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NortHFutures and LEAP Digital Health Hubs, both funded by EPSRC, have been at the forefront of this year’s 51������ Black Internship Programme (BIP).

Funding from the Digital Health Hubs has enabled hub partner organisations, including universities, NHS bodies, social care providers and local authorities to offer 14 paid eight-week summer internships to Black students and recent graduates, wanting to develop their health data science skills.

NortHFutures (the ) sees the BIP as an opportunity to help in its work to enhance health and wellbeing across the North East and North Cumbria region of the UK.

(which has a similar remit for South West England and Wales) also sees the BIP as a way to broaden and deepen the talent pool in the health data research sector.

Karen Dawe, Deputy Director for Skills and Training at LEAP, said: “The future of digital health has to be shaped by a wide range of voices. It’s not just about representation for its own sake, it’s about making sure the technologies and systems we develop reflect the needs, priorities, and lived experiences of the people they’re meant to serve.

“The BIP provides training and career development opportunities for people from underrepresented backgrounds. Schemes like this help us to grow a more diverse, skilled, and confident workforce who can shape a digital health future that works for everyone.”

Each intern has been carrying out a practical, real-world project with direct benefits for health and care.

The range of organisations and projects they have been involved with are impressive with benefits for the interns and their hosts. All have also made direct contributions to improved health and wellbeing.

Some of the projects are:

Trends in prescribing direct oral anticoagulants – University of Bristol: Direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs) are vital in preventing atrial fibrillation (AF), which is a cause of ischemic stroke. However, disparities in DOACs prescribing persist across ethnic groups. Elvis Annan’s internship focused on evaluating trends in DOAC prescribing which will contribute to research into equitable healthcare delivery.

Ambient AI – Royal Devon University Healthcare Trust, HealthTech Research Centre: Andrew Asoeh has been contributing to the Ambient AI project, which explores the use of artificial intelligence to enhance real-time clinical decision-making in anaesthetic and perioperative care. He said: “What began as curiosity has evolved into deep passion, particularly through my exposure to several HealthTech research initiatives.”

The Impact of Minimum Unit Pricing – Public Health Wales: Jennifer Tasong’s internship has involved helping analyse the impact of the minimum unit pricing (MUP) of alcohol in Wales and outcomes such as alcohol-related deaths and hospital admissions.

Creating a Local Food Price Index – Citizens Advice Gateshead: Somto Uche has been developing a model to create an ongoing food price index for Gateshead, focusing on the consumption patterns of low-income households. Supervisor Neil Gow said: “When we talk about a ‘cost of living crisis’ we sometimes miss the detail about the real impact for low-income households when it comes to food. This project will create a rolling metric with which we can measure the actual changes across Gateshead and consequently inform policy makers about the hyperlocal impact of regional and national changes.”

Fair Data Visualisation in Healthcare – Newcastle University: internship concentrated on fair data visualisation for healthcare. He said: “By integrating quantitative fairness metrics with visual analytics, the project aims to develop actionable insights and practical guidelines for the responsible application of dimensionality reduction in clinical data science workflows.”

Lymphoedema Quality of Life Measure – St Oswald’s Hospice: Angel Obinna-Uzoh has helped develop a structured, data-driven way to measure and track how the hospice’s lymphoedema service impacts patients’ quality of life over time. Supervisor Simon Gordon said: “In a climate where funding for the charity sector is increasingly competitive, this kind of insight is invaluable. It strengthens our ability to advocate for the resources we need. We simply couldn’t do this without the support of NortHFutures – or without brilliant people like Angel.”

• Fuller reports on the Hubs’ BIP cohorts can be seen on the and the