Daniel Teklemariam is the Julia Anderson Communications and Events Trainee in Climate and Mental Health, joining the Climate Cares Centre in summer 2025.
The Climate Cares Centres is a team of researchers, designers, policy experts and educators working to understand and support mental health in the current climate and ecological crises. Our mission is to equip individuals, communities and systems with the knowledge and resources to protect mental health from climate impacts, while enabling climate action that strengthens the conditions for good mental health and wellbeing.
Londoner escapes extreme heat in shade and pours water over his head. Credit: Christian Juilliard/ Climate Visuals
Introduction: The Overlooked Link Between Heat and Mental Health
The recent European heatwaves killed thousands across the continent and hundreds in London, with a report by Imperial’s Grantham Institute revealing that 65% of the heat deaths were a direct consequence of human-induced climate change. But whilst the physical impacts of extreme heat like dehydration, heatstroke and death are more well known (source, source 2), the significant impact on mental health is often overlooked in public discourse, policy and research. Heatwaves can worsen symptoms of many mental health conditions whilst also making it harder to deal with heat when taking medication (Source), and this will become a growing issue over the next century as climate change will cause more frequent, severe, and early-season heatwaves across the globe. National, regional, and local authorities have developed heat-health action plans to deal with the health risks associated with heat but a recent review, done in collaboration with Climate Cares, found only 22% of such plans included targeted interventions for mental health. We need to highlight this overlooked aspect of extreme heat in public discourse and include it in our actions to respond to heatwaves to save lives and protect mental health in a changing climate.
Launch of a joint United for Global Mental Health & Climate Cares Centre report on mental health in national adaptation policies. This blog post was written by Alessandro Massazza, United for Global Mental Health, and Jessica Newberry Le Vay, Climate Cares Centre.
A woman returns home after collecting water from a nearby river, walking across large deposits of bags put together to protect the embankment from soil erosion due to the rising Brahmaputra river during peak monsoon season in Majuli island, Assam, India. Credit: Kunga Tashi Lepcha / Climate Visuals Countdown
From increasing the risk of new mental health problems following extreme weather events to making people living with pre-existing mental health problems more vulnerable, climate change affects all aspects of people’s mental health and wellbeing. The latest report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) indicates, with high confidence, that climate change has already been negatively impacting mental health globally, and that these impacts are expected to worsen as climate change deepens.
A number of actions can be taken to protect people and communities from the impacts of already happening climate change. These actions are collectively known as “adaptation” actions, which can be defined as the human process of adjusting to the actual or expected climate and its impacts in order to reduce harm or to benefit from opportunities. Adaptation activities can include things like building flood defences, setting up and implementing early warning systems for extreme weather events such as cyclones, or switching to drought-resistant crops. Importantly, adaptation is needed to protect mental health from climate change-related hazards, and the actions can also have significant co-benefits (i.e. additional wins) for mental health, for example the potential additional mental health benefits of increasing tree cover and green space access in cities beyond the cooling effect.
And yet, mental health often receives insufficient attention in the context of climate adaptation discussions. For example, according to a 2025 World Health Organisation review of health in national adaptation plans (59 national adaptation plans (NAPs) and 27 health national adaptation plans (HNAPs)), mental health and psychosocial considerations are included in less than half of NAPs (44%) and remain incompletely documented across HNAPs (81%). Importantly, only 5% of NAPs and 22% of HNAPs included specific actions to address mental health and psychosocial needs, making mental health one of the health outcomes with the least actionable recommendations in the context of adaptation policies. Another recent review on children’s health in NAPs found that of the 160 countries it examined, none included considerations on children’s mental health. An analysis of HNAPS in South America also highlighted the minimal recognition of mental health. The lack of recognition of mental health in adaptation policies may also be driven by the dearth of robust research on the mental health impacts of adaptation action.
To address this gap, United for Global Mental Health and the Climate Cares Centre at Imperial College London joined forces to develop a report that: 1) reviews the current state of mental health integration in adaptation planning, and 2) provides evidence-based recommendations and content suggestions on how policymakers working on national adaptation plans can integrate mental health in their policies. The report is launching this week in the context of the 2025 Global Climate and Health Conference in Brasilia, Brazil. It represents a call to ensure mental health is meaningfully integrated in adaptation action at the national level and across international commitments such as the Belém Health Action Plan for the Adaptation of the Health Sector to Climate Change. You can access the full report here.
