This panel aims to explore the challenges surrounding access to health data for AI research in the UK.

It will bring together experts from healthcare, academia, data governance, and the technology sector to discuss barriers and propose strategies for overcoming them.

You do not need any prior knowledge of AI to enjoy this event.

Register on Eventbrite.

Co-Convenors

Dr Anna Barnes is Director of the King’s Technology Evaluation Centre in the Faculty of Life Sciences & Medicine at King’s College London, an HCPC registered Clinical Scientist and President of the Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine.

Dr Ben Holgate is a Senior Research Fellow in Health-Related Natural Language Processing in the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King’s College London. He is currently working on research projects that apply AI and Natural Language Processing (NLP) to electronic health records in the areas of mental health and epilepsy.

Speakers

Ahmed Binesmael is Senior Improvement Analyst at The Health Foundation. His work focuses on major research projects centred around attitudes towards health technology and data, innovation, and adoption. Prior to joining the Health Foundation Ahmed was an Economic Analyst and Senior Policy Adviser at the British Medical Association (BMA).  

Professor Richard Dobson is Professor of Medical Bioinformatics and Head of the Department of Biostatistics & Health Informatics, King’s College London. He also holds a dual appointment as Professor of Health and Medical Informatics at King's College London and at the Institute of Health Informatics, University College London. He is Deputy Director of the NIHR Maudsley Biomedical Research Centre, as well as its Theme Lead for Informatics, and is Co-Director of the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Data Driven Health. Richard has over 20 years' experience developing data and AI with the NHS.

Dr Zina Ibrahim is a Senior Lecturer in Artificial Intelligence in Medicine, King’s College London, and is also a member of the Precision Health Informatics Group. Her research spans the theoretical foundations of knowledge representation and machine learning and their application to computational models that support biomedical knowledge discovery and medical decision support. Zina's interest in medicine lies in disease and specialty agnostics, focusing on the implementation of state-of-the-art AI formalisms in this highly sensitive domain. She is also particularly interested in AI-based novelty that targets solving pressing and open problems in making trustworthy and robust recommendations in medical settings.

Reuben Lewis is the Director of Discover-NOW at Imperial College Health Partners (ICHP), where he plays a pivotal role in advancing the use of real-world health data to drive research and innovation. He also serves as the commercial lead for the NHSE London Secure Data Environment Discover-NOW. Prior to joining ICHP in 2022, Reuben dedicated over a decade to the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), where he held various positions at site-based, regional, and national levels. His extensive experience includes collaborating with the NHS, academia, the life sciences industry, and small to medium enterprises (SMEs), providing him with a comprehensive understanding of the UK's research landscape and infrastructure.

Harriet Sands is an AI Technical Advisor Specialist in the AI Adoption Support Team in NHS England. Her current focus is on defining the technical AI adoption challenges at NHS England, with particular interest in evaluation and monitoring, and data 'gaps'. Harriet is also the co-founder of a public sector reading group on the societal implications of data-driven technologies. She was previously a Data Scientist at NHS Digital and has a background in data science in industry and government.

Agathe Zecevic is NLP Lead of the Clinical Scientific Computing Team at Guys’ and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust. Agathe is a healthcare data scientist specialising in NLP applications within clinical departments, with a focus on gastroenterology. She has developed and deployed AI products now used in clinical workflows at St Thomas’ Hospital. She has led cross-site AI evaluations involving unstructured data from multiple NHS Trusts and has extensive experience navigating clinical research governance, data access, and information security within the NHS.

King's Festival of Artificial Intelligence

This event is part of the King’s Festival of Artificial Intelligence. Running from Tuesday 20 May to Saturday 24 May, the free, five-day festival brings together a diverse line-up of experts to consider critical questions about artificial intelligence in the context of healthcare, education, sustainability, policy, and creativity.

If you are interested in this event, you may also want to join us for:

• Explainable AI for Health and Medicine (online)
• How Artificial Super Intelligence Will Solve Human Disease (online)
• AI and Healthcare: Your Questions Answered
• AI in Healthcare Showcase also taking place at the London Institute for Healthcare Engineering.
• Reimagining Placements: A Hypothetical GP Surgery Using AI Interaction

Festival events will take place across several King’s venues, so please check carefully where the event is taking place. Festival event times may be subject to change. Any changes will be communicated to attendees via Eventbrite emails.

Please note, King's events are free, which means we routinely overbook to allow for no-shows and avoid empty seats. Admission is on a first come, first served basis, so please arrive in good time to avoid disappointment. We will not be able to admit those without tickets or latecomers.