Celebrating our 2023 Fellows

About Alice

I studied medicine at The University of Birmingham and went on to complete my foundation training across the South East of England. I am currently a GP specialty registrar within Hampshire. My clinical interests include women's and reproductive health, diabetes care, weight management, and promotion of healthier lifestyle choices.

Outside of the consulting room, I have a strong grounding in healthcare research having completed a Masters of Health Research. I have practical experience leading and collaborating as part of a clinical research team and have published research within women's health, global health, and medical education.

I am passionate about how stakeholders’ lived experiences can be used to develop and refine healthcare interventions and improve outcomes. This includes more closely understanding how psycho-sociocultural factors might influence people’s behaviours and how they engage with healthcare services. I am excited to build upon my skills in this area during the fellowship year by meaningfully translating this into a population health project.

Longer term, as a future GP, I am motivated to advocate for the healthcare needs of my local community, provide quality clinical care to my individual patients, and further pursue my interests in clinical academia.

Fellowship Project Summary

I have been working with OHID South East during my Population Health Fellowship. I am currently leading a project on having conversations on healthier weight with women around the time of pregnancy. The project aims to develop an understanding of the current barriers and enablers that healthcare professionals across the region experience when discussing weight with women around the time of pregnancy. At an individual level, initiating discourse on this topic will improve awareness amongst healthcare professionals of the value of embedding conversations that support the prevention of ill-health into their clinical role. More widely, it is anticipated this work will identify areas for improvement and a set of recommendations for commissioners and providers that will promote the capability and confidence of workforces across the South East.

About Amelia

I am a paediatric registrar working in the South-West undertaking specialist training in Community Child Health, having graduated from the University of Birmingham in 2009. I moved to the Severn Deanery for Foundation training onwards and love living in this beautiful part of the world, especially being near the coast and getting in the sea for a swim whenever possible.

My interest in population health started with an Intercalated BSc in Public Health and Epidemiology, where I completed research on the characteristics of women and girls with Obstetric Fistula in Zambia. I continued this interest as a postgraduate by undertaking the Diploma of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene in Liverpool and leading a research project on the care of children with Neuro-disability in Malawi. My time as an NIHR clinical academic trainee in Child Health with the University of Bristol gave me a grounding in research skills and involved completing studies on topics including the outcomes of weight faltering in infancy and the health of children excluded from school. My research interests have always focussed on the broad determinants of health and development in children and young people and the conditions in which they live, learn and play.

I am looking forward to deepening my understanding of population health through this fellowship and applying this experience to my NHS role as a Community Paediatrician - an area of medicine where the impacts of inequalities and adversity on health are seen on a daily basis. I hope the skills gained will help me better serve the community in which I work and improve outcomes for the children and young people I help care for.

Fellowship Project Summary: Understanding inequalities in school readiness in Devon 

Health and development in the critical early childhood years is central to my work in Community Paediatrics and of key importance in wider Population Health and outcomes across the life-course. In my clinics, I have been concerned about the impact on child development in families facing adversity, further exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic. School readiness in Devon (as measured by children achieving a Good Level of Development at the end of the Early Years Foundation Stage at 5 years old), is similar overall to the rest of England. However, this hides an inequality gap in school readiness for children from deprived backgrounds which is wider than national levels. My project aims to investigate inequalities in school readiness in children across Devon by place and person, using linked health and education data, to identify targets for intervention. The insights generated will influence work on early years strategy and service development in Devon, with the aim of narrowing the inequality gap and improving school readiness for children identified as higher risk. 

About Anna

After 17 years in my nursing career, working 10 years, as an Advanced Clinical Practitioner. The majority of my work has been in Leeds, West Yorkshire. More recently I have transitioned to the Community after many years in secondary care.

Improving patient care, outcomes and reducing health inequalities is the centre of my practice and something I am extremely passionate about. It is exciting to be part of improving our populations healthcare. In addition, an exciting new challenge for me in my career. I am keen to be working alongside the Intermediate Care Board developing the regional projects.

The Population Health Fellowship Programme will be an asset to my current role as a Community Matron / Advanced Clinical Practitioner. The Population Health Fellowship Programme will compliment my current role and be beneficial for my patients and peers alike.

