[Perspectives] Rohini Mathur: using health data to tackle health inequalities

“One thing about South Asian populations is that we do have a very different presentation of diabetes, partly due to our genetics, partly due to migration pressures”, says Rohini Mathur, Professor and Chair of Health Data Science at Queen Mary University of London (QMUL), UK. Factors such as these affect care pathways and quality of life not only in the subcontinent, but also across diaspora populations. As an example, Mathur, whose work spans projects in India, Thailand, and the UK, explains how “in the standard NHS guidelines, type 2 diabetes diagnosis criteria usually look at high BMI and older age.