The University of Manchester’s Digital Health Seminar series brings together leading voices from research, clinical practice, industry and policy to explore how digital health is designed, regulated and implemented across the UK and beyond.
Topics range from AI and accessibility to regulation and NHS implementation, with a focus on making digital health work safely and at scale. The seminars are hosted by Dr Marta Chmielowska, research fellow at the University of Manchester.
Developing an NHS Trust Inpatient Dashboard with James Kiedel
In this episode, James Keidel presents the development of an inpatient dashboard, MaST (Management and Supervision Tool), for NHS mental health trusts. The tool uses predictive analytics and electronic health record data to help community mental health services manage caseloads, prioritise vulnerable patients, and reduce crisis rates.
James, who is the Director of Data Science and Analytics at Holmusk, covers how the tool was conceived, the development process, a live demonstration of the dashboard, and future directions.
James leads the development of digital health technologies for mental health services, with expertise in data science, research design and advanced statistical analysis.
18 Jun 2026
Empowering Preventative Care in Psychosis With Digital Navigators Fran Quigley and Ayla Ozkan
Currently in the UK, approximately 75% of inpatient beds in mental health wards are allocated to psychosis, a severe mental health diagnosis which accounts for 30% of the NHS mental health spend.
But what if we could reduce this spend and free up hospital beds?
A NICE-approved digital intervention known as Careloop, which acts within an early window to prevent escalation, rather than reacting to crisis, has been shown to reduce relapses by 50%, with service users twice as likely to be managed in Community Health Teams settings, than admitted into hospital.
It's one of the first digital interventions to use 'Digital Navigators' to ensure successful uptake and sustainable usage within the NHS.
In this episode, Digital Navigators Fran Quigley and Ayla Ozkan explain the importance of this role in implementing digital interventions in the NHS, and its potential to be used as a blueprint for others.
16 Jun 2026
How NHS Data Informs Services with Rush Miah
The NHS manages one of the largest health datasets globally, processing records for over 55 million people in England alone. In an increasingly digital world, how do we process and analyse all this data efficiently and safely?
In this episode, Rush Miah, Associate Director of Analytics Data and AI in Bradford Teaching Hospitals takes us behind the scenes of one of the NHS's most important but least understood sectors, data.
Rush has worked in NHS for 10 years and manages multiple data teams to support service improvement and informed decision-making across NHS mental health services.
15 Jun 2026
Should You Build a Research Mobile App? With Soo Hun
Does creating a research app to study health actually improve participant engagement? Can apps extend research beyond local areas to increasing inclusivity? And are apps able to personalise content and support wider applications in health and education? And what are the privacy and data risks?
In this episode, Soo Hun, Innovation and Digital Ecosystem Lead at Digital Health and Care Northern Ireland answers all these questions and more in an important discussion about the key considerations when building a research mobile health app.
9 Jun 2026
The Superpower of Communities of Practice with Ralph MacKinnon
What does it mean to create a community of practice in digital health?
After working in a lab for years in isolation, Ralph MacKinnon felt that he needed to, in his words, "find his tribe". After joining the Royal Manchester Children's Hospital as paediatrics major trauma service lead, he's created his own tribe through Out-There HealthTech, a digital paltform that supports communities of practice in digital healthcare.
In this episode, Ralph discusses the importance of communities of practice, with a focus on the NHS's Electronic Patient Record (EPR) software, used by many UK hospital trusts as a way to digitise records and connect care.
6 May 2026
Why Brilliant Innovations Fail to Implement with Dr Nayan Kalnad
Why do brilliant ideas fail? There's one important question noone asks....
In this episode, Dr Nayan Kalnad, a clinician by training, discusses why great innovations often fail to scale in healthcare. Kalnad has over 14 years’ experience working in digital healthcare and pharmaceutical research and development.
Kalnad co-founded Avegen Health 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.
5 May 2026
Exploring Psychosis Through Creative Technology with Garth Williams
Last year, Garth Williams won "Best Creative Innovation" at MediaCity Immersive Technologies Innovation Hub for his dramatic reconstruction of a year spent as a psychiatric inpatient across four hospitalisations.
Based on Garth’s true story beginning at age 17, the reconstruction titled, The Ward Round, includes a video game, live show, “In The Round” (training for frontline staff), and “Full Circle” (community workshops).