Fellowship Project Summary: Antimicrobial resistance within the Roma Population 

The aim is to undertake projects that help reduce resistant gram-negative bacterial infections, and the associated morbidity and mortality that they cause, which is expected to become increasingly challenging and severe with time. This is part of my work in taking measures to combat antimicrobial resistance within the Roma Population, which is in alignment with the current aims of the West Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership. I aim to explore and understand the barriers to accessing healthcare for the Roma population and co-produce information to this population group to aid a better understanding about anti-biotic use, seeking help early and preventative measures that can help reduce infections and in turn the need to use antibiotics at the right time when required.  

The main aspects for this project will be understanding and building trust with this population group and identifying information about common practices they use currently to meet their healthcare needs and we improve getting the information to this community group at the right time and right place for them. Once this basic information is found, I aim to obtain qualitative information from community interest groups, voluntary sectors, Roma community, Pharmacists and Allied Health Professionals how we can build on co-producing information the community will understand to help reduced preventable infections and where to seek advise at the right time.  This information can then be the basis of discussions and future projects ideally using a collaborative approach with the voluntary sectors to work with each other to improve healthcare needs and reducing infections for the Roma population. 

About Charlotte

I am a GP ST3 in South London and have mostly lived and worked in London since graduating from Birmingham Medical School in 2017. Prior to commencing GP training, I volunteered as a doctor in Zambia. My work there focussed on improving the access to healthcare for rural communities and developed my interest in population health. Over my GP Training, this interest has grown as I have seen the impact of the wider determinants of health upon the diverse patient groups in South London. I hope to build a career as a GP with a special interest in Adolescent Health and through this fellowship am particularly keen to learn how to use population health approaches to reduce health inequalities in this group.

Fellowship Project Summary 

Working with the Public Health team at the Royal Free Hospital to design and deliver a Population Health Upskilling Programme for staff. This project will lay the foundations for the Faculty of Population Health at the Free which will train all staff to have Making Every Contact Count (MECC)/lifestyle conversations with patients. Connecting with staff across the hospital, the Upskilling Programme will also be an opportunity to collect feedback about the barriers to MECC in secondary care and co-produce further training with frontline colleagues.  

About Chris

I am currently an information manager with the Coventry and Warwickshire Pathology Service. I have a somewhat eclectic background and at various times have been data analyst, sociologist and urban forester. I spent many years working in local government, where I managed trees and parks. This experience led me to develop an interest in the way in which public services interact with the communities that they serve. Pursuing that interest, I undertook a PhD that investigated the role of effective engagement between public sector organisations and communities in reducing inequality. I joined the NHS in 2018 as a data analyst embedded in the infection prevention and control team and have been analysing data about performance and service delivery ever since. But my real passion is using data (both quantitative and qualitative) to understand and challenge inequality.

About Christopher

I am a GP ST2 trainee in Portsmouth.

I am originally from Nigeria, where I was born, raised and trained.

I worked there for a few years, mostly in Emergency Medicine before moving to England and doing several trust grade jobs prior to going into training.

I have always been fascinated by both General Practice and Public Health and I see this fellowship as an opportunity to explore them both as well as discover where the intersection between these two disciplines lies.

I have always felt analysing and addressing issues at the population level was the key to achieving better overall healthcare for large groups of people and I am looking forward to learning how to do that over the course this fellowship.

About Chui-Yan

I have recently just finished a one year secondment as a clinical leadership fellow on the Future Leaders Programme where I looked at the safer use of opioids. I am an Advanced Clinical Pharmacist in palliative care by background and work at two hospices. The fellowship provided me with an opportunity to learn about aspects of leadership which are not normally taught in a clinical environment such as compassionate leadership, equity, diversity and inclusion in leadership. I will be keen to implement what I have learnt about leadership into my population health role as well. My role as a pharmacist in palliative and the opportunities on the Future Leaders Programme highlighted a budding interest in population health that I wanted to pursue, which has led me to the population health fellowship.

I am keen to understand the impacts of the wider determinants of health and how it affects our populations and the health inequalities of the populations whilst still maintaining sustainability of the environment and healthcare systems. I also want look at how to implement practical approaches in improving health inequalities.

Fellowship Project Summary

I will be looking at reducing and understanding the barriers and reasons to DNA/WNBs with outpatient appointments. This will be done in conjunction with looking at how the Trust can reduce the health inequalities associated with DNA/WNBs and how to address these barriers to access outpatient services using practical solutions that serve our diverse population.  This will be in line with the NHS Outpatient Recovery and Transformation Programme.

