Imperial College London – Institute of Global Health Innovation

IGHI at Digital Health Rewired 2026: Shaping the future of digital health

16 March 2026

The Institute of Global Health Innovation (IGHI) at Imperial College London will showcase its work in digital health, leadership and policy at Digital Health Rewired 2026. The event brings together digital health leaders, innovators and policymakers from across the UK.

Taking place on 24–25 March at the NEC Birmingham, Rewired will bring together experts from across healthcare, technology and research to explore how digital innovation is transforming health systems. Across the two-day programme, IGHI researchers, educators and partners will take part in keynote conversations and panel discussions exploring how data, artificial intelligence and research-led leadership are shaping the future of healthcare.

Attendees will also be able to connect with the IGHI team during the event and learn more about how the Institute’s research, policy expertise and education programmes are supporting the next generation of digital health leaders.

Data-driven leadership in the NHS

On day two of the conference, IGHI will host the MSc Digital Health Leadership Dissertation Panel, highlighting how research undertaken by NHS professionals through IGHI’s Digital Health Leadership Programme is driving improvements across the health service.

Since the programme launched in 2018, around 160 NHS digital leaders have undertaken research projects addressing complex challenges within their organisations. Many of these studies have strengthened the evidence base for innovation, supported better decision-making and delivered tangible improvements in care.

Kenny Oniti, Senior Teaching Fellow at IGHI and chair of the session, said:

“The Dissertation of Practice projects enable students to tackle real-world challenges, anchoring their learning to organisational priorities and evidence-based practice to create measurable value for the NHS.”

During the session, recent graduates from the MSc in Digital Health Leadership: Vicky Kong, Antonia Brown and Adrian Jonas will share insights from their research, including the challenges they encountered, the lessons they learned and the impact their work is having within the communities they serve.

AI and the future of health innovation

On day one of Rewired, Dr Hutan Ashrafian, Honorary Senior Research Fellow at IGHI, will join Professor Gillian Leng, President of the Royal Society of Medicine, for a keynote conversation examining the transformative role of artificial intelligence in healthcare.

A surgeon, entrepreneur and internationally recognised researcher, Dr Ashrafian is among the world’s most highly cited scientists and has worked at the forefront of translational clinical research, AI trials and health policy.

His recent research on the role AI can play in breast cancer screening has received significant media attention.

In this session, the speakers will explore AI as both a driver and product of health innovation. From real-world advances in mammography and surgical practice to questions of regulation, workforce development and risk, the discussion will examine how AI is reshaping clinical pathways, discovery and decision-making, and what responsible adoption will require at this critical moment for healthcare.

Designing digital care for real people

Also on day two, IGHI will present work from a collaboration with Mental Health Innovations (MHI) examining how digital tools can better support the mental health needs of younger populations.

The session, “Beyond the dashboard: designing digital care for minds, bodies, and real people,” will share emerging findings from research exploring the needs of children aged 13 and under and the opportunities for digital health solutions to address gaps in current services.

The session will also introduce a new digital platform designed specifically to support younger users. The work reflects a broader ambition to develop digital health tools that respond to the realities of patients’ lives and experiences.

Speaking ahead of the session, Dr Chris Agape Ajah, Policy Fellow in Digital Health at IGHI, said:

“This session will highlight IGHI’s unique approach to innovation, grounded in insights from people with lived experience and data. This is exemplified through our long-term partnership with MHI and our upcoming report on the mental health needs of children aged 13 and under. I look forward to sharing these insights with delegates and expanding opportunities for collaboration.”

Join us at Rewired

Together, these sessions highlight how research, education and policy expertise can work together to accelerate the digital transformation of healthcare.

If you are attending Digital Health Rewired 2026, come and connect with the IGHI team at stand A45, join the conversations across the programme and discover how research, innovation and digital leadership are shaping the future of healthcare.

Explore the full Digital Health Rewired programme and register on the Rewired website.

COPD – son of a TB

17 June 2016

By Andre F.S. Amaral, Research Associate, National Heart and Lung Institute

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is characterised by chronic airflow obstruction and is the third most common cause of death worldwide, especially in low and middle income countries (LMICs). The main risk factor for this disease is tobacco smoking. However, smoking is still uncommon in many LMICs and more than 20% of people with COPD do not have a history of smoking.

What could then be causing COPD among people who do not smoke?
Some have advocated that the high number of deaths by COPD among non-smokers, especially in LMICs, could easily be explained by a high exposure to smoke from burning biomass for cooking, heating and lighting. However, large studies have ailed to find an association of airflow obstruction with use of biomass.

Others have suggested that infectious diseases, which are still common in LMICs, could have a role in COPD. Pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) is the leading cause of mortality due to respiratory infection worldwide, but with its death rate decreasing since 1990 several millions of people are saved every year. Broadly speaking there is considerable overlap between regions with high incidence of TB and high mortality from COPD, therefore it makes sense to improve our understanding of the relationship between these two diseases.

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World Blood Donor Day 2016: Blood connects us all

14 June 2016

By Professor Kathryn Maitland, Professor of Tropical Paediatric Infectious Diseases and Director of Centre of African Research and Engagement, Imperial College London.

