Staff Profiles
To find out more about a selection of the NCCHTA members of staff please view their profiles below:
Andrew Cook, Consultant Advisor
Prior to joining NCCHTA in 2005, Andrew spent five years working in Public Health in the West Midlands, advising on commissioning services. Prior to that he spent six years working as a hospital doctor.
As a Consultant Advisor, Andrew is key to the workings of the HTA programme. He makes full use of his diverse medical experience, providing clinical and scientific expertise to make sure the science is right and the programme answers questions that clinicians care about. His purpose in this role is to generate knowledge to help improve the nation’s health.
Andrew often gets out of the office to visit some of the trials that are a part of the HTA programme. As well as ensuring that the trial is being conducted as agreed, Andrew helps overcome issues by drawing on the wealth of experience provided by the HTA programme. He also assists a panel of experts in identifying the topics of most importance, communicating with the panel Chair regularly. And of course, Andrew is always happy to use his knowledge to help give his colleagues advice.
Andrew enjoys the variety his role allows; he also chairs the IT Development Group. He appreciates being able to contribute to global knowledge, which benefits not only the NHS, but beyond. Being able to have a positive impact on healthcare, while working in an academic environment, is the best part of his role.
Sheila Turner, Research Fellow
Sheila joined the NCCHTA in 2005, after the HTA funded trial she was working on at the University of Southampton was completed. Sheila was attracted to the University of Southampton for its excellent academic reputation. In fact, it was her return to science after a career break, having previously worked in the field of pure science with a BSc and PhD in microbiology.
As a Panel Researcher, Sheila supports a panel of experts to prioritise research with importance to the NHS. Topic suggestions are gathered from various sources, such as from Cochrane reviews, HTA reports and the NCCHTA website, where people and organisations can put forward ideas.
Through various stages of decision making, the Panel draws on the briefing documents provided by Sheila to decide on the most important topics to be researched, whether through evidence synthesis or clinical trials. Much of Sheila’s research is carried out in the office, but she also works with a Clinical Advisor and the Programme Director, monitoring clinical trials in a healthcare setting.
In addition to liaising with colleagues, Sheila has contact with a variety of leading experts, depending on the topic she is researching. This could be anyone from key opinion leaders, surgeons, researchers and clinical experts to policy decision-makers and lay-advisors.
She enjoys being able to always find out about new things and the application of cutting-edge technologies, but is ever conscious of the schedule.
Jane Robertson, Senior Programme Manager, Strategy and Development Directorate
Jane has been with NCCHTA since it began in 1996. Starting off as a Programme Manager, her research background and PhD in chemistry provide useful skills, enabling her to easily work with academics and researchers as customers.
Jane works on a variety of projects at any one time within the Strategy and Development Directorate. With a variety of projects on the go, she must be well organised and employ all her project management skills. Each day Jane touches base with colleagues working on different projects and contributes where required. Once a piece of work is finished, Jane passes it over to her colleagues in the Planning and Resources Directorate, who then implement it.
Overseeing the Strategy and Development project portfolio involves making sure that the right things happen at the right time. As well as prioritising and scheduling the projects from start to finish, Jane has line management responsibilities too, acting as an interface between Programme Managers and NCCHTA Directors.
Prudent resource allocation and assisting with challenges helps ensure projects do not slip. Liaising across the directorates, as well as externally with the Programme Director and Department of Health, means there are no nasty surprises around the corner.
Some of the biggest challenges Jane faces are managing the expectations of external customers and adjusting to changing requirements of the organisation. That said, the variety and supportive nature of the working environment have meant Jane feels ready to take on the challenges ahead.
Jane is looking forward to the expansion of the organisation, and welcomes the fact that the programme is taking responsibility for areas of work which it has not traditionally been involved with.
Jon Cole, Senior Programme Manager (Communications), NHS Support
Jon joined NCCHTA in 2005, having spent six years as the Web Editor in the University’s External Relations department. This follows experience with a healthcare publishing house and studying for his postgraduate diploma in magazine journalism.
Jon’s role is to oversee the various aspects of the communications work to ensure that the NCCHTA is taking a common approach in terms of what they communicate to the NHS, the research community and the public through their website, publications, media liaison, and at events and conferences.