I am a doctor undertaking the National Health Equity Focussed GP Training Programme (NHEFT). I am currently in my second year of GP training in Nottingham. I enrolled onto the Population Health Fellowship Programme as I have an interest in Public Health and hope to have a special interest in this area once I am a fully qualified GP. Working on the frontline in the NHS highlighted to me the stark health inequalities that exist in our country and inspired me to work to address these during my career. I hope that undertaking this Population Health Fellowship will increase my knowledge and skills in this field so that I can instil positive change, address inequalities and improve the health of communities.   

About Emily

I am a GP trainee working in Bristol with a passion for primary care and working together to reduce healthcare inequalities. I have worked in a variety of healthcare settings in both primary care, secondary care and educational settings across England in London, Liverpool and Bristol. I have an interest in public health having completed the Diploma in Tropical Medicine and Hygiene in Liverpool and am passionate about education with a PGCert qualification. I am excited to be able to apply the skills I have developed through my qualifications and clinical experience to my population health project. I am also on the Severn GP Trainee Committee.

Looking into the future after the fellowship, I am looking forward to utilising population health principles in my clinical role as a GP, advocating for populations who need support and having a focus on disease prevention.

Fellowship Project Summary:  Patient Perspectives on Cardiovascular Conditions and Current NHS Services   

A risk-sensitive population segmentation model has been created and used to support planning and population health management activities within the Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire (BNSSG) ICB. The population in segment 5 represents around 3% of the population and are the most multimorbid (using Cambridge Multimorbidity Score) and highest healthcare cost (mean annual spend per person). Further data analysis of segment 5 reveals ‘clusters’ of populations that have distinct of co-morbidities profiles.   

This project will focus on a cluster of patients with a high proportion of cardiovascular comorbidities and will quantitatively evaluate the demographic characteristics of these patients. Suitable patients have been identified to conduct qualitative interviews which will assess the following:   

·       Patient’s understanding of their cardiovascular comorbidities as well as the management options, and the extent that this was discussed at diagnosis.  

·       Patient's attitudes to management options including lifestyle modifications and medications.  

·       Experience of ongoing cardiovascular care e.g. annual reviews at the GP practice, secondary care clinics, voluntary sector and therapy services.  

·       If the patients have any perceived barriers to accessing care or relevant healthcare professionals   

·       What else, if anything, patients wish with hindsight they were offered during their journey    

The information from the qualitative research will be used to guide adaptation of an existing service or development of a new service to improve cardiovascular outcomes for this population. 

I qualified as an adult nurse in 2009 after studying Nursing at the University of Manchester. Since qualifying I have worked in neonatal intensive care, district nursing, and rehabilitation nursing. My current role, and one I have been in for seven years is School Nursing. This role encompasses immunisations, safeguarding children and families through Child Protection and Child In Need and delivering Public Health messages, emotional and mental health support and parenting support. I have always been passionate about Public Health and health promotion, and with my current role as a school nurse in a deprived and poverty stricken area, I have become more interested in bridging the gap for health inequalities within the community I serve.

As part of the fellowship, I joined the Trafford Public Health team in September 2023. My research project is looking at vaping among the CYP in Trafford and how we can reduce this or help them to reduce or stop. I will be based in Trafford Town Hall with the team on a Thursday.

Looking into the future after the fellowship I am looking forward to utilising population health principles in my clinical role as a GP, advocating for populations who need support and having a focus on disease prevention.

Fellowship Project Summary

My project is looking into Children/YP vaping habits/reasons in Trafford and how we can reduce the starters and support those wanting to quit. I am also looking at parental perception of vaping and how vaping could be impacting education. 

I am an Advanced Clinical Practitioner working in Primary care, where I work alongside my GP colleagues in seeing, assessing, examining, diagnosing, treating, prescribing, referring, managing long-term conditions, and discharging patients.

Integral to my role in primary care is ensuring patients are able to access primary care services, promoting the importance screening, health checks, smoking cessation, regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, socio-economic status. As a practice we support patients from a more deprived area of South Manchester, and we know that patients from deprived areas are more likely to have multimorbidity, and spend more of their life in ill-health. As such an important part of my role is being proactive with this cohort of patients, ensure that we address any health concerns, such as smoking cessation and health screenings, and taking every opportunity to discuss these inequalities with patients.

As an Advanced Clinical Practitioner, I have to practice my four pillars; clinical practice, education, research & leadership. The fellowship would enable me to fulfil the areas of my practice that often get overlooked in the busy primary care environment.

