Cat Chatfield

Editor-in-Chief, NIHR Journals Library

Director of Health Services Research UK

Cat is Director of Health Services Research UK, a self-supporting membership organisation which convenes creators and users of health services and social care research and has been involved in editorial work for over 10 years. Previously, she was Head of Education for The BMJ and co-led The BMJ’s work on doctor wellbeing during the pandemic. Before that, she set up the Research Integrity team across BMJ’s portfolio of journals, was quality improvement editor for The BMJ, leading the creation of a series of articles on the science of improvement in collaboration with the Health Foundation, and was interim Editor-in-Chief for the journal BMJ Open Quality. Cat trained as a doctor in Brighton and London, was a Darzi clinical leadership fellow, and practised as a GP before moving to full-time editorial work.

Tessa Crilly

Director, Crystal Blue Consulting Ltd.

Tessa graduated from LSE in 1981 with BSc Econ, worked as a senior manager in the NHS for 10 years, and in 2000 obtained a PhD in economics/health policy at LSE (selected for early digitisation as a History of Thought thesis).  She established Crystal Blue Consulting in 1999, specialising in questions of resource allocation and organisational delivery.  She has a particular interest in health economics and in closing the gap between research and practice.

Eugenia Cronin

Senior Journal Editor - Public Health Research

Consultant in Public Health, Delta Public Health Consulting Limited

Eugenia is a consultant in public health and former director of public health in London. She studied health sciences at Curtin University in Western Australia and went on to do a master’s degree in public health at St Georges Hospital Medical School in London, followed by a PhD in health services research at the Institute of Psychiatry, on the topic of primary care mental health. She is a visiting international fellow to the Australian Primary Health Care Research Institute, adjunct researcher to Curtin University, and Associate with the Health Services Management Centre at the University of Birmingham.

Her current portfolio of work includes producing evidence reviews, service reviews and population needs assessments for NHS and local government organisations, as well as supporting organisational and leadership development in the public health professional community. In addition, Eugenia works with the UK Faculty of Public Health as founding chair of the special interest group on adult social care and public health. Eugenia has worked with NIHR since 2010 when she became senior scientific advisor to the Health Services Research Board.

Peter Davidson

Senior Journal Editor - Efficacy and Mechanism Evaluation & Deputy Editor Health Technology Assessment

Peter was director of the NIHR Dissemination Centre until 2018 and an honorary consultant in public health. Previously he also worked in general practice. He has extensive experience of applied health research through senior roles in NIHR, mostly in the Health Technology Assessment programme. He has a particular interest in clinical trials and systematic reviews, and their application to clinical and public health decision-making.

Tara Lamont

Senior Adviser, School of Healthcare Enterprise and Innovation, University of Southampton

Tara Lamont has worked for over twenty five years in health services research and policy.  She is currently scientific advisor to the NIHR research programme on Health and Social Care Delivery Research at Southampton University.  She also acts as senior adviser to the fellowship programme of THIS Institute at Cambridge University on health improvement research projects.  She led national work for the NIHR on engagement and dissemination of health research, with an interest in reaching wider audiences.  Earlier in her career, she set up new national patient safety functions and led health projects at the Audit Commission.

She tweets as @TaraJLamont

Andrée Le May

Senior Journal Editor - Programme Grants for Applied Research  

Professor Andrée le May qualified as a graduate nurse at Chelsea College, University of London in 1982. After working in the community she was appointed as Specialist Nurse for Research and Development at West Middlesex University Hospital in Isleworth and became interested in how nurses used knowledge in practice. This led to early research on the use of evidence and a move, in 1990, to teaching / research in the Higher Education sector. Since then she has continued to work in this area, researching and publishing on evidence-based practice, the dissemination and implementation of research and the use of communities of practice for improving learning.

She has particular expertise in the care of older people and a specialist interest in the importance of dignity and compassion in nursing care. Her research skills centre on qualitative research methods and designs. In addition to a PhD she also holds a PGCE(A). She is now Professor Emerita of Nursing at the University of Southampton: in retirement she continues to supervise doctoral students, undertake service development in the NHS and works part-time as the Joint Implementation Lead for the NIHR ARC East of England.

