Authoritative, independent Guidance

 
About Our Appraisal Process Executive Group Appraisal Panel Assessment Group Signposting Group PPI Standing Group Stakeholder Forum Group Industry User Group Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) HTW Team

The Appraisal Panel considers the Health Technology Wales appraisal evidence within the context of NHS and social care in Wales, and produces the HTW guidance. The panel also helps us to identify important topics, evaluates the uptake of guidance and facilitates stakeholder engagement. Current members are listed below. This meeting is open for members of the public to observe.

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Consultant Interventional Cardiologist

Professor Peter Groves

Peter is a Consultant Interventional Cardiologist at the University Hospital of Wales. He is also Chair of the MHRA Devices Expert Advisory Committee and the NICE Medical Technologies Advisory Committee, and has a great interest in the regulation and health technology assessment of innovative medical devices in the context of the UK NHS. Peter is committed to teaching and research, and has published widely on the scientific basis for medical technology development and utilisation.

Dr Andrew Champion

Assistant Director, Evidence Evaluation and Effectiveness, Appraisal Panel Chair

Biography >
X Andrew has worked in the NHS for almost 30 years, covering a wide range of research and managerial roles. A strong interest in evidence-based medicine led to his appointment in 2003 as Manager/Director of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) clinical guideline programme. In 2016 Andrew took up his current role at the Welsh Health Specialised Services Committee (WHSSC), where he is now enhancing the evidence-based decision making approach across the organisation.
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Pippa Anderson

Head of Swansea Centre for Health Economics

Biography >
X Dr Pippa Anderson is Associate Professor and head of Health Economics, Swansea University. Pippa’s main research interest is prioritisation, resource allocation, undertaking and using economic evaluation and health technology assessment to inform health and care decision making. Whilst working in health economics for the last 25 years, she has worked with pharmaceutical/biotech industry, consulting and academia. She supports a number of organisations in Wales charged with making decisions about health technology adoption, including HTW, All Wales Medicines Strategy Group and Evidence Based Procurement Board.
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Fran Beadle

Chief Nursing Information Offficer, Digital Health and Care Wales

Biography >
X Fran is the National Clinical Informatics Lead (Nursing), currently advising nursing on the standardisation and digitalisation of nursing documentation across Wales with the aim having one nursing language across Wales in support of a “Once for Wales” electronic record. She is the current Chair of the British Computer Society nursing committee, Fellow of UKFCI and Welsh representative on the Five Nations Nursing Informatics Group and Holds a MSc in Health Informatics alongside her Registered Nurse qualification.

Dr Tom Crosby

Consultant Oncologist, Velindre Cancer Centre

Biography >
X Tom is Medical Director of the Wales Cancer Network, Clinical Lead of Clinical Systems Transformation at Velindre Cancer Centre. He is based in Velindre Cancer Centre and currently specialises in upper gastrointestinal cancer; Tom is a leader in Upper Gastrointestinal Oesophageal Chemo-radiotherapy Research, Service and Development in the UK. Tom is also currently the clinical lead for the Transformation of Cancer Services Programme in South East Wales.
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Professor Arpan Guha

Deputy Executive Medical Director at Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board

Biography >
X Arpan is Deputy Executive Medical Director at Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board. He has previously held hospital Medical Director posts in England and Qatar and also academic posts at the University of Liverpool and other international universities. The implementation of NICE guidance to enhance patient care is part of his portfolio and he is keenly interested in the application of evidence based technology in healthcare which is largely derived from his clinical work as a critical care medicine consultant working in a technology-rich area.

