Blog authors
Here is a list of authors who have posted blogs on this website, select an author to view their blog posts.
Please note that the opinions expressed in these blogs are the authors’ own views, and not necessarily those of NHS England.
Dr Layan Allawi
Dr Layan Allawi is a Sickle Cell and Thalassaemia Clinical Fellow in NHS England’s National Healthcare Inequalities Improvement Programme, focusing on developing national educational resources for patients, carers, healthcare professionals and the wider public.
She is a Haematology Registrar at the East of England Deanery and completed a PGCert in Clinical Leadership and Management (Darzi Fellowship) in Sickle Cell Disease at London North West Hospitals NHS Trust in 2023.
Dr Lisa Anderson
Dr Anderson is a Consultant Cardiologist at St George’s Hospital, London, Chair of the British Society for Heart Failure and Chair of NHS England Heart Failure Expert Advisory Group.
She has led the project to open the UK’s first Acute Heart Failure Unit and wrote the proposal for the National Confidential Enquiry into Patient Outcome and Death (NCEPOD) into deaths in acute heart failure (2018).
Dr Anderson has acted as clinical expert for National Institute for Health and Care Excellence Technology Appraisals (TA10946, TA10942, TA388) and the British Medical Association Expert Review Group for TA267. She has research interests in variant isoleucine 122 (V122I) in transthyretin (TTR) cardiac amyloidosis, cardiorenal heart failure and acute heart failure.
Dr Rossby Awadzi
Dr Rossby Awadzi is a GP trainee and Sickle Cell Clinical Fellow at NHS England, with a special interest in red cell medicine. He developed the ‘Sickle Cell Education Series’, an educational platform which hosts some of the largest educational workshops on sickle cell in the world.
Ameet Bakhai
Ameet Bakhai MBBS, MD, FRCP is a Consultant Cardiologist and Clinical Research and Development Director in the NHS in North London, a Harvard Scholar, and a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians.
He has enabled innovation of drugs, devices and diagnostics in multiple cardiac areas of heart failure, atrial fibrillation, acute coronary syndromes and risk factor reduction for cardiovascular events.
Even as a front-line clinician, he has published over 150 papers and received a national award for a decade of work in clinical cardiovascular research from the Royal College of Physicians and is a recognised for clinical trials and research, technology innovation and medical education.
Ben Bamber
Over the last 2 years Ben has been working as a peer navigator with George House Trust in partnership with NHS Manchester Foundation Trust.
It is a very exciting time as the Peer Navigation Project is expanding and actively recruiting peer navigators, in Greater Manchester and Liverpool city region, to support newly diagnosed patients who have been tested via the Blood Borne Virus Opt-Out Testing in Emergency Departments Programme.
Alongside working in this role, Ben is a qualified integrative counsellor, specialising in working with the LGBTQIA+ community related issues trauma, and offers clients walk and talk therapy in his private practice.
Dan Berry
Dan Berry is Head of Behavioural Science at NHS England. Behavioural science is the study of human behaviour: why people behave and make decisions as they do, and how to influence those.
Dan has worked in healthcare behavioural science since 2012, when he set up the first behaviour change team at the Department of Health and Social Care.
Prior to joining NHS England during Covid, Dan worked for 5 years as director of a global communications agency.
Dr Neil Churchill
Neil is Director for People and Communities at NHS England, having joined the NHS after a 25-year career in the voluntary sector. His work includes understanding people’s experiences of the NHS, involving people and communities in decision-making and leading change to improve the quality and equality of care. He has a particular focus on strengthening partnerships with unpaid carers, volunteers and the voluntary sector.
Neil has previously been a non-executive director for the NHS in the South of England, is a member of the Strategy Board for the Beryl Institute and Chair of Care for the Carers in East Sussex. He is himself an unpaid carer. Neil tweets as @neilgchurchill
Fiona Daly
As the National Deputy Director of Estates for NHS England, Fiona is tasked with leading the strategies, policies and national programmes to decarbonise of the NHS Estate, improve operational resilience and patient experience, and develop the 100,000 strong Estates and Facilities Workforce; driving innovation, engagement and delivery, and providing healthcare organisations with critical support they need to implement their plans.