The report reviewed national adaptation policies from 193 countries and the main findings were:
Overall, mental health was not included in the majority of national adaptation policies (58%) and, when included, it was often mentioned superficially and/or with no corresponding adaptation action. The heat map below highlights the degree of inclusion of mental health in national adaptation policies globally.
The report also provides concrete evidence-based recommendations and suggested content for the integration of mental health into national adaptation policies. The recommendations include:
Recognise the diverse negative impacts of climate change on mental health, including the increased risks certain groups with specific vulnerabilities may face
Monitor the mental health impacts of climate change and any mental health risks and co-benefits of adaptation at a national level to ensure appropriate and effective adaptation responses
Ensure specific adaptation actions are planned and implemented to protect and promote good mental health, as well as to prevent and manage mental health problems (see infographic below for possible actions)
Identify the many co-benefits to mental health that appropriate adaptation measures and actions can have
Ensure appropriate financing is available for the integration of mental health into adaptation efforts
Recognise that many places may be unable to fully adapt to climate change, resulting in significant losses and damages among people and communities. Therefore, appropriate mental health and psychosocial support needs to be resourced and provided to affected populations immediately
Build collaborative, cross-sector partnerships – including with communities – that combine diverse forms of expertise to inform the design, delivery and evaluation of efforts to integrate mental health into adaptation.
Throughout the report, we highlight case studies of best practices for the integration of mental health into national adaptation plans including case studies from Ethiopia, Bangladesh, Canada, Jordan, Australia, Finland, and Chile.
Mental health must be centered in adaptation action, both to protect the mental health of people and communities from the worst impacts of climate change but also because healthy people and communities are needed for sustained adaptation to climate change. As countries prepare for enhancing progress on adaptation at COP30 in Belém, Brazil, the current report provides a roadmap on how to do this, to ensure everyone can experience the highest attainable standard of mental health, even in the context of a changing climate.
Read the full report: Integrating Mental Health into Climate Change Adaptation Policies
The Digital Health Leadership Programme is delivered by Imperial College London’s Institute of Global Health Innovation, in collaboration with a wide network of partnerships including Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust.Jake Marshall is a MSc student of the Digital Health Leadership Programme and completed the PG Diploma with Cohort 6 in 2023-24. He shares his experience of the programme and his career to date.
What’s your academic background? What did you study for your undergraduate degree or other degrees?
Jake Marshall (JM): I graduated with a BSc in Economics and Management from King’s College London (King’s Business School) in 2019, driven by an interest in analysing business challenges through the multidisciplinary lenses of analytics, leadership and technology. In my final year, I chose to take a module in Health Economics, which sparked my interest in how the economic rules of demand and supply could be transposed to health – one of the most critical sectors that affects us all. Some might say this marked the beginning of my journey toward a career in healthcare!
I’m especially proud to have completed this degree as a first-generation student coming from an area with historically low access rates to higher education. Support from my first employer and charities like the Helena Kennedy Foundation played a crucial role in helping me get there, showing me what could be possible in the face of adversity and underrepresentation.
What about your career?
JM: I began my career on a consulting graduate scheme at EY, where I worked on rotational projects with international clients across the healthcare and life sciences sectors. My focus was on digital value propositions and go-to-market strategy. I then moved into the NHS where I managed portfolio strategy for NHS England’s Transformation Directorate. In this role, I developed and influenced strategic plans for digital, data and technology across the NHS, including designing the vision for England’s previous national strategy for digital health and care with over 1,300 stakeholders.
Currently, I serve as Head of Life Sciences and Public Sector Partnerships for the Data for Research and Development Programme at NHS England. I lead stakeholder engagement and business development activity for the NHS Research Secure Data Environment Network. This is a large data infrastructure initiative across England aiming to make health-related data more accessible, secure and trusted for research. You can read more about our work in my latest blog.
In a rapidly evolving landscape, digital leaders in the NHS need the knowledge and practical skills to respond to new threats and opportunities for the healthcare sector, supporting them to lead their organisations with the latest developments in generative AI, Cybersecurity and other pressing issues.
