HealthTech Programme advisory committee members

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.

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.

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 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).

Stacey is the head of Health Economics at Clarivate, where she is responsible for providing strategic and scientific insights across client projects as well as managing a team of health economists. After completing her PhD at the University of York, Stacey has been working as a health economist for nearly 15 years, 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.

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.

Sharon is a dedicated patient and public contributor, drawing on both her lived experience as a parent of a child with complex needs and her broader knowledge of the NHS.

A passionate advocate for the patient voice, she has played a key role in numerous research projects and contributed to a university research team developing best practice in coproduction. Recently, she spoke in Parliament, calling for improved school holiday provision for children with complex needs.

Beyond her advocacy work, Sharon has built a successful career as a communications director, bringing 22 years of expertise in delivering strategic communications across a diverse range of organisations; from leading third-sector bodies to a wide array of businesses. She also serves as a trustee for a charity dedicated to supporting children with complex needs and their families.

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.

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.

Darren is an operations and technical director with extensive experience in the development, scale-up and commercialisation of innovative medical technologies within the UK and international healthcare markets. They currently work with medical device start-ups, supporting products from early development through to clinical use.
With a background in medical diagnostics and complex regulated products, Darren has led multidisciplinary teams across product design, manufacturing scale-up, supplier management and regulatory submissions, including UKCA, CE marking and FDA requirements. They have particular expertise in quality systems implementation, risk management and ensuring that evidence generation and operational delivery align with regulatory and health system expectations.

Darren has worked closely with clinicians, engineers and commercial teams to translate innovative technologies into safe, effective and adoptable solutions for healthcare providers. They bring a strong understanding of NHS pathways, value propositions and the practical challenges associated with adopting new medical technologies into routine clinical practice.

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.

Jihad has been a doctor for two decades. He is an experienced GP with an interest in medical leadership, inequalities and health economics.

An ex-Clinical Chair of Thanet CCG, he has held several strategic roles within clinical commissioning and currently works as the Clinical Lead for Mental Health and GP tutor for Kent & Medway ICB. A member of the Royal College of General Practitioners, he holds a MSc in health economics, policy & management from the London School of Economics, and is a Senior Fellow of the Faculty of Medical Leadership and Management.

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.

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 is co-director at Kleijnen Systematic Reviews (KSR) Ltd, bringing over 20 years' experience in health technology assessment (HTA) and evidence synthesis. He previously held senior leadership roles at the Sheffield Centre for Health and Related Research (ScHARR), University of Sheffield, where he led large portfolios of complex HTA projects for major funders including NIHR, NICE, industry, and international agencies.

He has extensive experience in systematic reviewing and evidence synthesis, with particular expertise in diagnostic and prognostic evaluations, rapid reviews, individual patient data methods, and mixed treatment comparisons.

He is a member of the NIHR Decarbonising Health and Social Care Committee and has served on the NIHR HTA General Funding Committee (2022–2026) and as an expert evaluator for the Horizon Europe Health Research Programme.

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.

Andrew is a clinical scientist at The Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. He is head of the Northern Medical Physics and Clinical Engineering Department, a Clinical Directorate of the Trust which provides clinical, scientific and technical services in medical physics and clinical engineering to acute NHS trusts in the North-East and North Cumbria.
He is co-director of the NIHR Health Technology Research Centre in Diagnostic and Technology Evaluation, based in Newcastle, and deputy director of the NIHR Health Technology Research Centre Network. He is a member of the NIHR Invention for Innovation Product Development Award Committee A.
Andrew has been a medical physicist in the NHS since 1996 and has research interests in health technology development, healthcare informatics and health technology assessment. He was Director of the Newcastle NICE External Assessment Group from 2011 to 2025.
He has a BSc (University of Newcastle upon Tyne) and PhD (University College London) in Physics, and an MSc in Statistics (University of Sheffield).

Manu Thomas is an advanced clinical practitioner with over 10 years’ experience across health and social care. His background spans community services, primary care, urgent care, social care, clinical governance and quality improvement.
Manu has also worked as a CQC specialist advisor, contributing to reviews of care quality, safety, leadership and regulatory compliance across health and social care services. He has experience in patient safety, incident learning, clinical risk management and the safe use of digital health technologies.
Alongside his clinical work, Manu is the founder of Pentafold Ltd, where he has been involved in developing digital tools that support training, governance, risk management, incident reporting, audits and quality improvement in regulated care settings.
Manu has a particular interest in digital health, patient safety, clinical governance and the responsible use of technology to improve care delivery. He is passionate about ensuring that health technologies are safe, practical for frontline staff, and focused on improving outcomes for patients and people using services.

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.

Alex is an experienced procurement and supply chain leader with a career spanning NHS trusts across London and the South East. He currently serves as Associate Director of Procurement at Ashford and St Peter's NHS Foundation Trust, where he leads a multidisciplinary team managing significant non-pay expenditure across an acute hospital setting.

With extensive experience in NHS commercial management, Alex has driven significant cost improvement programmes, strategic sourcing, and supply chain transformation across a range of clinical and non-clinical categories. His work has delivered tangible savings and efficiencies, including programmes to improve clinical procurement efficiency and product standardisation, as well as pioneering logistics initiatives that meaningfully reduced carbon emissions across the supply chain.

Alex has held senior procurement roles at Chelsea and Westminster NHS Foundation Trust, Epsom and St Helier Hospitals NHS Trust, and St George's University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, building a broad understanding of procurement challenges across complex, multi-site organisations. He brings particular expertise in contract management, supplier relationship management, inventory optimisation, data analytics, and embedding sustainability into procurement practice.

Alex is a Chartered member of both the Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply (MCIPS) and the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CMILT). He brings a strong understanding of NHS governance, value-for-money frameworks, and the operational realities of healthcare supply chains.