Trafford Public health are my host organisation, and my project will look at cancer rates in Trafford, identifying any cancer clusters and looking at possibly reasons for these clusters. Ultimately the aim of the project is to look at ways of reducing cancer rates by engaging communities in health checks, screening and improving their awareness of signs of cancer.

Fellowship Project Summary

“What interventions and strategies can Public Health introduce in Partington to reduce health inequalities in cancer”. 

We know that deaths from cancer in Partington are higher than the rest of Trafford but are similar to other socio-economical deprived areas in England. This project will complete a literature review to see what interventions or strategies public health could implement to help reduce deaths from cancer in Partington. Engagement with community groups and key stakeholders will look at barriers and facilitators to screening, and their thoughts on these interventions.

About Fiona

Senior Public Health Programme Manager: Children and Young People’s Mental Health

Chair of British Psychological Society Scotland

I am thrilled to be here on the fellowship, and to be learning from colleagues who have expertise from across different geographical areas and disciplines. My career ambition is to become a Consultant in Public Health.

My background is in Psychology, a field I have had the privilege to have worked in for many years. I spent 14 years in the NHS, and a further 6 years in private practice as an Associate. Working with individuals in psychology settings, I became aware of the need for a population health approach, such as the need to tackle stigma, the benefits of early intervention and preventative approaches and our collective responsibility to ensure provision of care for disadvantaged groups. Working now in a public health setting, I realise the many transferrable skills that my psychology background also brings to population health. For example, having worked with individuals, I have witnessed the pain of real people with unmet need who are represented within the statistics and policies, and the stories of real people, and therefore I truly appreciate the enormity of scale of the combined impact that can be made across many more people, when working strategically at population level towards health improvement. 

I am excited to be here, and to be part of this difference. Thank you for this opportunity to learn from you all, to work on placement in Thurrock, and to bring back what I learn to enhance my effectiveness during my public health work in Luton.

Fellowship Project Summary

At Thurrock, my projects include carrying out a Family Hubs needs assessment, and then carrying out a Children and Young People’s Mental Health needs assessment. Following this, I will then undertake a Children and Young People’s Mental Health service transformation. 

In my previous substantive role at Luton, I led on the development of ‘Stick Around’, the first known trauma-informed mental health stigma campaign and staff training materials, by working with artists and campaign creators. These evidence-based, policy driven materials, aim to actively tackle stigma and discrimination, to teach the public validation and distress tolerance, to better understand resilience, to normalise distress in context, to promote improved community cohesion and inclusion, all with a view to improving the quality of social support available within communities, so as family and friends can ‘Stick Around’ rather than withdraw from people they know who are experiencing distress. This project is intended as a preventative approach to tackling mental health for people of all ages. This approach is relevant to the ‘socio-economic’ part of social determinants of health, and all materials have been created in collaboration with professionals and people with lived experience, during many co-production focus groups. I am keeping in touch with former colleagues, regarding the effectiveness of a local pilot campaign, and all being well, I can oversee wider rollout.

About Greatson

I am a GP Specialty Trainee in the West Midlands, and currently the AiT Rep for my VTS with the RCGP. After graduating medical school, I have worked in a variety of settings in Nigeria before relocating to the UK.  As a member of CMDA, Nigeria, from 2009-2016, and an Executive in 2015-2016, I was part of many free medical and humanitarian outreaches. I worked with an Innovation Lab in Singapore in 2018 to address SDG 3 with workable solutions. I had been a part of government researches during the Ebola outbreak in Nigeria, and have carried out researches on health inequalities and chronic pain management, which helped influence policy at local and state levels. Projects and research done in the UK have been aimed at reducing inequalities in clinical settings.

I am passionate about improving health access, delivery and outcomes, with interests in global/public health, and policy advocacy. This opportunity fits perfectly with my desired model for being able to make meaningful and worthwhile contributions to health outcomes, and I am hoping to combine skills from General Practice and the fellowship to make this a reality.

Fellowship Project Summary

The aim is to address these barriers in the wider project before scaling, and consequently improve awareness among healthcare professionals about the burden of alcohol locally, available services, and increase referrals into the system.  

About Gwyneth

A British-born Nigerian Occupational Therapist based in London. Having qualified in 2013 from The University of Northampton, Gwyneth has a broad range of experience working in community settings such as social services, acute community adult mental health services and, more recently, children and adolescents’ mental health services. Alongside her professional career, she has previously been able to facilitate support groups for Black Women who live with mental health conditions to strongly advocate for more positive mental health experiences within the Afro-Caribbean Community.