In this episode, the Manchester-based actor, writer, producer, and creative technologist discusses his journey from struggling with psychosis to co-developing virtual reality experiences with lived experience advisory groups.
1 May 2026
Improving Endometriosis Symptom Management through an AI Chatbot with Océane Pittet
PhD student Océane Pittet's shares her research into developing and evaluating an AI-driven interactive (chatbot) patient decision aid to improve symptom management in endometriosis.
Pittet's unique research offered people with endometriosis disposable cameras to capture their experience. Having struggled with endometriosis herself, Pittet hopes the work will help others struggling with chronic conditions.
Pittet is a PhD student at the Unisanté, a university centre for general medicine and public health based in Lausanne, Switzerland.
24 Apr 2026
Claire Dellar Part Two | Beyond Accessibility
Part two of a special 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.
Claire Dellar is the Lead Product Manager & Accessibility and Inclusive Design Strategist at NHS England, and founded Wheelchair Tango Foxtrot Consulting, where she campaigns for inclusive working practices and culture.
In this episode, Claire takes us through the seven steps of safe, accessible trauma-informed research practices. These steps apply beyond digital healthcare, and are a key toolkit for anyone looking to improve their own understanding of accessibility and how to implement this.
24 Apr 2026
Claire Dellar Part One | A Day in My Life as a Neurodivergent Ambulatory Wheelchair User
Part one of a special 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.
Claire Dellar is the Lead Product Manager & Accessibility and Inclusive Design Strategist at NHS England, and founded Wheelchair Tango Foxtrot Consulting, where she campaigns for inclusive working practices and culture.
In this episode, Claire takes us through a day in her life as a neurodivergent Ambulatory Wheelchair User, revealing the hidden accessibility barriers and needs she encounters every day.
7 Apr 2026
Lifestyle Psychiatry in the Online World with Joseph Firth
In this episode, Joseph Firth discusses the Remote Exercise and Lifestyle (REAL) Intervention for people with psychosis. Featured in numerous journals and science articles, the web library provides free access to a large library of pre-recorded workout videos available to do anywhere.
Firth is currently leading the multi-million pound UKRI-funded project, which aims to implement a digital lifestyle intervention into youth mental healthcare.
Joseph Firth is a Professor of Mental Health Informatics in the Division of Psychology & Mental Health at the University of Manchester. His current research leverages digital technologies and lifestyle medicine to improve outcomes for people with mental illness.
27 Mar 2026
Remote Patient Monitoring with Sabine Van der Veer
What do implementing remote patient monitoring into the NHS and the pioneering photographer Eadweard Muybridge have in common?
In this episode, Professor of Health Informatics Sabine van der Veer takes us on a deep dive into REMORA, or, the Remote Monitoring of Rheumatoid Arthritis (REMORA (https://sites.manchester.ac.uk/remora/)) programme.
The £2.1m research study funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) aims to improve outpatient consultations by enabling people with rheumatoid arthritis to collect and share daily symptom reports with health care staff to give them more detailed information on how patients have felt in the weeks and months between appointments.
Sabine Van der Veer is Professor of Health Informatics in the Division of Informatics, Imaging, and Data Sciences at the University of Manchester.
27 Mar 2026
Carebell and Connecting to Care with Rob Foster
Rob Foster is one of the founders of Caremixer, a Salford-based health tech start up. Previously a GP, Rob left the NHS in 2024, setting up Carebell with two clinicians.
Carebell is a real-time digital communication platform providing universal accessibility that connects professionals, teams and patients across the health and care network to reduce the impact of fragmented care. At the time of this podcast seminar, the platform is still being developed, and Rob discusses the need for targeted research in its development.
Rob's 20 year career has covered data, opps, commissioning and primary care, and transforming change in the community.
27 Mar 2026
The Co-Design Conundrum with Dr Mahima Kalla
Dr Mahima Kalla is a Digital Health Research Fellow at the Digital Health Validitron at the Centre for Digital Transformation of Health the University of Melbourne.
Kalla's work explores embedding equity considerations across the entire digital health innovation pipeline, from problem identification to implementation into routine clinical practice. In this seminar, Kalla discusses 'the Gold standard' of co-design and how to counter poor applications.
Mahima Kalla is also the Melbourne Lead for the Digital Health Equity Hub of the International Collaborative for Translational Digital Health (MMT Alliance).