Fiona has 17 years’ experience of working in Estates and Facilities Management and is passionate about reducing health and social inequalities, establishing an estate that supports the transition to sustainable models of care throughout the NHS. She is focused on driving the delivery of a healthy, resilient healthcare estate; tackling organisational leadership, investment in the built environment and developing the skills and capacity of the current and future NHS workforce. In 2018 she was made an honorary professor at University College London (UCL) for her contribution in supporting the development of students in her field.
Simon Davis
Simon is a lead user researcher who leads user research strategy for the NHS App.
He works with stakeholders and manages projects, including discovering user needs before a product is created and testing existing products or prototypes through usability testing.
Matthew Day FFPH
Matt is Director of Clinical Commissioning in the national specialised commissioning team at NHS England and is the senior responsible officer for the heart and lung transplant transformation programme in NHS England.
A public health consultant by background, his academic and professional interests are public health leadership, cancer epidemiology, and major service reconfiguration. He has published in journals including the Lancet and BMJ.
Dr Vin Diwakar
Vin Diwakar was National Director of Transformation (interim) in the National Transformation Directorate and led the secondary care portfolio in the National Improvement Directorate.
He provided clinical leadership to improvement and transformation programmes, including those that used improvement science, technology, digital, and data. He led teams that supported improvement and transformation across a number of clinical areas, including diagnostics, urgent, emergency, acute, and planned care, and was responsible for improving clinical effectiveness.
In his previous role, he provided clinical leadership to London’s health and care system and was a key member of the multiprofessional regional team that led the capital through the COVID-19 pandemic.
Vin left the organisation on 17 November 2025.
Jacqui Dyer
Dr Jacqui Dyer MBE is NHS England’s Mental Health Equalities Adviser and Chair of the Advancing Mental Health Equalities Taskforce
Jacqui has worked with a wide range of vulnerable care groups and has a strong passion in grass roots community empowerment. As an experienced counsellor, trainer, personal and professional development coach and group facilitator, Jacqui brings many dimensions to her insights.
As a mental service user and carer for the past few decades Jacqui’s experiential knowledge of mental health services is extensive and her commitment to this agenda is personal, political and professional. Currently she is a senior management board lived experience advisor for the ‘Time To Change’ anti-stigma and discrimination campaign. Additionally Jacqui was an appointed member of the Ministerial Advisory Group for Mental Health chaired by the Minister for Care and Support, which oversaw the implementation of the national mental health strategy and a member of the Ministerial Advisory Group for Mental Health.
Jacqui was vice chair of England’s Mental Health Taskforce, which collaboratively developed the 5 Year Forward View for Mental Health. Jacqui co-chairs the Mayoral ‘Thrive London’ programme.
Jacqui is also an elected Lambeth Labour Councillor where she is cabinet member for health and adult social care and is the chair of Lambeth’s Black Thrive; a partnership for improving black mental health and wellbeing.
Jacqui is also an advisory panel member of the Mental Health Act Review and co-chair of its African and Caribbean Working Group (MHARAC).
Aidan Fowler
Aidan Fowler is the National Director of Patient Safety in England and a Deputy Chief Medical Officer at the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC). He was previously the Director of NHS Quality Improvement and Patient Safety and Director of the 1000 Lives Improvement Service for NHS Wales. He had responsibility for QI/PS across the Welsh NHS and was a board member of Public Health Wales.
Aidan was a Consultant Colorectal Surgeon in Gloucestershire for ten years and Chief of Service for Surgery for four before entering the NHS Leadership Academy Fast Track Executive Training Programme during which he worked as an executive at University Hospitals Bristol and subsequently worked briefly as a Medical Director in Mental Health and Community care in Worcestershire. Aidan trained as an Improvement Adviser(IA) with the IHI in Boston and was IA to the South West Safer Patient Programme and has worked on Patient Safety with WEAHSN. He has also worked as faculty with the IHI in the peri-operative safety domain in Qatar, infection reduction in Portugal and teaching improvement and safety in the UK and internationally. Aidan’s surgical training was in the South West, but he graduated in medicine from University College London.
