Speakers
Professor Nazir Lone
Dr Sekina Bakare
Dr Victoria Shepherd
Dr Claire Dow
Hall 1
Health inequalities shape who becomes critically ill, how patients access intensive care, and the outcomes they experience long after discharge. Despite advances in critical care, inequities linked to socioeconomic status, ethnicity, age, geography, and structural disadvantage continue to influence daily practice in ICUs across the UK.
This session brings together experts from public health, geriatric medicine, and research methodology to provide a broad, practical overview of how inequalities arise in different contexts relevant to critical care: from the influence of place and population‑level disadvantage, to inequalities affecting older people, to the exclusion of underserved groups from research.
Through diverse perspectives and real‑world examples, the session will explore how place, age, and research inclusion intersect with critical illness, and how targeted action can begin to close the gap.
By the end of the session, participants will be able to:
Chairs: Prof Nazir Lone and Dr Sekina Bakare
Presentations:
Nazir is a Professor of Critical Care and Epidemiology and one of the Intensive Care Society's Directors of Research. Nazir’s programme of research focuses on health services research and health care quality improvement for acutely ill patients. His research aims to directly improve the quality of care for patients before, during and after an episode of acute or critical illness through rigorously conducted research and engagement with key stakeholders. He has a particular research interest in epidemiological methods and using linked 'big' data, multimorbidity and end-of-life care in acute and critical care settings.
His current programme of work includes NIHR-funded work to apply artificial intelligence (AI) methods in the context of multimorbidity (AIM-CISC) in which he co-leads work to develop AI tools to reduce adverse events. Furthermore, he leads Innovate UK funded work to improve multimorbidity recognition in emergency care settings using data analytics.
:
@ICULone
Dr Bakare is currently an Advanced Trainee in Intensive Care Medicine and Anaesthesia in Northwest London. She graduated with Honours from the University of Bristol and commenced her career in the West Country before pursuing Specialty Training in Northwest London. As an elected member of the Trainee Advisory Group of the Intensive Care Society and leverages her expertise to contribute actively to the society's Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) Working Group. She also holds the additional responsibility of serving as the EDI lead on the Editorial Board for GPCISv3.
Dr Bakare is deeply passionate about advancing Equity in Healthcare and Medical Education, with clinical interests spanning Major General Surgery and Transfer Medicine.
Victoria Shepherd is a Principal Research Fellow at the Centre for Trials Research, Cardiff University, where she leads an interdisciplinary programme of methodological research exploring the ethical, legal, and methodological challenges in research involving adults with impaired capacity to consent and develops and evaluates interventions to address them. As a mixed-methods researcher with a clinical background as a critical care nurse and a master’s in medical law and ethics she has been awarded a series of prestigious fellowships from NIHR, Health and Care Research Wales and Wellcome Trust to develop this field of research. She also holds a portfolio of trials methodology research focused on improving inclusivity with a particular focus on populations where consent may be more complex, ranging from emergency settings to care homes, and in studies involving people with learning disabilities, dementia and those receiving palliative care.
Victoria was recognised as one of the NHS 75 Faces of Nursing Research, co-leads the MRC-NIHR Trials Methodology Research Partnership’s Complex & Alternative Consent Pathways Group, and is an expert member of an NHS research ethics committee. She also advises national organisations on aspects of capacity and consent, including as a member of an HRA Advisory Group, and is a Visiting Scholar at King’s College London. She was recently awarded an 8-year Wellcome Career Development Award (ACCORD) to explore how the ethical and legal frameworks governing research involving adults with impaired capacity to consent have been implemented, and to develop behavioural-informed interventions to improve inclusion.
Ritesh Maharaj is a critical care physician at King’s College Hospital, a Fellow at the London School of Economics, and a Visiting Assistant Professor at the Brown University School of Public Health.
As a health services researcher, he applies advanced econometric techniques to study health outcomes. His work focuses on health financing and health inequalities, with a particular emphasis on comparative international health systems.
