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Core members
Team members from northern medical physics and clinical engineering:
- Kim Keltie, centre director
- Emma Belilios, centre manager
- Rachel O’Leary, head of informatics
- Rosalyn Parker, head of evaluation
- Elliot Blacklock, quality assurance co-ordinator
- Humayra Dervin (née Abdul-Razakq), clinical scientist
- David Muir, clinical scientist
- Paula Leslie, pre-registrant clinical scientist
- Katrin Bangel, pre-registrant clinical scientist
- Eibhlin O’Sullivan, trainee healthcare scientist
- Sarah Gascoigne, healthcare scientist
Team profiles
Kim Keltie, director
Kim has a MSci in Chemistry with Medicinal Chemistry (University of Glasgow) and has been a part of the Northern Medical Physics and Clinical Engineering directorate at the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle upon Tyne since 2010. Kim has expertise in analysis of routinely collected data (including Hospital Episode Statistics, mortality, national clinical and procedural registries), is actively involved in research projects including the evaluation of health technologies. Kim is also a Data Access Committee member for the North East and North Cumbria Secure Data Environment (NENC SDE).
Emma Belilios, centre manager
Emma has a BSc (hons) in Management Science (Hull University), a PG Dip in Office Systems Management (Humberside University), a PG Cert in University Administration (Newcastle University) and is currently working towards the Association of Project Managers (APM) qualification. Emma has been a part of the Northern Medical Physics and Clinical Engineering directorate at the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle upon Tyne since 2015, and has expertise in project management and a particular interest in patient and public involvement.
Rachel O'Leary, head of informatics
Rachel has an MPhys in Physics with Medical Physics (University of Sheffield) and has been part of the Northern Medical Physics and Clinical Engineering Directorate of Newcastle Hospitals since 2014. In 2019, Rachel completed the NHS Scientist Training Programme (STP) in what is now Clinical Scientific Computing, gaining an MSc in Clinical Science (University of Liverpool). Rachel has expertise in analysis of routinely collected data, primarily Hospital Episode Statistics, is involved in supervising STP trainees, and represents the Clinical Informatics and Clinical Scientific Computing specialisms on the Northern Training Consortium Partnership Board.
Rosalyn Parker, head of evaluation
Ros holds an MSc in Rehabilitative Audiology (Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh) and a BSc in Audiology (University of Manchester) and has been part of the Northern Medical Physics in Clinical Engineering Dire
ctorate of Newcastle Hospitals since 2021. Ros has expertise in health technology evaluation, research methods and delivery, critical appraisal, and teaching including acting as a Visiting Lecturer for Queen Margaret University. Ros is a Fellow of the British Society of Audiology.
Elliot Blacklock, quality and assurance co-ordinator
Elliot brings a broad and versatile background, having worked across multiple industries businesses. He joined Newcastle Hospitals in October 2023 as an administrator and has since transitioned into a role focused on quality and assurance. Elliot is passionate about driving continuous improvement and supporting project deliver
y across the team. He is currently leading the development and achievement of ISO 9001 certification through the implementation of a robust quality management system for the group.
Humayra Dervin, cinical scientist
Humayra has an MSc in Clinical Sciences (Newcastle University) and a BSc in Medical Physiology (University of Nottingham). Humayra has been a part of the Northern Medical Physics and Clinical Engineering directorate at the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle upon Tyne since 2021, and has expertise in research facilitation and delivery, critical appraisal, preparation of ethics applications; SPSS Programming for statistical analysis of large data sets, and supporting students undergoing the NHS Scientist Training Programme within gastrointestinal physiology. She is also a registration assessor with the Health and Care Professions Council.
David Muir, clinical scientist
Initially worked within Haematology and transfusion sciences between research and NHS diagnostic laboratories in Cambridge, attaining licentiate membership with the IBMS in 2019 and Biomedical Scientist registration with the HCP (now HCPC). Then, in 2019 completed the scientist training programme (STP) in the Neurosensory Science (Audiology) and HCPC Clinical Scientist registration. Currently, working between the NMPCE Visual Electrodiagnostic and Health Technology Assessment services.