Catriona McDaid

Senior Journal Editor - Health Technology Assessment

Reader in Trials, Department of Health Sciences, University of York

Catriona graduated in Psychology from Queen’s University Belfast in 1988, followed by a PhD in Psychology and then an MSc in Science Communication. Prior to joining the University of York in 2002 she worked as a researcher in the voluntary sector and for a non-departmental public body.

She worked for over 10 years at the Centre for Reviews and Dissemination at the University of York as part of the health technology assessment group undertaking systematic reviews across a range of clinical areas. She joined York Trials Unit in 2013 where she leads a programme of work in orthopaedics. She has a specific interest in the evaluation of complex interventions and is involved in the evaluation of interventions across the surgical pathway.

She is also a member of the Research Design Service-Yorkshire & Humber team supporting others making grant applications to NIHR.

William McGuire

Professor of Child Health, University of York

William McGuire graduated in medicine from Glasgow University, then trained and worked as a paediatrician in the UK, The Gambia, and Australia before specialising in neonatal medicine. He was appointed as Chair of Child Health at the University of York in 2008 and works between York Teaching Hospital as a consultant paediatrician and the Centre for Reviews and Dissemination as a clinical researcher. He is a member of the Royal College of Physicians & Surgeons (Glasgow) a co-ordinating editor of Cochrane Neonatal. His research focuses on the use of systematic reviews and randomised controlled trials to assess of the impact of nutritional and infection control strategies on important outcomes for sick or preterm infants and their families.

Emma Pitchforth 

Senior Journal Editor - Global Health Research

Associate Professor of Primary Care,University of Exeter

Emma is a health services researcher who brings social science perspectives and methodologies to the understanding of key issues in healthcare delivery and people’s experience of healthcare. She has nearly 20 years postdoctoral research experience in academic and non-academic research organisations. Her work, increasingly at the level of health policies and systems, focuses on maternal, sexual and reproductive health and antimicrobial resistance. Emma has experience in diverse healthcare settings including Ethiopia, Bangladesh, India, Nigeria, remote and rural Scotland and the UK more broadly. She is the co-Chair of the Exeter Women's Health Research Group and Executive Editor of the online open access journal Sexual and Reproductive Health Matters.  Emma is passionate about bringing together diverse interdisciplinary perspectives to understand key issues in global health research and, in her editing role, to make academic publishing a constructive process and for publishing to reflect greater equity in global research collaborations. 

James Raftery

Professor of Health Technology Assessment, School of Healthcare Enterprise and Innovation, University of Southampton

James is Professor of Health Technology Assessment at the University of Southampton and chair of the NIHR Evaluation Trials and Studies Cooodinating Centre (NETSCC). For 2010 he was Acting NETSCC Director for the NIHR’s SDO, HSR and PHR programmes. He has led several research projects including the impact of the HTA programme, incentives for clinicians to join trials and the development of metadata on the performance, conduct and results of clinical trials.

James has a BA in Economics and Philosophy from Southampton University and an MA in Economics of Education and Science from University College Dublin. He was awarded his PhD from the London School of Economics in 1993.

He is an active health economist heading a small group providing health economics input mainly to clinical trials. Research themes include the costs and benefits of clinical trials, overdiagnosis/overtreatment and the political economy of healthcare. He has written widely on health economic matters particularly relating to NICE, including a NICE blog on the BMJ website.

Rob Riemsma

Reviews Manager, Kleijnen Systematic Reviews Ltd.

Rob completed his MSc in Public Administration in 1988 at the University of Twente in the Netherlands and completed his PhD on Arthritis Patient Education there in 1998. He has worked at the Department of Psychology of the University of Twente in health psychology with a particular emphasis on arthritis patient education programmes. Between 1999 and 2005 he worked at the Centre for Reviews and Dissemination at the University of York, first as a reviewer and later as a Reviews Manager, where he managed technology assessments undertaken on behalf of the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE).

