Qualifications

• Doctor of Philosophy, City St George’s, University of London, UK 
• Master of Science in Human Communication, City, University of London, UK 
• Bachelor of Science with Honours in Speech and Language Therapy, The University of Manchester 
• National Institute for Health and Care Research Clinical Doctoral Research Fellowship, City, University of London, UK 
• Digital Clinical Safety Officer, National Health Service, UK 
• Health Informatics Postgraduate Course, Newcastle University, UK 
• Associate Fellow, Australasian Institute of Digital Health, Australia 
• Certified Practising Member, Speech Pathology Australia 

Areas of interest

• Embedding digital health, data and AI in clinical teaching and practice 
• Clinical governance, digital clinical safety and AI assurance 
• Digital literacy and workforce capability 
• User centred digital intervention design 
• Accessibility, equity and inclusive digital health 
• Cross cultural translation of digital health governance 

Areas of expertise

Through specialist training and experience, Rafiah has expertise in clinical governance for digital health, including digital clinical safety, data ethics, privacy, AI assurance and proportionate risk management. Her work connects clinical reasoning, professional standards and user-centred design to support safe, meaningful, and inclusive use of digital tools in real world care and education. 

Grants

• UK National Institute for Health and Care Research Clinical Doctoral Research Award. (£376,578) 
• UK NHSX Fund for Inclusion and Accessibility Initiatives in Digital Health. (£20,000) 
• UK Wellcome Trust Academic Fund for Clinical and University Research Collaborations. (£11,000) 
• UK Alan Turing Institute Doctoral Enhancement Grant. (£4,000) 
• UK National Institute for Health Research COVID 19 Research Support. (£2,840) 
• UK City, University of London Research Sustainability Fund. (£2,400) 

Awards

• 2024: Wiley Publishing Top 10 most cited papers for articles published between 2022 and 2023. 
• 2023: Royal Society Showcase of Research Careers. 
• 2021: Health Service Journal Race Equality Award, received as part of the Shuri Network. 
• 2020: Commendation from the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists Patron, Her Royal Highness The Countess of Wessex, for services through telehealth during COVID 19. 
• 2019: Council of Allied Health Professionals in Research, University College London, Special Mention. 
• 2019: National Institute for Health and Care Research MindTech Symposium, Highly Commended. 

Current

• Master’s student, Federation University, ‘A systematic Review on the Safety and Appropriateness of generative AI when used by Speech Pathologists (SPs) to Develop Therapy Resources Compared to Standard Practice’, supervisor.
• Master’s student, Federation University, ‘Social communication difficulties and adolescents, comparison between online and face to face delivery of interventions for improvement of social skills’, supervisor.

Past

• Research intern, Imperial College London, ‘Using technology and social media to engage families not accessing traditional speech and language therapy services’, co-supervisor. 
• Master’s student, City, University of London, ‘Reliability and effectiveness of the Vocabulary Knowledge Scale’, supervisor. 

• Professional and ethical digital practice
• Leadership and advocacy in digital health
• Data and information quality
• Information enabled care and services
• Health technology use and evaluation
• AI capability and clinical governance

Specialist roles

• Associate Fellow, Australasian Institute of Digital Health 
• AI Task Force, International Association of Communication Sciences and Disorders 
• Member, National Clinical AI Group, UK 
• Former Allied Health Professional Lead, Faculty of Clinical Informatics, UK 
• Former Chief Clinical Information Officer, Surrey and Borders Partnership National Health Service Foundation Trust 
• Former Chief Digital Ethics and Assurance Officer, Surrey and Borders Partnership National Health Service Foundation Trust 
• Former Non-Executive Director, Care City Innovation: UK not for profit improving how health and care are designed and delivered. 
• Former Steering Group Member, Shuri Network: NHS and care network supporting minority ethnic women in digital health and care. 

Professional association memberships 

• Speech Pathology Australia 
• Australasian Institute of Digital Health 
• Faculty of Clinical Informatics, UK 
• Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists, UK 
• Health and Care Professions Council, UK 

• UK Surrey and Borders Partnership National Health Service Foundation Trust. ‘Digital Clinical Safety Strategy’, 2023.
• UK Surrey and Borders Partnership National Health Service Foundation Trust. ‘Information Sharing for Health and Social Care guideline’, 2023.
• Child centred AI design workshop contribution, Association for Computing Machinery CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 2023.
• UK Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists. ‘COVID 19 Telehealth Guidance’, 2020.

Projects and partnerships 

• Working within Federation University’s Discipline of Speech Pathology to map and strengthen digital health capability and digital literacy across undergraduate and graduate entry education, drawing on national digital health and professional standards to support future clinical readiness. 
• Collaborating with computer science and health science colleagues within Federation University and more widely across Canada and the UK to co-design and test digital intervention with and for children with neurodevelopmental disorders.  
• Involved in global digital clinical governance work comparing the UK, US, Australia and Mexico, with additional international collaboration across Canada.