Participants at IBM offices
The Education team at IGHI has developed a new series of highly interactive, seminar-style residential bootcamps to support digital leaders, offering a carefully curated programme of expert panels, Imperial academic keynotes, real-life simulations and practical workshops to enable immediate implementation of their learning into their organisations.
Students working in groups at cybersecurity workshop
On 3 and 4 April, we hosted our first Cybersecurity Bootcamp in partnership with IBM. We had a variety of job roles from across the NHS represented: Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs), Chief Information Officers (CIOs), and Chief Clinical Information Officers (CCIOs). The aim of the course? To offer an opportunity for digital leaders to practice and learn: ask the right questions, avoid playing catch-up and prepare for the next wave of threats.
The academic lead for the bootcamp was Dr Saira Ghafur, who worked with the education team to bring in experts, design the 2-day agenda and weave together the various sessions, panels and keynotes. Alex Barclay, Head of Education for the Helix Centre, designed and delivered the practical workshops on the second day, allowing participants to get into the weeds and start working on cyber strategies fit to take back into their organisations.
The programme saw the following highlights:
An IBM X-Force Simulation, generously adapted by a team of experts specifically for this NHS audience.
Imperial’s Professor Chris Hankin’s opening keynote, showing us through the lens of his research and recent geopolitical history why healthcare is an attractive target for cyber criminals, how to reduce probability and impact and work on our collective resilience.
A panel of experts: Dr Ayesha Rahim, Phil Huggins and Dr Saif Abed sharing their insights on cyber risks & impact with honesty, real-life impact on staff and patients and great energy.
Digital Health Leadership alumni and technical practitioner Gary McAllister delivered a case study “Insider Perspective on Major Attack”. It was hugely impactful to hear first-hand what actually happens on the ground when your organisation is under attack.
This blog post was written by Professor Kathryn Maitland, Professor of Paediatric Tropical Infectious Diseases at the Faculty of Medicine and Director of the Centre of African Research and Engagement at the Institute of Global Health Innovation, Imperial College London. She leads the SMAART Consortium (Severe Malaria Africa: A consortium for Research and Trials).
In much of sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), malaria remains a key cause of paediatric hospital admission, and makes a substantial contribution to under 5-year mortality, estimated at 600,000 annually.
Despite implementing currently effective, fast-acting artemisinin-based combination therapies, the multisite SMAART observational study has shown that inpatient mortality for paediatric severe malaria (excluding hyperparasitaemia with no additional severity features) remains unacceptably high at ~8%. The SMAART consortium was created in 2018 to translate recent advances in platform trial design to improve outcomes for severe childhood malaria across SSA.
SMAART is the only existing multi-site, multi-country collaboration conducting research in paediatric severe malaria on the continent.
SMAART-MAP, a multi-country adaptive platform trial (ISRCTN79071535) is simultaneously evaluating three adjunctive therapies in Phase II trials across SSA, addressing severe malaria complications (seizure prophylaxis, transfusion strategies and renal protection), with biomarker or clinical therapeutic efficacy endpoints based on putative mechanisms of action, to identify the most promising interventions to take forward into a large Phase III/IV mortality endpoint trial. The trial is being run in eight hospitals across six African countries (Ghana, Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, Kenya, Zambia and Mozambique).
The SMAART consortium is a multidisciplinary collaboration currently involving partners from SSA, Europe and Thailand with strong track records in delivering high impact guideline-changing treatment trials in paediatric severe malaria. SMAART’s ambition is to improve short and long-term outcomes for children with severe malaria in SSA by conducting better research studies faster, coordinating current and future research more productively, and hence enabling evidence-based continuous updates of disease definitions and treatment guidelines.
