Find out more about the medical technologies advisory committee members by reading their biographies.
Dr Jacob Brown (chair)
Biography
Jacob is a Consultant in Emergency Physician at Hampshire Hospitals Foundation Trust where he works clinically at Basingstoke and Winchester sites. Prior to his appointment at NICE he was the Clinical Lead for the Royal Hampshire County Hospital, working closely across all tiers of the trust to improve the delivery of safe patient care.
He is also the Acute Care Common Stem training lead for the trust, co-ordinating cross divisional education for trainees, and representing them at a deanery level.
Prior to his career in Medicine he obtained a BSc in Computer Science at the University of Durham and worked for several years in the technology sector in London. He maintains a strong interest in computing specifically, and technology in general, and recently sponsored the development of a new Emergency Department Information System for the trust.
Dr Teik Goh (vice chair)
Biography
Teik is a GP partner at The Garth Surgery in Guisborough, a market town on the edge of North Yorkshire. He is also the clinical director of the East Cleveland Group Primary Care Network.
An innovative and entrepreneurial doctor, Teik has founded and led GP enterprises and set up new clinical services. With experience in health economics, research and health management, he maintains a strong interest in research and the adoption of health technologies in primary care.
Mr Funminiyi Adenle
Biography
Funminiyi is currently a Deputy Director (Divisional) at Black Country NHS Foundation Trust. In this dynamic role, he plays a pivotal part in steering transformative change and ensuring operational excellence across multiple facets of the organisation. His responsibilities encompass strategic leadership, collaborating seamlessly with the Divisional Director and Senior Management team to shape the strategic vision of the Trust at national, trust, and service levels.
He is a dedicated advocate for patient-centred services and committed to delivering high-quality healthcare in collaboration with key partners. His career journey includes significant roles such as Operational Manager at Nottinghamshire NHS Foundation Trust, where he oversaw operational compliance, performance and objectives within the service. His achievements in this role include the co-establishment of a robust governance process, an improved staff recruitment and retention plan, and the prioritization of staff health and well-being. He is also a Specialist Advisor/Hospital Inspector at the Care Quality Commission (CQC), where he has been involved in comprehensive hospital inspections and contributes to advancing mental health care standards. His role at the CQC involves providing expert counsel, ensuring adherence to the highest standards of impartiality, integrity, and objectivity.
He has held other operational roles within the NHS such as Head of Healthcare and Covid Isolation Unit Manager etc. These roles involved operational planning, service delivery improvement, and managing operational aspects during critical times, such as the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. His career has also seen academic contributions as a Lecturer in Mental Health Nursing at the University of Leicester, where he engaged in the design and delivery of high-quality learning experiences. Throughout his career, he has consistently demonstrated a commitment to excellence, innovation, and patient-centric care. His leadership style emphasises team empowerment, continuous improvement, and a keen focus on safety and governance in healthcare settings.
Mrs Kiran Bali
Biography
Kiran Bali MBE JP has extensive experience as a Lay member on a number of health bodies, ensuring the patient voice is at the core of all deliberations.
For over 2 decades, Kiran has worked on initiatives aimed at engaging, educating and empowering communities to actively participate in decisions relating to their health and wellbeing.
In 2008, Kiran was awarded an MBE for her services to the community. Kiran serves as a Magistrate and is actively involved in impactful community cohesion, nationally and internationally.
Dr Katherine Boylan
Biography
Dr Katherine Boylan is director of innovation for Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust (MFT), a position she has held since April 2020. This role involves overseeing innovation activities within MFT, part of the wider research and innovation function.
The innovation team in MFT supports:
- intellectual property and commercialisation management
- adoption of novel technologies within the trust
- strategic partnerships with commercial organisations and other leading clinical/academic centres
- a portfolio of strategic programmes including the diagnostic and technology accelerator and clinical data science unit
- the interaction with the co-located companies across the Citylabs innovation district.
Prior to this position, Katherine worked in the University of Manchester for a number of years, most recently as operations director for the Medical Research Council funded molecular pathology node, and the trust-funded diagnostics and technology accelerator. Katherine’s academic background is cancer genetics (PhD, University of Dundee) and molecular biology (BSc, University of Sheffield).
Dr Stacey Chang-Douglass
Biography
Stacey is the founding director of Pro Bono Health Economist Network, a charitable organisation aiming to organise volunteers to provide pro bono research and education support to other health charities, particularly those with limited funding or resources.
Stacey is also a research scientist in the modelling and simulation team at Evidera, where she is responsible for providing strategic and scientific insights across client projects.
After completing her PhD at the University of York, Stacey has been working as a health economist for over a decade, specialising in economic modelling and health technology assessment across an extensive range of therapeutic areas. She has previously worked for NICE, where she supported national guideline development.
Dr Donna Cowan
Biography
Donna is a clinical scientist who has spent most of her career working the field of assistive technology. As a research assistant in the medical engineering department of Dulwich Hospital, London she gained a PhD in biomedical engineering from King’s College London.
