The LEAPcast - Designing for success with "hard to reach" populations (33:38)

In this episode of LEAPcast, we speak with Becky Cotton, co‑founder of Lumino Health, about designing digital health technologies that engage underserved populations in ethical, inclusive, and sustainable ways. Drawing on her background in NHS mental health policy and digital therapeutics, Becky discusses:

• Why “hard to reach” is often a design and system failure, not a user characteristic

• How early user research helps prevent exclusion, bias, and downstream harm

• The importance of tone, trust, and credibility in digital health design

• Co‑design in practice: listening before building, iterating with users, and avoiding tokenism

• How exclusion in research leads to biased data and fragile AI systems

• The role of regulation, evidence, and medical device standards in building trust

• Why targeting underserved populations is both an ethical imperative and a design challenge

Using Lumino’s menopause mental health app as a case study, this conversation highlights how thoughtful user research, community engagement, and trauma‑informed design can shape safer, more effective digital health tools. This episode will be of interest to:

• Digital health designers and developers

• Researchers and evaluators

• Healthcare professionals

• Innovators working with underserved or excluded populations

• Anyone interested in ethics, inclusion, and responsible digital health innovation