What is the TIDES study?

The Tackling Inequalities and Discrimination Experiences in health Services (TIDES) study investigates how discrimination experienced by both patients and healthcare practitioners may generate and perpetuate inequalities in health and health service use. The TIDES study is funded by the Wellcome Trust and the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)

TIDES Phase 1

TIDES Phase 1 is a five-year project which utilises mixed methods to identify inequalities in health service use and explore discrimination by both healthcare practitioners and patients. TIDES Phase 1 is funded by the Wellcome Trust.


Project 1 uses survey data and electronic health records to investigate inequalities in health service use.

Project 2 uses the findings from Project 1 to facilitate conversations with healthcare practitioners about both experiencing and witnessing discrimination to see what impact these experiences have on inequalities in health service use. 

Project 3 builds on the findings from the first two projects to look at how healthcare practitioners interact with patients in Virtual Reality Environments (VREs). 

Project 4 involves talking to carers, service users, healthcare practitioners, community members and policy makers from Projects 1-3 to develop an intervention framework.

TIDES Phase 2

TIDES Phase 2 is a continuation of previous work to understand how discrimination contributes to inequalities in health and health services, and aims to continue this work by examining the impact of COVID-19 on inequalities by ethnic minority people working in health and social care. TIDES Phase 2 is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)  as part of UK Research and Innovation’s rapid response to COVID-19. 

The quantitative study  developed and incorporated an ethnicity module into the NHS CHECK survey to collect quantitative data on ethnic inequalities during and after COVID-19. 

The qualitative study has collected new rich qualitative data on ethnic inequalities among NHS staff to help understand the mechanisms underpinning inequalities. 

A modified Delphi process will utilise mixed methods to guide the development of  a ethnicity module questionnaire and interview topic guides, a Race Equality Impact Assessment tooklit, and VR training materials.