MedConnect North group members are based across the region.

Professor Sam Eldabe MB ChB, FRCA, FFPMRCA – MedConnect North Group Lead

I am an NHS consultant based at South Tees NHS Foundation Trust with 18 years’ experience. Throughout my career I have been an active user and researcher into the role of medical devices in improving patient care. My background in anaesthesia has given me a broad exposure to all classes of medical technologies from simple Class I devices to the more complex Class IIB. My work as a chronic pain treatment specialist has afforded me experience in research with various class III active implantable devices.

Professor Amar Rangan ChM, FRCS (Tr&Orth)

I am a clinical academic and NHS consultant with over 15 years’ extensive clinical and research experience in trauma and orthopaedic surgery at South Tees NHS Foundation Trust.

I have broad experience with use of surgical implants and devices for musculoskeletal conditions, including their clinical testing, evaluation and reporting of performance.

Dr Ashraf Azzabi MB, B.Ch, MD

I graduated in 1992 and have worked in oncology and cancer research for many years now. I am a Consultant medical oncologist based in the Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and am actively involved in research. I am also the Clinical Industry Lead for NIHR Clinical Research Network North East and North Cumbria.

You can follow Ashraf on twitter at @ashrafazzabi

Emma Murray

I am the Research Operations Manager for MedConnect North. I have worked in the NHS for 18 years, the last 10 in clinical research. I am passionate about linking medtech companies with Academia and NHS partners across the North East and North Cumbria to improve patient care and experience.

Hyder Latif

Hyder Latif is a Project Manager for MedConnect North and has worked in clinical research for the last nine years, giving him a wealth of experience from NHS, academia and life sciences environments. Hyder studied Business Management at Teesside University and then worked in the cancer research team at South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and then moved into the commercial research sector as a lead study coordinator at a research clinic before moving on to become a Trial Manager at a Clinical Trials Unit. After a year as a Trial Manager he moved to South Tees to become a project Manager for MedConnect North. In his role as Project Manager, Hyder has supported five MedTech studies, including BEST, Nebula and Rescue Study.

Dr Shaun Wellburn

Dr Wellburn is currently employed, in a role co-funded with MedConnect North, as a Health Research Methodologist in the School of Health and Life Sciences at Teesside University. He graduated from the University of Sunderland in 2010 with a BSc (Hons) in Sport and Exercise Sciences. He went on to study for his PhD at Teesside University investing the information needs of adolescent idiopathic scoliosis patients and their families; he was awarded his PhD in 2017.

Dr Wellburn has been employed in a research capacity at Teesside University since 2014 and has worked on a variety of projects across a broad spectrum of disciplines. These include the evaluation of the North East of England Regional Back Pain and Radicular Pain Pathway evaluation and VR4Rehab projects. Dr Wellburn has published several peer reviewed journal articles and conference papers.

Professor Alan Batterham

Alan is an interdisciplinary research scientist with broad interests and expertise in physical activity, exercise and health outcomes, measurement and evaluation issues, and research design and biostatistics. He is a Fellow of the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) and the Royal Statistical Society. Alan is also an Associate Editor of Exercise and Sport Sciences Reviews, a member of the Statistical Advisory Board of BMJ Open and the Editorial Board of Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, and the Statistics Consultant for the three journals of the Physiological Society.