This blog post was written by Alexander Jake McDonald, and a version first appeared in a newsletter by CIRCLE (Community-minded Interventions for Resilience, Climate Leadership and Emotional wellbeing, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences of Stanford Medicine)
In a groundbreaking US survey, researchers explored the complex ways climate change psychologically affects youth, examining the links between a broad spectrum of emotional and mental responses, mental health and well-being, and life plans. Dr Britt Wray, Dr Ans Vercammen and Dr Emma Lawrance (Imperial College London) led this study alongside Dr Gary Belkin and Dr Yoshika Crider, delving into how young Americans aged 16-24 are psychologically impacted by climate-related concerns, and how self-reported experiences of climate change-related hazards and extreme events influence these responses. The research further investigated how awareness of climate change influences young people’s life choices and sense of agency.
This blog post is written by Ishan Kaur Khalsa, Policy Fellow in Healthcare Data, Chris Agape Ajah, Policy Fellow in Digital Health, and Peter Howitt, Managing Director of the Centre for Health Policy.
On 1 April the Centre for Health Policy at the Institute of Global Health Innovation (IGHI) hosted a delegation from Ghana’s National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS). The dozen-strong delegation worked across partnerships, research, policy, monitoring and evaluation, health purchasing, ICT, financing, and health services in Ghana.
Ghanian health policy makers with IGHI colleagues
The visit to the Institute by the delegation was part of a fact-finding mission to the UK organised by the NHS Consortium for Global Health with the goal of understanding the UK health financing and payment systems. Peter Howitt, Managing Director of the Centre for Health Policy, shared his expertise on NHS financing and the strengths and weaknesses of the UK model.In addition, his presentation expatiated hospital supply and procurement decisions, which resonated with the Ghanaian delegation.(more…)
The Health Policy MSc at Imperial College London is led by the Institute of Global Health Innovation. Adriana Lopez is a Health Policy Master’s student and part of the Imperial College London Sports Scholarship Programme. She shares her experience of the programme, which she manages alongside high-level sport and a full-time job.
What’s your background? What did you study for your undergraduate degree?
Adriana Lopez (AL): I studied for a BSc in Biomedical Sciences with a Placement Year at the University of Warwick. As part of my degree, I was a Medical Operations Industrial Placement student at ViiV Healthcare within GlaxoSmithKline.
Why did you apply for the Health Policy MSc at Imperial?
AL: During my undergraduate degree in Biomedical Sciences, I realised that I was more interested in the health, community, and public health modules rather than the research-focused ones. Attending university during the COVID-19 pandemic also made me think about how different countries handled the pandemic and the science and economics behind their decisions. This inspired me to gain hands-on experience to help improve health outcomes through effective policies.
On International Women’s Day, we shine a spotlight on the incredible women at the Institute of Global Health Innovation (IGHI) who are shaping the future of healthcare worldwide. From pioneering research to innovative policy work, these leaders are tackling some of the most pressing global health challenges —making a real difference in in the UK and beyond.
Group photo of IGHI staff at the summer social.
In this blog, we celebrate their achievements and highlight how their expertise and dedication continue to inspire change. Read on to learn about some of these fantastic women at the IGHI and discover key examples of their work.
Professor Bryony Dean Franklin – Visiting Professor at IGHI
Professor Franklin is widely recognised as a research leader within patient safety, both nationally and internationally. She has specific expertise in evaluating technologies that aim to reduce medication errors in both primary and secondary care. She led a recent revision of the World Health Organization’s Medication Safety Curriculum Guide and has recently contributed to collaborative research and quality improvement studies in Brazil, India and Finland. As Co-Editor-in-Chief of the journal BMJ Quality and Safety she seeks to support and encourage others in publishing high-quality research and opinions that seek to improve patient care the world over.
Jennifer Bennett – Senior Postgraduate Administrator
Jennifer Bennett is a Senior Postgraduate Administrator for the PG Dip and MSc Digital Health Leadership (DHL) Programmes. She is responsible for the day-to-day administration of the programmes, supporting the students from recruitment to award and all the processes in between, working closely with faculty and teaching fellows to make sure the students get the best academic and pastoral support.
Jenny gained a new perspective on the student experience last year when she completed a L3 Team Leader qualification (CMI). She particularly enjoyed learning about leadership and communication models and evaluating how she could apply them to her work. This echoes the workplace assessments which the PG Dip students are doing, applying theory to practice. The PG students on the DHL programmes are all balancing work, study and personal or family commitments and Jenny has even greater empathy for students with looming deadlines! She is pleased to have achieved a Distinction. One of the projects she reflected on was the 2024 refurbishment of the office environment of 1070 at QEQM which has become a more inviting space for collaboration with colleagues.