Each year, World Blood Donor Day highlights the importance of blood donations as the transfusion of blood is a life-saving intervention. In any health system, the provision of adequate supplies of safe blood for transfusion is an essential undertaking.

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates the blood requirement for countries to be in the region of 10 – 20 units per 1000 population per year. Yet in many sub-Saharan African countries, donations are far lower, in some countries as low as 2 units/1000 population/year. The demand for blood transfusion is very high, especially in children (largely due to infection) where up to 15% of children admitted to hospitals are transfused, with most being given as emergency interventions.

Over the past decade, several countries in sub-Saharan Africa have made progress in achieving the goals defined by the WHO to improve both the supply and blood safety, which have been financed largely by international donors. This has led to an increase in the number of total blood donations and the proportion from voluntary donors, and improved safety of blood; but this is expensive to maintain therefore concerns about the sustainability of systems requiring a high level of financial support in low-income countries when cost recovery is unlikely. (more…)

World No Tobacco Day 2016: Get ready for plain packaging

31 May 2016

By Tahrima Choudhury, Centre for Health Policy Intern

On the 31st of May every year the World Health Organisation (WHO) and partners mark World No Tobacco Day (WNTD), drawing attention to the dangers and health risks associated with tobacco consumption, and advocating for better policies to reduce tobacco use. This year’s WNTD will focus on the standardised (also known as plain) packaging of tobacco products, in the hope that it gains traction worldwide (1).

The standardised packaging of tobacco products refers to limiting or banning of brand images, company logos, colours and promotional information on packaging. This only permits the display of brand and product names on a dark olive green coloured box with a standard font in conjunction with a graphic health warning image (2).

The notion behind this campaign is that tobacco packaging is seen as a mobile billboard. It is the final communication vehicle tobacco companies have left with people, silently promoting the consumption of tobacco, and distracting individuals, particularly children, from health warnings. Stripping away the glossy veneer will expose tobacco products for what they really are: a box of toxic, addictive product that is responsible for the death of around six million people a year (2).

Worryingly in the UK, two-thirds of smokers currently start smoking before they reach 18 years of age (3), beginning an addiction which kills up to two in three long-term smokers from a smoking-related cause (4). Tobacco use in the UK is the single greatest cause of avoidable deaths and preventable illness, with 100,000 people dying from a smoking associated cause each year (4). (more…)

The importance of the Access to Palliative Care Bill 2015

22 October 2015

By Mark Steedman from the Institute of Global Health Innovation

The Access to Palliative Care Bill is to be given its second reading tomorrow (23^rd October). While palliative care is widely viewed to be excellent in the UK, there are gaps in access to it, and this Bill hopes to eliminate these gaps.

The Bill’s stated aim is to “make provision for equitable access to palliative care services; for advancing education, training and research in palliative care; and for connected purposes”.

I’ve now worked in palliative care for two and a half years, and despite the knowledge I’ve gained and the progress I’ve seen, I’m still amazed at the reception I get when I speak at conferences. The disparity in the quality of care people receive around the world is staggering, particularly when people are in pain at the end of their lives, yet very few people are aware of this fact. Four billion people in the world don’t have access to opioids, and the chances of needing strong pain medication at the end of your life if you’re suffering from cancer, HIV/AIDS, or any number of other diseases is way too high for this to be tolerated.

Most presentations I give are not to palliative care experts – they’re either to the general public or to a specific segment of the medical community – the most recent to a room full of liver experts. I know very little about the liver, and yet at the end of my talk I received so many questions that the moderator had to eventually move on due to time. How can so many people who know so much about cancer, HCV, and other liver diseases not know how people are cared for once all curative treatment options are exhausted? It can be a bit disheartening, but I’m always encouraged that I feel that everyone has learned something when I’ve finished. I’m also encouraged that audience members often come up to me afterward and thanked me for spreading the word. (more…)

Wisdom of the Crowd: 65 views of the NHS at 65

8 July 2013

The 5^th July marked the 65^th anniversary of the NHS. To mark the occasion, the Nuffield Trust has published a new report ‘Wisdom of the Crowd: 65 views of the NHS at 65’ which invites 65 health and political leaders to give their opinion on the current state of the NHS and social care system. They have been asked specifically to reflect on what they think needs to happen now and over the coming years to ensure the NHS and social care system is viable and fit for purpose in ten years’ time.

Darzi_214_2 — Professor Lord Ara Darzi, Director of the Institute of Global Health Innovation

Contributors consisted of current and former health secretaries and ministers, senior civil servants, clinicians, managers, academics, patient representatives, journalists and other key individuals. Amongst the contributors is Lord Ara Darzi, the Director of the Institute of Global Health Innovation at Imperial College London and former Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department of Health from 2007 to 2009. Over the past 10 years, NHS funding had more than doubled and there were a series of reforms in England aimed at improving the quality and timeliness of care. Darzi states that the injection of money did a lot of good; there was a huge amount of progress, fantastic outputs and outcomes, but he feels we could have pushed the reforms even further.

He goes on to offer four suggestions of what the NHS needs to do now to remain viable and to divert the tsunami that is about to hit. They are: (more…)