2011 Conference Speaker Biographies
Biographical highlights of our speakers from the 19th December 2011 conference, 'Quality Improvement and Innovation in Healthcare Education', appeared in the delegate pack. Below are our speakers' full biographies.
Sonya Abraham
Sonya Abraham is a Senior Lecturer in Rheumatology and General Medicine at Imperial College Healthcare Trust. She studied at Guy's Hospital, London and undertook her postgraduate training in Oxford, Cambridge and London. She is passionate about Medical education and keen to help junior doctors understand both the scientific basis of medicine whilst practicing the art of medicine.
Maria Ahmed
Maria Ahmed is a Clinical Research Fellow at Imperial College London working towards a PhD in Education and Training to improve quality and safety. She holds degrees in Medicine and Public Health and has worked as Clinical Advisor at BUPA Health Dailog and World Health Organisation Patient Safety as part of the Chief Medical Officer's Advisory scheme. Her interests include engaging junior doctors in quality and safety improvement initiatives.
Sonal Arora
Sonal is a Clinical Lecturer at Imperial College, London and a General Surgery Registrar in NW Thames. Sonal leads the research team within the Simulated Operating Theatre at St. Mary’s Hospital. Her PhD focuses upon the use of innovations in training to enhance surgical performance and patient safety. Sonal has numerous publications in these disciplines and her work has attracted prestigious awards at a national and international level. Sonal holds the Surgical Education Research Fellowship (awarded by the Association of Surgical Education, USA) and is also a clinical advisor to the World Health Organization where she has lead the development of a Global Curriculum for Patient Safety Research.
Nick Bass
Dr Nick Bass has been the Director of Medical Education for East London NHS Foundation Trust (ELFT) since 2004. He trained at King’s College London and Westminster Medical School and began his career as a Consultant in General Adult Psychiatry at ELFT in 1996. Dr Bass is the current Chair of the London Psychiatry Directors of Medical Education Committee and a Member of the Royal College of Psychiatrists Recruitment Committee. He is a co-opted member of the National Association of Clinical Tutors (NACT) UK Council.
Dr Bass holds an Honorary Senior Lecturer post at Queen Mary University of London and has a research interest in genetic epidemiology of schizophrenia. Dr Bass led the establishment of a Global Health Partnership - the Butabika Link programme - an international multi-professional mental health training link between ELFT and Uganda in order to assist with the development of psychiatric services. He is also a member of the King’s College Global Health Partnership with Somaliland. In 2010 Dr Bass was invited to represent Psychiatry and ELFT on the London Deanery’s Quality Management Board. More recently, Dr Bass has been leading the development of simulation training at ELFT including leadership development for Doctors in Training.
Helen Bevan
Helen Bevan is Chief of Service Transformation at the NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement. She has worked in the field of healthcare improvement at local, national and international level.
Helen has led and supported initiatives that have created improvements for millions of patients. Her specialist interests are in large-scale change approaches to improvement and mobilising and organising for improvement.
In 2008, the 60th anniversary of the NHS, Helen was named as one of the 60 most influential people in the history of the NHS and in 2010 was named as one of the top 10 NHS opinion formers.
Simon Calvert
Simon works as a Consultant in Emergency & Critical Care Medicine at King’s College Hospital. He has been involved from the ‘go-live’ of the London Trauma System in April 2010 as one consultants providing 24-hour cover for the trauma team, has led on the development of multi-professional trauma team training both at King’s and within the London project. He trained at Edinburgh medical School, before coming to London to complete his speciality training in emergency and intensive care medicine.
Benjamin Cerezo
Benjamin Cerezo is Imperial College Healthcare's Project Manager for Simulation and Education Commissioning. Benjamin studied Business with a focus on Management and Human Resources at Queensland University of Technology and Monash University and has a decade of experience in workplace-based learning and assessment across several fields. Having spent nearly 3 years in the NHS, Benjamin is particularly interested in the controllable factors that influence adults’ ability to acquire, retain and apply new skills, knowledge and attitudes and the way in which simulation affects the learning curve. Benjamin manages various commissioned education projects to support the implementation of simulation as a teaching method and maximise access to these opportunities.