Mark Gillyon-Powell
Mark Gillyon-Powell leads England’s elimination of viral hepatitis in response to the World Health Organisation goal to eliminate blood borne viruses as a public health issue, and provides strategic leadership addressing health inequalities across specialised services.
Mark’s professional background is in provision, commissioning, and national policy in relation to drug and alcohol treatment services, and latterly in public health – especially in relation to secure and detained settings.
Chris Gormley
Chris Gormley is the Chief Sustainability Officer of the NHS, responsible for its commitment to deliver a world-class net zero emission health service.
Previously, as Director of Policy, he was responsible for developing and delivering the Health and Care Act 2022 and negotiating the NHS’s annual mandate with government.
Prior to joining the NHS, Chris spent 12 years working in government on climate and energy policy, including development of renewables incentives, removing barriers to deployment, implementing emissions trading legislation and oversight of carbon budgets under the UK Climate Change Act.
Lauren Hughes
Lauren is NHS England’s Director of Strategy, Transformation and Quality in the National Specialised Commissioning Directorate. Lauren is also the 10 Year Plan Programme Director.
Professor Peter Johnson
Peter Johnson is Professor of Medical Oncology at the University of Southampton, National Clinical Director for Cancer at NHS England and Chair of the UK Office for Life Sciences cancer goal. His work at NHS England covers the range of policy aimed at improving cancer survival, particularly the earlier and faster diagnosis of cancer, as well as its treatment.
He was previously Chief Clinician for Cancer Research UK from 2008 to 2017. His research interests are in applied immunology and immunotherapy; lymphoma biology and precision medicine, early cancer detection biomarkers and clinical trials.
Dr Rani Khatib
Dr Rani Khatib FRPharmS, FESC is National Specialty Advisor for Cardiovascular Disease Prevention at NHS England; Senior Consultant Pharmacist in Cardiology and Cardiovascular research at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust; and an Associate Professor at the Leeds Institute of Cardiometabolic Medicine (LICAMM), University of Leeds.
He is also a National Clinical Champion for Lipids Management and member of the Heart Failure Expert group at NHS England, and lead author of the national lipid management and statin intolerance pathways.
Dr Khatib served as a specialist committee member on the NICE Heart Failure Guidelines and Quality Standards and is a Fellow of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC), and the Royal Pharmaceutical Society.
Rani leads on the delivery of several innovative cardiorenal metabolic risks and medicines optimisation clinics and services across West Yorkshire. He heads the Cardiology Innovative Medicines Optimisation Service and is the senior CVD consultant at Health Innovation Yorkshire & Humber; co-chairs the UK Clinical Pharmacy Association Cardiovascular Group; and is a core member of the international Cardiology Allied Professionals Task Force at ESC.
Dr Khatib is a well-published, senior academic grants holder, with multiple recognitions and awards for innovation and excellence in patient care.
Zuzanna Lito
Zuzanna is a user researcher leading on the NHS National Proxy Service programme.
She is passionate about designing services that are accessible and inclusive, with the hope that one day, no one will face barriers to accessing healthcare.
Jake Marshall
Jake leads stakeholder engagement and business development activity for NHS England’s Data for Research and Development Programme, collaborating with customers and partners to ensure the NHS Research Secure Data Environment Network continues to develop in line with their needs and priorities.
Prior to this role, Jake led on portfolio-level strategy for NHS England’s Transformation Directorate, developing and influencing strategic plans for digital, data and technology across the NHS. He also has experience of working on digital value propositions internationally for healthcare and life sciences sector organisations during his time in management consultancy.
Pritti Mehta
Pritti Mehta is Head of Personalised Care for the North region, working with Integrated Care Systems and Sustainability and Transformation Partnerships to support the delivery of personalised care, empowering people and communities to take greater responsibility and control of their own health and wellbeing.
Pritti is passionate about systems leadership, self-care, diversity and inclusion. She believes in walking the walk!
Pritti joined NHS England in 2013 and has worked across strategy and delivery. She supported the development of the Five Year Froward View and led the commissioning of the Realising the Value programme, setting the national agenda and context for self-care. More recently, she led the Empowering People and Communities Workstream of the New Care Models programme, where her team worked intensively with 15 new care models to support the implementation and spread of self-care.