She held joint academic and clinical posts in the medical engineering and Physics Department of King’s College Hospital. During this time as well as working in clinical services she took part in research on assistive technology and its provision. She was co-ordinator and taught on academic courses in rehabilitation engineering and jointly developed the MSc in assistive technology at King’s College London.
She moved to Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust and as a consultant clinical scientist and until 2019 she was head of the rehabilitation engineering service which provided a range of assistive technologies. In 2015 the department expanded to include a regional NHS communication aid service. She also became lead scientist for the Trust.
From 2019 Donna was the research and innovation director for Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust. She retired in 2022 however remains an honorary senior research fellow in the Trust. She remains state registered as a clinical scientist and undertakes medico-legal work as an expert witness providing assistive technology reports.
She joined MTAC in 2021.
Dr Philip Crilly
Biography
Philip is a senior lecturer in pharmacy practice and digital public health at Kingston University where he teaches on the Masters of Pharmacy (MPharm) and Pre-Pharmacy foundation degree courses. His research interests are in the use of digital tools to improve public health and he has published articles about this work in international peer-reviewed journals. Philip is also a pharmacist, registered with the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC), and continues to works as a relief community pharmacist for Boots the Chemist. He graduated with a First Class Honours MPharm degree from the School of Pharmacy, Queen's University Belfast in 2006, and obtained a PhD from Kingston University in 2022.
Professor Neil Hawkins
Biography
Neil is a professor of health technology assessment (HTA) at the University of Glasgow, Scotland. He is deputy director of the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) funded Complex Reviews Support Unit (CRSU). His research interests include methods development for evidence synthesis and decision-analytic modelling and the use of 'development focussed' HTA to support decision-making regarding the development of, and investment in, nascent healthcare technologies.
He holds postgraduate degrees in pharmacology, health economics and applied statistics and an MBA. He has worked in the pharma, academic, and consultancy sectors in roles spanning basic pharmacological research, clinical development, epidemiology, and health technology assessment.
Dr Devavrata Joshi
Biography
Dev is a GP working in London and the East of England, having previously been a surgical trainee. Beyond his role as a GP, he has two main areas of interest: healthcare management and education. He has been involved in evaluating and shaping clinical services within the NHS. He also enjoys training current and future clinicians, having been involved in various aspects of education including teaching, assessment, quality assurance and curriculum design. He first joined NICE as a guideline committee member for Otitis Media in Under 12s and has expanded his role joining Medical Technologies Advisory Committee.
Michael Kolovetsios
Biography
Michael is a health economics, policy, and reimbursement manager at Medtronic, a global medical technology company. He supports the company's market access strategies by leading on health economic and reimbursement activities of innovative medical devices that alleviate pain, restore health, and extend life.
Before joining Medtronic, Michael worked in the NHS as a pharmacist and later as a medicine optimisation pharmacist in a clinical commissioning group (CCG) with a special interest in geriatric and palliative care medicine. During his time at the CCG, he worked closely with clinicians, healthcare providers, and other stakeholders to bring about transformational change that improved patient quality of care and delivered cost savings to the NHS. Michael also undertook a secondment within the Department of Health and Social Care where he supported the Medicines and Pharmacy Directorate in assessing and mitigating risks to the supply of medicines in the UK due to shortages, regulatory concerns, and Brexit.
Michael holds a Master's of Science (MSc) in Health Policy from Imperial College London. He also has a Master's of Pharmacy (MPharm) and a postgraduate certificate in Independent Prescribing, both from the University of Kent. Michael remains a registered pharmacist on the General Pharmaceutical Council and a member of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society.
Emily Lam
Biography
Emily was a registered nurse and obtained a BA (Honours) degree in Psychology through the Open University. After leaving the NHS, Emily set up an education consultancy service that ran for 14 years.
As a non-executive director of a primary care trust, Emily involved users, carers, and community organisations in developing quality monitoring and evaluation work. In 2013, while Emily was a lay member on the NICE guideline development group for chronic hepatitis B, she initiated a series of chronic hepatitis B health education activities in Manchester in the Chinese community. The work culminated in some local individuals testing positive, and receiving treatment for this asymptomatic but potentially lethal disease.
Over the last 16 years or so, as a result of serious health problems, Emily has undergone various investigative procedures and this has brought her into close contact with advanced medical technologies. Emily hopes that her understanding and experience as a patient can add value to the discussions and evaluation of potential innovative medical technologies competing for NHS resources.
Dr Jihad Malasi
Biography
Jihad has been a doctor for two decades. He is an experienced GP with a special interest in medical leadership, inequalities and health economics.
He’s an ex Clinical Chair of Thanet CCG, and currently works for Kent Medway ICB as mental health lead and GP tutor. Jihad, a Kent GP, has a special interest in mental health, inequalities and health economics. He is an ex-CCG Clinical Chair (Thanet), and held a number of strategic roles and is currently the ICB Clinical Lead for Mental Health in Kent and Medway. He is a member of the Royal College of General Practitioners, holds a masters degree in health, economics and policy from the London School of Economics, and is a Senior Fellow of the Faculty of Medical Leadership and Management.