Francina Cunnington
Francina Cunnington is an educationalist working in the field of medical education. At Great Ormond Street Hospital she is the Head of Medical Education with responsibility for ensuring appropriate high quality education for both trainees and consultants. She has a supporting role for consultants offering training to support them as educational supervisors and oversees and designs programmes to meet the educational needs of the Trust. She also has an honorary contract with University College London, Institute of Child Health where she teaches on their MSc in Advanced Paediatrics and BSc and is involved in supporting the medical elective and visiting fellows programmes. She is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
She also works on an ad hoc basis with the London Deanery in Faculty Development Division as part of the Educational Development Team and with the School of Paediatrics supporting faculty training.
Ian Curran
Dr Curran is Dean of Educational Excellence & Head of Innovation at the London Deanery. He is Clinical Lead for London's award-winning Simulation and Technology-enhanced Learning Initiative (STeLI). STeLI is a flagship project of NHS London's workforce development strategy. STeLI promotes team working, patient safety and excellence in education by harnessing advanced techniques and technologies such as behavioural debriefings, simulation and e-learning. Dr Curran is a consultant anaesthetist with sub-specialty interest in chronic pain management at St Bartholomew's Hospital where he is also Honorary Senior Lecturer in Medical Education and Senior Examiner at the Barts & The London School of Medicine and Dentistry. He is also a council member of the Academy of Medical Educators, and Chair of the Professional Standards Committee. He is a Board Director of the US based Society for Simulation in Healthcare.
Deblina Dasgupta
Dr. Deblina Dasgupta is a Consultant geriatrician at Homerton University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
- Dr Dasgupta has been the Foundation Training program Director for 4 years and has developed a special interest in Simulation based training.
- Dr. Dasgupta has experience in developing multiple Simulation based
training courses.
She has developed Interprofessional Simulation Training Program for Foundation Doctors, which has acquired London Deanery approval and funding for delivering training to internal and external trainees in the London region. - Dr. Dasgupta has also developed a London Deanery commissioned course - Patient Advocacy & Patient Centeredness for Pan London Dissemination & use.
- Currently involved in development & establishment of Regional Simulation Training program for Geriatric Medicine Specialist trainees.
- Dr. Dasgupta has conducted original research based on Interprofessional Simulation based learning and transfer into workplace - currently awaiting publication in International peer reviewed journal.
- She also has multiple other national & international posters, abstracts & oral presentations on simulation training & Interprofessional learning.
Val Dimmock MA (Ed) RN
Simulation and Clinical Skills Facilitator and the Homerton University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
- Manages Homerton Simulation Suite
- Simulation and Clinical Skills Facilitator responsible for Interprofessional Clinical Skills Education of all hospital staff and development of Simulation Suite. Completed Train the Trainers course 2009. Previous Simulation experience at City University and Queen Mary University.
- Development of Simulation Training Program for Foundation Trainees, successful funding acquired from London Deanery for internal & external trainees since 2009 in collaboration with Dr Dasgupta.
- Development of London Deanery funded simulation training program
highlighting patient advocacy & patient centeredness in 2010
Andrew Fordyce
Andrew Fordyce, MBA, MB BS, BDS, FRCS (Max-Fac), FDSRCS, PG Cert Clinical Education, PG Cert Advanced Improvement in Quality & Safety, Consultant Oral & Maxillofacial Surgeon & Clinical Systems Engineer.
Andrew is clinical lead for service improvement, a tutor in the Department of Oral & Dental Science, University of Bristol and Honorary University Fellow at the Peninsula College of Medicine & Dentistry. He is a fellow of the NHS Institute’s Improvement Faculty and graduate of its Safer Care ‘Advanced Improvement in Quality and Safety’ programme. His current focus is to create and research with other partners a 24/7 reliable Care System. It will use principles of system integration, and reducing variation in demand and capacity across the health and social care system. It will apply enhanced recovery principles to medical patients and use patient needs and experiences to drive and measure the effect of changes.
Andrew has led healthcare redesign projects, mostly focussed around the surgical pathway. Recently he used process simulation to help the clinical team redesign the process of admission for patients with fractured neck of femur, shortening time to theatre from a median of 48 to 19 hours, and median length of stay from 10.5 to 6 days.
