Natalie’s Biography

I am Natalie Diana Busari, a technologist, patient advocate, and health equity advocate with lived experience of multiple sclerosis (MS). My work sits at the intersection of technology, healthcare, and social justice, driven by a commitment to ensuring that Black patients, particularly Black women, are no longer invisible within healthcare systems.

I am a patient advocate because I am a patient. Living with MS has given me first-hand insight into how deeply flawed healthcare systems can be, especially for Black people. From underrepresentation in research to being dismissed in clinical settings, these systemic gaps are not abstract concepts to me. They are lived realities. Navigating diagnosis, treatment, and care exposed how often Black women with MS are overlooked, under-informed, and excluded from meaningful decision-making about their own health.

Professionally, I have a strong technology background, with experience across software engineering, digital design, and complex systems in banking, media, and fast-paced technology environments. When my health forced me to step back from traditional technology roles, I initially believed I had lost the career I loved. Instead, it became the foundation for a deeper purpose.

I am the founder of The Nerve of My Multiple Sclerosis CIC, a non-profit patient organisation that supports and advocates for Black people living with MS, with a particular focus on Black women and girls. Through this work, I create spaces for community, education, and visibility, while challenging the structures that continue to produce unequal health outcomes. The organisation exists to ensure that Black voices are not an afterthought in MS conversations, research, or policy.

I am also the founder and architect of Ethnicity Identification and Coding System™ (EICS™), a harmonised identity and data framework designed to address critical gaps in ethnicity data capture across healthcare, research, and digital systems. EICS™ challenges the way ethnicity is currently recorded, interpreted, and used, and exists to improve accuracy, accountability, and equity in health data.

As a technologist, I build tools that empower patients. As a patient advocate, I speak from lived truth. As a health equity advocate, I work to change systems that were never designed with people like me in mind. My purpose is to ensure that no patient is left navigating their health unseen, unheard, or unsupported.