Dr Avril McCarthy
Biography
Avril is a lead clinical scientist within Clinical Engineering at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. She leads its successful medical device innovation team, developing novel technologies for patient and system benefit. Device risk management, trialling and regulatory compliance form a significant part of her role.
In addition, she is the MedTech lead for the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Devices for Dignity (D4D) MIC, which manages a portfolio of collaborative health-tech development projects. These are intended to benefit people living with interrelated long-term conditions and themes include kidney care, diabetes, neurological conditions and rehabilitation. The majority involve industry collaborators. She has been a lead or co-investigator on NIHR device development and Research Council funded health-tech projects exceeding £10M value since 2016.
Avril was awarded a PhD from the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Sheffield for developing and evaluating minimal access orthopaedic 'virtual environments' for surgical training. Her background includes an early NHS career as a biomedical scientist in haematology, followed by biomechanics and human factors research, pan-European orthopaedic R&D involving several major medical device, engineering and IT companies to return to NHS-based paediatric clinical gait analysis, en route to her current roles.
Naomi McVey
Biography
Naomi is the regional head of allied health professions for NHS England in the north west. She is responsible for strategic leadership and operational support to ensure employers and Integrated Care Systems develop allied health profession (AHP) workforce training, and education across the North West. She is also the national lead for the national AHP support workforce programme and co-chair of the North West AHP Board.
In a previous role, Naomi led the national AHP strategy implementation programme as Head of Programmes for the Chief AHP Officer at NHS England. She was a NICE fellow from 2017 to 2020 and has held a range of clinical, management and leadership roles in the NHS. Naomi remains a registered and Chartered physiotherapist with Health and Care Professions Council and Chartered Society of Physiotherapy respectively.
Dr Richard Packer
Biography
Richard Packer is an Academic Clinical Lecturer in Genetic Epidemiology and Public Health Medicine at the University of Leicester. After completing his PhD in 2023, he splits his time between research focusing on the genetic determinants of disease at Leicester University and public health practice. He is currently placed at Lincolnshire County Council, leading a work programme to improve childhood vaccination uptake. He has a particular interest in data science and uses electronic health records extensively in his research. He has experience working on various public health projects, including homelessness services, drugs and alcohol, and health care.
Abdullah Pandor
Biography
Abdullah is a senior research fellow in systematic reviewing at the School of Health and Related Research (ScHARR) within the University of Sheffield. He is the director of ScHARR-TAG Reviews, an academic group which is involved in the production of evidence reports to support health policy decision making by NICE and other national bodies.
Abdullah has undertaken research on the clinical effectiveness of healthcare technologies for the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Health Technology Assessment Programme for over 15 years and has been involved with the NICE Decision Support Unit.
His research interests include the application and development of systematic review methods. In particular, the review and synthesis of diagnostic and prognostic evaluations, rapid reviews, review techniques for individual patient data and mixed treatment comparisons.
Dr Jai Patel
Biography
Jai is a Consultant vascular and interventional radiologist at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust (LTHT), appointed in 1999. Together with his colleagues, he provides one of the largest and most comprehensive adult and paediatric vascular interventional radiology services within the UK.
Jai's main areas of clinical interest are in trans-arterial therapies for the treatment of liver tumours, radiological management of portal hypertension and treatment of vascular malformations. He was previously lead clinician for vascular radiology at LTHT for 5 years. He has also been involved in regional Radiology training as Deputy Training Programme Director for the West Yorkshire Radiology Training Scheme and Head of School of Radiology for Health Education England (HEE) across Yorkshire and the Humber.
Jai has previously undertaken national committee work as Chair of the Education Committee and Secretary of the British Society of Interventional Radiology (BSIR). He is currently Chair of the Interventional Radiology Committee at the Royal College of Radiologists (RCR).
Dr Elizabeth-Ann Schroeder
Biography
Dr Liz Schroeder is a Health Economist at the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford. Her expertise lies in the economic evaluations of complex public health interventions, specifically applied to the fields of digital health innovations, mental health, children’s social care and perinatal health. She is a lecturer and module-lead in the Masters in Applied Digital Health, a programme integrated into the Oxford Institute for Digital Health.
Liz previously held the position of Associate Professor at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia where she served on numerous external research, steering and University Committees. She was the economics Commissioner to the National Mental Health Commission between 2019 and 2021. Prior to her move to Australia, Liz was a senior researcher at the National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit, University of Oxford. She holds a postgraduate degree in economics and was awarded her DPhil in Public Health – Health Economics at the University of Oxford in 2013.
Dr Jennie Walker
Biography
Jennie is a registered nurse who works at Nottingham Trent University as a principal lecturer, where she is the lead for continuing professional development and postgraduate courses within the Institute of Health and Allied Professions. Prior to this position she has worked as a clinical teaching fellow and Divisional Lead Nurse for research and innovation at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust. Jennie’s main areas of interest are Orthopaedics, surgical site infection and biomaterial-associated infection.