19 Mar 2026
Digital Healthcare and Swedish Youth with Lovisa Hellsten
Lovisa Hellsten and Kyriaki Kosidou share their fascinating work on digital sexual and reproductive healthcare use among Swedish youth, which looks at patterns and predictors based on register-based data.
Their talk offers rich insights into how young people in Stockholm engage with digital SRH services, what shapes access and equity, and how digital visits are being integrated within youth clinic systems.
25 Feb 2026
Digital Exclusion and How We Can Overcome It with Pritesh Mistry
Pritesh Mistry spoke to Marta Chmielowska about digital exclusion in health and social care.
Pritesh is part of the The King's Fund's policy team. His work focuses on how digital tools and technologies can improve health and care across the system he is particularly passionate about using evidence-based digital technology as an enabler to improve quality, inequalities and outcomes.
Click here (https://sites.manchester.ac.uk/digital-health-software-and-platforms/events-2/) to register for upcoming Digital Health Research Seminars. Follow GM.Digital (http://GM.Digital) on LinkedIn (https://outlook.cloud.microsoft/mail/inbox/id/AAQkAGYzOGU5ODhlLWU4M2QtNDRiYy05NDlhLWRlZTUyOGJiYzhhYwAQAEjPkLlKpN1BmUXODdxzhvA%3D#:~:text=Follow%20GM.Digital%20on%20LinkedIn) and Instagram (https://outlook.cloud.microsoft/mail/inbox/id/AAQkAGYzOGU5ODhlLWU4M2QtNDRiYy05NDlhLWRlZTUyOGJiYzhhYwAQAEjPkLlKpN1BmUXODdxzhvA%3D#:~:text=Follow%20GM.Digital%20on%20Instagram).
25 Feb 2026
My Triangle of Hell with Louise Thompson
After both of Louise Thompson's parents became ill with dementia, her journey led to the creation of MyFolks — an app designed to help families support their elderly loved ones with ease and dignity.
In this episode, Louise talks to Marta Chmielowska about her inspiring app, which bridges the gap between health and social care and acts as a support system that aims to combat social isolation by using technology to provide help at the press of a button.
Click here (https://sites.manchester.ac.uk/digital-health-software-and-platforms/events-2/) to register for upcoming Digital Health Research Seminars. Follow GM.Digital (http://GM.Digital) on LinkedIn (https://outlook.cloud.microsoft/mail/inbox/id/AAQkAGYzOGU5ODhlLWU4M2QtNDRiYy05NDlhLWRlZTUyOGJiYzhhYwAQAEjPkLlKpN1BmUXODdxzhvA%3D#:~:text=Follow%20GM.Digital%20on%20LinkedIn) and Instagram (https://outlook.cloud.microsoft/mail/inbox/id/AAQkAGYzOGU5ODhlLWU4M2QtNDRiYy05NDlhLWRlZTUyOGJiYzhhYwAQAEjPkLlKpN1BmUXODdxzhvA%3D#:~:text=Follow%20GM.Digital%20on%20Instagram).
25 Feb 2026
Building Healing Neighbourhoods with Dr Linda Mizun
In this week's seminar, Dr Linda Mizun presents her transformative Disease-Reversing Neighbourhood Model, powered by the Hero of Health App.
The goal: to build 10,000 Healing Neighbourhoods to tackle loneliness, chronic diseases, and health inequality, making them accessible to all.
Simple. Scalable. Life-changing.
Click here (https://sites.manchester.ac.uk/digital-health-software-and-platforms/events-2/) to register for upcoming Digital Health Research Seminars. Follow GM.Digital (https://www.gmdigital.org/) on LinkedIn (https://outlook.cloud.microsoft/mail/inbox/id/AAQkAGYzOGU5ODhlLWU4M2QtNDRiYy05NDlhLWRlZTUyOGJiYzhhYwAQAEjPkLlKpN1BmUXODdxzhvA%3D#:~:text=Follow%20GM.Digital%20on%20LinkedIn) and Instagram (https://outlook.cloud.microsoft/mail/inbox/id/AAQkAGYzOGU5ODhlLWU4M2QtNDRiYy05NDlhLWRlZTUyOGJiYzhhYwAQAEjPkLlKpN1BmUXODdxzhvA%3D#:~:text=Follow%20GM.Digital%20on%20Instagram).
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