Della Freeth
Della Freeth is Professor of Professional Education at Queen Mary, University of London. She leads projects focusing on professional education or workplace practices that support patient safety. Recent projects have centred on: learning through simulated professional practice, new graduates’ preparedness for practice, and more effective tailoring of CPD.
Diana Hamilton-Fairley
Diana Hamilton-Fairley is a Consultant Obstetrician and Gynaecologist at Guys and St. Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust and Postgraduate Dean of Secondary Care Specialties for London. She was previously Head of London School of O&G and Deputy / Acting Medical Director for Guys and St, Thomas’ Hospital Trust.
Clinically she has established a unique early pregnancy assessment unit which developed into a 24 hour emergency gynaecology unit in 2003 which is nurse led and sees 9000 women per year. Her main clinical interests are reproductive endocrinology. As Head of Service for gynaecology she introduced one stop diagnostic and treatment clinics for women suffering with abnormal bleeding and an increase in day surgery from 32% to 65%. She was Clinical Director of Women’s Health at GSTT from 2004-2007 introducing 13 hour shift working for consultants, a clinical governance system and a new way of working that led to GSTT being awarded CNST 3 in 2007 and again in 2010. GSTT was cited by the HCC as the best performing unit in London in 2008.
In August 2004 she successfully introduced Hospital at Night teams across both sites of GSTT which has won national awards and is cited by DH as representing the gold standard. Since 2006 she has led the introduction of Taking Care 24/7 across the Trust achieving EWTD compliance for August 2009 and a sustainable improvement in patient safety. She is Joint Head of Women’s Health Academic Centre for King’s Health Partners.
As lead for Education in O&G she introduced a regional specialty training system that was later copied by other regions of the country, GSTT was the unit with the highest overall satisfaction in 2008 – 2010 in the GMC survey. As Head of Specialty School for O&G in London she introduced simulation multiprofessional training having secured £350K in funding (from NHSL). An e-learning package was evaluated by 94% trainees as very useful and has been rolled out to all trainees. London moved from 11th to 4th in “overall satisfaction” between 2008 and 2010.
As Dean of Secondary Care Specialties Diana is leading on commissioning and the Quality management of commissioned and non commissioned postgraduate medical education. Diana was elected as the London Fellow’s representative for the Council of the RCOG in July 2011.
Pip Hardy
Pip is a founding director of Pilgrim Projects, an education
consultancy specialising in healthcare quality improvement, and
co-founder of the award-winning Patient Voices Programme. Her career
has always combined education, writing – and stories.
Along with Tony Sumner, Pip established the Patient Voices Programme to
communicate patients’, carers’ and clinicians’ experiences to those who
design and deliver healthcare, using technology to bring the ancient
tradition of storytelling to life and offer new possibilities for
involving and engaging patients and improving healthcare quality.
Pip sits on the board of directors of CINTRA, a not-for-profit public
service interpreting and translation agency; she is an honorary
research fellow at the University of Salford’s Centre for Nursing,
Midwifery & Collaborative Research, an Honorary Teaching Fellow at
Manchester Metropolitan University and a Fellow of the RSA.
Pip’s first degree is in English Literature; she has certificates in
adult learning, group work and counselling, and an MSc in Lifelong
Learning. She is investigating the role of digital storytelling in
healthcare for her PhD.
Roger Kneebone
Professor Roger Kneebone trained first as a general surgeon, working both in the UK and in Southern Africa. After finishing his specialist training, Roger decided to become a family physician and joined a group practice in Trowbridge, Wiltshire. In the 1990s he developed an innovative national training programme for minor surgery within primary care, using simulated tissue models and a computer-based learning program. In 2003, Roger left his practice to join Imperial College London.
Roger’s research focuses on the contextualisation of clinical learning. He has developed innovative approaches to learning invasive clinical procedures, where models are attached to simulated patients to create a safe yet realistic learning environment. His current research is around the use of lightweight, low-cost yet immersive clinical settings for training and assessment. Working with a multidisciplinary research team of clinicians, computer and social scientists, design engineers and prosthetics experts he has developed an ‘inflatable operating theatre’ which opens up new perspectives on simulation. Roger is also researching the impact of stress upon surgical performance, using high fidelity simulations to create and manage stress under controlled conditions.
