Events

Digital Health Research Group Seminars

Led by Dr Marta Chmielowska, the Digital Health Research Group Seminar Series is a fortnightly research forum held on Tuesdays, 9:15–10:00am.

In collaboration with the GM.Digital Research Unit (also CAMHS.Digital), our team hosts a vibrant programme of events exploring the latests research, policy, an innovation across digital health.

From cutting-edge AI and data science to inclusive design, ethics, and lived experience, our events bring together researchers, clinicians, policymakers, industry representatives, and people with lived experience to share ideas, challenge assumptions, and shape the future of digital health.

Join our mailing list to receive seminar announcements and updates.

You can also follow the Digital Health Research Group on LinkedIn for research highlights, industry events, and the latest innovations in digital health and technology.

We want to make the meeting as inclusive and accessible as possible. If you have additional needs, please let us know and we’ll do what we can to make this group accessible for you.

 

Upcoming meetings

17th March 2026

Guest Speaker: Dr Nayan Kalnad, Co-founder and CEO of Avegen Health

A clinician by training, Dr Kalnad has over 14 years’ experience working in digital healthcare and pharmaceutical research and development. He founded Avegen in 2015, a digital health company that designs and delivers technology platforms used by healthcare providers and life sciences organisations in the UK and internationally.

 

Topic: Brilliant Ideas Fail When No One Asks the Most Important Question

Drawing on his experience scaling digital products across multiple countries, Dr Kalnad will reflect on why promising ideas often fail to translate into scalable solutions, and the key questions founders and teams must ask early in the process.

 

31st March 2026

Guest Speaker: Prof Ralph McKinnon is a Consultant Paediatric Anaesthetist at Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital and a recognised leader in simulation-based education and paediatric trauma care. He founded the North-West Simulation Education Network and co-founded INSPIRE, helping to shape simulation practice regionally and globally. He has authored over 50 publications spanning paediatric trauma, resuscitation, and technology-enabled simulation. At RMCH, Ralph leads both the Resuscitation and Paediatric Major Trauma Services. He is also co-founder of Out-There Health Tech, supporting the translation of digital health innovation into meaningful NHS impact.

 

Topic: To be confirmed

 

14th April 2026

Guest Speaker: Garth Williams, an actor, producer, writer, Creative Technologist, and the founding director of Safety Catch Ltd. 

 

Topic: To be confirmed

 

28th April 2026

Guest Speaker: Soo Hun, the Innovation & Digital Ecosystem Lead at Digital Health & Care Northern Ireland, focusing on developing partnerships that enable innovation and digital transformation in health and care.

 

Topic: To be confirmed

 

12th May 2026

Guest Speaker: Rush Miah, the Head of Business Intelligence at Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust, leading the use of data and analytics to support service improvement and informed decision-making across mental health services.

 

Topic: To be confirmed

 

2nd June 2026

Guest Speaker: Pittet Océane, PhD candidate at Unisanté, Lausanne, Switzerland

 

Topic: Living with Endometriosis: Insights from a Photovoice Study (2/3)

 

16th June 2026

Guest Speaker: Sarah Stokes, a Senior User Researcher at NHS England’s Digital Primary Care Transformation Directorate, supporting the design of digital services through user-centred research.

 

Topic: To be confirmed

 

17th November 2026

Guest Speaker: Pittet Océane, PhD candidate at Unisanté, Lausanne, Switzerland

 

Topic: To be confirmed(3/3)

 

1st December 2026

Guest Speaker: Sabine Van der veer, Professor of Health Informatics in the Division of Informatics, Imaging, and Data Sciences at the University of Manchester. 

 

Topic: To be confirmed

 

 

Previous meetings

2026

24th February & 3rd March 2026

Guest Speaker: Claire Dellar is the founder of Wheelchair Tango Foxtrot Consulting, where she advises on accessibility, inclusion strategy, and inclusive technology design. As a disabled and neurodivergent woman, she draws on lived experience to champion accessible, inclusive, and trauma-informed approaches in research and digital innovation.