Rob joined Kleijnen Systematic Reviews (KSR) in 2006 as a Reviews Manager. He has worked as a clinical effectiveness reviewer and has undertaken and managed systematic reviews on many topics including: cancer, chronic pain, diabetes, psychological interventions and general health status measures. At KSR Rob coordinates reviews of the clinical and cost effectiveness of health care interventions for the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Health Technology Assessment Programme on behalf of a range of policy makers, including NICE.

His research interests are in the use of systematic reviewing methods within health technology assessments, to support decision making. He has an interest in the issues around the systematic reviewing of educational interventions.

Rob has been a member of the HTA Editorial Board since 2002.

Helen Roberts

Professor of Child Health Research, Child and Adolescent Mental Health, Palliative Care and Paediatrics Unit, Population Policy and Practice Programme, UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, London

Helen Roberts studied sociology and anthropology in Reading, Aix-Marseille and Sussex and spent two years in the Social Statistics Research Unit.  She has been a career academic since graduation, apart from 10 years leading R&D in Barnardo’s and a secondment to a government department to work on a green paper on the family.  A period in the Social Paediatric and Obstetric Research Unit at the University of Glasgow where she worked on inequalities in child and maternal health, taught her the value of co-production with citizens including child citizens.

Her research interests include inequalities in child health and what can be done about them, sustainability and clean air. She has worked on trials and systematic reviews, and mixed methods work. Her most recent books are 'What Works in Reducing Inequalities in Health' and 'Systematic Reviewing in the Social Sciences: a Practical Guide', co-authored with Mark Petticrew.

She is an honorary fellow of the Faculty of Public Health, a former Visiting Fellow at All Souls College, Oxford, a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences and has worked in adult education. She is a trustee of UCL. 

Jonathan Ross

Professor of Sexual Health and HIV, University Hospital Birmingham

Jonathan Ross qualified from Aberdeen University in 1986 and obtained his MD in 1995. He is dually accredited in general medicine and genitourinary medicine and has worked as a consultant physician in Birmingham since 1997.

He is an associate editor of the journal Sexually Transmitted Infections, a member of the editorial board for European Sexually Transmitted Diseases Guidelines and sits on the NIHR HTA Funding Committee for commissioned research. In addition, he is the CRN speciality lead for sexual health, and Treasurer for the British Association for Sexual Health and HIV.

He is lead author for the UK and European Guidelines on Pelvic Inflammatory Disease, and is a member of the Editorial Board of the Cochrane Collaboration Sexually Transmitted Diseases Collaborative Review Group and International Journal of STD and AIDS journal. He remains an active clinician and his research interests are in pelvic infection, gonorrhoea, Mycoplasma genitalium, HIV, and sexual health care service delivery.

Helen Snooks

Senior Journal Editor - Health and Social Care Delivery Research

Professor of Health Services Research, Institute of Life Science 2, College of Medicine, Swansea University

Helen Snooks is currently Professor of Health Services Research in Swansea University’s Medical School. She leads the Patient and Population Health and Informatics theme within the School. Helen is an elected member of the Health Services Research UK Board.

Helen graduated in 1981 from the University of Surrey with BSc (Hons) Economics, Sociology, Statistics, and completed her PhD in Health Services Research, ‘Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in seriously injured accident victims’ at the University of Sheffield in 2000.

Helen led the Trials Unit in Swansea to full registration with the UKCRN and has a strong record of grant capture (> £40 million).

Helen’s main research interests and expertise lie in the fields of Emergency Pre-hospital and Unscheduled Care, Primary Care, and research support. In these areas, the focus of her work is to plan, design and carry out evaluations of health technologies and new models of service delivery, often involving changing roles and working across boundaries between service providers. The research is applied, pragmatic and leads to change and impact in the real world of policy and practice. Helen actively encourages and supports public and patient involvement in her research to enhance relevance, accountability and quality. Helen’s work is strongly patient-focused and collaborative, and uses mixed methods to achieve study aims.