Recently Jenny has introduced some processes to streamline the administration of benchmarking assessments and bulk uploading feedback to the VLE. She is also looking forward to contributing on further working parties to identify Imperial’s new VLE.
Melanie Leis – Director of Policy and Analysis
Melanie Leis is the Director of Policy and Analysis of the Centre for Health Policy, part of the IGHI. She leads the Centre’s development of analytics tools and policy outputs to support global decision-makers in fields such as patient safety, digital health and mental health.
Melanie leads our partnership with WHO’s Global Patient Safety Collaborative, which provides an opportunity to develop global and country-specific patient safety leadership support and resources. She also leads our collaboration with the charity Mental Health Innovations to deliver policy reports that highlight the key role that digital mental health services play in supporting the UK population. One of the projects she is most proud of is the collaboration with the charity Patient Safety Watch, through which IGHI produces reports on the national and global state of patient safety. The annual launch events of the reports bring together national and global patient safety leaders, including patients. These reports and events ensure that patient safety is at the top of system leaders’ agendas.
Jodie Chan – Public Involvement Officer, Helix Centre
Jodie Chan is a Public Involvement Officer at the IGHI’s Helix Centre, working on projects around safely involving women experiencing homelessness in research, understanding the mental health experiences and support needs of 10- to 13-year-olds, and analysing the impact of long waiting times on patients and the health system.
Jodie works across IGHI to support the meaningful involvement of patients, carers, and public members in research. Within her work, she has a strong focus on deepening and diversifying IGHI’s relationships with its local community and is passionate about supporting community-led research.
She is particularly proud of the relationships she has built with women at the Marylebone Project, a local women’s homelessness service, and of their ongoing work to make research safer and more psychologically informed.
Jessica Shields – Impact Officer, Helix Centre
Jessica Shields is an Impact Officer at the IGHI’s Helix Centre, working across the Centre to keep it running smoothly. Jess works on everything from supporting the scaling up of Helix projects and looking for funding opportunities to communications and coordinating Helix events. Jess also co-chairs the IGHI Wellbeing Working group, heading iniatives to improve workplace wellbeing at IGHI.
Jess is proud to support the Helix team to bring design to healthcare and being involved in the Wellbeing Working Group at IGHI. A particular highlight has been bringing the Helix team together over games and food for the Christmas All-Staff meeting and supporting team members to find funding for projects they’re passionate about.
Dr Jang Ah Kim – Lecturer at the Hamlyn Centre
Dr Jang Ah Kim is a Lecturer at the Hamlyn Centre for Robotic Surgery, Department of Mechanical Engineering. She is interested in researching multidisciplinary approaches to understanding and controlling the interactions between materials and their surrounding environments at the micro/nanoscale. By leveraging this knowledge, she aims to develop innovative and highly precise, minimally invasive strategies for biomedical sensing and robotics, addressing challenges unique to these scales.
The mini lab (micro-nano innovation lab) that Dr Kim leads is built on the belief that big breakthroughs start small. The lab focuses on micro and nano-scale engineering, exploring how light and other physical stimuli interact with materials to push the frontiers of biomedical sensing, soft robotics, and healthcare technologies. The name mini lab itself reflects this vision—written in lowercase to symbolise its commitment to micro/nano-scale research and precision-driven, minimally invasive healthcare solutions, where even the smallest changes can lead to transformative impact. Through this work, Dr Kim and her team strive to bridge fundamental science with real-world applications, advancing the next generation of biomedical engineering solutions.
Although newly established in September 2023, the mini lab has already embarked on exciting foundational research in manipulating micro/nanoparticles and bacterial swarms using light, as well as engineering shape-changing microrobots. These efforts aim to lay the groundwork for novel applications in personalised medicine, such as targeted drug delivery, cellular-level surgery, and local immunotherapy. In the long run, these highly targeted and efficient biomedical solutions could also contribute to addressing broader clinical challenges, including optimising therapeutic strategies and reducing unnecessary antibiotic use, ultimately supporting efforts to tackle antimicrobial resistance—all of which resonate with IGHI’s vision for advancing global healthcare innovation.