Paula Leslie, pre-registrant clinical scientist
Paula joined the EAG in 2022 as a pre-registrant clinical scientist. Her role involves literature searching, reviewing and appraisal; methodology development; research and development; data analysis; and manuscript preparation. Paula is an HCPC Registered Speech & Language Therapist and a member of the Amer
ican Society for Bioethics and Humanities. She is a Fellow of the Royal College of Speech & Language Therapists and the American Speech-language-Hearing Association. She has developed pre- and post-clinical education programmes in the UK and USA. Paula’s areas of expertise include clinical and research ethics, complex decision making, eating & drinking disorders, and end of life care.
Katrin Bangel, pre registrant clinical scientist
Katrin has a PhD in Clinical Neurosciences (University of Amsterdam) and an MSci in Cognitive Neurosciences (University of Nijmegen). Katrin has been a part of the Northern Medical Physics and Clinical Engineering directorate since 2019, and is currently working between the Medical Device Development and Health
Technology Assessment services. Katrin has expertise in clinical study design and management, regulatory affairs and UKCA/CE marking, R&D, literature reviewing and appraisal, and manuscript preparation, also data analysis in Matlab and Python.
Eibhlin O’Sulllivan, clinical informatics trainee
Eibhlin has a BSc (Hons) in Neuroscience (University of Manchester) and an MSc in Computer Science (Northumbria University). She is currently working towards an MSc in Clinical Science (University of Manchester) as a part of the NHS Scientist Training Programme (STP) in Clinical Informatics. Eibhlin has been a p
art of the Northern Medical Physics and Clinical Engineering Directorate of Newcastle Hospitals since 2023 and has completed data analysis projects, primarily using Hospital Episode Statistics, and software development projects within the trust.
Sarah Gascoigne, healthcare Scientist
Sarah has a BSc (hons) in Mathematics and Psychology (Newcastle University), a PGDip in Cloud Computing for Big Data (Newcastle University) and is currently working towards a PhD employing data science methods to epilepsy data (Newcastle University). Sarah has been a part of the Northern Medical Physics and Clinical Engineering directorate at the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle Upon Tyne since March 2025. Sarah has ex
pertise in data science and statistics; she has achieved the status of Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
Andrew Sims. technical and statistical advisor
Andrew is Head of the Northern Medical Physics and Clinical Engineering Department (NMPCE), a Clinical Directorate of Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. Andrew is Coâdirector of the NIHR Newcastle HealthTech Research Centre
which specialises in Diagnostics and Technology Evaluation, and Deputy Director of the NIHR HRC national network of all 14 HRCs together. Andrew has experience in statistics, analysis of hospital data including medical images, CE marking embedded software for medical devices and health economics. Andrew is also a member of the NIHR Invention for Innovation Product Development Awards Committee A.
Our partners
From Evidence Synthesis Group (ESG), Newcastle University:
- Dawn Craig, ESG lead and director of NIHR Innovation Observatory
- Fiona Beyer, principal research associate
- Sheila Wallace, research fellow and information specialist
- Hannah O’Keefe, research associate / information specialist
- Sonia Garcia Gonzalez Moral, research associate / information specialist
- Oleta Williams, research assistant / information specialist
- Alex Inskip, research assistant / information speecialist
- Claire Eastaugh, research assistant / information specialist
- Louise Tanner, research associate
- Ryan Kenny, research associate
- Katie Thomson, senior research associate
- Kate Lanyi (Research Associate)
- Julia Whitehall (Research Associate)
- Nicole O’Connor (Research Assistant)
- Sylvia Zhang (Research Assistant)
- Katie Hay (Stakeholder Relationship Manager)
From Health Economics Group (HEG), Newcastle University
- Gurdeep Sagoo, HEG co- lead, senior lecturer, health economics
- Stephen Rice, HEG co- lead, senior lecturer, health economics
- Ashleigh Kernohan, senior research associate, health economist
- Nawaraj Bhattarai, senior research associate, health economist
- Matthew Breckons, senior research associate
- Giovany Orozco-Leal, research associate, health economist
- Lakshmi Jayachandran, research associate, health economist
From London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine:
- Luke Vale, professor of health economics
From Teesside University:
- Michael Drinnan, professor of digital healthcare intervention