Committee B members

Biography

Charles is a consultant haematologist in Cambridge. After graduating, he trained in oncology and then haematology at St Bartholomew’s and the Hammersmith Hospitals in London and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Centre in Seattle.

He has subspecialty interests in myeloma, leukaemia, stem cell transplantation and cellular therapy. He is the programme director for the bone marrow transplant (BMT) and cell therapy programme in Cambridge and the past president of the British Society for Blood and Marrow Transplant and Cellular Therapy. He was the lead for haemato-oncology in Cambridge until 2021 and is actively engaged in clinical research in myeloma and transplantation.

He is an experienced inspector for the Joint Accreditation committee of ISCT and EBMT (JACIE) and a member of the accreditation committee, which accredits BMT and cell therapy programs in the UK and internationally. He is also a member of the clinical standards writing group for Foundation for Accreditation of Cellular Therapy (FACT) - JACIE.

He has been chair of the Joint Drugs and Therapeutics committee in Cambridge since 2010 and and is a member of the regional prescribing group.

Biography

Baljit is a consultant colorectal surgeon and honorary Associate Professor at the University Hospitals Leicester with specialist interests in rectal cancer and early diagnosis of colorectal cancer using faecal immunochemical testing.

He trained in Oxford and is chair of the NHS England Specialised Colorectal Services CRG and East Midlands Colorectal ECAG.

Baljit has previously served on the executive committees of the ACPGBI and ASGBI and currently is a member of the ESCP executive.

Biography

Dr. Hatim Abdulhussein is a General Practitioner in North West London, with roles in national healthcare policy, medical education and digital health. Hatim is the National Clinical Lead for AI and Digital Medical Workforce at Health Education England, where his portfolio includes heading up the Digital, AI and Robotics in Education Programme and leading on digital readiness for the medical profession.

Hatim is also Medical Director for Kent Surrey Sussex Academic Health Science Network, an Honorary Senior Lecturer at Brunel University London, and an Honorary Reader at Keele University.

Hatim is a healthcare leader passionate about driving innovation in healthcare to improve people’s lives and supporting the healthcare workforce to be prepared for a digitally enhanced service, both now and in the future.

Biography

Lisa is currently a lecturer in adult nursing at the University of Plymouth, previously having worked in a variety of settings (NHS/private/acute/community), as a registered nurse (RN) and midwife (RM).

Lisa has extensive experience in a broad range of nursing contexts, clinical research and education, both within and external to the NHS (private, HEI) with a consistent focus on clinical research and staff development through posts held.

Lisa has worked across the phases of clinical trials (senior research sister in a large London NHS Trust and as senior nurse/training facilitator within a Phase 1 organisation), culminating in the role of lead research nurse within a large South West NHS Trust; leading the development of the team and a large portfolio of research across many specialities and into the local community. This involved working closely with NIHR and commercial sponsors as well as supporting innovations and development of ‘home grown’ research at local site.

Educated to MSc level, Lisa teaches across a range of subject areas at undergraduate and postgraduate levels within a diverse programme offering adult, mental health and child health education to MSc level. Also supervising final project students at Level 7 (MSc). A key teaching focus is on evidence informed decision making, the appraisal of evidence and translation to practice equipping students with critical questioning skills to interpret and apply knowledge to inform practice.

Biography

Mariana is a Principal Health Economist and Health Technology Assessment (HTA) Manager at the BMJ Technology Assessment Group, one of the 11 groups funded by the National Institute for Health Research, to conduct independent research to support health policy decision making. She holds a MSc in Health Economics and a BSc in Economics.

Mariana has been involved in HTA since 2012 and previous to that has conducted research and economic evaluations of Public Health interventions and strategies through cost-effectiveness and return on investment models for NICE.

Biography

Vanessa is the Vice President of global pricing, health economics, market access and reimbursement at LivaNova, a global medical technology company. With a passion for equitable access to cost effective care for all patients, she leads the company’s global market access strategies to provide hope for patients and their families through innovative medical technologies.

Vanessa has strong experience in health technology assessment (HTA) and the design and generation of Real-World Evidence (RWE) to inform patient care.

Vanessa is a health economist with over 25 years of global experience in the life sciences industry across health economics and market access and holds a Master's of Science (MSc) in economic evaluation in healthcare from City University, London.