Dr Ana Cruz Ruiz — Project Manager, Hamlyn Centre
Dr Ana Cruz Ruiz is the Project Manager at the Hamlyn Centre for Robotic Surgery, where she coordinates centre-wide projects across various Technology Readiness Levels, ranging from basic research to medtech translation initiatives. In addition to this role, she leads the Hamlyn Centre’s Global Surgery working group, which focuses on how frontier technologies—such as AI, robotics, 3D printing, and the Internet of Things—can enhance surgical care in low- and middle-income countries.
One of her recent achievements includes organising the Global Surgery Forum at the Hamlyn Symposium 2024, where she co-moderated a panel with Dr Kee Park, Director of Policy & Advocacy at Harvard Medical School. The session, titled “Can Technology and Innovation Help Improve Health Equity?”, addressed the challenges faced by low- or middle-income countries in accessing safe, affordable surgical and anaesthesia care. The panel explored how technology is already helping to address some of these barriers, while also emphasising the need for further collaboration with the engineering community to create scalable solutions.
Ana is passionate about improving health equity in Honduras and in Latin America. Recently, she travelled there to meet with local surgeons, learn about regional needs, and explore ways to collaborate on making surgical care more accessible. She also contributes as a member of the Advisory Council for Honduras’ 2026 National Human Development Report, organised by the United Nations Development Programme.
Georgia Butterworth – Senior Strategy Advisor to Lord Darzi
Georgia Butterworth is a Senior Strategy Advisor to Lord Darzi, supporting the delivery of his wide-ranging portfolio across academic, policy and parliamentary priorities. In this role, she provides strategic advice and coordination across a diverse range of projects, from the Fleming Initiative to the NHS Independent Investigation. Her work is dynamic and varied, often requiring close collaboration with colleagues across the IGHI to ensure alignment across its centres.
One of the best things about my role is seeing the great achievements of the different centres in the IGHI and thinking about how we bring it all together for greatest impact. I find it really exciting to contribute to shaping the future of health and care through the IGHI, and inspiring to work alongside many exceptional women in this field.
Jessica Newberry Le Vay – Climate Change and Health Policy Fellow
Jessica Newberry Le Vayis a Climate Change and Health Policy Fellow in the Climate Cares Centre, working on the interconnections between climate change and mental health. Jess recently worked on the Connecting Climate Minds Global Research and Action Agenda, bringing together the perspectives of 960 experts across 100 countries to set out global priorities for climate change and mental health research and a vision for implementing and translating that research to action. Jess was also recently part of developing the People’s Petition, a global collective climate justice call submitted to the International Court of Justice in December 2024 that amplifies the testimonies of 18 witnesses from communities experiencing and responding to the worst impacts of the climate crisis, including impacts to physical and mental health.
Jess currently leads The Compass Project: Guiding minds and inspiring action through climate change education, working with young people and educators in schools and universities to ensure climate change education can equip and support young people with the resilience, knowledge, skills and agency to take climate action and live in an uncertain future.
Dr Emma Lawrance – Climate Cares Centre Lead
Dr Emma Lawrance is the Climate Cares Centre Lead and Mental Health Lead at the IGHI. Emma also leads the Wellcome-funded global initiative Connecting Climate Minds, which has involved over 1000 people across 100 countries to date. She holds an AXA Climate and Health Fellowship to more deeply understand the experiences of young people in the climate crisis in different cultures, what this means for their mental health and wellbeing, and to co-design and evaluate support that can build agency and resilience.
Emma is a recognised global leader in the emerging climate and mental health field, building awareness and capacity across sectors and countries to acknowledge and act for a climate of health and wellbeing. She is an author of key research and policy papers on the topic, including: the first global policy brief; leading reviews of the field as a whole, relevant interventions, and temperature and mental health; studies with young people in the UK, Caribbean and the US (under review), and the Global Research and Action Agenda for climate change and mental health. She has presented globally, for instance at the World Economic Forum, four UNFCCC COP conferences, the World Congress of Psychiatry, OECD and the European Commission and been featured in international media, including Die Zeit, Guardian, Al Jazeera, Sky News, BBC, Forbes, Reuters and others.