As well as her current role as a Specialist Occupational Therapist in CAMHS, Gwyneth has recently taken up the role of a school governor for a local specialist education school sitting on the safeguarding committee within this role.  Gwyneth is also an active mentor supporting students and junior occupational therapists of colour. She is currently leading a project within her trust to develop a BAME allied health professions mentoring scheme to support the ongoing needs of the BAME AHP workforce. She was recognised for her efforts within this project and subsequently awarded the supporting diversity award in the WLMHT AHP conference award ceremony.

Within her experiences, Gwyneth has always had a keen interest in service improvement. In each of her roles, she has been able to develop and shape services to improve overall outcomes for service users. Her role in mental health further highlighted the disparities between marginalised communities accessing care and the overall physical health outcomes experienced by many service users accessing mental health services. These experiences have inspired her to pursue the population health fellowship in a bid to consider how to make services more equitable and more accessible whilst ensuring care provided is safe and meets the needs of the population.

Fellowship Project Summary:

Title: The experiences of clinical allied health professional leaders in addressing health disparities and improving health outcomes amongst people from diverse backgrounds 

This study aims to explore the experiences of clinical leaders within allied health professions in the United Kingdom regarding their efforts to address health inequalities and improve health outcomes for diverse populations.  The research objectives include understanding clinical leaders' perceptions of health inequalities, exploring their strategies for improving health outcomes, identifying barriers and facilitators in their efforts, and examining ongoing initiatives within their scope of practice. The study employs a qualitative approach, specifically Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), which emphasizes exploring and understanding individuals' lived experiences.  

Data collection will involve semi-structured one-to-one interviews conducted online through MS Teams. Purposive sampling will be employed to select 4-10 participants with direct experience as a clinical lead allied health professional.  This research is significant due to the limited existing literature on the subject, and insights from clinical leaders are expected to contribute valuable information for developing interventions and shaping future policies to reduce health inequalities in the UK.  

About Hazel

I graduated as a doctor in 2019 from the University of Birmingham. I am currently a GPST2, training in the West Midlands area. I have had a keen interest in Public Health since qualifying but have not had the chance to explore it in more depth until now. The Population Health Fellowship will be a fantastic opportunity for me to undertake a project which I am enthusiastic about and which I hope will make a difference to patient care. I hope to consider a career with roles in both General Practice and Public Health in the future. I am also passionate about medical education, and I am looking forward to sharing what I learn with my primary care colleagues. I consider population health to be extremely relevant to our work with patients from all walks of life and striving for equal access to health for all members of society.  

Fellowship Project Summary  

My project explores the health needs of the homeless population in the Walsall area. I am speaking to stakeholders and reviewing available research, to consider how the services can better meet the needs of this population. My project will lead to the production of a written homeless health needs audit report, with recommendations for change, which I hope will make a case for allocation of funding and resources to better serve this population. I also hope to produce an educational component to share my learning with other health care professionals. 

About Jamie

I am an Emergency Medicine Registrar, based in North East England. I graduated from Newcastle University in 2016. During my medical degree, I became interested in the social determinants of health and was able to complete an intercalated masters in Public Health and Health Services research with a dissertation project exploring the healthcare experiences of individuals seeking asylum in the North East of England.

I love the variety of working in the Emergency Department both in the conditions I see and the range of people I meet. During my training become increasingly aware of the health inequalities faced by my patients which has given me the motivation to pursue my interest in public health. I am excited to have the opportunity through the fellowship to develop my knowledge and skills further and in turn allow me to integrate a population health approach in my work.

Fellowship Project Summary: Population Health Approach to Emergency Department High Intensity Use- Addressing an unmet need. 

People who frequently attend Emergency Departments account for less than 1% of the population but over 16% of presentations to ED. It is recognised that frequent attendance at ED is often a sign of unmet need. Frequent attendance at ED is strongly associated with deprivation and inequalities and that this population has worse health outcomes than the general population. In the ED where I am working they currently develop care plans which guide on how to manage individuals presentations. Whilst these improve safety for individual attendances they do not address the unmet needs. My project aims to establish a High Intensity User Services where a key worker will work with individuals to help address the underlying causes driving their attendances. This will hopefully improve the health of these individuals whilst also relieving pressure on ED and other acute services.  