Roger directs the UK’s only Masters in Education (M Ed) in Surgical Education, which started in October 2005.
Geraint Lewis
Geraint is a consultant public health physician who qualified in medicine from Camrbidge University, and worked as a junior doctor in London and Sydney before starting higher specialist training in Public Health.
Working in Croydon Primary Care Trust between 2004 and 2006 he developed and implemented the Virtual Wards project. The scheme won an unprecedented four prizes at the Health Service Journal Awards in November 2006 and was the overall winner of the Guardian Newspaper's Public Service Awards 2007.
After leaving Croydon he became a policy adviser at the Cabinet Office and visiting fellow at the King's Fund, before spending the 2007-08 academic year as a Commonwealth Fund Harkness Feloow in New York, where his research explored the use of predictive modelling in the United States. Geraint was the 2008 recipient of the National Directors' Award at the Veterans' Health Administration in Washington DC.
Syed Masud
Dr Masud is an Emergency Medicine Consultant at the Royal London Hospital with sub speciality accreditation in Paediatric Emergency Medicine and a sub-speciality interest in pre-hospital emergency medicine. He has significant experience of putting courses together and linking them to educational establishments to become recognised accredited courses. Syed is the current lead for design and delivery of the pan-london Trauma Team Leader's Course. He sits on the education committee for Trauma training as part of the London Trauma Office Superfaculty. Syed was the original designer and inventor of the HEMS Crew Course (HCC) which has now become a national standard.
He has also invented numerous other trauma related courses including the Medical Tactical Firearms Officers Course (MTFO) and the Urban Search & Rescue Medics Course (USARM). Syed is particularly interested in bringing various specialities and other emergency services together to find common ground and establish common goals in clinical practice, education and shared information. Syed has recently completed the STeLI course and has participated as an instructor in several simulation based courses ranging from Paediatric Trauma Management to critical care safety courses.
Helen Mills
Helen Mills is the Lead Nurse for Patient Safety at Barts and the London NHS Trust. Helen's clinical nursing experience is in Critical Care at St. Bartholomews hospital.
One aspect of her current role is delivering in-situ, simulation based, multi-professional training for ward teams. This training focuses on recognition and management of acute deterioration, incorporating both clinical skills and human factors elements.
Helen also runs the Barts and the Londons “Patient Safety Forum”. This monthly forum of Safety Champions from each clinical area engages frontline staff with Patient Safety initiatives and is used to drive these initiatives forward in the clinical workplace.
John Moreiras
Dr John Moreiras is a General Paediatrician currently employed as a Fellow in Medical Education in the Post Graduate Medical Education (PGME) Department at Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH), who will shortly be starting as a General Paediatric Consultant at Whittington Health NHS Trust. During his time at GOSH, he has actively contributed to the educational activity and work of the PGME Department which was awarded the Elizabeth Paice Award for Education Excellence in 2010: “Best Postgraduate Medical Education Centre Team”.
He has a long-standing interest in Medical Education and during the past few years has expanded and developed this interest. He has helped design and facilitate a number of programmes which focused on facilitation skills, education, leadership and educational supervision at GOSH, Royal Society of Medicine and the London Deanery.
He is involved in the development and delivery of several
educational programmes aimed at improving Human Factors training,
supporting difficult transitions in medical training and combing
service delivery with educational activities. One example of such
a programme is the RIPPLE programme (Regional Integrated Programme for
Paediatric Local Educators) which is a London Deanery initiative.
One of its aims is to develop paediatric faculty to deliver high
quality paediatric education within local Trusts and regional networks
across London.
Fiona Moss
Fiona Moss is the Director of Medical and Dental Education Commissioning for London. Fiona previously worked as a Consultant Respiratory Physician at Central Middlesex Hospital during which time she was also Director of Clinical Studies (DCS) for Imperial College undergraduate medical students and chaired the Imperial College Faculty of Medicine DCS committee. Fiona has worked in Postgraduate Medical Education in London for 12 years; first as an Associate Postgraduate Dean with responsibility for Pre- Registration Training when she established the principle of “one year in one place” and subsequently as Postgraduate Dean when she set up London’s Speciality Schools and with NHS London devised the successful Darzi Fellowship Leadership Programme.
