Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

Fostering DE&I is more critical than ever in today's healthcare landscape. These principles accelerate equitable treatment, enhance patient trust and satisfaction and improve patient outcomes, ultimately leading to better overall health and wellbeing of the population.

The BHBIA is committed to empowering our members to build inclusive teams, deliver insights that represent diverse perspectives and incorporate best practices into all our activities. Our DE&I Committee leads our work in this area.

Our Commitment to DE&I

Our industry is for everyone and so is our Association. We have always been pioneers in creating inclusive spaces and supporting our members. We will continue to advance the industry to shine a light on the importance of inclusivity. We pride ourselves in listening to many voices and making sure all are heard.

Our Focus Areas 

  • Inclusive insight generation
    We aim to address healthcare disparities by ensuring that insight generation and analytics are tailored to diverse patient populations. Understanding the unique needs and challenges different demographic groups face allows for more targeted interventions and improved healthcare outcomes.
  • Building inclusive organisations
    When healthcare business insights teams bring together individuals with varied backgrounds, experiences and perspectives, they can offer a more comprehensive understanding of complex issues. This leads to better-informed decision-making and innovative approaches to solving industry challenges.
  • An inclusive membership
    We aim to elevate the BHBIA’s events and activities so they align with DE&I best practices and are inclusive to our members. 

Hear from the DE&I Committee

Hear from Joel Jitell of Day One Strategy about the DE&I Committee’s new mission and commitments to BHBIA members.

Get involved

Join us in championing DE&I to create a more equitable and inclusive healthcare industry for all. Our DE&I Committee is a small but committed team of volunteers supporting BHBIA members in this area. We welcome new members and ideas to help strengthen the Committee’s work. Get in touch.


Explore our DE&I Resource Bank

Disclaimer: The guidance, information and resources provided here are intended to help you advance DE&I initiatives. Links to external resources are for information purposes only. They do not imply endorsement of any content and we do not assume responsibility for their accuracy. 

BHBIA Guidelines for Inclusive Recruitment for Market Research Studies (June 2024) These guidelines are designed to support pharmaceutical clients, market research and fieldwork agencies in conducting inclusive market research. Our goal is to ensure diversity in sample populations, ensuring representation from the initial business question to the final insights.

From analogue to digital: maximising data in the drive for equitable access to medicines - BHBIA Spring Virtual Event (March 2024) Karen Westaway from ValueBase presents a session on the inequities of access to medicines that hide in plain sight and the key role analytics has to play in (available to full BHBIA members)

Challenging pharma to focus on health equity and inclusivity - BHBIA Webinar (January 2024) Hear from Avalere’s DE&I and inclusive marketing experts, showcasing what they’ve learned so far on their journey to designing and delivering work that is inclusive and research that shines a light on inequity (available to full BHBIA members)

Health equity and understanding the true patient population - BHBIA Virtual Conference sponsored session (2021) Origins Health Insights discuss health equity and accessing the true patient population (available to full BHBIA members)

MRS Diversity, Inclusion & Equality Council - Diversity and Inclusion Best Practice Guidance (May 2022) Three guides covering sampling, methodology and language. They act as a framework for research professionals to help ensure diverse sampling and inclusive methodologies. Although aimed at client-side practitioners they also provide value for researchers working on the supply side.

MRS Best Practice Guide on Collecting Ethnicity Sample Data March (2022) MRS has produced this Best Practice Guide to help practitioners act legally and ethically when collecting data and asking research participants questions about ethnicity.

More than numbers: A guide toward DE&I in data collection Schusterman Family Philanthropies is a global organisation that seeks to improve lives, strengthen communities and advance equity. This guide is designed to help make your data collection 'intentional, inclusive and equitable'.

Association of Medical Research Charities (AMRC) Resource Hub  This UK organisation is dedicated to supporting medical research charities in saving and improving lives through research and innovation. Their resources may be helpful to those conducting patient research. 

BOBI Awards - winning entries and finalists with a focus on DE&I:

Gender health equity: From talk to action (May 2024) Hear about the work Ipsos are doing to explore why discussions about the gender health gap haven’t translated into action, the focus of a workshop at BHBIA’s annual conference 2024

Building a strong DE&I culture: BHBIA Panel Discussion (March 2024)
A discussion on where the UK healthcare industry is making progress and stalling on DE&I initiatives within the UK healthcare industry (available to full BHBIA members)

Walking the Talk: Developing a Diversity, Equity & Inclusion framework to engage and develop your people – BHBIA Webinar (February 2023) Learn about Takeda’s holistic DE&I strategy and execution, awarded Best DE&I Initiative at the Business Culture Awards 2022 (available to full BHBIA members)

Embracing Diversity, Equity and Inclusion – BHBIA Virtual Summer Event (September 2022)
Findings from our 2022 members survey and discussions about how organisations are embracing DE&I in business insights and market research (available to full BHBIA members)

BHBIA Member Survey (May 2022) 
- A summary of the findings about members’ needs, priorities and experiences, how companies are tackling DE&I and thoughts on how those involved in market research can improve the process.  (Full report available to full BHBIA members)

We must do more to create diverse environments - Research Live (April 2022) 
Caroline Frankum of Kantar argues that the research industry should do more to improve diversity and inclusion. What do organisations need to do to ensure that they are not just scratching the surface?

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in the Life Sciences - Informa Connect (2022)
A large study asks life sciences professionals worldwide how diverse and inclusive they feel their industry truly is.

Inclusion, diversity and equality in the market research sector - MRS report (2021) This report found widespread recognition of diversity and inclusion challenges within the market and social research industry and an appetite for change. 

ABPI Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (April 2021)
The ABPI exists to make the UK the best place in the world to research, develop and use the medicines and vaccines of the future. Creating diverse and inclusive workplaces that deliver innovations to improve the lives of everyone in the UK is critical to deliver on that mission. This strategy sets out how the ABPI works with members to help drive this change.

Chartered Institute of Personnel Development (CIPD): Inclusion and Diversity - Resources, factsheets and guides to help promote and support equal opportunities and manage inclusion and diversity in the workplace. Includes Diversity Management that Works recommendations and action points arising from an evidence-into-practice programme that brought together professional expertise on diversity and inclusion with insights from scientific research. 

Cultural intelligence training and other resources from Common Purpose - A not-for-profit organisation that promotes 'Cultural Intelligence (CQ), the ability to cross divides between geographies, generations, sectors, specialisations, backgrounds and beliefs and thrive in multiple cultures.'

Diversity & Inclusion - resources from cultureamp.com - This organisation provides employee engagement, performance and development tools, including a downloadable booklet: '6 actionable areas to improve DEI in your workplace'.

Embracing Equality and Diversity - Irwin Mitchell podcast 
- This podcast discusses studies that demonstrate the commercial benefits to businesses that embrace equality and diversity as part of their model or structure.

Becoming an anti-racist organisation - Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) England has launched guidance, with the Chartered Management Institute and Business in the Community, to support the mental health and well-being of people from racialised communities in the workplace.

Novoresume – a series of resources exploring the benefits and challenges of diversity in the workplace with real-world examples and resources

Investing in Ethnicity - A UK-focused organisation that provides learning, networking, and resources focused on ethnic inclusion in the workplace.

The MRS Guidance on Neurodiversity aims to help market researchers to conduct inclusive and ethical research with neurodiverse participants.

Colour of Research (CORe) advocates for the inclusion of ethnic professionals in the market research industry and drives to bring about more diversity

Women in Research (WIRe) works to advance the contributions and voice of women in research

MRSPride is the MRS network for LGBTQ+ professionals and allies working in research, insight and data analytics