2025 Annual Lecture and Showcase success

Introduced by Professor Cathie Sudlow, this year's Usher Institute Annual Lecture and Showcase was a memorable occasion, held in the magnificent McEwan Hall and shared with participants online. The day was enriched by the contributions of our inspiring speakers, engaging presenters, and everyone who joined us. We are grateful to all who took part and helped make the event such a success.

Keynote lecture

In his lecture titled “Post-pandemic population health in the USA and beyond”, Dr David B. Nash, Founding Dean Emeritus of the Jefferson College of Population Health (USA), explored the challenges and opportunities for improving health systems in the wake of COVID-19. He reflected on lessons learned from the pandemic, highlighting how they can inform strategies to reduce health inequalities and strengthen population health globally. Drawing on his extensive experience, Dr Nash examined the role of leadership, policy, and collaboration across sectors in shaping more resilient health systems. Chaired by Professor Julie Jacko, David took questions from both our online and in-person audiences. 

Usher presentations

The lecture was complemented by short showcase presentations, chaired by Professor Linda Bauld, highlighting research from across the Usher Institute. This year’s presenters included Dr Nicola Boydell on co-designing post-abortion contraception to address inequalities in abortion care after Covid-19; Dr Gwenetta Curry on the impact of Covid-19 policies on refugees and asylum seekers in Scotland; Dr Luke Daines on evidence from national studies into Long Covid and its effects on daily life; and Dr Syed Ahmar Shah on NHS data revealing backlogs, bottlenecks, and the uneven road to recovery in the post-pandemic period.

Showcase and poster competition

The Showcase at the event included a number of stalls offering a summary of some of our key programmes and activities, along with a selection of academic and non-specialist posters from across the Usher Institute.

A highlight of the event was the poster competition, with five shortlisted participants – Dr Victoria Hammersley., Dr Jaime Garcia-Iglesias, Helmi Hietanen, Dr Susanne Maxwell and Cat Tottie presenting their work to Dr Nash. Congratulations goes to Susanne for securing the first-place position with her poster entitled “Prevalence of multimorbidity in incident and cancer survivors using primary care data”. Thanks to Dr Fiona Dobbie and Dr Steven Kerr for assisting with the poster competition.

Further information

Watch the lecture and presentations again, access display stall details and view posters from our dedicated event website.