About Jane

I am a Clinical Specialist Physiotherapist and Pathway Coordinator of the Bath and Northeast Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire Health and Care Long Covid service. This is the first clinical service across our emerging ICS. It has been a privilege to work in a field of emerging medicine, co-producing rehabilitation services with patients, allied health professionals, medical colleagues, commissioners and third sector organisations crafting care to enable recovery or living well with this debilitating condition. Many of the skills, experiences and service models we have created will go on to well-serve other long term conditions.

I have always been interested in preventing ill health. I am a keen advocate of exercise and physical activity in any form that works for an individual. Empowering people to take care and responsibility for their own health and wellbeing. I am hoping this fellowship will broaden and deepen my understanding of health inequalities and how to maximise my influence to manage the challenge of moving interventions upstream to prevent rather than react. I am looking forward to being challenged personally and professionally, identifying my own biases and thinking about developments and challenges through the lens of population health. I am not sure where this fellowship will take me but I am committed to making it count to influence change in the way we implement healthcare in the future.

Fellowship Project Summary 

Improving vaccine uptake in people (over 18 years) with an acute respiratory admission in the last 3 years who were eligible for but didn’t have a Covid-19, flu or PPV vaccination. 

This project will identify populations where an improved uptake of vaccinations and opportunity for brief intervention and/or signposting for support around risk factors (smoking, malnutrition, chronic liver disease due to alcohol abuse and poor dentition) and good hygiene (handwashing, use of tissues) and housing (cold or damp house is linked to increased susceptibility) is likely to lead to improved respiratory health, quality of life and reduce the likelihood of acute respiratory crisis and the need to access urgent and emergency care in the target population. It will also reduce the need to access interventional medicines. The prevention of acute presentations will also reduce non elective admissions, and associated pressures on hospital and community-based services. This is a new project but will build upon existing work around vaccinations and good work developed during Covid-19 around proactive outreach. Outcomes will include Improved vaccination uptake in target populations. Reduction in respiratory related ED attendance and hospital admissions in the target populations. 

I started my career by completing a physiotherapy degree at the University of Nottingham. I then worked as musculoskeletal physiotherapist in the ski resort of Val d’Isere, and when returning to England, spent two years in the NHS. During my time as a physiotherapist, I began to recognise how collective mechanisms and empowering contexts impacted individuals’ interaction with their health. Building on this interest, I undertook a MSc in Public Health at the London School for Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and took on a role as my companies Public Health Lead. When COVID-19 hit, I changed role to work as a Health Protection Practitioner for, what was then Public Health England, and is now the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA). I have worked at the UKHSA for nearly three years, and have taken a specialist interest in Prison and Migrant Health, working my way up to a Senior Executive Officer role. I took on the National Population Fellowship in September, and will be working on a population segmentation model in Mid and South Essex, alongside my work for the UKHSA.

Fellowship Project Summary 

My time on the fellowship is being spent in Mid/South Essex ICB. I am working within their population health management team, on a segmentation model. It is currently in the development phase, but will be moving forwards for dissemination to PCNs for practical use. 

About Kate

I am a community pharmacist working for Well Pharmacy as part of my role as Local Relationship Pharmacist. My current key priorities are leading the national influenza vaccination service for Well community pharmacies, supporting with Locally Commissioned Service development and implementation, and leading on Community Pharmacy representation through Local Pharmaceutical Committees.

I have a keen interest in the further development of the community pharmacy workforce and the wider role we can play in healthcare systems, having completed a postgraduate diploma in Clinical and Public Health Pharmacy. I work collaboratively with other healthcare professionals to begin to address health inequalities found through vaccination programmes. A successful example has been leading on increasing Covid-19 vaccination uptake in Wales utilising a roving model from the Well Mobile Health Clinic.

Throughout my Fellowship I will be working with Lancashire and South Cumbria Foundation Trust to look at health inequalities associated with waiting lists for Mental Health services. I’m really excited to be exploring a new clinical area as well as increasing my knowledge of population health promotion, management and prevention. The scope of my project has not yet been defined however I’m looking forward to working with new teams to see how I can utilise my previous experiences, so together we can have a positive influence.

Fellowship Project Summary

My project will be focusing on community engagement and service promotion of mental health and wellbeing services within a priority ward in Lancashire and South Cumbria. I have been working closely with the mental health teams from Lancashire and South Cumbria foundation trust, whilst also reaching out to organisations outside of the trust such as community services, voluntary service providers and those leading population and health inequalities work within the locality. Supported by the information gathered by the Population Health team at the ICB, LSCft, PCN Population Health leads, and by the insight information from Healthwatch, I hope my project is successful to get people talking about the support and services available to help address mental health inequalities.  