Debbie Laubach

Operations Manager, MediWales

Biography >
X Debbie oversees all event organisation and activities at MediWales and frequently engages with members. She creates and facilitates relationships across the sector, assisting in collaboration and understanding the needs of the life science community.
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Dr Sally Lewis

General Practitioner, Aneurin Bevan UHB

Biography >
X Sally has front-line experience of primary care at its most challenging, as she rebuilt a struggling valley-based GP practice into one of the most successful in South East Wales. Her current interests include the utilisation of value-based principles to allocate resource in publicly funded systems, patient outcome data and digital transformation. Still practising as a GP, Sally is now National Clinical Director for Value-based and Prudent Healthcare, and Honorary Professor at Swansea School of Medicine.
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Alan Meudell

Public Partner

Biography >
X Over the past 19 years, Alan has worked with a variety of organisations and has built up an extensive knowledge and experience of how public and patient involvement can benefit policy, practice and service design across all sectors. He is currently co-investigator on a research study at Cardiff University and is advising on developing public and patient involvement for a research initiative in India and Pakistan.
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Dr Susan Myles

Director, Health Technology Wales

Biography >
X Susan has been engaged in applied health technology assessment for 25 years. Before joining Health Technology Wales, she led the development and work of the Scottish Health Technologies Group. Susan has received scholarships from the Department of Health and Medical Research Council, and is a previous recipient of a Harkness Fellowship in Health Care Policy. She holds qualifications in Economics (BA), Health Economics (MSc & PhD) and Epidemiology (PgDip).
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William Oliver

Assistant Director of Therapies and Health Science, Hywel Dda University Health Board

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Dr Raman Sakhuja

Consultant Psychiatrist, Cwm Taf Morgannwg UHB

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Jeffrey Stephens

Consultant Diabetologist. Swansea Bay UHB

Biography >
X Jeff Stephens is Clinical Professor of Diabetes at Swansea University and Consultant Physician in Diabetes, Endocrinology and General Medicine at Morriston Hospital. He is actively involved in teaching/research and remains a practicing physician. He is a member of the Diabetes UK Committee of Healthcare Professionals and Chaired the Diabetes UK Professional Conference Organising Committee for 2020 and 2021. He has also held leadership roles in Medical Education and has over 180 peer-reviewed research publications.
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Dr Jared Torkington

Consultant Colorectal Surgeon, Cardiff & Vale UHB

Biography >
X Jared is a Consultant Surgeon in Cardiff & Vale University Health Board. His clinical and research interests include Bowel Cancer and Laparoscopic Surgery. He was appointed Associate Medical Director for Innovation to support the new collaboration with Cardiff University in the field of Clinical Innovation. He chairs the novel Multidisciplinary Team approach to Clinical Innovation.

Luella Trickett

Director, Association of British HealthTech Industries

Biography >
X Luella joined ABHI in 2019, with over 25 years' experience in the pharmaceutical and HealthTech industries. Her career has seen her hold numerous specialist manufacturing and commercial roles at Baxter Healthcare, with responsibility for a range of product portfolios across the HealthTech spectrum within the UK, Europe, Middle East and Africa.
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Dr Lisa Trigg

Assistant Director, Research, Data and Intelligence, Social Care Wales

Biography >
X Lisa’s role is to support the social care sector in Wales with evidence and research to inform policy and service design. Before joining Social Care Wales, Lisa spent seven years at the London School of Economics conducting comparative research on long-term care systems. Her PhD research explored approaches to quality in residential care. Before this, Lisa spent seventeen years in management and consulting roles in Australia and the UK.

Andy Smallwood

Assistant Director of Procurement, NHS Wales Shared Services Partnership

Biography >
X Andy has worked within procurement management for over 25 years. Having undertaken national roles within NHS England, Andy has spent the past 10 years at NHS Wales Shared Services Partnership As Head of Sourcing and more recently as Assistant Director of Procurement. A strong believer of evidence-based procurement, Andy is the founder of the Orthopaedic Data Evaluation Panel and a co-opted member of the National Joint Registry Steering Committee.