Fiona was founder editor of Quality and Safety in Health Care, a BMJ Publishing group journal and since 1994, she has been on the Strategic Advisory Group of the International (previously European) Forum on Quality and Safety in Health Care. Fiona is the editor of the Postgraduate Medical Journal, a member of the Royal Society of Medicine Press Board and is on the Editorial Board of the BMJ journal. Fiona's interests include postgraduate and undergraduate medical and dental education, with a keen focus on the integration of organisational development, leadership development and quality and safety improvement into Postgraduate Medical Education. In 2006 Fiona was awarded a CBE for services to medicine.
Elisabeth Paice
Elisabeth Paice OBE, MA, FRCP, HonFAcadMEd is visiting professor in Lord Darzi’s Unit at Imperial College London and chairs the NW London Integrated Care Pilot. Born in Washington DC and brought up in Montreal, she studied medicine at Trinity College Dublin and Westminster Medical School, London. She was consultant rheumatologist at the Whittington Hospital 1982-1995. She then became Dean Director of London Deanery 1995-2010 and chaired the UK Conference of Postgraduate Medical Deans 2006-2008. She was the originator of the ‘Hospital at Night’ concept; developed what is now the GMC ‘National Trainee Survey’; and chaired national working parties on generic standards and the trainee survey. She has published on educational reform; stress in medicine; doctors in difficulty; workplace bullying; women in medicine and other aspects of medical careers. Her contribution has been recognised by a Skills for Health Award for national leadership of Hospital at Night; a National Award for Professional Excellence from the British Association of Physicians of Indian Origin; and Honorary Fellowship of the Academy of Medical Educators. She is an active coach and mentor and won the NHS National Leadership Award as Mentor of the Year 2010. In 2011 she was awarded OBE for services to medicine.
Tracy Parr
Tracy Parr is the London Trauma System Manager. She has been working on the major trauma project since it began in November 2007 and is now taking this work forward as it is implemented. She is a clinical nurse by background, having specialised in paediatric intensive care at Great Ormond Street Hospital. She held a variety of clinical and management roles before moving to the Healthcare for London trauma project.
Having trained at John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, Tracy moved to London and worked in a number of London hospitals. She has also worked overseas in Australia and Switzerland. She was previously involved in the Chain of Hope charity, which takes teams overseas to deliver cardiac surgery to children in countries who do not have access to specialised care.
Anne Rainsberry
Dr Anne Rainsberry, Director of People and Organisational Development and Deputy Chief Executive, has worked in health for over 20 years both in general management and in human resources roles. She first became an HR Director in the NHS in 1995 holding a number of Board level positions in London. Anme joined the Department of Health in 2001, working firstly as Director of Workforce Development in the South East Regional Office and latterly the Department of Health and Social Care Sector, with responsibility for leading the delivery of workforce modernisation in the NHS and Social Care across the south east and subsequently the south of England. In 2004, she was appointed as Director of Human Rsources for the Department of Health with responsibility for hte Deaprtment and its agencies and leading HR policy for its 26 arms length bodies. In 2005 she was awarded Doctorate of Business Administration with distinction and in 2006 was appointed to her present role. Since February 2010 Anne has also been the Cluster Chief Executive for NHS North West London.
Jane Runnacles
Jane is a Darzi clinical leadership fellow at Great Ormond Street Hospital (a level 3 Paediatric SpR out of programme). Her main project currently is EQuIP: Enabling Doctors in Quality Improvement and Patient Safety. Jane has previously been a London Deanery Fellow in Medical Education at Imperial College, during which time she completed her MA in Clinical Education. She has developed an interest in Simulation and was involved in the London School of Paediatrics ST3 Simulation programme and its evaluation, and wrote a Master's dissertation on the subject of Debriefing (developing the Paediatric OSAD (Objective Structured Assessment of Debriefing) tool, which is now being used on the Paediatric Simulation Faculty development Programme). She is also chair of the London School of Paediatrics Trainee Committee.