About Kayla

Khue-Anh (Kayla) Vuong joined NHS England in 2020 as a MedTech Innovation manager, where she works working closely with AI Award winners and their evaluation teams to support them on their adoption journey to the NHS. Prior to joining the NHS, she worked at the MS Society as a Research Programme Manager supporting the development and delivery of their funding grants, with a focus on clinical trials. Kayla is a PRINCE2 and MSP Practitioner and has a Bachelor's degree in Neuroscience (King's College London) and a Master's degree in Neuroimaging (UCL).

Kayla is passionate about equity of access to healthcare and would love to use the knowledge and experience she gains from the Population Health Fellowship to address health inequality and improving outcome and access for patients. She is particularly interested in leveraging population health technique to maximise the benefit of health tech innovation for patients and the NHS system.

Fellowship Project Summary

The project will identify any inequalities of access and outcomes patterns for different demographics of service users across North East London (NEL) Talking Therapies services. In addition, the project will identify existing approaches to improve practice to ensure equity for the population it’s serving.  

This will be done by: 

1.       A deep dive review of the 7 Local Authorities current demographics and their TT access and recovery rates to identify area of needs. 

2.       Identifying policy guidelines, framework or any case studies of existing projects (within or outside NEL) to improve access for these communities. 

3.       Bringing the NEL TT Collaboratives together to discuss and agree on priorities to address these inequalities.

About Kirsty

I am anaesthetic core trainee in the South West currently working in Gloucestershire NHS Foundation Trust. I have a BSc in Biological and Biomedical Sciences with Honours in Medical Biology from Edinburgh University and a MSc in Global Health and Development from UCL. I have a background in public health having left university interested in public health and then worked for charities in Indonesia and London on projects ranging from addressing health, nutrition, sanitation issues in remote villages in Bali to coordinating individual fundraising events to raise money to fund projects helping children affected by conflict in Uganda, Democratic Republic of Congo, Iraq and Afghanistan. My interest in health inequalities was augmented with my internship at the WHO in Geneva where I worked with the Department of Social Determinants of Health to facilitate their goal setting with the International Organisation of Migration in order to start a project to address health inequalities in migrant populations.

I aim to integrate population health into my anaesthetic career specifically with regards to maternal health outcomes in obstetric care and through the expanding field of perioperative medicine.

Fellowship Project Summary

My project is looking at reducing smoking rates of employees within the member organisations of the Health and Wellbeing Partnership in Gloucestershire through recommending best practice with regards to a smoking/vaping policy and signposting to interventions/campaigns.

About Mohamed

I am a GP trainee in Bradford, I am originally from Egypt, graduated and practiced medicine there before moving to the UK. Universal health coverage and health equity has always been my passion. Now being in primary care and observing some difficulties facing accessibility of health services. Also believe in the role of primary care in prevention and educating the public.

My dream is living in a world where everyone has equal access to health care without any limitation. I hope this year will help me to work on projects to support the most vulnerable and widen the access for public facing any difficulties, especially with the growing population of refugees and increasing the language barriers. Also, I am interested in smoking cessation and prevention also with the upgrowing vaping population especially in teenagers. During this year hoping to have the opportunity to explore both fields.

Fellowship Project Summary

My project will be closing the gap between primary health care and local smoking cessation service.  The idea of the project is to create a workshop aiming for smoking cessation in one of the northern cities and invite both PCN and local smoking cessation teams to allow a consultation between both teams on what they expect from each other and how can they support each. The main aim to address the gap in the communication between primary care and public health in this city and to be role model to be applied in different topics. 

About Pabalelo

Pabalelo E. Pule pursued MSc International Public Health with Liverpool John Moores University and is currently a Cardiology Research nurse at University Hospitals Dorset.

Pabalelo obtained his nursing degree in Botswana, at the University of Botswana.

As a researcher, Pabalelo uses both quantitative and qualitative methodologies. He has published in the areas of creating healthy work environments, disability, autism, family support and his publications are spread out in academic books and international journals like Virginia Henderson Journal. Pabalelo is an active member of Sigma Theta Tau International.

Fellowship Project Summary: Hypertension Optimisation Improvement  

The project aims to work with four PCNs to:  

o   (i) Accelerate Dorset CVD Prevent programme, with a particular focus on achieving the national target to increase the % of patients treated to NICE guidance to 77% by March 2024.  

o   (ii) Reduce variation in outcomes for our Core20 population and those with poor outcomes from CVD.  