Pritti’s also a recent graduate of the Nye Bevan leadership programme for aspiring directors and is part of the NHS England’s Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic Group talent management programme.
Pritti has 12 years’ experience in the voluntary sector, across RNIB, Action on Hearing Loss and Genetic Alliance UK, where she led and supported the development and delivery of national strategies to improve health and care services and support for a range of groups.
Pritti is a scientist by background, holding a Ph.D. and post-doctoral training in Developmental and Molecular Genetics.
Follow Pritti @pritti_mehta
Professor Chris Morley
Professor Chris Morley, Chief Nurse, Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Chair of the Enhanced Therapeutic Observations and Care Steering Group.
Professor Bola Owolabi
Prior to 5 July 2025, Professor Bola Owolabi (MRCGP, MFPH Hon, FRSPH) was Director of the National Healthcare Inequalities Improvement Programme at NHS England. She continues to work as a General Practitioner in the Midlands.
Bola has particular interest in reducing healthcare inequalities through integrated care models, service transformation, and using data insights for quality improvement. She spearheaded NHS England’s Core20PLUS5 approach to narrowing healthcare inequalities.
Internationally, Bola was a member of the Danish Ambassador’s Tour De Health – a ten nation healthcare policy leaders’ summit. Additionally, she was the UK representative on the Commonwealth Fund/Academy Health Tour 2023, exploring equity in national health policy across the United States, Australia, New Zealand and Singapore.
She was previously National Speciality Advisor for Older People and Integrated Person-Centred Care at NHS England, where she led the Anticipatory Care workstream of the National Ageing Well Programme. She collaborated with teams across NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care as part of the Covid-19 pandemic response.
Bola is an alumna of Ashridge Executive Education/Hult International Business School and holds a Masters degree with distinction in Leadership (Quality Improvement). She also received an NHS Leadership Academy Award in Executive Healthcare Leadership for Clinicians.
Bola is an Honorary Professor at the Institute of Applied Health Research, College of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Birmingham. She is also a Vice President of the Royal Society of Public Health (RSPH).
Bola left the organisation in July 2025.
Professor Stephen H Powis
Stephen Powis was the National Medical Director of NHS England and Professor of Renal Medicine at University College London.
Previously, he had been Medical Director (and latterly Group Chief Medical Officer) of the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust from 2006 to 2018. Professor Powis was also a member of the governing body of Merton Clinical Commissioning Group for five years and a Director of Healthcare Services Laboratories LLP.
He was a past Chairman of the Association of UK Universities (AUKUH) Medical Directors Group and had been a member of numerous national committees and working groups, including the Department of Health Strategic Education Funding Expert Group. He was a past non-executive director of the North Middlesex University Hospital NHS Trust, including a period of eight months as acting chairman.
He was a past chairman of the Joint Royal Colleges of Physicians Training Board (JRCPTB) Specialty Advisory Committee (SAC) for Renal Medicine and a former board member of Medical Education England. He was Director of Postgraduate Medical and Dental Education for UCLPartners from 2010–13. He was a past treasurer and trustee of the British Transplantation Society and a former member of the UK Transplant Kidney Pancreas Advisory Group.
He had also served as a member of the Renal Association Executive Committee. He was Editor of the journal Nephron Clinical Practice from 2003 to 2008. In 2017, he became the inaugural Editor-in-Chief of the journal BMJ Leader. He had been a trustee of several charities, including the Royal Free Charity and the Healthcare Management Trust.
Stephen left the organisation on 6 March 2025.
Professor Simon Ray
Professor Simon Ray is National Clinical Director for Heart Disease and joint Cardiology Lead for Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT). Simon recently retired from clinical practice as consultant cardiologist at Manchester University Hospitals and is a Past President of the British Cardiovascular Society (2018 to 2021) and a former member of the Board of the British Heart Foundation.
Simon graduated from Bristol University in Pharmacology in 1980 and in Medicine in 1983. After house officer jobs in Bristol and medical senior house office and registrar jobs in Glasgow and Edinburgh he completed his Doctor of Medicine degree as a British Heart Foundation funded research fellow with Professor Henry Dargie in Glasgow.
