SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE
The Scientific Committee agrees the Terms of Reference, provides a strategic direction and oversees the key functions of WReN, as well as being responsible for organising the scientific programme of the WReN Scientific Meeting.
Below are the members of the WReN Scientific Committee
Jane Nixon
Professor Jane Nixon MBE is Director of the Institute for Health Sciences, University of Leeds. The unit conducts large national and international clinical trials in cancer, stroke, cardiology, mental health and skin. Jane has developed a research career in the fields of pressure ulcer prevention and Tissue Viability.
She has worked on an international level for the past decade, including collaborative systematic reviews and publications, guideline development and pressure ulcer prevention research projects. In 2008 she led the successful collaborative £2 million, five year NIHR Programme Grant application entitled Pressure Ulcer PRogramme of ReSEarch (PURPOSE) and leads the NIHR HTA PRESSURE 2 mattress trial.
Jane has also worked on the EPUAP/NPUAP Risk Assessment and Skin Assessment prevention guidelines, is a former Trustee and Treasurer of the EPUAP and is a former Chair and currently Trustee of the Tissue Viability Society (TVS).
Julie Bruce
Professor Julie Bruce is based at the Warwick Clinical Trials Unit at the University of Warwick. Julie completed her PhD at the University of Aberdeen in 2004 and was awarded an MRC Training Fellowship to investigate the measurement and monitoring of surgical outcomes (2005-2007).
Her interests include surgical wound healing, chronic pain and preoperative risk prediction. She is CI on the UK PROSPER trial investigating early exercise after breast cancer surgery. She also collaborates on other clinical trials and NIHR-funded studies investigating rehabilitation (cancer, bariatric & knee surgery; complex intervention trials in older adults).
Ian Chetter
Prof Ian Chetter is Chair of Surgery, at Hull/York Medical School. He is currently Royal College of Surgeons National Surgical Specialty Lead for Vascular Surgical Research and sits on the NIHR RfPB regional advisory panel (Yorkshire and the North East).
He is committed to promoting research in routine clinical practice and is Associate Clinical Director (Research) at Hull and East Yorkshire NHS Trust.
As HEE Yorkshire and Humber (East) Academic Lead for Surgical training, he is also committed to supporting and promoting the development young surgical researchers.
Natalie Blencowe
Dr Natalie Blencowe is an NIHR Clinical Lecturer in General Surgery at the University of Bristol. Her research interests lie in trials methodology (with a particular focus on surgery), upper GI and emergency surgery, and surgical training. Natalie is currently involved in national collaborative networks and co-leads SPARCS (Severn and Peninsula Audit and Research Collaborative for Surgeons).
She is the current academic representative for the Association of Surgeons in Training, a society run for surgical trainees by surgical trainees to promote excellence in surgical training. She is co-lead for training in the Bristol NIHR Biomedical Research Centre, a member of the Association of Upper GI Surgeons Trainee Council, and a member of the Cochrane UK Trainees’ Advisory Committee
Sarah Brown
Sarah joined the Leeds Institute of Clinical Trials Research (LICTR) as a Principal Statistician in 2010 after obtaining her MSc in Statistics with Applications in Medicine from the University of Southampton, she worked in the medical devices industry for several years before.
Based in the Surgical Interventions, Diagnostics and Devices (SIDD) Division within LICTR, she works as a lead statistician in the musculoskeletal and skin disease portfolios. She is also the lead for an MSc module on “Introduction to Clinical Trials” and the statistical lead for the Research Design Service (RDS) at Leeds.
She has worked on national multi-centre trials evaluating interventions for the prevention of pressure ulcers and for the management of chronic wounds and has expertise in both drug and medical device intervention trials.
Dr Jo Dumville
Jo leads the Wounds Research Group at the University of Manchester which, through its collaborative research, aims to enhance understanding of how we can maximise patient outcomes in wound care.
Jo has worked on a wide range of wound-related projects exploring how common wounds and their complications are and how we can offer the most clinically and cost effective wounds care prevention and treatment options to patients.
Jo is also the Deputy Co-ordinating Editor of Cochrane Wounds.
Matt Gardiner
Mr Matt Gardiner is an academic plastic surgery trainee based in London and Oxford.
Matt co-founded the Reconstructive Surgery Trials Network and is Associate Surgical Specialty Lead for plastic surgery as part of the RCS Clinical Trials initiative.
He is involved in various surgical trials related to plastic surgery and hand surgery.
James Glasbey
Mr James Glasbey is an NIHR Doctoral Research Fellow in Global Surgery at the University of Birmingham.
His research interests lie in colorectal surgery, complex trials methodology and surgical training. James is currently involved in national and international collaborative networks.
He is the current Publicity Officer to the Executive Committee of the Association of Surgeons in Training, a society run for surgical trainees by surgical trainees to promote excellence in surgical training.
Clare Greenwood
Clare has worked as a Clinical Nurse Specialist in tissue viability at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust for the last 10 years. Prior to that she worked as a specialist in Negative Pressure Wound Therapy and as a Staff Nurse in colorectal surgery.
She has an MSc in Nursing and a PGCert in Tissue Viability and is currently completing her PhD at the University of Leeds. Her research is looking in to how both Tissue Viability Nurses and nursing staff use devices in clinical practice for the prevention of heel pressure ulcers.
The results of this research will not only inform practice but could also influence future clinical trial design.
Clare is passionate about promoting nurse-led research, as well as pressure ulcer prevention and the management of complex surgical wounds.
Francine Heatley
Francine Heatley is a Trial Manager at the UKCRC registered Imperial Clinical Trials Unit (ICTU) in the School of Public Health within the Faculty of Medicine at Imperial College.
Francine is a Biology graduate from the University of Nottingham and has over 10 years experience of conducting clinical research in therapeutic areas such as vascular surgery, cardiovascular and oncology . She spend 3 years working for an academic research organisation in Canada and is familiar in both Health Canada and FDA clinical trial regulations.
At ICTU she manages the EVRA (Early Venous RefluxAblation) ulcer trial: A randomised clinical trial to compare early versus delayed endovenous treatment of superficial venous reflux in patients with chronic venous ulceration.
Rhiannon Macefield
Rhiannon is a Research Fellow and trials methodologist at the Bristol Medical School, University of Bristol. Her research interests are in the measurement and reporting of outcomes, and improving methods for doing this, with a particular focus on trials in surgery.
Rhiannon has led the development of a new outcome measure for assessing wounds for surgical site infection after hospital discharge. She has recently undertaken a PhD exploring methods for improving the assessment of wounds for surgical site infection and their use in randomised controlled trials.
Tom Pinkney
Mr Thomas Pinkney is a founder member of the West Midlands Research Collaborative and the Chief Investigator for the ROSSINI trial (the first ever trainee led multicentre observer blinded randomised controlled trial).
Chair of the Cohort Studies Committee of ESCP, CI of ACCURE UK trial and Lead of the ROCSS international multicentre RCT of biological mesh reinforcement of stoma closure site to prevent incisional hernia.
Tom’s areas of specialism include inflammatory bowel disease, laparoscopic surgery, enhanced recovery, stoma care, trainees and research. His academic time is mainly dedicated to clinical surgical trials.