Biography

Francis is Professor of Global Health and Tuberculosis at Imperial College, London (ICL), a clinical and public health microbiologist and physician (accredited in Microbiology, Virology, and Immunology) and Consultant Microbiologist at University Hospitals Dorset. He was Director of the UK National Mycobacterium Reference Laboratory (1996-2015) providing public health, clinical and has 25 years’ experience as PI/Co-I for complex respiratory disease research programmes focusing on TB/HIV infections, COVID19, biomarker discovery, molecular and genomic diagnostics, antimicrobial drug resistance detection, with integration of clinical, biological, and social themes. Much of his research and training programme activity is focused in low/middle income countries especially in Eastern Europe and Africa.

He was a Board Non-Executive Director for Kent Community Hospital Foundation Trust (2018-2022) including the COVID Clinical Reference Group, Vice Chair of the Quality Committee (with particular interest in medication errors, quality improvement and safety, End of Life issues, patients with learning disabilities and health inequalities), and a member of the Strategic Workforce, Remuneration and Audit/Risk Committees. He founded and remains a member of the ECDC TB Reference Lab Network (2009-onwards) and served on several clinical and public health ECDC committees. He has been a consultant for and had several roles with the World Health Organisation focusing on the diagnosis and treatment of drug resistant bacterial infections, and the management of multidrug resistant tuberculosis and HIV-TB including, Director WHO Supra-national Reference Laboratory, member of the WHO Strategic Advisory Group, Chair WHO European Laboratory Initiative on TB, HIV and viral hepatitis including supporting COVID diagnostic policy and activity. He was made a Fellow of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases in 2017, is a Member of the Antimicrobial Research Collaborative (ARC) at ICL; co-founding member of the NIHR Health Protection Research Unit Respiratory Infections, ICL (Co-I 2014-2017); member of the International Advisory Board HPRU Antimicrobial Resistance, ICL (2014-20); a member of the Global CrypTIC molecular TB DST Consortium; a member of the MRC DPFS grant panel in 2021.

Biography

Daniel is an assistant professor at the University of Warwick where he is deputy director of Warwick Evidence, one of NICE’s external assessment groups. Joining Warwick Evidence in 2017, he has extensive experience of appraising health technologies for NICE. He previously worked at Warwick Clinical Trials Unit, supporting the design and analysis of clinical trials.

Daniel’s research interests include survival analysis and robust estimations of treatment benefit, demonstrated in his doctorate which compared methods of survival data extrapolation used in health technology assessment. He also has degrees in Medical Statistics and Mathematics.

Biography

Natalia is a decision sciences and health economics researcher with interests in uncertainty and evidence in decision-analytic modelling and health economic evaluations, value of information analysis, and health disparities.

She is currently a senior research fellow (associate professor) at the Centre for Health Economics (CHE) at the University of York. She is also a research affiliate at the Yale University School of Public Health and an affiliated member at the Center for Healthcare Research in Pediatrics (CHeRP), Harvard Medical School and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute.

Natalia completed her PhD in Health Economic Evaluation and Health Policy at the University of Oslo, Norway, and spent 2 years of her 3-year PhD program at Yale University, first as a visiting PhD candidate and thereafter working as a Postgraduate Research Fellow. During her PhD, she co-founded and has since co-led the Collaborative Network for Value of Information (ConVOI), which is an international group of over 20 researchers with interests in the application and development of methods for value of information calculation.

Natalia pursued a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard Medical School and the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute where to address challenges associated with the assessment of cost-effectiveness and decision making in precision medicine, also focusing on health disparities.

She has also gained experience in national policy-making in healthcare through her previous position as a senior advisor at the Norwegian Health Directorate. Prior to her PhD, she worked as a senior health economist at LINK Medical Research, Norway, developing and adapting decision-analytic models and preparing Health Technology Assessment (HTA).

Biography

Veline is an academic general practitioner in South London and an NIHR doctoral fellow at Kings College London. She holds a Master of Public Health and a Master of Science in Healthcare Policy and Management.

Her current research uses econometric methods to investigate the relationship between the allocation of resources and healthcare outcomes in general practice. Her ongoing interests are in primary care health economics and health service research.

She teaches on the Master of Public Health (MPH) programme at Kings College London. She was previously a National Medical Director's clinical fellow and prior to studying medicine she worked in the pharmaceutical industry.

Biography

Warren has 20 years of experience in health technology assessment, health economics and market access spanning the biopharmaceutical industry, high-profile payer and NHS commissioning organisations, and consultancy.

He began his career as a community pharmacist before completing an MSc in Health Economics. He was a lead technical reviewer of clinical and economic evidence submissions made by biopharmaceutical companies to AWMSG for a period spanning 8 years, during which he also completed his PhD exploring the factors influence reimbursement decisions for new medicines. His previous roles in industry included responsibility for developing HTA submission strategy and content, and health economics evidence generation. He is currently an independent HTA Consultant.