She believes in the power of community, and in connecting people and ideas to foster resilience to thrive in a changing world and to create a safer climate for our mental health.
Dr Laura-Maria Horga – Communications and Events Officer
Dr Laura-Maria Horga is a Health Communications and Events Officer at IGHI. She delivers communications and engagement projects across IGHI’s seven research centres of excellence, supporting the Institute’s mission to tackle global health challenges.
She is currently leading the organisation of IGHI’s annual in-person event, Demo Day, which helps staff learn more about the different workstreams at IGHI, connect with colleagues, foster collaborations, and celebrate the Institute’s achievements.
Dr Ivet Angelova has recently joined the MedTechOne programme at Imperial College London as a MedTech Specialist. Her journey into healthtech began with a PhD in Chemical Engineering, where she focused on developing genetically encoded biosensors for monitoring Botulinum Neurotoxins—a project that deepened her passion for turning scientific discovery into practical healthcare solutions.
Shaping the future of healthcare means not only driving research and innovation but also ensuring it reaches those who need it most. As part of MedTechOne, Ivet is currently working towards building a knowledge base that equips early career researchers (ECRs) with the tools to translate medtech discoveries into real-world impact. This resource is shaped by the needs and feedback of researchers across IGHI, the Hamlyn Centre and the wider Imperial community. Covering everything from regulations and quality standards to commercialisation and team building, this resource is designed to help bridge the gap between research and commercialisation. Additionally, she is co-leading the launch of the MedTech ECR Network at Imperial, creating a space for emerging medtech leaders to connect, collaborate, and thrive.
Ivet said “This International Women’s Day is a chance to celebrate the women driving healthcare forward, breaking barriers, and shaping a future where innovation is inclusive, impactful, and accessible to all. I am grateful to be part of a community filled with inspiring women whose work and determination continue to push the boundaries of what is possible in medtech and beyond.”
Cohort 7 Trainees – Julia Anderson (JA) Training Programme
Caitlin Murphy is as a JA Behavioural Science Trainee in the Fleming Initiative team. She is working in a patient / public facing project focusing on the use of antibiotics and encouraging individuals to finish a course of antibiotics if prescribed.
Arlette Albert is another JA Behavioural Science Trainee in the Fleming Initiative team. She is working part-time alongside Caitlin to develop her skills in qualitative research, behavioural science, patient engagement, and co-designing interventions.
Miranda Watson joined as the JA Trainee in Digital Health. She is working in the Patient Safety team to develop her skills in translating evidence into measurable interventions to improve patient safety in virtual care. She is involved in reviewing the literature, extracting data, and critically appraising available literature to identify safety indicators relevant to virtual consultations.
A recent study, published in the Harm Reduction Journal, explores the role of nightclubs and sex-on-premises venues in harm reduction for gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men (GBMSM) who use drugs.
These venues act as intermediaries between national drug policy and individual behaviour, bridging the gap between broad regulations and on-the-ground realities. Our findings suggest that night-time venues remain an under-utilised resource in harm reduction efforts, with the potential to play a greater role in promoting safer drug use practices.
The research, by Health Policy MSc student Stephen Naulls with MSc Dissertations lead Kenny Oniti and colleagues, used a mixed-methods approach. The researchers spoke with healthcare professionals, people who use drugs in nightlife settings, and those working in the night-time economy. Many described a de facto decriminalisation – where drug use is an open secret – but highlighted the risks venues face if they engage with harm reduction. While many owners and staff recognise the need for safer drug use practices, concerns over licensing regulations and financial repercussions often prevent them from taking action.
Despite this, nightlife spaces are well-positioned to reach individuals who may not engage with traditional health services. However, current policies often deter venues from taking a proactive approach, limiting their ability to provide harm reduction measures such as drug safety information or support services. A more balanced regulatory framework could help unlock the potential of these spaces to support public health efforts without jeopardising their economic viability.
Jennifer Bennett is a Senior Postgraduate Administrator for the 
Jodie Chan is a Public Involvement Officer at the IGHI’s 
Jessica Shields is an Impact Officer at the IGHI’s 
Georgia
Caitlin Murphy is as a 