Her work spans primary and secondary datasets using both quantitative and qualitative methods. She has led benefits realisation, accessibility, and product management across major UK health technology programmes, including the NHS App, NHS.UK, and national screening and referral services.

Description: A two-part seminar series exploring how accessibility and trauma-informed principles can improve the design, evaluation, and implementation of digital health technologies and research practices.

24th February 2026 

Topic:  A Day in the Life: Understanding Accessibility in Health Technology Design

3rd March 2026

Topic: Beyond Accessibility: Trauma-Informed and Inclusive Research Practices

Follow-up optional reading:

On the realities of disabled living and being an ally:

Shields, J. and Chartres-Aris, C. (2025). Unlearning Ableism: The Ultimate, No-Nonsense Guide to Understanding Disability and Unlearning Ableism. Jessica Kingsley Publishers.

On accessibility:

Lazar, J., Goldstein, D. F., & Taylor, A. (2015). Ensuring Digital Accessibility through Process and Policy. Morgan Kaufmann.

Bandukda, M; Barbareschi, G; Singh, A; Jain, D; Das, M; Motahar, T; Wiese, J; Cockburn, L; Prakash, A; Frohlich, D; Holloway, C; (2022) A Workshop on Disability Inclusive Remote Co-Design. In: ASSETS ’22: Proceedings of the 24th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility. (pp. p. 103). ACM: New York, NY, United States. 

On trauma-informed and ethical research:

Gatwiri, K., McPherson, L., Canosa, A., Day, K., & Kim, S. (2025). Reflections of ‘Doing’ Research that Involves Trauma: A Methodological Guide and Framework for Researchers. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 24.

Alessi EJ, Kahn S. Applying Trauma-Informed Research Guidelines to Qualitative Health Research: Techniques for Building Researcher Confidence and Skills. Qualitative Health Research. 2025;0(0).

Edelman NL. Trauma and resilience informed research principles and practice: A framework to improve the inclusion and experience of disadvantaged populations in health and social care research. J Health Serv Res Policy. 2023 Jan;28(1):66-75.

10th February 2026

Guest Speaker: Pittet Océane, PhD candidate at Unisanté, Lausanne, Switzerland

Topic: Improving symptom management in endometriosis: Development and Evaluation of an AI-Driven Interactive (Chatbot) Patient Decision Aid and Care Team Interface  (1/3)

27th January 2026

Guest Speaker: Joseph Firth, Professor of Mental Health Informatics in the Division of Psychology & Mental Health, School of Health Sciences, Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health at the University of Manchester.

Topic: Lifestyle Psychiatry in the online world

20th January 2026

Guest Speaker: Sabine Van der veer, Professor of Health Informatics in the Division of Informatics, Imaging, and Data Sciences at the University of Manchester. 

Topic:  Implementing remote patient monitoring to keep the NHS fit for the future

2025

9th December 2025

Guest Speaker: Dr Helen Hulme, Lecturer in Healthcare Sciences

Topic: Embedding Human Factors into Clinical Data Science Training for the NHS

2nd December 2025
Guest speakers:
Lovisa Hellsten – a PhD candidate at Karolinska Institutet working on digital sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services among youth.

Kyriaki Kosidou – an MD, PhD, Associate Professor, and Head of the Unit for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights in Region Stockholm.

Topic:  Digital sexual and reproductive healthcare use among Swedish youth: Patterns and predictors based on register-based data

Relevant papers:

  1. Youth Uptake of Digital Sexual and Reproductive Health Services Across Sociodemographic Groups (2018-2022): A Total Population Study from Stockholm, Sweden – https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mcpdig.2025.100251 [doi.org]
  2. Implementing digital sexual and reproductive health care services in youth clinics: a qualitative study on perceived barriers and facilitators among midwives in Stockholm, Sweden – https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-024-10932-1 [doi.org]

Background: Digital SRH services among youth in Stockholm
Our research examines how digital sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services relate to access to youth-friendly care in Stockholm. Using total population register data on all 12–22-year-olds, complemented by surveys and qualitative interviews, we examine who uses digital visits (chat and video), how these services are integrated into existing youth clinic systems, and what barriers and opportunities they present. The project focuses on equity in access, experiences among underrepresented groups, including those with neuropsychiatric conditions and migrant backgrounds, and the perspectives of healthcare providers navigating this digital shift. Together, these studies aim to understand how digital SRH services can contribute to more inclusive and accessible care for young people.

