Elinor Laws (she/her)
Public Health Registrar and NIHR Academic Clinical Fellow, NHS
Contact:
What does your job actually entail?
As part of my training programme I move to different organisations every year to gain experience in different aspects of Public Health. My day to day job is project-based - I contribute to different workstreams which all aim to improve population health. We're always looking at innovative ways of involving and engaging stakeholders which sparked my interest in Participatory Research. My main research focus is around health data science and health equity (making DSxHE a perfect fit!) and I recently finished working on the STANDING Together project (www.datadiversity.org) which was an international initiative to produce recommendations for health datasets to make them more diverse and inclusive. I intend for my future research focus to be on women's health and data.
Why did you join the DSxHE community?
Data science and health equity are two of my main research focuses and it is exciting that this community can offer an opportunity to meet like-minded people and hear of the wonderful work that's being done across the world.
What should people reach out to you for help on/with?
I am one of two theme leads (alongside Dr Joe Alderman) for Participatory Research. We love showcasing projects where Participatory Research principles have been put into practice and we're always looking for new members of our community. I would recommend for anyone with an interest in Participatory Research to get in touch - whether that's to feature in one of our webinars or to get involved in our community, we'd love to hear from you!
When not at work, you can be found...
Doing Parkrun and rushing between the 500 social events I've got planned.
What would you like help with from members of the DSxHE community? (ie your community “asks”)
We're always on the lookout for our next webinar guest - whether that's you or someone you've seen who's got experiencing in Participatory Research (or PPIE, PPI… etc), please feel free to reach out to tell us more!
What’s your interest in data science and/or health equity?
My interest has been in improving diversity and inclusivity of health data, involving participatory research principles to inform practice. More recently, I have been exploring concepts relating to availability of data in women's health. I'm hoping to study how we can improve availability of data in women's health to allow for innovative research and ultimately, improve women's health outcomes for health equity.
What topic in data science/health equity that you know/care a lot about - why is it important/interesting, tell us about it!
The data underpinning AI health technologies is derived from a small number of countries in the world. With the STANDING Together team, I conducted 3 systematic reviews looking into the data that was used in the development of AI health technologies and they showed that regardless of disease being studied, accessible health data mainly comes from higher income, majority White populations. The lack of data diversity could impact the performance of any derived AI health technologies meaning they perform well for some and less well for others. There are many initiatives which hope to improve health equity in more deprived settings using AI but it is important to acknowledge that tools performing well in one place may not perform so well in others. There is a risk that in an attempt to improve health equity, we in fact exacerbate inequity.
What is your go-to karaoke song?
Cher - Believe
What is the last craft you made?
A crocheted baby blanket - a very time-consuming craft and I'm sort of regretting setting this precedent now all my friends are having children…
What is your hidden talent?
The limbo
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