He continued cardiology training at the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle before moving to Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital as a senior registrar in 1992. From 1994 to 1995 Simon was an interventional cardiology fellow in Vancouver, British Columbia, with Ian Penn, Chris Buller and Donald Ricci before appointment as consultant cardiologist at Wythenshawe Hospital in 1995.
His clinical and research interests have focussed around valve disease, patent foramen ovale, cardiac involvement in neuromuscular disease and more recently cardio-oncology. Simon was Clinical Director of Cardiology at Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust (2006 to 2009), President of the British Society of Echocardiography (2007 to 2009), Vice President of the British Cardiovascular Society for clinical standards (2010 to 2013) and President of the British Heart Valve Society (2013 to 2016). Simon was appointed Honorary Professor of Cardiology in 2011.
Adele Richmond
Adele Richmond is a senior analytical manager at NHS England.
Adele’s mixed-methods and behavioural science research focuses on addressing NHS challenges that deliver real change for patients and NHS staff.
Prior to joining the NHS in 2021, Adele worked across both the third and private sectors, honing her analytical skills and delivering 60 healthcare research projects.
Cicely Ryder-Belson
Cicely is a Senior Policy and Programme Manager in the Healthcare Inequalities Improvement Team at NHS England, where she is responsible for policy development and delivery on a range of strategic health inequalities priorities, with a particular focus on the role of the NHS as an anchor, neighbourhood health, and performance and accountability.
Prior to her national role, most recently she worked in the VCSE sector, supporting the establishment social prescribing programmes for people living with dementia across London. Cicely has recently completed an MSc in Health Policy at Imperial College London and volunteers at Made in Hackney, a local community food kitchen.
Louise Schmidt
Louise Schmidt is currently Assistant Director of Benefits and Assurance at NHS England, responsible for leading the benefits workstream of the Federated Data Platform programme.
She has worked at NHS England since 2021 in the evaluation, improvement and benefits areas, helping to ensure we identify and deliver on what works, and maximise the value of the services we deliver for patients, staff and the wider community.
‘Evidence’ has been at the heart of Louise’s career to date, with previous roles in the charity sector (Youth Endowment Fund – a UK What Works Centre), academia (Universities of Oxford and Southampton), health research funding (NIHR) and consultancy (delivering health services research).
Katie Sheridan
Katie is NHS England’s Digital Screening Communications Lead, based in the Transformation Directorate.
Matthew Sydes
Professor Matthew (Matt) Sydes is Head of Data-Driven Clinical Trials at NHS England.
For nearly 30 years, Matt has designed, conducted, analysed, reported and communicated clinical trials, usually late-phase, often international and often defining a new standard-of-care for patients.
Matt started as a trial coordinator at the MRC Cancer Trials Office in Cambridge in 1995, later known at MRC Clinical Trials Unit at UCL. After that, he re-trained to move into a statistical role.
Over time, Matt took an increasing focus on methodological research to improve the delivery of clinical trials, including: implementation into practice of novel designs, particularly multi-arm multi-stage (MAMS) platform / master protocols; running academic-led trials with a view to regulatory use and submission; proportionate and efficient monitoring of clinical trial; better clinical trial data sharing; communication of trial findings; and, critically, the potential to transform clinical trial planning and delivery through the use of routinely-collected healthcare systems data.
Matt has presented widely, taught on many courses and contributed to many funding panels. He joins NHS England from University College London (UCL) where he was a Professor of Clinical Trials and Methodology at MRC Clinical Trials Unit. He was also a research director for the Transforming Data for Trials programme at Health Data Research UK and Associated Director for Data-Enabled Trials at the BHF Data Science Centre.
Ming Tang
Ming Tang, Chief Data and Analytics Officer, and interim Chief Digital and Information Officer, NHS England.
Ming has over 20 years’ experience in managing and delivering large scale change involving implementation of new operating models in complex and challenging environments.
She joined the NHS in October 2009, initially leading commissioning support services in the West Midlands as the Managing Director for Healthcare Commissioning Services and then as the Managing Director for South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw Commissioning Support Unit.
Anita Thapar
Professor Anita Thapar is Chair of the NHS England Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) taskforce.