18th November 2025
Guest Speaker: Matthew McKenzie BEM, FRSA is a nationally recognised carer advocate and author, honoured with the British Empire Medal in 2024 for services to carers. With expertise in IT and digital care planning, he works to connect carers with health services through technology and community leadership. 

Topic: Digital Exclusion and the Invisible Workforce: Supporting Carers in a Connected Health System

4th November 2025
Guest Speaker: Rob Foster will be talking “Carebell: Connecting to Care”. 

Topic: Carebell – a real-time, cross-sector communication platform designed to reduce fragmentation across health and care. 

7th October 2025
Guest Speaker: Dr Mahima Kalla

Topic:  The CodesignConundrum: Unique challenges for Digital Health and what to do about them

30th September 2025
Guest Speaker: Dr. Dominika Kwasnicka

Topic:  Using digital health tools to improve social connection and inclusion

16th September 2025
Guest Speaker: Professor Belinda Borrelli

Topic: Stealth Interventions to Motivate and Sustain Health Behavior Change: Examples from Virtual Reality and Mobile Health Trials

2nd September 2025
Guest Speaker: Olivia Burns will be talking insights from her ongoing work with a range of digital healthtech companies and innovation networks.

19th August 2025
Guest Speaker: Tom Price is a Research Associate at GMMH and is looking forward to presenting at the next DHRRG seminar about Usability Workshops and Accessibility

5th August 2025
Guest Speaker: Dr. Linda Mizun is an Emergency Doctor, Board Certified Lifestyle Medicine Doctor, and co-founder of Healing Neighbourhoods

Topic:  Hero of Health app.

Here is the information: https://www.heroofhealth.com

22nd July 2025
Guest Speaker: Dr. Annalisa Occhipinti

Topic: Multimodal AI and metabolic modelling: ​a comprehensive framework for enhancing biological insights​

In this talk, Annalisa will introduce AI models that integrate diverse data modalities (e.g., clinical data, medical images, and transcriptomics) with metabolic modelling to enhance understanding, interpretation, and decision-making in complex diseases such as cancer. This approach moves beyond black-box models, aiming to develop more transparent, trustworthy tools for both research and clinical applications.

Link to paper: https://www.cell.com/trends/cell-biology/fulltext/S0962-8924(23)00235-0

8th July 2025
Guest Speaker: Cara Afzal is Programme Director for Data and Digital, Health Innovation Manchester

Topic:  Greater Manchester Care Record (GMCR): Optimisation and delivery

17th June 2025
Guest Speaker: Dr. Pritesh Mistry is Fellow (Digital Technologies) at The King’s Fund

Topic: Digital Exclusion

Here are related publications:
Connection Lost [features.kingsfund.org.uk]
Moving From Exclusion To Inclusion In Digital Health And Care | The King’s Fund [kingsfund.org.uk]
Designing Inclusive Digital Health Services With Communities | The King’s Fund [kingsfund.org.uk]

13th May 2025
Guest Speaker: Louise Thompson is Founder & CEO of MyFolks

Topic: My triangle of hell- the story of how my parents’ frailty led to the Myfolks app

29th April 2025
Guest Speaker: Holly Coole, Registered Mental Health Nurse and Senior Manager for Digital Mental Health at the MHRA

Topic:  Digital Mental Health Technology: Device characterisation, regulatory qualification and classification

Associated Information
Guidance – Digital mental health technology: qualification and classification – GOV.UK
Project Hub Page – Digital mental health technology – GOV.UK