Leading his team, Jon works to raise the profile of the HTA programme and to present it as an increasingly important and influential part of health research that is relevant to patients and the NHS. He achieves this through regular press releases, publications, such as newsletters, email newsletters, attending exhibitions and conferences, responding to Parliamentary Questions, using the website to push research findings and funding opportunities. Without this profile, awareness of the Programme would not be as strong amongst the NHS or research community. This would have an impact on the number of applications, research topic suggestions and the ability to demonstrate the relevance of HTA research.
Jon’s team interacts with NHS clinicians and managers, university researchers, patients’ groups, the NIHR and across the NCCHTA directorates, to promote the work of the HTA programme, the relevance of its research, funding opportunities available, and the need for more research questions where there is a gap in the current evidence base.
Jon enjoys the variety of his work, and that it covers a number of interesting areas. He feels that health research is an important and worthwhile area to work in and to promote. Continuing to showcase the work of the HTA programme in the context of expansion and bigger budgets and an era of major changes in health research, is Jon’s biggest challenge ahead.
Phillip Simons, Programme Manager, NHS Support Directorate
With significant experience as a health service manager before focusing on computer training and producing learning materials for the NHS, Phillip has been with the NCCHTA for 10 years.
His role within the communications team allows Phillip to help people find the information they need, whether it is about the Health Technology Assessment (HTA) programme itself or publications which stem from it. He deals with a variety of people from the UK and across the globe.
As the HTA programme gathers speed, and information requirements continue to change, Phillip updates project details on a weekly basis, ensuring the website shows the correct information. So, he is responsible for checking consistency across documents and ensuring quality is always maintained.
Phillip is particularly proud that NCCHTA can now offer email alerts, so people can stay informed about specific topics. This sits next to a monthly electronic bulletin and the RSS feed, on the list of achievements. He is also pleased to have worked on the new design of the HTA CD, which offers a full text version of all products and is available to a world-wide audience.
Future challenges for Phillip include working on new methods for the dissemination of information, and making the most of opportunities arising from the expansion of the HTA programme. These are on top of the everyday need to find out exactly what information customers need, and being able to drop everything to give detailed answers to Parliamentary Questions.
However, one of the things he enjoys most is working in an environment with people from diverse backgrounds.
Caroline Ciupek, Assistant Programme Manager, Science Support Directorate
Caroline worked in business affairs, within the television production industry for seven years, before she took the opportunity to join the NCCHTA at the beginning of 2004.
As an Assistant Programme Manager in the Science Support Directorate, Caroline is integral to the process of research being published. Liaising between researchers, peer reviewers, the editorial board and publishers, she needs to be motivated and well organised to make sure that deadlines are reached.
Using spreadsheets and the Management Information System, Caroline can see which pieces of work are due when, and from whom. Always keen to meet the deadline, she ensures that everyone involved is aware of the timetable.
Caroline’s work focuses on processing Technology Assessment Reports, which stem from NICE (National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence) research priorities.
Caroline feels that the flexibility provided by working at the University of Southampton allows her to balance her work and home life. She feels that she is still able to make a worthwhile contribution in a fulfilling role, even though she works three days per week.
In a supportive working environment, Caroline is looking forward to the challenges ahead, including learning new areas of work as a Programme Manager.
Leeanne Brooks, Clerical Assistant, Planning and Resources & Strategy and Development Directorates
Providing clerical support for two directorates means that no day is the same for Leeanne. Whether she is working with colleagues in Planning and Resources or Strategy and Development or external contacts, Leeanne is always busy and always ready for new challenges.
Leeanne liaises with venues and communicates with the panel Chairs, often through Personal Assistants, to make sure that expert panel meetings are arranged smoothly. Organising the cycle of meetings for five different panels, as well as teleconferences, keeps her on her toes; coordinating diaries is always a challenging part of her role, but a worthwhile one.
Supporting the EUnetHTA (European Network for Health Technology Assessment) project work includes maintaining contact details and making changes to the website, something Leeanne is proud of since her IT confidence has grown enormously in the three years she has been working for the NCCHTA.
With short projects to fill her time, Leeanne finds the NCCHTA an interesting place to work. A background in beauty and fitness means the variety of challenges, complemented with the flexibility of working for the University of Southampton, suit both her personality and lifestyle.