Anita is a child and adolescent psychiatrist and a clinician scientist and a professor at the Division of Psychological Medicine and Clinical Neurosciences at Cardiff University.
She is currently co-chair on the Welsh Government Neurodivergence Ministerial Advisory Group and on the Welsh Government Clinical Advisory Group for ADHD assessment and support.
She has until 2024 sat on the board of the UK national charity the ADHD Foundation and was a member of the UK Embracing Complexity Neurodivergence Steering Group.
Lucy Vickers
Lucy Vickers, Chief Data Officer, Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC).
Lucy has extensive senior-level experience in developing data and analytical work programmes, establishing teams, building capability and capacity, working collaboratively across the health sector, wider government, and in partnership with academia.
She has worked at DHSC for five years, joining during the COVID-19 pandemic to set up and lead the data and analytical function in the Test and Trace Programme, then led Statistics and Data Science before moving to her current role.
She has previously worked at the Office for National Statistics and other government departments, where she led analytical work on health and care, population studies, and administrative data. She also played a key role in establishing the Administrative Data Research Service (ADR UK).
Pete Ward
Pete is the Deputy Director for Referrals and Appointments at NHS England, which includes the Booking and Referral Standard (BaRS), NHS e-Referral Service and Wayfinder. Together, these services help patients find the right care, first time across care settings.
Prior to working at NHS England, Pete led a portfolio of digital services enabling the recruitment and retention of more teachers at the Department for Education, developed and led digital transformation programmes in rural Latin America, and delivered software in the private sector.
Rob Webster
Rob joined South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust as Chief Executive in May 2016 and is responsible for leading the organisation and its 4,600 staff. Rob is also the Lead Chief Executive for West Yorkshire & Harrogate Health and Care Partnership; this sees him bringing together West Yorkshire health and care leaders, organisations and communities to develop local plans for improved health, care and finances.
He has worked in healthcare since 1990, taking on national leadership roles in the NHS Confederation and the Department of Health on policy, transformation and delivery. He has also been a Director for both the Prime Minister’s Delivery Unit in the Cabinet Office and a national public/private partnership.
Rob has been a successful Chief Executive in the NHS, running commissioning organisations and providers of NHS services. He has chaired formal Cancer, Primary Care, Community Trust and Learning Disability Networks. He has a history of effective partnership working and a strong commitment to system leadership.
Rob is a visiting Professor at Leeds Beckett University and was proud to be made a Fellow of the Queen’s Nursing Institute in 2014. In May 2016, he became an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of General Practitioners. Follow Rob @nhs_robw
Dr Carol J. Whelan
Dr Carol Whelan BSc MD FRCP FBSE FESC was appointed as Consultant Cardiologist in October 2009 with an interest in imaging, heart failure and cardiac amyloidosis, at the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust. She was appointed as Honorary Associate Professor at University College London in recognition for her work at the National Amyloidosis Centre (NAC). She became the hospital clinical lead for heart failure in 2011 and is now the trust lead.
She was appointed lead for the Heart Failure Clinical Practice Group (CPG) work at the trust in 2018 and chairs a weekly meeting of the dedicated team cross site. Through the CPG, the team harmonises the automated clinical pathway for patients with heart failure to achieve excellence in a quality service across the trust.
In November 2025, Dr Whelan will become chair elect of the British Society for Heart Failure.
Helen Williams
Helen is National Clinical Director for Cardiovascular Disease Prevention at NHS England, and Clinical Care Professional Lead for Long-Term Conditions for the South East London Integrated Care System.
Helen has worked as a CVD specialist for more than 25 years across secondary, community and primary care settings. She was clinical adviser to the AHSN national atrial fibrillation (AF) programme and developed the pharmacist-led virtual clinic model to optimise uptake of anticoagulation in AF, which has now been spread nationally.
Most recently, as the National Specialty Adviser for CVD Prevention at NHS England, she worked on the delivery of the national CVD ambitions for AF, blood pressure and cholesterol in the NHS Long Term Plan.
Helen also works at UCL Partners on the implementation of Proactive Care Frameworks and CVDACTION to support primary care with the tools and resources to optimise patient outcomes, particularly for AF, blood pressure, lipids, heart failure, diabetes and chronic kidney disease.