Biography

Andrew is a consultant pharmaceutical physician having spent 20 years in the pharmaceutical and devices industry in UK and Global roles. He has worked in medical affairs and clinical trials as well as regulatory affairs and patient and drug safety.

Andrew has a passion for delivering new solutions for patients with diseases for which no solution currently exists and has a track record of bringing such solutions to patients.

Before attending medical school Andrew got a Bachelor of Engineering Degree from the University of Reading and after medical school trained to be a vascular surgeon prior to moving into the pharmaceutical industry.

Biography

David McAllister is a Wellcome Trust Intermediate Clinical Fellow and Beit Fellow and Professor of Clinical Epidemiology and Medical Informatics at the University of Glasgow and is an Honorary Consultant in Public Health Medicine at Public Health Scotland.

His interest is in chronic disease epidemiology – diabetes, cardiovascular disease and multimorbidity – as well as routine healthcare data research. He leads projects funded by Wellcome and the MRC where he uses Bayesian methods to analyse routine healthcare data alongside clinical trial data in order to both measure and improve trial representativeness/applicability.

He also has an interest in global health, and is currently leading work looking at vaccine efficacy in low versus high income settings.

During the COVID-19 pandemic – thanks to the agreement of the Wellcome Trust - he was able to divert much of his time to work for Public Health Scotland on COVID-19. He used his expertise in routine data research to lead work examining the effect of COVID-19 on healthcare workers, teachers and care home residents, and to examine the effect of vaccinating healthcare workers on their household members. Internationally, he works with the RECORD committee on improving research methods in routine data epidemiology.

Biography

Rhiannon graduated with a BSc in Mathematics and Sports Science from Loughborough University. She completed an MSc in Medical Statistics from the University of Leicester, funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Research Methods Fellowship. In 2013 she was awarded an NIHR Doctoral Research Fellowship to complete her PhD in biostatistics at the University of Leicester, titled ‘Bayesian methods in health technology assessment’.

Rhiannon is currently a professor in biostatistics at Swansea University Medical School. She has extensive experience of evidence synthesis methods for complex healthcare interventions and diagnostic tests. Rhiannon is a member of the Health Data Research (HDR) Community of Experts and associate member of the NICE Technology Support Unit.

Her main research interests include evidence synthesis methods for health technology assessment, network meta-analysis, Bayesian statistical methods in healthcare evaluation, analysis of large scale linked electronic health records, economic evaluation, and analysis of value of information. This work has been and is supported by HDR UK, the Medical Research Council, NIHR and the Academy of Medical Sciences.

Registered interests

Financial interests

From November 2019: paid consultant for Cogentia Healthcare Consulting Ltd and Daiichi Sankyo offering statistical advice and undertaking network meta-analysis of direct acting oral-anticoagulants for the prevention of stroke in atrial fibrillation.

September 2019 to January 2020: paid consultant for Cogentia Healthcare Consulting Ltd and Vifor Pharma offering statistical advice on evidence synthesis and undertaking network meta-analysis of iron therapy for iron deficiency without anaemia.

September 2019: paid tutor on the Indirect and Mixed Treatment Comparisons course at the University of Bristol.

May 2019 to June 2019: paid consultant and seminar speaker for F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd offering statistical advice on general methods in health technology assessment.

Biography

Alistair is a general paediatrician with interests in epilepsy and neurology. He works within Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust in Surrey. Alistair has been involved in the national Epilespy12 audit since 2019, which uses data to highlight differences in service provision and establish best practices. He is a member of the faculty of clinical informatics and is keen to see the NHS make better use of data collection to improve patient outcomes.

Alistair has been an ambassador for the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health since 2020. This role involves advocating for child health within service commissioning. He is keen to have the voice of the child heard within NICE committee work too.

Alistair has a strong scientific background with a previous degree in Biochemistry and experience as a clinical trial fellow at Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital. This has given him a clear vision of the translational medicine process.

Biography

Anna is a senior medicines optimisation pharmacist at the NHS Greater Manchester Integrated Care. She qualified from the Medical University of Warsaw and completed a postgraduate diploma (with merit) in clinical and health services pharmacy at the University of Manchester.

Anna has worked as a pharmacist across many settings including community, hospital, clinical trials, primary care and commissioning. In her current role she supports the Greater Manchester Medicines Management Group and specialises in production of high quality evidence based guidance, particularly in the area of high cost medicines. Her interests include managed entry of new medicines, guidance development processes and decision making.

