Sheffield, England, United Kingdom
I have over 20 years of experience in research, innovation, and healthcare leadership, my NHS journey began as a nurse in 2003, evolving through clinical practice and research roles that have shaped my unique perspective on healthcare innovation and delivery. As former Programme Manager for NIHR Children and Young People MedTech Cooperative at Sheffield Children's NHS Foundation Trust, I orchestrated collaborative innovation across seven specialist themes. My work with NIHR Devices for Dignity, TITCH network, and the Starworks child prosthetics research collaboration has demonstrated my ability to transform complex healthcare challenges into actionable solutions. My expertise lies in: - Strategic network development and management across healthcare ecosystems - MedTech innovation and implementation strategies - Building and nurturing multi stakeholder partnerships - Knowledge mobilisation and cross-sector collaboration - Patient-centred technology integration I specialise in bringing together diverse stakeholders - from SMEs and clinicians to patients and researchers - to achieve transformative healthcare outcomes. My approach combines strategic thinking with practical healthcare experience, ensuring innovations deliver real-world impact. Beyond my core role, I'm passionate about people driven healthcare and the integration of emerging technologies.
I support both NIHR CYP MedTech and NIHR D4D MedTech as Paediatric Programme Manager. I work cross-sector to help deliver the best innovations for children in health care. My passion and drive for this role comes from the belief that children and families should be at the centre of medtech development, and that openness, honesty, and transparency within innovation leads to good outcomes.
I manage the TITCH network - www.titch.org.uk If you are an SME, a clinician, a nurse, a parent or a child or anyone with an interest in this field and you want to work with us to develop new technologies in child health, please contact me. Take a look at the website for further information. Following a very successful year with the TITCH network, we developed the brief for an SBRI Healthcare call in child health - http://sbrihealthcare.co.uk/past-competitions/self-care-and-independence-for-children-with-long-term-conditions/ I am a reviewer for the child health SBRI Healthcare applications. I also project manage projects that look at the development of technology designed to meet the specific needs of children living with long-term conditions maintaining dignity and maximising independence. The paediatric focus is cross-cutting to the existing D4D themes and responsive to new needs in related clinical areas, the success of the TITCH network has been supported by using the tried and tested methodologies of D4D.
As lead nurse, I am responsible for leading the delivery team supporting research across all of our partner organisations, including district general hospitals, primary care, GP surgery's, care homes and prisons, as well as large teaching hospitals. This presents many complex challenges, not least in utilising the workforce across NHS trusts. Strong leadership, knowledge of process, as well as excellent communication and interpersonal skills across all disciplines and also being aware of process has helped the team and I to achieve this. Within my role, I empower my staff to become fully autonomous, and utilise their abilities, which has in turn enabled the growth of high quality, patient focused clinical research in the NHS.