MEMBERS

Natalie Blencowe – 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 Brown is a Principal Statistician at the Leeds Institute of Clinical Trials Research, University of Leeds. 

She has worked on national multi-centre trials evaluating interventions for the prevention of pressure ulcers and for the management of chronic wounds, with expertise in both drug and medical device intervention trials.

Julie Bruce – Dr Julie Bruce is a Principal Research Fellow at the University of Warwick. Julie graduated from the University of Aberdeen with a BSc Health Sciences and an MSc in Health Services & Public Health Research.

She completed a PhD in Public Health in 2004. She was awarded an MRC Training Fellowship to investigate the measurement & monitoring of surgical outcomes (2005-2007).

She worked as epidemiologist on studies investigating the healthcare associated infection in UK/Europe, systematic reviews and cohort studies investigating surgical outcomes and then joined Warwick CTU in 2010 to work on the Prevention of Falls Injury Trial. She is research lead on this multicentre cluster-RCT aiming to prevent falls in older adults (CI: Prof Sallie Lamb)

Tina Chambers – Tina has worked in a variety of clinical areas since qualifying including surgical, medical, intensive care, primary care, elderly care and rehabilitation. She has a BSc (hons) in Specialist Nursing Practice (Tissue Viability) and is currently practicing as an independent Tissue Viability Consultant; prior to this she was a Clinical Nurse Specialist in Tissue Viability in the NHS for 17 years. Tina has 12 years’ experience of community and mental health in addition to the acute issues of Tissue
Viability. Currently Tina practices clinically in a hospice in Hampshire.

She has been a member of the Tissue Viability Society for 26 years and was recently Chair then Vice Chair of the Society.

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.

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 is also the Deputy Co-ordinating Editor of Cochrane Wounds and 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.

Matt Gardiner – 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. Click here to find out more

James Glasbey -Mr James Glasbey is an NIHR Academic Clinical Fellow in General 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.

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.

Steven Jeffery – Steven L.A. Jeffery, BSc, MBChB, FRCS (Ed, Eng, Glasg), EBOPRAS, FRCS (Plast), FHEA, is a military consultant burns and plastic surgeon at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham.

Steve has extensive experience of the management of burns and wounding and  specialises in the assessment and treatment of scarring, traumatic wounds, burns and pressure sores.

He is Professor of Wound Study at Birmingham City University, is Director of the NIHR WoundTec Healthcare Technology Cooperative and is also a Patron to the Charity RAFT.

In 2011 he was awarded the Wounds UK ‘Key Contribution Award’ and the Military Civilian Health Partnership award ‘Regular of the year’.

Rhiannon Macefield – Rhiannon is a Senior Research Associate 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 is currently undertaking a PhD exploring methods for improving the assessment of wounds for surgical site infection and their use in randomised controlled trials.

Jane Nixon – Professor Jane Nixon MBE is Deputy Director of the Leeds Institute Clinical Trials Research, 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 current Trustee and Treasurer of the EPUAP and is a former Chair and Treasurer of the Tissue Viability Society (TVS).

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.

Ray Samuriwo – Dr Ray Samuriwo is a Healthcare Services Researcher based at the School of Healthcare Sciences, the Cardiff Institute for Tissue Engineering (CITER) and Repair and the Welsh Centre for Evidence Based Care (WCEBC) all at Cardiff University. He is also a Visiting Research Fellow at the School of Healthcare, University of Leeds.

Prior to these appointments, he worked as a clinical academic in critical care and conducted original primary wounds research. Ray has an emerging national and international profile as a research academic. His main research interests relate to evidence based health care, healthcare professional education, wound healing, decision making and quality improvement. He has conducted primary and secondary research projects related to each of these areas of interest.

Ray has a number of ongoing research projects with colleagues in the fields of healthcare professional education, wound healing, decision making, midwifery, knowledge translation and quality improvement from the UK and beyond.

Lisette Schoonhoven – Lisette is Professor of Nursing at the Innovative and Essential Care research group, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Southampton. The research of the group spans the development, evaluation and implementation of high quality care interventions and innovative health services. Lisette’s work focusses on quality and safety of fundamental nursing care, in particular pressure ulcers and incontinence associated dermatitis.

Lisette is president of the European Pressure Ulcer Advisory Panel, and was the chair of the 2014 international pressure ulcer guideline development group. She is associate editor of the Journal of Tissue Viability, and Fellow of the European Academy of Nursing Science.

Dr Amber Young – Dr Young has been a consultant paediatric anaesthetist in Bristol since 1999. She is clinical lead at the Bristol Children’s Burn Centre, was paediatric lead for the South West UK Burn Care Network, Chair of the British Burn Association and chair of the Burn Care Clinical Reference Group until 2016.

She has been involved with paediatric burn care for more than 17 years. She is clinical lead for a five year paediatric burns research programme awarded in July 2012. She is also the clinical lead for collaborative research between the University of Bath and the Children’s Burns Research Centre relating to point of care diagnosis of burn wound infection using smart dressings which has attracted a substantial MRC grant. She has recently started a four year NIHR Doctoral Fellowship to achieve a Core Outcome Set for consistent reporting of burn care outcomes in randomised controlled trials