Phil Barnes

Head of Sector Intelligence, Life Sciences Hub Wales

Biography >
X Dr. Phil Barnes leads the Sector Intelligence Team at Life Sciences Hub Wales, providing market analytics and business planning services to both Health Boards and SMEs. With a technical background in molecular neuroscience and Alzheimer’s Disease, Phil has previously worked in the technology transfer and investment banking sectors.
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Louise Baker

PPI Advisor

Biography >
X Louise has worked in Local Authority front line services since 1999. In 2006 she started working within Social Services and Wellbeing, investigating complaints for both Adults and Children's services. During this time Louise worked with a number of local advocacy groups to look at better engagement with individuals accessing services (and their carers), which formed part of the wider Council's engagement framework. In 2014, Louise made the change to work in Integrated Services within the Community focusing specifically around Telecare Responder Services and Tec. Louise has developed an number of new services within this area from short term assessment at home via technology support to Smart Home assessments for people with visual impairments and is currently developing a new implementation of virtual support via the use of tablets for community therapy.

Rhodri Davies

Cardiology Consultant at the University Hospital of Wales

Biography >
X Rhodri is a Cardiology Consultant at the University Hospital of Wales and as Associate Clinical Professor at the Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences, University College London. He has a background in computer science and machine learning and his main research interests are in translating AI methods to clinical care to improve patient management and gain new insight into disease.
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Tim O'Sullivan

Head of Research and Academia, DHCW

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Mohid Khan

Consultant Gastroenterologist, Clinical Informatician, Clinical Lead Wales Neuroendocrine Cancer Service, Cardiff & Vale University Health Board

Biography >
X Mohid is a Consultant Gastroenterologist in Cardiff & Vale UHB. He has led the transformation of the Neuroendocrine Cancer Service in South Wales through a Value Based approach focusing on patient reported outcomes and experience, achieving European Centre of Excellence status. He has had leadership roles in a variety of digital healthcare, innovation and clinical research projects at local, national and international levels.

Melanie Wilkey

Deputy Director of Commissioning, Cardiff & Vale University Health Board

Biography >
X I have worked for the NHS for 13 years and been with Cardiff and Vale UHB for 7 of those. As a commissioner, I have a keen interest in ensuring we deploy our limited resources to deliver the most benefit for our patients; being on the appraisal panel is a fascinating insight into how new treatments and interventions are evaluated and recommended for use in the NHS in Wales.
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Anthony Williams

Head of Patient Access to Medicines, All Wales Therapeutics and Toxicology Centre

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Maria Selby

Principal Officer Children Services, Social Services Health and Housing, Neath Civic Centre

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Rhidian Hurle

Executive Medical Director, DHCW

Biography >
X Rhidian was appointed Chief Clinical Information Officer for Wales in 2015 and is also the Medical Director of Digital Health Care Wales. He continues part time clinical practice as an NHS Consultant Surgeon working in Cwm Taf Morgannwg University Heath Board specialising in urological oncology. Rhidian holds a masters with distinction in Digital Health Leadership and is a Founding Fellow of the Faculty of Clinical Informatics. He has a keen interest in the use of technology as an enabler of high quality health care delivery with a particular focus on user interfaces and is committed to the use of technology to drive through improvements in the quality and efficiency of healthcare.

Professor Chris Hopkins

Consultant Clinical Scientist and Head of the TriTech Institute, Hywel Dda University Health Board

Biography >
X Professor Chris Hopkins is a Consultant Clinical Scientist and Head of the TriTech Institute in Hywel Dda University Health Board. Chris is also a Clinical Director within the University of Wales Trinity Saint David. Chris is a Fellow of the Academy for Healthcare Science and was recently awarded the Excellence in Healthcare Science Research and Innovation Award at the NHS England Chief Scientific Officer’s Excellence in Healthcare Science Awards 2022.

The Appraisal Panel includes senior representatives from every local health board and partners from social care in Wales, alongside other key stakeholders. To learn more about the purpose of the group, see the Health Technology Wales Appraisal Panel Terms of Reference.