Anna is an independent member of the Prescription Medicines Code of Practice Authority Appeal Board.

Biography

Peter qualified as a nurse in Oxford and after 7 years working in the NHS, joined the pharmaceutical industry. He has held a wide variety of commercial and management roles with responsibility at UK, EU and global levels. For the past 11 years he has worked developing strategies and appraisals for submission to NICE, the Scottish Medicines Consortium, the All Wales Medicines Strategy Group and other similar bodies globally to get access for patients.

Peter currently works for Takeda in the UK leading a team focussed on access for patients. He was a trustee for the National Ankylosing Spondylitis Society, a national patient charity for 12 years.

Biography

Gabriel's research interests include decision-making when there are many potential options and/or separate, interacting decision-points. He is also interested in how to communicate the methods and results of health economic models.

Gabriel has contributed to NICE for many years. Before taking up his current job, he was lead health economist for about 30 NICE clinical guidelines. He also used to work for one of the independent academic groups that review evidence for technology appraisals.

Biography

Toby is an associate professor in physiotherapy at the University of East Anglia and senior trauma and orthopaedic physiotherapist at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.

Toby’s clinical and research interests are predominantly based around the rehabilitation of people with lower limb (hip and knee) bone, joint and muscle diseases and following orthopaedic surgery

Biography

Mark is a consultant cardiologist at University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust, an honorary clinical senior lecturer at Imperial College London, and a fellow of the European Society of Cardiology.

He trained in cardiology in London at The Royal Brompton, Hammersmith, and St Mary’s Hospitals, completing a fellowship in cardiac electrophysiology and pacing at Imperial College Healthcare in 2010. His clinical research interests include the use of emerging cardiac pacemaker techniques in the treatment of heart failure (currently principal investigator for the BHF funded PROTECT-HF conduction system pacing study), and the use of digital technologies in the diagnosis of heart rhythm disorders.

He has served on a number of NICE committees including as professional expert for His Bundle Pacing in the Treatment of Heart Failure (IPG694) and as expert clinical advisor for the Medical Technologies Advisory Committee (Zio XT for detecting cardiac arrhythmias (MTG52)).

Biography

Lay member

Nigel left school and joined the Royal Navy as an officer in 1975. After initial training he served on a number of ships including appointments as a bridge watch-keeping officer, gunnery officer, navigating officer, specialist warfare officer, second-in-command and as captain. On moving ashore he joined the staff of the Commander-in-Chief Fleet with responsibility for controlling naval operations around the world before moving to a new NATO headquarters where he worked on NATO policy and negotiating allocation of forces with nations.

After completing the prestigious Joint Service Defence College course he took up an appointment in the Ministry of Defence in London working on future equipment requirements.

In 1997 he showed the first signs of what subsequently proved to be ulcerative colitis and despite an intensive drug regime, his condition deteriorated forcing him to undergo a pan-proctocolectomy and obliging him to leave the Royal Navy in the rank of commander after 25 years service. He now owns and runs an information technology business.

He has been an active volunteer with a number of charities and organisations particularly Crohn's and Colitis UK since his diagnosis serving as a trustee and vice-chairman for a number of years before stepping back for personal reasons in 2010.

Biography

Stuart qualified in medicine from Oxford University and worked in a variety of medical jobs in Oxford, Birmingham and London before returning to Oxford to train in radiology. Since 2001 he has been a consultant radiologist at Norwich and honorary senior lecturer at Norwich Medical School. He has variously been head of training, radiology clinical director, RCR regional chair and Trust lead for audit and improvement.

Between 2010 and 2013, Stuart was one of the first cohort of NICE clinical fellows and was subsequently a member of the guideline development group around recognition and referral of suspected cancer (NG12).

Biography

Lay member

Tony is a retired secondary school headteacher. After graduating from Newcastle University he started his working life as an accountant before embarking on a teaching career which spanned nearly 30 years, working in Leeds, London and North Yorkshire.

Since retiring Tony has served on a number of NICE guideline development groups covering topics ranging from ‘anti-social behaviour and conduct disorders’ through to ‘achieving better access to urgent and emergency mental health care for children and young people’ and most recently ‘Suspected Neurological Conditions Recognition and Referral’.

Tony has been a member of the Lymphoma Association for a number of years since his own diagnosis of Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma in 2009. In recent years Tony and his wife have provided short break respite care to children and young people with learning difficulties.