Digital Health Research Group Seminars

Coming up

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25 Aug 2026 - Beyond the Chatbot: The next Generation of AI in Mental Health with Yagyansh Bagri, Lead Data Scientist at Mid Yorkshire Teaching NHS Trust

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With over five years of experience across Healthcare, EdTech, and E-commerce, Yagyansh Bagri focuses on building scalable machine learning systems that survive outside of a notebook and solve real business problems in production. Yagyansh is Lead Data Scientist for the Mid Yorkshire Teaching NHS Trust, where he oversee the strategic and ethical implementation of AI. He defines the technical roadmaps and governance frameworks required for enterprise-scale healthcare systems.

 

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8 Sep 2026 - Understanding GP Practices Through Ethnographic Field Research with Sarah Stokes, Senior User Researcher, NHS England - Digital Primary Care, Transformation Directorate

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29 Sep 2026 - Matthew Oakes, Head of Intelligence and Analytics, Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

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13 Oct 2026 - PART ONE: Saurav Nair Sudhar, Yat Leung & J. D. McManus, Software/Infrastructure Engineers at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS FT / University of Manchester / University of Liverpool

 

27 Oct 2026 - PART TWO: Saurav Nair Sudhar, Yat Leung & J. D. McManus, Software/Infrastructure Engineers at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS FT / University of Manchester / University of Liverpool

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15 November 2026​ - Pittet Océane, PhD candidate at Unisanté, Lausanne, Switzerland - Part 3

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1 Dec 2026 - Prof Sabine Van der Veer, Professor of Healthcare Informatics, University of Manchester

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Previous Seminars

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8 August 2026 - How to launch a Digital Health Comms Strategy with Mia Vines Booth

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Mia Vines Booth is the Communications and Engagement Manager for the Greater Manchester Digital Mental Health Research Unit. Her background is in local journalism, podcast production and media communication. In 2026, Mia joined the Digital Innovation Workstream of the UK Government Mental Health Goals Programme as the Communications and Media Manager, launching a Communications Strategy for the workstream.

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28 July 2026 - Alexander Howis from Eolas Medical on The 3am Quest.

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Alexander Howis currently builds the commercial engine for Eolas, a knowledge management platform used by NHS Trusts, clinical teams, and individuals to support the delivery of patient care. Eolas, pronounced "o-las" from the Irish word for knowledge, uses AI to streamline access to organisations’ internal knowledge for use at the point of care.

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14 July 2026 - Developing an Inpatient Dashboard for NHS Mental Health Trusts with James Keidel

 

James Keidel is Director of Data Science & Analytics at Holmusk. James leads the development of digital health technologies for mental health services, with expertise in data science, research design and advanced statistical analysis. James will present the development of an inpatient dashboard for NHS mental health trusts, covering how the tool was conceived, the development process, a live demonstration of the dashboard, and future directions.

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16 June 2026​ - Developing a community led training course, that upskills people across government in the digital research skills needed to improve and deliver public services (including health services).  

 

Sarah Stokes 

Sarah Stokes is a Senior User Researcher at NHS England. She is currently working with teams in primary and community care to make services simpler and fairer, turning research into clear decisions that solve real problems for patients and staff. Sarah also helps co-ordinate the training of research practitioners across central and local government, and is studying for an MSc in healthcare leadership to strengthen system-wide change. Based in Gateshead, she cares deeply about dignity in public services, inclusion, and change rooted in local communities. 

 

Louise Petre 

Louise Petre is the Head of User Research in the Chief Data Office at GDS, where she leads a team of user researchers and convenes the cross‑government user research leadership group. Louise works to build capability, confidence, and curiosity, to strengthen evidence‑based decision‑making, and help colleagues understand and apply user‑centred methods in practical, meaningful ways. Based in London, she enjoys asking questions, doing puzzles, and helping build things that work better for the people who rely on them. ​

 

2 June 2026​: Pittet Océane, PhD candidate at Unisanté, Lausanne, Switzerland

 

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

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12 May 2026

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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.

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28 April 2026

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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.​​

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14 April 2026

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

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31 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.

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17 March 2026: 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.

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24 February & 3 March 2026

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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.

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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.

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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.

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24 February 2026 

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

3rd March 2026

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

Follow-up optional reading:

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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.​

 

10 February 2026

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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)

 

27 January 2026

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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

 

20 January 2026

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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​​