DATA 
SCIENCE
FOR
HEALTH
EQUITY

If you’ve ever looked at a dataset and wondered, “Who’s missing?” you already understand why the DSxHE Data Diversity Theme exists . This is an 18-month partnership between Data Science for Health Equity (DSxHE) and Cancer Research UK (CRUK), focused on helping the health research ecosystem make progress on diversity in data, research design, and reporting. Why this matters When datasets are not representative, research can be less accurate, less useful, and less fair. Two st

We were delighted to host Claire Coffey - University of Cambridge , for the latest instalment of our webinar series on statistical methods for fairness and equity in healthcare. Topic:   Are polygenic risk scores fair for cardiovascular disease risk prediction?  Abstract:  Polygenic risk scores (PRS) are increasingly proposed to enhance cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk prediction, particularly for individuals whose clinical risk estimates fall in intermediate ranges where tr

We were delighted to host  Vincent Jeanselme a postdoctoral researcher at the reAIM Lab, Columbia University, for the latest instalment of our webinar series on statistical methods for fairness and equity in healthcare. Topic:   Advancing AI-Based Risk Prediction for Improved Decision-Making in Healthcare Abstract Accurate prediction of patient outcomes plays a critical role in healthcare decision-making, shaping treatment strategies, clinical guidelines, hospital operations

Share your views and help us shape the priorities of the Data Diversity theme for the next year! The Turing Way Community, & Scriberia. (2024). Illustrations from The Turing Way: Shared under CC-BY 4.0 for reuse. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13882307 Health datasets can fail to fully represent the populations they aim to serve. When certain groups are missing or measured inconsistently, research findings may not generalise, and data-driven tools can perform less we

Recording of the launch of the Data Diversity Theme, a new initiative from Data Science for Health Equity (DSxHE) in partnership with Cancer Research UK. Don't want to miss out on any future Data Diversity theme activities? Stay up to date by joining the #theme-data-diversity channel on our Slack workspace .

We were delighted to host Jake Hightower, data science and global health innovator, for the latest instalment of our webinar series on statistical methods for fairness and equity in healthcare. Topic:   Preserving Health Equity in a Global Pandemic Model Abstract  In an era of increasingly complex global health threats, pandemic modelling must evolve to reflect not only the spread of disease but the lived realities of those most affected. This talk presents a ground-breaking

We were delighted to host Stephen Pfohl, Senior Research Scientist at Google Research, for the latest instalment of our webinar series on statistical methods for fairness and equity in healthcare. Stephen shared insights from his research into the challenges of evaluating algorithmic fairness in clinical settings, highlighting that fairness assessments are never one-size-fits-all. Drawing on examples from his work, Stephen emphasized that evaluations of fairness must be groun

We were pleased to welcome Dr. John Ford, Director of the Health Equity Evidence Centre, for a recent webinar on using machine learning to tackle health and care inequalities. Dr. Ford shared how his team, in collaboration with the EPPI Centre at UCL, is developing living evidence maps , continuously updated tools that organise research on effective interventions. These maps address a growing challenge in public health: keeping pace with an ever-expanding evidence base, where

We were thrilled to host Dr. Briana Stephenson from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in a past installment of our webinar series! Dr. Stephenson led a fascinating discussion on how mixture models can help uncover important patterns within underserved populations. She highlighted how traditional research methods often focus on majority subgroups, leaving smaller communities overlooked. In a diverse country like the United States, this "one-size-fits-all" approach

Last month we welcomed Charles Jones to present his latest work at the Statistical Methods for Health Equity webinar series. Charles Jones is a fourth-year PhD student at Imperial College London, advised by Professor Ben Glocker. Charles' research is at the intersection of fairness and causality in machine learning for medical imaging. He is interested in how causality may be used as a unifying language to understand (and begin to solve) core problems in machine learning, suc

As we close out 2024, we’re shaking things up with a special DSxHE Social to celebrate the end of the year together! It’s the perfect...

We’re excited to share the recording of DSxHE Mental Health Webinar  with Ciarán O'Driscoll , Associate Professor in Clinical Psychology at UCL, and Programme Director of the Clinical Associate in Psychology course. Ciarán’s work bridges the gap between clinical psychology and data science, and in this talk, he explores how data analytics  is transforming secondary care mental health services . Ciarán has extensive experience teaching mental health professionals and working w

We’re excited to share our DSxHE Mental Health Webinar  with Kim de Jong , Assistant Professor in Clinical Psychology at Leiden University , now live on YouTube! In this insightful talk, Kim dives into how routine outcome monitoring  and feedback  can help mental health professionals deliver better, data-informed care. Kim’s research focuses on personalizing treatment for individuals, examining why some patients respond better to certain therapies than others, and exploring h

In our latest DSxHE Mental Health Webinar, we had the honor of hosting Ellen Driessen, Assistant Professor in Clinical Psychology at Radboud University in the Netherlands. Ellen, a renowned researcher with numerous awards, including from the Dutch Government, shared her groundbreaking work on personalized treatment approaches for depression. As a clinical psychologist, Ellen’s research is centered on improving treatment for depression by focusing not just on the efficacy of t

As we step into October, we're excited to highlight a core value that drives the DSxHE community— global cultural diversity and inclusion...

This month we welcomed Dr. Nathan Blake to present his work at the Statistical Methods for Health Equity webinar series. Nathan has 12 years of experience as a nurse, predominantly in A&E, before completing a PhD in computational biology. His current work looks at applying causal reasoning for explaining the outputs of black-box AI models as applied to clinical problems. In this talk, Nathan explains the need for Explainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI) in the clinical setti

Welcome to a September filled with innovation and collaboration! As the season shifts and the leaves begin to turn, our community is also...

We’re excited to bring you the August edition of our DSxHE newsletter. Remember that feeling of a warm summer breeze that whispers new...

Catch up on the talk from Irving Amukasa for the Statistical Methods for Health Equity webinar series. Irving Amukasa is a Tech Entrepreneur, self-taught Android and AI developer, founder and CEO of Sophie Bot. Irving is a co-organizer of Android 254, an android developer group based in Kenya and previous organizer of droidcon.co.ke , the largest android focus developer conference in Africa. Irving is also a Windows Insider 4 Good fellow and MentorNations ambassador. Irving g

Welcoming July means that we're officially in the second half of 2024. At DSxHE HQ we're taking stock of everything that we achieved in...