8th April 2025
Guest Speaker: Heather Rostron, Senior Research Nurse, Leeds Children’s Hospital

Topic: Factors affecting the adoption of Technology Enabled Care in paediatric rheumatology

25th March 2025
Guest Speaker: Dr. Madeleine France-Ratcliffe, Research Fellow

Topic: Introducing VoiceIn: A digital platform for PPIE

4th March 2025
Guest Speaker: Professor Lesley Ann Anderson, who is from University of Aberdeen

Topic: From Pixels to Genomes: Leveraging AI and Routine Data to improve cancer detection & treatment

Here is the paper.

25th February 2025
Guest Speaker: Dr Syed Mustafa Ali, is a research associate in health informatics at the Centre for Health Informatics

Topic:  Addressing Ethnic Health Inequities by Improving the Inclusiveness of Digital Health Research for South Asians

Here is the paper: https://exchanges.warwick.ac.uk/index.php/exchanges/article/view/1566

11th February 2025
Guest Speaker: John Sainsbury, Innovation Manager, NHS Greater Manchester Mental Health Trust, Topic: Implementing gameChange VR therapy in the real world

Here is the video : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdMLfdPBb60

4th February 2025
Guest Speaker: Dr Heidi Tranter, GM.Digital Research Unit Manager

Topic:  EN-CAMHS 2: Enhancing CAMHS Referrals 2

2023

11th July 2023
Guest: Dr. Charlene Chu from University of Toronto will talk about Digital Ageism in Technology and AI systems.  Here is the link to the paper, Digital Ageism: Challenges and Opportunities in Artificial Intelligence for Older Adults.

23rd May 2023
Guest: Martin Burchell will give CamCOPS demos.

9th May 2023
Guest: Dr Kim Martin (www.linkedin.com/in/kimcmartin) from South Africa will talk about RSE Roadtrip – an (ongoing) interview-based survey of a selection of UK-based RSE Groups and communities, with a focus on formation, practices and experiences.

2nd May 2023
Guest: Kumbi Kariwo (Birmingham Community Health Care FT – Equality and Inclusion Project Lead & National Digital Shared Decision Making Council – Midlands Representative) to talk her work

18th April 2023
Guest: Lucy Porte to discuss OCD app.

28th March 2023
Guest: Dr Alan Davies to discuss his work on developing a Digital Healthcare technologies competency framework, to underpin learning needs assessments and curricula design to enable practitioners to work effectively with these technologies in the future. This was a collaboration with Health Education England and other colleagues in the Division of Informatics, Imaging and Data Sciences at the University of Manchester.

14th March 2023
Guest: Imogen Levy to discuss her Work as Head of Product at NHS England

7th March 2023
Guest: Dr Junaid Hussain, Practicing Primary Care Clinician, Digital Health Advisor/Ranting Specialist and Director of Man Confidence,  to discuss digital health

14th February 2023
Member discuss Episode 25 of the National Health Executive podcast

17th January 2023
Guest: Lex van Velsen to discuss “The Limitations of User-and Human-Centered Design in an eHealth Context and How to Move Beyond Them”

 

2022

13th December 2022
Members will share a favourite article, blog, podcast, video, Tweet, project you’ve worked on, conference you enjoyed, or something else related to digital health from 2022 and speak about this briefly

29th November 2022
Guest: Holly Bear to discuss “Determination of Markers of Successful Implementation of Mental Health Apps for Young People: Systematic Review”

15th November 2022 (12:00pm-12:30pm)
Guest: Kristin P. Bennett to discuss “Quantifying representativeness in randomized clinical trials using machine learning fairness metrics”

25th October 2022
Guest: Manjul Rathee, Co-founder & CEO, BFB Labs, to discuss “Lumi Nova”

18th October 2022
Guest: Janak Gunatilleke to discuss his book “Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare: Unlocking its Potential”

11th October 2022
Guest: Rochelle Gold, Head of User Research, NHS Digital, to discuss “Usability is a clinical safety issue: User research at NHS Digital”

