Professor Robin Ali, Director, NIHR Guy’s and St Thomas’ Biomedical Research Centre said:

“We are delighted to be hosting four HDR UK Health Data Science Programme interns as part of the 2022 cohort within the NIHR Guy’s and St Thomas’ Biomedical Research Centre.

“Black, Asian and Minority ethnic people are hugely under-represented in health research. In order to address discrepancies in representation in health data cohorts, it is key that Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic communities are included in in the communities conducting research.

“The Health Data Science Internship programme creates better representation within the health data science communities by creating more opportunities for those groups to be involved in this vital work.

“Great health data science needs health data scientists who represent all of us. The programme enables us to introduce new, previously untapped perspectives into health data science but more importantly is enables talented people from under represented backgrounds to gain experience within health data science. The programme allows us all to build a representative health data science workforce for the future – one that represents all of us.”

Guy’s and St Thomas’ is among the UK’s busiest and most successful NHS foundation trusts. We provide a full range of hospital and community services for people in Lambeth, Southwark and Lewisham, as well as specialist care for patients from further afield including cancer, renal, orthopaedic and cardiovascular services. Royal Brompton and Harefield hospitals became part of Guy’s and St Thomas’ in February 2021, bringing together world-leading expertise and research in heart and lung disease.

St Thomas’ has one of the largest critical care units in the UK and one of the busiest emergency departments in London. It is also home to Evelina London Children’s Hospital, which cares for local children in Lambeth and Southwark and provides specialist services across south east England including cardiac, renal and critical care services. We have a reputation for clinical excellence and high quality teaching and research. Guy’s is home to the largest dental school in Europe and a £160 million Cancer Centre opened in 2016. In 2017 we also opened a cancer centre and a kidney treatment centre at Queen Mary’s Hospital in Sidcup.

We are part of King’s Health Partners, one of eight accredited UK Academic Health Sciences Centres. In partnership with King’s College London we have a National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Biomedical Research Centre and dedicated clinical research facilities providing cutting edge translational research infrastructure.

In 2021/22 Guy’s and St Thomas was the 2nd highest recruiter to NIHR portfolio studies with 26,581 participants recruited. We were the 3rd highest in England for the number of NIHR portfolio studies active in 2021/22, with 1,896 non-commercial and commercial studies active.  We have held NIHR BRC designation since 2007 with our academic partner King’s College London, receiving awards totalling £187.6m to date. Our NIHR Clinical Research facility has held its designation since 2012 totalling £25.3m.