Meet the experts shaping the future of digital health and care. Our Judges Spotlight series showcases the vision and insight of the HSJ Digital Awards judging panel - leaders driving innovation, transformation and lasting impact across the NHS.
Discover Dr Natalie Darko, Associate Professor of Health Equity, University of Leicester and Director of Inclusion across four Leicester NIHR Research Infrastructures, experience and advice for this year’s entrants below.
Tell us about yourself - what inspired you to get involved in digital health?
I’m an Associate Professor of health equity at the University of Leicester and Director of Inclusion across four Leicester NIHR research infrastructures.
My research focuses on health inequalities, including cancer equity, diabetes and women’s health examining how people experience healthcare and what needs to change to make access more equitable.
My interest in digital health comes from seeing how innovation can improve care while remaining out of reach for some communities. Within the Diabetes UK-funded UNBIASED study, I led research with children and young people with type 1 diabetes and their families from minority ethnic and socioeconomically disadvantaged communities.
I also lead the Wellcome-funded SISTAH study, exploring Black women’s cancer awareness, access to care and decision-making. This work reinforces the importance of accessible, trusted information and opportunities for women to be heard. These are essential considerations as more health information and care move online.
Across these programmes, my focus is on ensuring that innovation responds to people’s circumstances and that its benefits reach those experiencing inequalities.
From your experience in digital transformation, what approaches have made a lasting impact in health and care?
My experience points to the importance of combining research evidence with meaningful co-design. People facing barriers to healthcare need opportunities to shape its content, format and delivery.
In UNBIASED, research with children, young people and their families informed a co-designed animation and practical resources addressing inequalities in diabetes technology access. Published early evaluation reports their use in clinical consultations and structured education.
My cancer research has also contributed to the co-design of the Seeing Red..? uterine cancer awareness animation with Black and Asian women. This brings women’s experiences into decisions about communicating symptoms and care.
The strongest approaches connect accessible resources with trusted relationships and practical support. Co-design should continue through testing and evaluation, showing what changed because people were involved and whether the resource meets their needs.
Lasting change also requires attention to everyday delivery: staff confidence, language support, digital skills and alternatives for people who need them. Evaluation should examine who benefits, who drops out and whose needs remain unmet, alongside overall uptake.
What digital innovation or trend are you most excited to see influencing the NHS in the next few years?
I’m particularly interested in how services can use data to identify and respond to unequal access to digital care. A service can report strong overall uptake while still missing particular communities.
There is an opportunity to examine access, experience and outcomes across ethnicity, deprivation, disability, age and other circumstances, then work with patients and staff to understand and address the differences. The value lies in what services do with that information: changing referral processes, improving communication or providing additional support.
Diabetes technology is an area I will be watching closely. The potential benefits make equitable access especially important. I want to see innovation accompanied by evidence that people facing the greatest barriers are being reached and supported.
What have you learned from your time on the HSJ Digital Awards judging panel?
This is my first year on the HSJ Digital Awards judging panel. I’m looking forward to learning how teams across health and care are addressing inclusion within digital innovation, and how they demonstrate improvements for patients, communities and staff.
What one piece of advice would you give to teams preparing their entries to help their work stand out?
Show how inclusive and equitable engagement shaped your innovation—and provide evidence of the difference it made.
Tell us who was involved in co-design, how you reached people whose voices are often missing, and what you did to make participation accessible. Explain how their contributions changed the design or delivery, including where they challenged your original assumptions.
Then connect that process to outcomes. Who benefited? Did access or experience improve for people previously underserved? Were there differences between groups, and how did you respond?
A statement that patients/people were consulted tells us little on its own. A specific example of how their involvement changed a decision, supported by evidence of improved care, is much more compelling. I will be looking for thoughtful engagement, clear evidence and honest reflection on the inequalities that remain.