4th October 2022 (4:30pm)
Guest: Trina Histon to discuss “Real-world implementation of digital mental health- lessons learned”

27th September 2022
Guest: Dr Allison Crawford and Dr Amanda Gambin, University of Toronto and the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), to discuss “Health Equity Impact Assessment tool for Digital Health”

6th September 2022
Guest: Janine Aitken, “Digital Citizen Panel”

21st June 2022
Guest: David Drummond, “Challenges of digital medicine for children”

14th June 2022
Guest: David Wong, “An Apple a Day Keeps the AI Away”

26th April 2022
Guest: Kate Loveys, “A digital human for delivering a remote loneliness and stress intervention to younger and older adults during the COVID-19 pandemic: Feasibility and acceptability data”

12th April 2022
Guest: Daryl Kayes, NHS Digital, to discuss “An Overview of the Cyber Security Operations Centre”

5th April 2022
Guest: Toby Lewis, The Kings Fund, to discuss “Integrated care systems in the UK, population health approaches to addressing health inequalities and the role of health data in this process”

29th March 2022
Guest: Victoria Betton to discuss her book “Towards a Digital Ecology: NHS Digital Adoption through the COVID-19 Looking Glass“

15th March 2022
Guest: Miranda Mourby to discuss “Data Integration for Personalised Medicine: Data Protection & Control”

8th March 2022
Guest: Emily Griffiths to discuss “Findability of UK e-cohorts”

1st March 2022
Guest: Simon Foster to discuss “The experiences, needs and barriers of people with impairments related to usability and accessibility of digital health solutions, levels of involvement in the design process and strategies for participatory and universal design: a scoping review”

22nd February 2022
Guest: Steven Antrobus. “AFFIRMO: Building a digital intervention across 6 countries”

15th February 2022
Guest: Eleanora Harwich, NHSX, “The role of the NHS AI Lab in adoption of AI in health and care in the UK”

1st February 2022
Guest: Richard Dodd “Co-design eADAPT workshop”

11th January 2022
Guest: Matt Machin “Principles for Developing Innovative HIV Digital Health Interventions“

 

2021

14th December 2021
Guest: Olga Perski, “Technology-mediated just-in-time adaptive interventions (JITAIs) to reduce harmful substance use: a systematic review“

7th December 2021
Guest: Elizabeth Kirkham, “Prioritising people with mental illness in mental health data science”

30th November 2021
University of Toronto, eHealth Innovation Team

16th November 2021
Guest: Mike Dorsch, “Effects of a Novel Contextual Just-In-Time Mobile App Intervention (LowSalt4Life) on Sodium Intake in Adults With Hypertension: Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial”

9th November 2021
Dose-Response Research in Digital Health Interventions: Concepts, Considerations, and Challenges

26th October 2021
Guest: Felipa Schmidt, “A Literature Review on Online Child Sexual Abuse: Prevalence, Psychological Implications, and Treatment”

19th October 2021
Guest: Matt Machin, “How hard can it be to add a button? Managing customer expectations in research software projects”

12th October 2021
Guest: Lesley Soden, “Apps on Prescription”

5th October 2021
Guest: Claire Little, “And Now For Today’s Pain Forecast”

21st September 2021
Guest: Ruth Norris, who will lead an interactive Team Science session

7th September 2021
Guest: Richard Dodd, Developing User Interfaces

24th August 2021
Guest: Phil Booth, “GPDPR?”