High blood pressure is one of the leading causes of heart attack and stroke (cardiovascular disease - CVD) in England, and these common conditions account for a quarter of premature deaths. CVD is also a major driver of health inequalities, explaining around 20% of the life expectancy gap between most affluent and most deprived communities. Treatment to lower blood pressure is highly effective at preventing these serious events that are life changing for individuals and their families, and very expensive in terms of NHS and social care costs. Despite this, large numbers of people with high blood pressure do not receive the recommended levels of treatment, and as a result remain at high risk of having a heart attack or stroke.  

Variation within Dorset Analysis of CVD Prevent data has highlighted three priority groups with significant variation: (i) People experiencing high levels of deprivation (ii) Black ethnicity (iii) Older people - Increasing inequalities 60-79 and 80+

About Richard

I studied medicine at The University of Leicester, intercalating at Kings College London in psychology and neuroscience. I'm currently working as a registrar in General Adult Psychiatry working in South East England. I've been working in psychiatry for six years in a variety of subspecialties and services. I'm interested in rehabilitation psychiatry, I am passionate about improving health outcomes for people who have severe enduring mental health difficulties and may struggle to access conventional healthcare services.  Another interest is how the most vulnerable within our society will be impacted by climate change. Outside of clinical work, I lecture at a medical school and assist in running clinical simulation sessions for students who are new to mental health. Additionally, I'm currently involved in co-ordinating data collection for a national research project assessing the provision and cost effectiveness of inpatient rehabilitation services. I have an interest in widening participation in medicine as a career and volunteer as a mentor for the Social Mobility Foundation.

Fellowship Project Summary

I am working with NHS England Specialist Commissioning on the roll out of an alert to prompt clinicians in primary care to consider requesting blood borne virus testing. My role involves understanding the barriers and challenges to implementation in a variety of settings in South East England. Learning gained from this pilot will inform implementation in other regions.

About Rob

I’m Rob – I’m a Perioperative Fellow working in Cornwall. 

My areas of interest are pre-hospital critical care and rescue, dive medicine and anaesthesia. Whilst working during the pandemic I developed a real interest for development of digital systems and making predictions on patients' prognosis.

All this work led to realising the importance of modifying wider determinants to focus on prevention and using large set data to establish optimal target groups for intervention.

Population health brings together a huge amount of what I’m already working on, as well as a wealth of new perspectives and skills. I’ll be working on how deprivation affects peri-operative outcomes and exploring how targeted ‘pre-habilitation’ can minimise inequalities.

Fellowship Project Summary

My project is an equity audit to examine whether patients from deprived backgrounds who present to Royal Cornwall Hospital for Elective surgery following pre-operative assessment have worse post operative outcomes than those from more affluent backgrounds. This will be achieved by linking Enhanced Perioperative care patients’ assessment, admission and outcome data from the last 5 years with Public Health data on indices of multiple deprivation derived from geographical location. We will then use statistical analysis to establish potential links between metrics of deprivation using clinical standardised endpoints for peri-operative care. It is likely due to the nationally standardised model of Enhanced Perioperative care that potential conclusions on deprivation and its effect on care will be externally valid. Following the equity audit we should be able to target points at which deprivation is maximally affecting deprived patients intervene effectively.

About Sarah

I am a paediatric registrar based at Royal Bolton Hospital with interests in safeguarding, adolescent medicine and functional illness.

My undergraduate degree in Psychology is where my interest exploring the wider contributors to health and social inequity started, realising the impact the brain and surrounding environment has on physiological outcomes.

I split my clinical time between the NHS and VCSE sector, as the child health lead for families in temporary accommodation across Greater Manchester. This role is varied; developing initiatives to improve the mental and physical health outcomes for parents and children experiencing homelessness, from outreach clinics to parliamentary change.

I believe it is our responsibility within healthcare to proactively engage the biopsychosocial model of health to have a positive and sustained impact on our patients' wellbeing. I am passionate about people, communities and infrastructure and hope that this fellowship will guide and inform changes needed in practice and policy to improve the health of those in the North West and further afield.

Fellowship Project Summary

Using a population database established to support Covid-19 vaccine rollout, to target paediatric populations with respiratory illnesses across Cheshire and Merseyside at risk of poor outcomes due to fuel poverty.