Conference

Richard Sloggett is the Founder and Programme Director of Future Health. He was previously a Senior Fellow at Westminster’s leading think tank Policy Exchange and from 2018-19 was Special Advisor to the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care. Richard is a regular commentator in the national media on health and social care including in The Times, Telegraph, Financial Times, Economist and on Times Radio and LBC. He has been named as one of the top 100 people in UK healthcare policy by the Health Service Journal.

During his time with the Secretary of State, Richard worked across Whitehall, the NHS and local government on major policy decisions including the NHS Long Term Plan, the creation of NHSX and the Prevention Green Paper. He also supported Ministers on global healthcare issues including preparations for the G7 and action on antimicrobial resistance. He has fifteen years’ experience in public policy and healthcare, starting his career in Parliament before a successful career in public affairs where he led a team of 20 to the prestigious Communique Public Affairs Team of the Year Award.

Richard is undertaking his doctoral thesis in preventative healthcare systems at Liverpool University. He has a Masters Degree with Distinction from the University of Nottingham and a Bachelors Degree from the University of Durham. He is a Non-Executive Director and Trustee of Real Life Options, a provider of learning disability, autism and age related needs services

Dr Michelle Funk holds a Master’s degree in clinical psychology from the University of New South Wales and a Postdoctoral degree in Public Health from the University of Sydney, Australia. She is the Unit Head of the WHO Policy, Law and Human Rights team. 

She is responsible for cross cutting work related to policy, planning, service development, human rights and legislation across the mental health, brain health and substance use units of the Department of Mental Health and Substance Use. 

She leads the WHO QualityRights Initiative which builds capacity of stakeholders to understand and promote human rights and recovery approaches, and supports countries to develop services, policies and laws in line with international human rights standards.

Dr Ahmed Hankir is passionate about empowering and dignifying people with mental health conditions. He leads Collaborating Centre for Mental Health, Disabilities and Human Rights at the Institute for Mental Health, the University of Nottingham. Dr Hankir's research interests include global and Muslim mental health and mental health stigma and he has published extensively in these areas. 

Dr Hankir pioneered the Wounded Healer, an innovative anti-stigma programme that blends the power of the performing arts and storytelling with psychiatry. The Wounded Healer traces Dr Hankir's remarkable recovery journey from hopeless and suicidal 'service user' to empowered mental health advocate and Royal College of Psychiatrist's award-winning doctor. Dr Hankir has personally delivered The Wounded Healer to over 75,000 people in 18 countries in five continents worldwide and has given Keynote Lectures along Nobel Prize Laureates, celebrities and Ted Speakers.

Before becoming the CEO in January 2021, Sarah was the senior service manager of the domestic and sexual abuse services. She started by volunteering over 11 years ago as a rape crisis helpline worker and soon after became a qualified Independent Sexual Violence Advisor, working across Avon and Somerset with young people who had survived rape or sexual assault and had mental ill health. She is committed to ensuring that services are informed and embed the lived experience of the people that use them. She has extensive experience of providing support and advocacy services and in depth understanding of the complex interplay between mental ill health and people’s experiences including domestic and sexual violence and abuse.

Having trained at drama school when she was 18, and performing in theatre in education and radio when she was younger, Sarah’s favourite activities are going to the theatre and cinema as well as walking, cycling, gardening and spending time with her family and friends.

Dr Kieran Walsh is Clinical Director at BMJ. He is the clinical lead of the medical education and clinical decision support resources at BMJ. He has a vast amount of experience in online medical education, clinical decision support, face to face delivery of medical education, and both summative and formative assessment. He has experience of using all of these in programmes to strengthen health systems. He is Adjunct Associate Professor in Teaching and Research at Monash University. He has published over 200 papers in the biomedical literature and has written four books on medical education.

Gordon Lundie is the Senior Director of Market Access and Reimbursement at Gilead Sciences UK and Ireland. He has worked in the pharmaceutical industry since 1993 and has amassed more than 10 years’ experience in leadership positions. He previously roles include Head of Market Access and Corporate Communication at Intercept Pharma, Business Unit Director at UCB and Corporate Affairs Director at GSK. Gordon’s vast industry experience includes working in oncology, viral diseases, inflammation, biologics and liver diseases. Outside of pharmaceutical work, Gordon has extensive experience in local government where he served as the Leader of West Berkshire Council, a unitary authority, from 2012 through 2015 and as a Local Authority Councillor for 16 years.

Dimitri is currently the senior policy lead for digital primary care in the national GP contract team. There, he oversees all digital-related commitments in the contract and also leads on the policy-making for payments and contracting in light of emerging digital-first GP models.