17th August 2021
Guest: Ruth Norris, There is no I in Team

27th July 2021
Guest: Emily Griffiths to discuss “Ethical arguments around data-only health research in the NHS in England”

20th July 2021
Guest: Brett Hatfield, QueerTech

13th July 2021
Guest: Lucy Porte, Reviewing and recommending apps with ORCHA

29th June 2021
Guest: Videha Sharma to discuss “The challenge of complex multi-centre clinical pathways – a case study from kidney transplantation”

22nd June 2021
“The challenges and opportunities of mental health data sharing in the UK”

8th June 2021
Guest: Ian McNicoll: Interoperability and OpenEHR’

25th May 2021
Guest: Elizabeth Cotton to discuss “Uber Therapy and Digital Occupational Health”

18th May 2021
Guided Paper Discussion with Charlotte Stockton-Powdrell: Remote care for mental health: qualitative study with service users, carers and staff during the COVID-19 pandemic

11th May 2021
Guided Paper Discussion with Richard Dodd: “IDEAS (Integrate, Design, Assess, and Share): A Framework and Toolkit of Strategies for the Development of More Effective Digital Interventions to Change Health Behavior”

27th April 2021
Guest Speaker: Ruth Watkinson & Stephanie Gillibrand
“Research with a commercial partner: Working with Evergreens Life’s GP Services and Wellbeing App”

20th April 2021
Guest Speaker: Stephanie Gillibrand
“Public and Community Involvement and Engagement for the Greater Manchester Population Research Resource (GMPRR) project”

13th April 2021
Guest Speaker: John Sainsbury, Innovation Lead at Greater Manchester Mental Health
Membership of AKRIVIA: Service user consultation on the use of patient data in Mental Health for research, service improvement and audit purposes

23rd March 2021
Guest Speaker: Charlie Stockton-Powdrell
A new digital health collaboration between the University of Manchester and the University of Toronto – “CANUK Collaboration: An innovation pipeline to advance digital health and therapeutics”

16th March 2021
Guest Speaker: Jess Booth
Creating a digital app for patient and public involvement, and using virtual workshops in the development process

9th March 2021
HDR UK On Synthetic Data: First hour of recorded conference

2nd March 2021

23rd February 2021
Guest Speaker: Pritesh Mistry
“Putting Trust, Transparency and Fair Value at the Centre of Digital Health and Care“

2nd February 2021

26th January 2021
Guest Speaker: Lamiece Hassan
#Datasaveslives: mixed methods analysis of a social media campaign to promote the benefits of using health data for research purposes

19th January 2021
Guest Speaker: Franziska Günther
“Digital Therapy to Support Recovery from Substance Abuse: Analysing User Data”.

 

2020

8th December 2020
Members will share 1 Digital Health related piece that they have enjoyed (be it an article, book, podcast, video, poster) and speak about this briefly

1st December 2020
Guest Speaker: Terika McCall to discuss:

24th November 2020

17th November 2020
Keynote from “Mad Covid” at the Royal College of Psychiatrists: ‘Meaningful online psychiatric care in an era of Covid-19’  

10th November 2020
Guest Speaker: Norina Gasteiger
Co-designing robots with and for older adults

3rd November 2020
Guest Speaker: Aislinn Bergin to discuss “Preventive digital mental health interventions for children and young people: a review of the design and reporting of research“

27th October 2020

20th October 2020
Guest Speaker: Lydia Pearson on GMMH Digital Mental Health Review

13th October 2020

6th October 2020
Guest Speaker: Samantha Connolly to discuss “Leveraging Implementation Science to Understand Factors Influencing Sustained Use of Mental Health Apps: a Narrative Review“

29th September 2020

22nd September 2020

15th September 2020

8th September 2020

11th August 2020
Guest Speaker: Henny Swan on Software Accessibility

28th July 2020

21st July 2020

14th July 2020

7th July 2020

30th June 2020

23rd June 2020

16th June 2020

9th June 2020
Guest Speaker: Sarah Knowles to discuss “PPI and Remote Co-Design“

2nd June 2020

26th May 2020

19th May 2020

12th May 2020

5th May 2020

28th April 2020

21st April 2020

7th April 2020

31st March 2020

24th March 2020

17th March 2020

10th March 2020

3rd March 2020

25th February 2020

18th February 2020

10th February 2020

Seminar: Professor Darrell Mann “Why 98% of digital health solutions fail and how to make sure ours is in the 2%”

 

 

Get in touch

Contact us to find out more, ask any questions and get involved!