The National Pathology Imaging Co-operative (NPIC) is a collaborative project to deploy digital pathology to the NHS and use it to develop artificial intelligence to improve diagnosis, bringing together expertise from NHS, academic and industry partners. CDIHSC is working with NPIC to conduct independent usability testing of a number of AI technologies. Usability testing will provide insight into ease of use and acceptability of these technologies from the pathologist's perspective.
Centre for Digital Innovations in Health and Social Care (CDIHSC)
We are a multidisciplinary team of researchers working together to develop and commercialise new health and social care technologies, and evaluate their impact
Our level of in-house research expertise was recognised by Research England with a transformative £4.86 million grant from its Expanding Excellence in England Fund. This financial support will help us realise our potential and deliver meaningful impact on individuals and communities.
What we do
CDIHSC is a research centre that drives advancements in digital health technologies to address challenges in health and social care. The Centre focuses on understanding the challenges faced by health and care providers while developing digital solutions that prioritise end-user needs and experiences to ensure sustainable outcomes in the healthcare sector.
Our two flagship research programmes are:
- Creating novel technologies to enhance decision-making and reduce the burden of electronic documentation. (DocuLess)
- Developing and evaluating technologies that reduce the health and care system’s carbon footprint and improve patient care. (REDUCTIFY)
Current projects
Joii have developed the Joii Period Evaluation Application (Joii App), a mobile application that uses artificial intelligence to provide users with a measurement of blood volume in millilitres and clot sizes. Using the Joii app, individuals can track and monitor their menstrual flow to help them understand whether their heavy periods fall within the expected range or if they might require further medical attention. CDIHSC collaborated with Joii to support user testing of the app. This support included seeking ethical review, recruitment of test participants, data collection and lab work.
EVEREST-HN is a research programme aimed at improving the diagnostic pathway for suspected head and neck cancer symptoms by speeding up diagnosis, improving the patient experience and optimising the use of healthcare resources. CDIHSC is supporting work package two of the research project, which involves the co-design of a digital symptom questionnaire, known as the SYNC (Symptom iNput Clinical) system. Our role has included the recruitment of an Experts by Experience group to contribute to the design of the patient-facing questionnaire, and to also work with clinicians to design the clinician facing report from their point of view to ensure that the system met the needs of end users on both sides of the referral pathway. In addition, CDIHSC worked closely with pathway staff to map, and propose a viable workflow for SYNC’s deployment in hospital settings, which has led to a peer-review paper with recommendations for best practice in integrating digital tools into referral pathway.
CARSs is designed to help doctors to identify patients who are most at risk, using automated scoring systems to give real time estimates of a patient's risk of death and sepsis during their stay in hospital.
Completed projects
Our consultancy and knowledge transfer
We regularly collaborate with health and care partners and with digital health companies, undertaking research to evaluate and inform the design of the technology.
How we can help
- Identify requirements for a new technology or technology-based service
- Co-design a new technology with service users
- Evaluate a new or existing technology, providing recommendations for improvement and/or for increasing uptake of the technology. Our evaluation expertise ranges from usability evaluation of prototype products to real-world evaluation.
We use of a range of research methods to provide you with evidence-based recommendations.
What it costs
The cost of our consultancy packages are dependent on the needs of each organisation and so packages are costed on an individual basis. We can tailor our consultancy services to meet your financial requirements and budgets.
Doctoral Training
Through our doctoral students, we aim to create future leaders in digital health.
Our PhD projects focus on how technology can be used to improve the delivery of health and social care, and our advertised projects are typically developed in conjunction with our health and social care partners. We have recruited 5 PhD students for 2025, and plan to recruit further.
PhD students in the Centre have access to the Wolfson Centre for Applied Health Research, where they and the team work one day a week.
The Wolfson Centre is home of the NIHR Yorkshire & Humber Applied Research Collaboration, the NIHR Yorkshire & Humber Patient Safety Research Collaboration, and the Yorkshire Quality & Safety Research group, so provides a vibrant environment with a strong network of researchers and clinical colleagues.
Apply for the PhD (Faculty of Health Studies).
We have previously supported healthcare professionals to successfully apply for NIHR pre-doctoral and doctoral fellowships – if you are a health or care professional who is interested in pursuing this route, email CDIHSC@bradford.ac.uk.
Our team
Professor Rebecca Randell
Centre Director
Dr Muhammad Faisal
Associate Professor
Dr Joshua Pink
Associate Professor in Health Economics
Dr Natasha Alvarado
Senior Research Fellow in Digital Health
Dr Sarath Rathnayake
Senior Research Fellow in Health Informatics
Dr Ana Barbosa
Senior Research Fellow in Digital Health and Wellbeing
Dr Jiada Tu
Senior Research Software Engineer
Dr Chinasa Odo
Research Fellow in Human Computer-Interaction
Dr Jodi Ventre
Research Fellow in Applied Health Research
Dr Hadiza Ismaila
Translational Research Fellow in Digital Health
Faye Cameron
Business & Partnerships Manager
Jennifer Rowland
Information Specialist
Maame Nantwi
Centre Administrator