Meet the speakers for our 2024 event “Exploring Digital Innovations within HealthTech”.
Mhairi Anderson – Operations Manager, Diagnostics and Therapeutics North East
Mhairi is the operations manager for Diagnostics and Therapeutics North East and plays a key leadership role in the development and delivery of a joint diagnostics and therapeutic strategy in the North East of England. Mhairi is responsible for driving collaboration across partners and creating an ecosystem to support the easy navigation of diagnostic and therapeutic services.
As a non-executive director at the Human Tissue Authority, with over twenty years’ experience working across the NHS, academia, pharmaceuticals and contract research, Mhairi has a keen interest in accelerating translational research through collaborative working and the development of cross-organisational strategies.
Dr Anna Beattie – Consultant Cardiothoracic Radiologist at The Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Dr Anna Beattie is a consultant Cardiothoracic radiologist, AI and research lead for Newcastle Hospitals. As the Principal Investigator for the National Consortium of Intelligent Medical Imaging (NCIMI), she has been involved with AI research since 2019. Prior to this she had developed experience in integrating a novel technology from research through to widescale clinical deployment in the NHS via the Accelerated Access Collaboration and the Innovation and Technology Payment schemes. In addition she has worked with NICE and the MHRA around the regulation and approvals of innovative medtech solutions and was a member of a experts who were selected by Innovate to highlight the considerations around the interoperability of such solutions. Currently she is collaborating with a team developing recommendations and products for the post market surveillance and quality assurance of AI devices and software.
Carla Brackstone – Senior Partnerships Manager at Kheiron Medical
Carla has a background working across the healthcare and life sciences sector including research funding and strategy consulting. She is currently a Senior Partnerships Manager at Kheiron Medical Technologies, working with NHS Trusts across the UK and partners globally on research and deployment of their breast screening AI tool ‘Mia’, aiming to support efficiencies in breast screening as well as provide the earlier detection of breast cancer.
Harneesh Gill – Project Manager at MedConnect North
Harneesh Gill has a background in biomedical sciences and laboratory work. She previously worked with the Study Support Service before transitioning into the Commercial Team at Yorkshire and Humber Regional Research Delivery Network, where she is focused on strengthening commercial research collaborations in the region. Recently, Harneesh has been appointed as a Project Manager at MedConnect North, expanding into the Yorkshire and Humber region, where she continues to support medical research and innovation.
Naz Iqbal – Project Manager at MedConnect North
Naz is a project manager for MedConnect North. She began her research career at Durham University as a Research Associate working on a number of public health research projects including cancer, cardiovascular disease and obesity, and health inequalities. In 2018, she pursued a career change in clinical research at South Tees Hospitals as a clinical trials co-ordinator. Prior to joining MedConnect North, she also worked at the NIHR Clinical Research Network North East and North Cumbria as a research operations co-ordinator, which involved working with partner organisations in the set-up of clinical trials.
She is extremely passionate about research, particularly in evidence-based practice and its impact on patient and public care outcomes.
Steve Lee – Director of Diagnostics and Digital Regulation at ABHI
Steve joined ABHI as Director of Diagnostics Regulation in 2020.
After completing his degree in Biochemistry and Biology at Aston University, Steve trained as a Biomedical Scientist, working in hospital microbiology before moving to industry to work as company microbiologist. Steve joined MHRA in 1996 when it was still the Medical Devices Agency and when the IVD Directive had yet to be implemented.
While at MHRA, Steve worked with manufacturers, Notified Bodies, other Competent Authorities, Trade Associations, standards bodies and government departments. Steve was Chair of the European Commission’s IVD working group when the IVD regulations where being developed.
In 2019, Steve was presented with the TOPRA award for regulatory excellence.
Dr Ehsan Kharati Koopaei – Associate Professor of Statistics/Data Science at Manchester Metropolitan University
Ehsan’s main research interests are robust standard errors in generalised linear models and generalised mixed-effect models, and more broadly, statistical inference problems. He is interested in statistical inferences by p-values to modify them to be more rational and less misleading. He has extensive experience in designing statistical analyses for studies in public health and social care, including clinical trials, and co-designing research studies to develop health interventions. He sits on National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Research Design Service (RDS) panels to provide specialist advice for academics and clinicians. He now leads a Quantitative Reseach Centre at Manchester Metropolitan University to support MedConnect North and NIHR Clinical Research Network research studies for SMEs and the MedTech industry.
Dr Tom Micklewright – Clinical Director at ORCHA Health
Dr Tom Micklewright is a UK-based GP and a renowned expert in digital transformation and patient empowerment. Dr Micklewright works as clinical lead for digital transformation within Cheshire and Merseyside Integrated Care Board (ICB) and as medical director at ORCHA, the world’s leading digital health quality management platform. Previously, Dr Micklewright has held senior positions within the British Medical Association and has led national projects to expand telehealth services across the private and public sector. His passion is patient empowerment and Dr Micklewright speaks internationally on the role of mhealth, particularly health apps, in supporting patients to self-manage and become equal partners in their health and care.