Previously, following a PhD in biosensor development, he worked on healthcare regulation at the Care Quality Commission and the Healthcare Commission, hospital and community services redesign and improvement for London hospitals and purchasers, and national clinical policy for maternity, stroke and other areas at NHS England. He was seconded to the Department for International Trade to lead on NHS-facing facilitation of trade, with Healthcare UK.

He has recently published a comparison on incentives and levers for the digitisation of care in 3 overseas countries and the UK.

Michael has the single mission to fill the world with high-quality, high-impact, patient-centric software solutions.

Liz Ashall Payne is co-founder and CEO of ORCHA, the provider of digital health accreditation and distribution services. A trained Speech and Language Therapist, for almost 20 years Liz led NHS transformation programmes, helping to unlock the power of digital across the UK and Europe.

In 2015 Liz founded ORCHA, attracting investment from Sir Terry Leahy and Bill Currie. The organisation has grown exponentially, now providing digital health assessment and distribution services in eleven countries and in the UK to organisations in 50% of NHS regions.

ORCHA has won numerous awards, whilst Liz has been selected as a Tech Trailblazer by the BIMA 100, picked as a Healthcare IT Leader by the HIMSS Future 50, named Entrepreneur of the Year by the British Chamber of Commerce and has featured within the LDC top 50.

Liz was appointed a NHS England NIA fellow, is a coach for the NHS England Clinical Entrepreneur program, a member of the OCS Advisory Board, the Tech UK Health and Social Care Council and is the Associate Vice Chair for Standards for the British Computing Society.

A multi-award winner, Prof Jaiyesimi has been described by his peers in the United Kingdom as an asset to the UK National Health Service (NHS).

Professor Jaiyesimi is currently the Associate Medical Director for Patient Safety at Mid and South Essex University Hospitals, Essex and Visiting Professor at the Faculty of Law, University of Ibadan. He is a UK National Health Service Patient Safety Specialist and a CQC Advisor. He is a Senior Fellow of the Faculty of Medical Leadership and Management, a Fellow of the Institute of Information Management and an international expert medical witness.

Professor Rotimi Jaiyesimi, a 1978 graduate of the University of Ibadan was appointed Consultant in Obstetrics and Gynaecology in the UK in 1994.

A Fellow of the West African College of Surgeons and Fellow, Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, he also holds a Masters degree in Business Administration from the Newcastle Business School and a Masters degree in Medical Law, from Northumbria University, Newcastle.

Professor Jaiyesimi is a transformation agent with a vast wealth of experience in clinical care, health policy and global health development. He co-authored Nigeria’s National policy on Gender and Health and contributed to the Nigeria’s National Policy on Diaspora Matters. He has published over 60 scientific articles and presented at numerous international scientific conferences.

He is currently the Chairman of the Advisory Board of the Nigerian Commission of the Global Eradication program for Hepatitis.

Merete Nordentoft is an expert in epidemiology, suicidal behavior, psychopathology and early intervention in psychosis. She was PI for many large randomized clinical trials, evaluating the effect of psychosocial intervention, of which the Danish OPUS trial (specialized assertive intervention in first episode psychosis) is the most well known. She has worked with suicide prevention at a national level since 1997. Together with a group of epidemiologist from Nordic countries, she has proved that life expectancy in schizophrenia is 15 to 20 years shorter than in the general population.

Thomas Saaby Noer heads all initiatives related to the application of Virtual Reality in the healthcare segment at Khora. These applications span from marketing solutions for pharma companies to training material for caretakers within psychiatry as well as pain distraction solutions for children. Thomas has previous been working with healthtech innovation in the danish national healthcare sector introducing and testing novel technologies, thereby having a thorough understanding of barriers and possibilities in the sector.

Jenny Scott has extensive experience of UK healthcare services acquired over 32 years of senior management leadership within the National Health Service (NHS). She is skilled in leading complex projects through to successful completion and has a detailed understanding of the significant opportunities and benefits of international healthcare collaborations. Jenny joined UKIHMA as General Manager in April 2020.

Simon is co-chair of the UK International Healthcare Management Association Digital and Data special interest group and Honorary Associate Professor at the University of Exeter Business School INDEX unit. Simon is focussed on helping people use data to inform their actions. He founded Methods Analytics, a data science and AI services company working across Health and Care, Lifescience, Defence and Government sectors. He works with clients to understand how they can use data driven insight to improve what they do, whether informing or delivering organisations strategic objectives, operational decision making or academic research. Simon worked as a doctor before moving into Health economics and blends real world clinical experience with an understanding of the use of data and economics.