The UK Kidney Association is proud to announce its collaboration with Health Data Research UK's Black Internship Programme 2024, as it hosts talented intern Billal Bah. This initiative, carried out in partnership with 10,000 Black Interns, is dedicated to addressing the underrepresentation of Black individuals in the health data science sector.

At the forefront of its mission is the ambition to combat racial bias in healthcare and challenge racism concerning the utilisation of health data. The programme is committed to providing opportunities for talented individuals like Billal, who is working within the UK Renal Registry as a Junior Developer.

Billal Bah is currently a first-year aerospace engineering student at the University of Bristol. He has a passion for engineering and technology and is particularly interested in their applications within the health industry. Eager to apply the knowledge gained from his academic studies to real-life problems, Billal views this internship as a crucial first step towards a career in the technology and data industry.

"I’m keen to put the knowledge I’ve gained from academics into real-life problems throughout my internship. My goal is to break into the technology and data industry, and this internship provides me with the first steps into this, which I am incredibly grateful for," says Billal.

During his internship, Billal has been working on 'Steve', a UKRR web application that collects data from 70 hospitals and 130 laboratories. The web application was originally created with Python 2.7 and Django 1.8, which are now outdated versions. Billal's project has been to update this to the newest version of Django, which is 5.0. This task has been an invaluable learning experience, particularly since he had no prior experience with Django. Upgrading Django also necessitated upgrading Python, allowing Billal to observe the significant syntax changes from Python 2 to 3.

"My coding skills have really improved over the short time I’ve been here, and as an aerospace engineering student, it's been great working on programming that goes beyond what I would do in my university course. I've learnt so much and I have the team to thank for their overwhelming support whenever I have a problem," he adds.

Billal has greatly enjoyed the internship so far, which has provided him with the experience of working both remotely and in a professional environment. In addition to his work with the UK Kidney Association, he has been participating in a technical challenge with other interns from different organisations, focusing on a data visualisation project to create a dashboard.

The Black Internship Programme, established in partnership with the UK Health Data Research Alliance and 10,000 Black Interns, addresses the underrepresentation of Black individuals within science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) careers. It accomplishes this by providing opportunities for them to engage in health data science projects with some of the UK's leading health, research, and academic organizations.

As of Monday, 1 July 2024, an impressive cohort of interns has commenced their placements with a range of host organisations. The UK Kidney Association is honoured to be part of this transformative initiative and remains steadfast in its commitment to fostering diversity, inclusivity, and representation within the health data science sector.