Chris Sadler
I started out as a physiologist studying for a degree in comparative animal physiology. Having been stimulated by my final year research project I took on a PhD in respiratory physiology (transduction mechanism of the carotid body chemoreceptors) in the anaesthetic department at King’s College Hospital. My PhD supervisor was a consultant anaesthetist who took me to theatre on several occasions fuelling my interest in anaesthesia. After completing the PhD I studied Medicine at University College London and then entered an anaesthetic training programme. I am now a consultant anaesthetist at Barts and The London NHS Trust with special interests in Obstetrics and Simulation. I am also a deputy training programme director. In my first year as a consultant (2000) I supervised the design, building and opening of the Medical Simulation Centre and I have been director of the centre since. Our centre delivers a broad range of training to diverse groups including school children, medical students, foundation programme doctors, nurses, consultants and multiprofessional teams. As well as training technical skills and clinical management skills we focus heavily on human factors skills and patient safety. My particular interest lies in team training in obstetric practice. I have been Secretary of the National Association of Medical Simulators. I am part of the faculty for the European Simulation Instructors Course (collaboration between Barts and The London, Copenhagen and Tuebingen). I sit on the Clinical Human Factors Group, a national organisation whose aim is to promote the implementation of human factors throughout healthcare for the benefit of patient safety.
Nick Sevdalis
Nick is an Experimental Psychologist, currently Senior Lecturer in the Division of Surgery of Imperial College London and, within the Division, lead of the Non-Technical Skills and Simulation Research Group. Nick has also been affiliated with the Research and Development Section of the National Patient Safety Agency, where he was developing and evaluating evidence-based patient safety interventions (2006-08). Nick's research interests focus on (i) non-technical skills and teamwork assessment and training with particular focus on simulation and (ii) error analysis. Nick has published extensively in these research areas, and has attracted significant funding to support his research (including EPSRC, MRC, ESRC, NIHR and the London Deanery). Nick is also the lead of the Research Methods and Applied Statistics taught modules of a number of postgraduate Masters courses offered by the Division of Surgery. Nick is also supervising Doctoral, postgraduate (MSc, MEd) and undergraduate (BSc) students in Surgery, Medicine, and Psychology.
Tim Stephens
Tim Stephens BA, MSc, RGN, is Lead Nurse for Patient Safety at Barts and the London NHS Trust.
Tim graduated in 1999 and obtained his specialist training is in Intensive Care nursing in 2002. Since 2005 he has been increasingly involved in the development and provision of simulation based training for nurses and doctors.
One aspect of his current role is delivering in-situ, simulation based, multi-professional training for ward teams. This training focuses on recognition and management of acute deterioration, incorporating both clinical skills and human factors elements.
Tim has developed and overseen the production of three short educational films which focus on Patient Safety.
Tony Sumner
Tony Sumner is a founding director of Pilgrim Projects, an education consultancy specialising in healthcare quality improvement, and co-founder of the award-winning Patient Voices Programme. His career has taken him from the skies to hospitals, from programming to storytelling, but always with a passion for facilitating and encouraging improvement and quality.
Tony and Pip Hardy began the Patient Voices Programme to communicate patients’, carers’ and clinicians’ experiences to designers and deliverers of healthcare, and to support and enrich the development of learning that is both ‘delightful’ and reflective. His computer industry experiences inform his desire to use new and emerging technologies to engage the service users, commissioners and providers of the 21st century through the ancient tradition of storytelling.
Tony sits on the Cambridgeshire Community Services Patient Focus Committee. His first degree is in Physics, with a PgDip in Astronomy and Astronautics. He has recently embarked on a PhD investigating the potential of using technologies, like those that enable digital storytelling, to promote reflection. He was elected a Fellow of the RAS in 1989 and a Fellow of the RSA in 2008.
Eleanor Wood
Dr Eleanor Wood is a Consultant Physician & Gastroenterologist at Homerton University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and:
- Director of Medical Education
- Clinical Simulation Lead
- Endoscopy Teaching & Training lead
- Lead Researcher - Medical education research project The Virtual Continuity in Learning Programme - 'on-the-job' learning for Foundation doctors (in collaboration with the Royal Free Hopsital)
- Previous Educational Research Fellow, RF&UCMS 2003-4 – Development and implementation of the Virtual Consulting Room
- Successful Education bid GI Bronch Mentor (endoscopy simulator) 2010
- Training the Colonoscopy Trainers course St. Mark’s Hospital 2009
- Attended EuSim course Guy’s Hospital 2009


