RA. Speakers will discuss key learnings from these interviews and how these insights might inform the development of similar digital health interventions.

For more information on the programme, please visit the REMORA website. 

Speaker bios

Caroline Sanders is Professor of Medical Sociology at the University of Manchester. She has expertise in qualitative methods and research focusing on health and care experiences, particularly among marginalised and underserved communities.

Josh Behan-Devlin is a Research Associate at the University of Manchester on the REMORA2 trial. He is a qualitative researcher with a particular interest in how technologies are used in context.

Karen Staniland is a patient living with rheumatoid arthritis and a patient partner in the PPIE group for the REMORA study, where she co-chairs the group.

Watch a recording of the seminar on YouTube: Exploring barriers to digital inclusion for remote monitoring of rheumatoid arthritis

July 2025 | Expansion of digital tools in secondary healthcare to reduce inequalities in care access and outcomes

Speakers

Simon Watts and Henry Morriss

Summary

In this talk, Simon and Henry will discuss recent digital developments at Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust (MFT) and the impact they have had on health inequalities for both digitally enabled and digitally excluded groups. They will look forward to future digital developments and the potential impact for patient care and population health.

Speaker bios

Simon Watts is a consultant in public health based with MFT. Simon started his career on the NHS Management Training Scheme and went on to work in finance and general management roles in and out of the NHS and more latterly in management consultancy. He completed his Public Health Registrar training in Greater Manchester and started his consultant post in Manchester in 2023. His interests are the prevention of ill health, improving access to care, and reducing health inequalities. He has an MSc in Public Health and an MSc in Health Policy. He is also a full member of the Faculty of Public Health.

Henry Morriss qualified in Medicine from UCL in 1997 and has been a consultant at MFT since 2009, having competed specialist training in the North West of England in Emergency and Intensive Care Medicine. Digital health has always been his key area of interest, and he has completed the NHS Digital academy leadership programme. His areas of interests are unified communications, optimisation of implementation of AI at the medical frontline, and tackling health inequalities using digital solutions. He is also the group CMIO and the medical lead for MyMFT, MFT’s patient portal.

Watch a recording of the seminar: Expansion of digital tools in secondary healthcare to reduce inequalities in care access and outcomes

May 2025 | The impact of patient-facing digital health technologies on equity: a realist review

Speaker

Shoshana Bloom

Summary

In this seminar, Shoshana Bloom presents the findings from a realist review examining the research on patient-facing digital health technologies and their impact on equity. Evidence from 200 identified papers was categorised and coded, enabling thematic analysis and the development of the Digital Health Equity Framework.

Through this framework, she explored how social determinants of health shape digital access and engagement, highlighting the complex factors influencing digital health technology use, including digital literacy, affordability, infrastructure, trust, confidence, cultural relevance, and health system and policy influences.

She also suggests four key strategies that came out of the review that we can consider for promoting a more equitable digital health landscape.

Speaker bio

Shoshana Bloom is the founder of Equiti Health, a specialist consultancy to operate at the intersection of healthcare, technology, and health equity. With a 25-year career spanning both the NHS and commercial healthcare sectors, Shoshana has led major technology programs and national and local service transformation initiatives, focusing on improving healthcare safety, efficiency, and value.

Passionate about leveraging technology to enable new models of care, she works with health organisations in developing strategies and implementing change. Her extensive research into the role of technology in widening health inequities led her to establish Equiti Health, to promote more equitable digital transformation.

Shoshana holds an MSc in Global Public Health from Queen Mary University of London, an MSc in Collaborative Healthcare Management from the University of Salford, and a BSc in Human Sciences.

Watch the recording on YouTube: The impact of patient-facing digital health technologies on equity: a realist review.

April 2025 | Focus on research and EQUITY: integrating an intersectoral equity lens into health-related research

Speaker

Jennie Popay

Summary

FOR EQUITY is an open access web-based resource that aims to support people involved in research to make the evidence they produce more relevant to action to reduce social and health inequalities.

This presentation introduces the content of the resource, describe the collaborative process involved in its development, reflect on how it is being used and how it’s impact could be increased in the future

Speaker bios

Jennie Popay is Distinguished Professor of Sociology and Public Health at Lancaster University in the UK. She is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences UK, a Fellow through distinction pf the UK Faculty of Public Health and received the British Sociology Association distinguished service medal in 2022.

She is co-lead for a major programme of research on health inequalities within the English School for Public Health Research. Her research focuses on social determinants of health equity, lay knowledge, and the evaluation of community/place-based interventions/policies. She recently completed a longitudinal evaluation of the largest community empowerment programme ever implemented in England – the Big Local.

She established The Other Front Line Global Alliance collecting stories from groups bearing the brunt of social injustice. She has also produced several online resource to support researchers to strengthen the equity focus of their work including Neighbourhood Resilience.

She worked with the WHO Commission on the Social Determinants of Health (the Marmot Commission) and is a Member of the Scientific Advisory Expert Group for WHO EURO’s Health Equity Status Report.

Slides of the presentation: Focus on research and equity (PDF).

Responses to questions: Speakers response to questions in the chat (PDF).

March 2025 | Cross-pollinating knowledge on digital health equity: lessons from two countries

Speakers

Nicole Goedhart and Ibukun Abejirinde 

Summary

The seminar starts with a conversation between Ibukun and Nicole on their research programmes and collaborative projects in digital health equity, followed by a 20-minute presentation delivered by Nicole on her project “Doing eHealth Right”.

In this presentation, she shares initial findings from the project, which combines participatory action research and systems learning to better understand challenges and create new opportunities to make eHealth more inclusive for people living in more vulnerable circumstances in the Netherlands. 

This is followed by an open discussion including attendees around bridging the digital divide in healthcare and how strong collaborative networks can chart a way forward.

Speaker bios

Nicole Goedhart is an assistant professor in the Department of Ethics, Law, and Medical Humanities at Amsterdam University Medical Center. Her expertise lies in the fields of digital inequalities, action research, and the engagement of citizens living in vulnerable circumstances. Currently, she is the project leader of ‘Doing eHealth Right,’ a four-year project aimed at contributing to the reduction of digital (health) inequalities.

Ibukun Abejirinde is an Assistant Professor at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto and a Scientist at the Institute for Better Health, Trillium Health Partners. Her research considers the intersections of technology and health inequities and what it means for how marginalized populations experience and access quality care.

Through the Canadian Network for Digital Health Evaluation, she led the development of the first pan-Canadian digital health evaluation framework to inform a common reference for shared learnings on digital health across Canada. She is University of Toronto’s co-lead for the digital health equity hub within the trilateral International Collaborative for Translational Digital Health. 

Watch the recording on YouTube: Doing eHealth right: How can we ensure that healthcare remains accessible and works for everyone?

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