Up, Up and Away - the digital health podcast

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Up, Up and Away , Dom Burch and Saira Arif sit down with Emma Weston, founder of Digital Unite, to explore one of the most important—and often overlooked—questions in digital health and public services: Who are we leaving behind? As Digital Unite marks its 30-year anniversary, Emma reflects on why digital exclusion remains such a persistent challenge. The conver...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, host Dom Burch speaks with Dr Lewis Thomas , a former NHS GP and accredited life coach who lives with sickle cell anaemia. Lewis shares how lived experience, medical training, and coaching came together — and why social media may now be one of the most powerful tools for reaching patients the healthcare system struggles to reach. 🔥 Key Topics Covered 🩸 1) Living...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Up Up and Away , Dom Burch is joined by Terri Quigley — a Project Manager at NHS Cheshire and Merseyside , an award-winning Participation & Engagement Coordinator, and a passionate advocate for respiratory health and lived-experience-led change. Terri brings a uniquely powerful perspective. She works inside the system, helping shape services for children and...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Up, Up & Away , host Dom Burch is joined by Naomi Watt , from Asthma + Lung UK , for a wide-ranging conversation about behaviour, motivation, and what it really takes to design digital health tools that people actually use. Naomi reflects on her early career as a respiratory nurse — from reading X-rays on lightboxes to working in A&E, general practice an...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Up, Up and Away , Dom Burch speaks with Bethan Almeida, a senior nurse in Brent Health Matters, about childhood asthma, health inequalities, and what effective, community-led healthcare looks like in practice. Bethan leads the children’s asthma workstream in one of the UK’s most diverse boroughs, where 149 languages are spoken and many families face barriers aro...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Up, Up and Away , Dom talks to Matt Bourne , CTO at Tiny Medical Apps , about the company’s remarkable eight-year journey to integrating NHS login into the Digital Health Passport (DHP) — a major milestone in connecting young people with long-term conditions directly to the NHS. What sounds like a technical integration is, in reality, the culmination of years of...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Up, Up & Away , host Dom Burch sits down with Dr Tom Chambers and Dr David Dawson to explore one of the NHS’s most overlooked health challenges: obstructive sleep apnoea. More than 9 million adults in the UK remain undiagnosed , making sleep apnoea one of the biggest untreated conditions affecting public health. Untreated sleep disorders significantly increa...

Send us Fan Mail In the latest episode of the Up, Up and Away podcast hosts Dom and Saira caught up with Hamdoun , a 19-year-old assistant PE teacher from South London and new ambassador for Tiny Medical Apps' Digital Health Passport.   Hamdoun is currently working in a primary school near Wembley Stadium, is passionate about supporting young people, especially those with asthma and long-term...

Send us Fan Mail In this powerful episode ( timed to coincide with the build up to this year's Clean Air Day on 19th June ), Dom Burch is joined by Agnes Agyepong—maternal health advocate, founder of Black Child, Clean Air , and creator of the Glow Mama Awards .  Agnes shares how her personal experience of being ignored as a mother led her to uncover the hidden impact of air pollution on chil...

Send us Fan Mail In this heartfelt and inspiring episode of Up Up and Away , hosts Dom Burch and Saira Arif launch the Breathe Easy, Play Hard campaign, dedicated to empowering young athletes with asthma.  Sparked by the untimely passing of Saira's close friend Brendt Barrett, a strength coach who lived with asthma and sadly died of cancer, the campaign encourages open conversations between y...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, Dom Burch sits down with Inhaler Tailor founders Will and Harriet Hogge, alongside marketing intern Lauren McClean, to discuss their innovative approach to asthma care, their journey as entrepreneurs, and the impact of their product. From Idea to Innovation: The Birth of Inhaler Tailor Will Hogge, originally from a tech background, shares his journey from working...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Up, Up & Away , host Dom Burch sits down with Yinka Sholaja , a clinical project manager and passionate advocate for digital health innovation, particularly in the management of sickle cell disease . Yinka shares her personal connection to the disease, her journey into clinical research, and how digital health tools—like the Digital Health Passport —can empo...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of the "Up, Up and Away" podcast, Dom Burch interviews Victoria Betton, founder and director of PeopleDotCom Limited , a consultancy specialising in human-centered design, digital strategy, and adoption for social impact. With 25 years of experience in charities, social work, the NHS, local government, and industry, Victoria shares insights from her journ...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of the Up Up and Away podcast, host Dom Burch welcomes Kate Cheema, Director of Evaluation and Insight at UCLPartners. With over 17 years in NHS data analysis and patient safety, Kate offers a deep dive into the transformative power of data and AI in healthcare, describing her work as “turning all this nerdy gold into something meaningful for people working directl...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of the Up, Up & Away podcast, Dom Burch interviews Charles Kwaku-Odoi, Chief Executive of the Caribbean & African Health Network (CAHN). He is a Deputy Lieutenant of the County of Greater Manchester, an honorary member of the esteemed Faculty of Public Health (FPH), and the honorary Ecumenical Canon at Manchester Cathedral. He has trustees and board roles i...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of the podcast, host Dom Burch sits down with Jess Russell, an experienced asthma practitioner, to discuss practical strategies for managing asthma, the importance of patient education, and the role of digital tools in supporting better health outcomes. Key Themes and Highlights: Empowering Patients Through Education and Self-Management  Jess emphasises the critica...

Send us Fan Mail In the latest episode of Up, Up and Away, host Dom Burch speaks to Dr. Pamela Rackow and Alexandra Dima - two esteemed researchers in the field of health psychology and digital health. Pamela is a Psychology Lecturer at the University of Stirling, who specialises in the mechanisms of behaviour change and the role of digital technology in promoting healthier lifestyles. Alex is Pri...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of the Tiny Medical Apps / Digital Health Passport podcast, cohosts Dom Burch and Saira Arif interview Laura King, a senior children and young people's asthma practitioner for North East London. Laura shares her journey from starting in orthopaedics to becoming an asthma specialist, highlighting her initial experiences in A&E and her passion for managing l...

Send us Fan Mail Dr. Malcolm White, a clean air specialist at Global Action Plan, joined hosts Dom Burch and Saira Arif to discuss the critical issue of air pollution and its health impacts. Malcolm highlighted his background in hospital medicine and environmentalism, sharing insights from his experience working in deprived areas where environmental factors significantly affect health. He's r...

Send us Fan Mail Monica Fletcher OBE is a distinguished respiratory health expert, who has innovated all her career, be that here in the UK or further afield in Bangladesh and China. With a career spanning over three decades, Mon has made a massive and significant contribution to the field of respiratory health She joined Dom Burch and Saira Arif on the Up, Up and Away podcast to discuss her caree...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of the "Up, Up and Away" podcast, hosted by Dom Burch with co-host Saira Arif, guest Sara Nelson, a nurse by background and a passionate advocate for asthma care, shares her extensive experience in transforming children and young people's health services through digital innovation.  The episode sheds light on the evolution of asthma care, emphasising...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to the first episode of the Digital Health Passport podcast - Up, Up & Away. Well, you can't have a hot air balloon for a logo and not get a little carried away! The Up Up and Away podcast, hosted by Dom Burch, kicks off with Saira Arif as the special guest, exploring personal experiences and journeys within the digital health sector. Saira shares her unconvention...