Prestigious accolade for health inequalities team

A team including representatives from the University of Leicester working to tackle health inequalities for ethnic minority groups has won a national award.

Professor Kamlesh Khunti, an internationally recognised leader in ethnic health research, and colleagues are part of a collaboration aiming to transform research and care for people with multiple long-term conditions by improving ethnicity data in studies.

Known as ‘The Special Interest Group on Ethnicity Coding Standards’, they have just been awarded the Health Data Research UK (HDR UK) Team of the Year. HDR UK is the UK’s national institute for health data science

The team’s work includes striving to introduce more accurate ethnicity coding and also recently presenting five recommendations for improving data collection for inclusive health research.

The University of Leicester representatives are from the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Applied Research Collaboration (ARC) East Midlands. 

Professor Khunti is the Director of the NIHR ARC East Midlands as well as Professor of Primary Care Diabetes and Vascular Medicine at the University of Leicester.

He chairs this HDR UK special interest group alongside Professor Ashley Akbari, Professor Population Data Science Research at Swansea University. The team brings together researchers, members of The Alliance Ethnicity Coding Standard Special Interest Group, the public and healthcare professionals to discuss challenges and opportunities in linking health and social care data with available ethnicity data, and the importance of collection practices and coding standards.

Professor Khunti said: “Diversity in research matters because when study participants do not accurately represent the characteristics of the overall population of those with a particular condition, certain populations may not receive the same benefit from new innovations. 

“By improving the accuracy and consistency of ethnicity data, health professionals, researchers, and policymakers can make more informed decisions, ultimately leading to fairer and more effective healthcare for all communities.

“The award reaffirms the importance of our vital work and underscores the progress our research group has made in our national work in championing equitable and inclusive healthcare systems.”

The University of Leicester’s President and Vice-Chancellor, Professor Nishan Canagarajah said: “Huge congratulations to Kamlesh and his colleagues who are working so hard to tackle health inequalities and make a real difference to people’s lives. This award is thoroughly deserved and recognises the innovations that they are making within healthcare each and every day.”

The work of The Alliance Ethnicity Coding Standard Special Interest Group and a recent paper has been dicussed during a interview with Professor Khunti in the latest episode of the ARC East Midlands’ Chronicle Conversation podcast.

HDR UK advocates for the safe, secure, ethical and trustworthy use of health data – from NHS patient data and genomics to biomedicine and wearable-device information – enabling researchers to understand predispositions to disease, develop targeted treatments and deliver new discoveries from real world data to improve healthcare. 

Professor Khunti is also the Director of the Leicester-based Centre for Ethnic Health Research, where he has made substantial contributions to advancing the health and well-being of ethnic minority communities. He was one of the very first to spot the disproportional impact of COVID-19 on people from ethnic minorities.

NIHR ARC East Midlands funds vital work to tackle the region’s health and care priorities by speeding up the adoption of research onto the frontline of health and social care. The organisation puts in place evidence-based innovations which seek to drive up standards of care and save time and money. 

NIHR ARC East Midlands is hosted by Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust and works in collaboration with the East Midlands Academic Health Science Network. It has bases at the University of Leicester and the University of Nottingham.