Craig Mower – Project Manager at MedConnect North
Craig Mower is one of the project managers for MedConnect North. He has worked in diagnostic pathology for 13 years and has six years of clinical research experience, working alongside medical technology companies, device manufacturers, clinicians, and research and development departments in NHS trusts. He read English at Teesside University, followed by a PGCert and an FdSc in Health and Social Care Practice. In his current role he supports medical device studies, including the BEST study and many early stage projects involving artificial intelligence and digital health.
Rachel Morris – Associate Director at Health Innovation North East and North Cumbria
Rachel is an Associate Director at Health Innovation North East and North Cumbria (HI NENC). Rachel’s current portfolio of work focuses on the NENC Sub National Secure Data Environment (NENC SNSDE), specifically the commercial workstream & strategy.
Rachel’s background is in Mathematics & Statistics, including a Masters in Clinical Research.
Professor John Murray – Academic Dean of the Faculty of Business and Technology at the University of Sunderland
Professor Murray is Academic Dean of the Faculty of Business and Technology at the University of Sunderland. He has spent much of his academic research career in the area of Human-Robot Interaction, and Ethics and Trust around Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning systems and has worked on many research projects from FP7 to H2020 and with businesses and organisations including DASA, QinetiQ, UK Home Office, and many more. He is specifically interested in the acceptance of technology, robotics and more specifically AI and Generative AI into society and educational environments. Looking at the social challenges of this, exploring how we design AI systems to be socially acceptable and beneficial to how we operate in educational settings. This includes looking at work around human factors, cognitive biases, personality and ethics.
Professor Amar Rangan – MedConnect North Lead
Professor Rangan is a clinical academic, holding the Royal College of Surgeons Chair at the University of York, and an NHS consultant with extensive clinical and research experience of over 20 years in trauma and orthopaedic surgery. Professor Rangan has broad experience with the use of surgical implants and devices for musculoskeletal conditions, including their clinical testing, evaluation and reporting of performance.
As chief investigator for UK-wide multi-centre and multi-national clinical trials in trauma and orthopaedic surgery, Professor Rangan has extensive experience in the design, conduct, analysis and reporting of such trials. He holds multiple grants with the UK National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), and leads an established network of research active hospitals and principal investigators across the UK. Professor Rangan is President Elect of the British Orthopaedic Association. He is the MedConnect North lead and a member of the NIHR i4i Product Development Awards Committee.
Oliver Sowerby – Head of Surgical Technologies at Team Consulting
Oliver is Head of Surgical Technologies at Team Consulting, Europe’s largest medical device development consultancy.
As an engineer, he has led the development of reusable and single use surgical instruments, digital otoscopes, chemical reactors and automated machinery. In his current role, he is responsible for developing commercial and clinical relationships, and working with clients to find ways to add value to their developments and ensure they get the best solutions for their needs.
He is passionate about developing new medical technology and ensuring the voice of the clinician is heard throughout projects to ensure new devices augment end users’ existing capabilities and help to improve global healthcare. Oliver has a first-class degree in product design and is a chartered engineer. He is chair of the board of trustees at Team.
Edwin Tucker – Senior Programme Manager at the National Institute for Health and Care Research Coordinating Centre
The National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Invention for Innovation (i4i) Programme invests in disruptive early-stage medtech, diagnostic and digital technologies to accelerate the translation of innovation into the NHS and the wider market for increased patient benefit. It supports collaborative projects that involve SMEs, universities and the NHS, with strong management teams and a clear commercial pathway towards adoption. The aim is to de-risk technologies to make them attractive to follow-on funders and private investors.
Dr Michael Watts – Co-Founder and CEO, Blüm Health Ltd
Michael is the Young Health Tech Leader of the Year 2024, an NHS doctor, NHS Innovation Accelerator Fellow and MBA graduate by background. Over the last few years he has been the co-founder and managing director of Blüm Health Ltd, an industry-disrupting digital health organisation that collaboratively works with NHS trusts, universities and SMEs to design, build, and scale digital health software solutions, in the hope to empower public and private sector organisations to boost their digital maturity and unlock their innovative potential. Michael has extensive experience in supporting NHS organisations to design, build and procure digital health ecosystems and understands the importance of digital inclusivity from a patient, workforce and organisational perspective.
Jennifer Wood – Programme Manager, NortHFutures
Jennifer is the programme manager for NortHFutures, an EPSRC-funded hub dedicated to enhancing health and wellbeing across the North East and North Cumbria region of the UK. With a focus on responsible research and innovation in healthcare technologies, Jennifer leads hub initiatives that connect stakeholders, facilitate digital skills sharing, and champions human-centred design. She is passionate about addressing health inequalities and promoting digital inclusion in the region, and widening participation in healthtech research. She has held numerous roles in supporting research across Newcastle University since 2014, including the School for Public Health Research and managing the Centre for Doctoral Training in Cloud Computing for Big Data Analytics.