The Health Technology Wales Assessment Group quality assures our work, ensuring methodological rigour in the HTW processes. The group oversees the production of the Evidence Appraisal Reports (EARs) and considers independent expert input.
Dr Susan Myles
Assessment Group Chair
Health Technology Wales Director, Assessment Group Chair
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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).
Bernie Sewell
Senior Lecturer in Health Economics at the Swansea Centre for Health Economics, Swansea University
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Berni is the senior health economist and health technology assessment lead at the Swansea Centre for Health Economics at Swansea University and a co-applicant and communications and engagement lead at Health and Care Economics Cymru. She has led a variety of health economic evaluations of new interventions, treatments and services including real-world evaluations based on routine data, model-based evaluations, NICE guidelines and cost-effectiveness analyses alongside large multicentre randomised controlled trials, currently especially in the fields of cancer, prevention and COVID-19.
Diane Seddon
Reader in Social Care, Bangor University
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Diane has lead in developing a successful social care research programme, attracting research grants totalling over £7 million. She has an established reputation for completing policy relevant research that has impact, including reviews of national policy implementation such as the National Carers Strategy in Wales for the Welsh Government. Diane contributes to the development and delivery of Welsh Government’s Research Infrastructure Support System and leads initiatives to better integrate research, policy and practice.
Emma Hughes
PPI Advisor
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Emma is a dynamic policy strategist with a successful background in driving forward change at local and national level. She has experience working with the private, public and third sector and is actively engaged in the public affairs agenda of government and shaping health and social care policy. Emma is the Policy and Engagement Manager for the charity, Genetic Alliance UK. She has worked for the past six years to help improve systems and processes for rare disease patients in accessing orphan and ultra-orphan medicines, technologies and specialised services.
Ian Rees
Consultant Social Worker, Neath Port Talbot Social Services
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Ian Rees is a Consultant Social Worker with Neath Port Talbot Social Services, with over 40 years’ experience in working in Substance Misuse and Children’s
services, he also chairs the local Gypsy Traveller Working Party. In his current post he is responsible for Knowledge Mobilisation, finding creative links between the needs of Social Services and academia.
Dr James Evans
Research & Development Officer, Surgical Materials Testing Laboratory (SMTL)
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James works as a Research & Development Officer at the Surgical Materials Testing Laboratory. His work centres on carrying out evidence reviews for the Evidence Based Procurement Board. Previously James worked at Cedar, a healthcare technology research centre, where his work fed into the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence's (NICE) Medical Technologies Evaluation Programme and Interventional Procedures Programme. James has a BSc (Hons) in Microbiology and a PhD in Microbiology (Cardiff University).
Jennifer Hilgart
Quality Assurance Editor, Cochrane
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Jen currently works for Cochrane as a Quality Assurance Editor, assessing the methodological quality of systematic reviews and review protocols. Prior to this, she worked in evidence synthesis at the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and for developing NICE guidelines. Jen has also worked in academia at Cardiff University and the Welsh Institute for Health and Social Care at the University of South Wales.
Joanna Charles
Deputy Head of Health Economics, Finance Directorate, Health and Social Services Group, Welsh Government
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Dr Joanna Charles is the Deputy Head of Health Economics in Welsh Government. Joanna previously worked in academia, including providing health economic support to Public Health Wales. She has a PhD in Health Economics and holds qualifications in Psychology (BSc Hons & MSc). Her interests include economic evaluations of public health interventions, Programme Budgeting and Marginal Analysis (PBMA), evidence synthesis and micro-costing methodologies
Mark Briggs
Assistant Director of Innovation Cardiff and Vale University Health Board & Adoption Ambassador for Precision Medicine Life Sciences Hub Wales
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Mark is the Assistant Director for Innovation for Cardiff and Vale University Health Board and the Precision Medicine Ambassador for the Life Sciences Hub Wales. Prior to this he was Co-Director Midland-Wales Advanced Therapies Treatment Centre, Programme Lead for Advanced Therapies Wales, Head of Cell and Gene Therapy for the Welsh Blood Service and Head of Strategy for Research, Development and Innovation Velindre University NHS Trust having previously spent more than 20 years within R&D in the commercial Life Sciences industry.
Professor Peter Groves
Consultant Interventional Cardiologist, Health Technology Wales Chair
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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 Rhys Morris
Director, Cedar Evaluation Centre
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Rhys has been Director of Cedar, the Centre for Healthcare Technology Research, since August 2020. He is a Consultant Clinical Scientist in Medical Physics and Clinical Engineering at the University Hospital of Wales, and has long experience of working with the Medical Device industry in the research and development of vascular diagnostic and therapeutic techniques. Rhys specialises in the prevention of mechanical DVT, and co-ordinates the teaching of Medical Physics at undergraduate level at Cardiff University.
Dr Rob Orford
Chief Scientific Advisor, Welsh Government
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Rob has been the Chief Scientific Adviser for Health since January 2017. He is the professional lead for Genomics, Imaging, Pathology and Healthcare Science, and is involved in developing strategic national programmes in diagnostics and health science. He works closely with the Executive Directors of Therapies and Health Science, HTW and is sponsor of the Welsh Scientific Advisory Committee. He is an external working group member of the European Scientific Committee for Health, Environment and Emerging Risks.
Ruth Lewis
Senior Lecturer, North Wales Centre for Primary Care Research (NWCPCR), Bangor University
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Ruth is a senior lecturer at the North Wales Centre for Primary Care Research (NWCPCR), Bangor University. She is also a member of the PRIME Centre Wales (the Wales Centre for Primary and Emergency Care Research) and the Wales COVID-19 Evidence Centre. Ruth has over 20 years’ experience as a systematic review methodologist. She has worked on a variety of review types covering a wide range of therapeutic indications and interventions for both technology appraisals and clinical guidelines. Prior to her research career, she worked in the NHS as an allied health professional and in clinical audit. She has a PhD in Health economics.
Sarah Peddle
Public Partner
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Sarah joined the Involving People Network (IPN) – now public involvement community – in May 2017. She is also a member of the Public Involvement Delivery Board, a PRIME SUPER group and Consumer Panel for Data Linkage (SAIL) member. More recently, Sarah was appointed as a Theme Research Partner with the Wales Cancer Research Centre. Sarah is fully committed to supporting public involvement in research looks forward to contributing to Health Technology Wales' work.
To learn more about the purpose of the group, see the Health Technology Wales Assessment Group Terms of Reference.
