Our team
Meet our team
The NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) Clinical Trials Unit (CTU) provides a skilled and experienced team who are committed to delivering expert support and efficient trial management.
Our staff are specialists, whether within data management, statistics or clinical operations.
Our CTU leadership comes from Dr Lise Estcourt, CTU Director and Rachel Johnson, Assistant Director Statistics and Clinical Studies.
For enquires please contact us.
Our Leadership Team
Lise Estcourt
Director
Lise became our Director in January 2018. Lise is a consultant haematologist with NHS Blood and Transplant and a Senior Clinical Lecturer in Transfusion Medicine at the University of Oxford. She graduated from Cambridge University with a degree in medicine. She did her haematology training in London before moving to Oxford in 2010 to become a Clinical Research Fellow in Transfusion Medicine with NHSBT. During her time as a research fellow she was awarded a prize for her research from Oxford University, as well as being awarded a DPhil from Oxford University in research on risk factors for bleeding in people with haematological malignancies. She also holds an MA in Medical Ethics and Law from Keele University and an MSc in Clinical Trials from London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. She has already worked with the CTU as a CI or co-investigator on several studies and trials (TREATT, InCiTe, ATHENA, and TOPPS). She performs Cochrane and non-Cochrane systematic reviews in transfusion medicine in association with the Systematic Reviews Initiative in Oxford.
Rachel Johnson
Assistant Director - Statistics and Clinical Studies
After gaining a Masters degree in Medical Statistics at the University of Southampton, Rachel joined NHS Blood and Transplant (or UK Transplant as it was then) as a statistician in 1992. Since then she has worked with clinicians, scientists and others to analyse the UK Transplant Registry database to provide an evidence base for clinical practice and organ allocation. In 2017 she was appointed Assistant Director for Statistics and Clinical Studies in NHSBT, leading the statistics team and the NHSBT Clinical Trials Unit. She is a member of the ODT and Clinical Directorate Senior Management Teams, a number of NHSBT’s Organ Advisory Groups, the Council of the British Transplantation Society and various collaborative working parties, nationally and internationally.
Our Statistics Team
Our statisticians provide a full statistical service throughout the life cycle of the clinical trial. From the outset, we can advise on trial design and sample size requirements, and contribute to the production of trial protocols and funding applications. Our statistics team, based in Bristol, will also work with you to develop plans for interim analyses and develop the analysis plan for the final dataset using the latest techniques to make best use of the data. After the data has been locked and the analysis performed, we can assist with final trial reports and papers for publication.
Helen Thomas
Head of Clinical Trial Statistics
Helen has an MSc in Medical Statistics from University of Leicester and has worked at NHSBT since 2004. Helen is head of clinical trial statistics and co-ordinates all aspects of statistical support for CTU. Helen is the lead statistician for several trials within CTU and the trial statistician for CRYOSTAT-2. She also works on the design of forthcoming trials. Helen also has experience serving as the independent statistician on a Data Monitoring Committee.
Tel: 01179 757485
Email: helen.thomas@nhsbt.nhs.uk
Cara Hudson
Principal Statistician
Cara is a Mathematics graduate from University of Bristol and joined the Statistics and Clinical Studies team in August 2007. She subsequently gained and MSc in Statistics and Management Science from University of West England. Cara is a principal statistician providing statistical support for the design and analysis of clinical trials. Cara was the trial statistician for PLANET-2 and is the trial statistician for SONAR. She is also involved in several funding applications.
Tel: 01179 757432
Email: cara.hudson@nhsbt.nhs.uk
Laura Pankhurst
Senior Statistician
Laura undertook a placement year at NHSBT during her undergraduate degree and subsequently gained an MSc in Statistics with Applications in Medicine from University of Southampton. She returned to NHSBT in 2011 as a Senior Statistician, providing statistical expertise in the design and analysis of clinical trials. Laura is the trial statistician for HLA-Epitope, EVNP, DCD kidney and PITHIA; and is the independent statistician for TREATT. Prior to working full time in clinical trials, she undertook extensive analysis of kidney transplant data from the UK Transplant Registry.
Tel: 01179 757431
Email: laura.pankhurst@nhsbt.nhs.uk
Elinor Curnow
Senior Statistician
Elinor is a Senior Statistician in the Statistics and Clinical Studies department and a PhD student in statistics at Bristol Medical School, University of Bristol. Her current research focuses on modelling patient outcomes following haematopoietic stem cell transplantation. Elinor has an MA in Statistics from University of California and has worked at NHSBT since 2006. She is the trial statistician for TREATT and RESTORE. She also works on studies in transfusion medicine, stem cells and ocular tissue transplantation.
Tel: 01179 757474
Email: elinor.curnow@nhsbt.nhs.uk
Alex Griffiths
Senior Statistician
Alex has an MSc in Medical Statistics from University of Leicester and she joined NHSBT in 2015, initially working at the British Bone Marrow Registry. She is currently a Senior Statistician in the Statistics and Clinical Studies team, and is involved in the DRIVE and REDJUVENATE clinical trials. Outside the CTU, Alex also works on projects in blood donation and transfusion, and in haematopoietic stem cell transplantation.
Tel: 01173 227280
Joseph Parsons
Statistician
Tel: 0117 975 7471
Email: Joseph.parsons@nhsbt.nhs.uk
Rebecca Hendry
Statistician
Becky first joined NHSBT in September 2018 working as a National Transplant Liaison Co-ordinator in ODT Hub Operations, then joined the Statistics and Clinical Studies department in July 2019. Becky is a BSc Economics graduate from Manchester Metropolitan University and undertook a placement year at the Office for National Statistics. She is providing statistical support for the PITHIA clinical trial and kidney transplant data.
Tel: 0117 975 7463
Email: rebecca.hendry@nhsbt.nhs.uk
Thomas Ranger
Statistician
Thomas graduated from the University of Bath with a BSc in Biochemistry in July 2019. As part of his degree, he worked as a lab and research assistant in the Chemistry Research Laboratory at the University of Oxford. Thomas joined NHSBT in August 2019 and provides statistical input into the CRYOSTAT-2 clinical trial and blood transfusion data.
Tel: 0117 975 7540
Email: thomas.ranger@nhsbt.nhs.uk
Dianne Bautista
Senior Statistician
Dianne's life in clinical and healthcare research grew in Singapore where she previously worked as a senior statistician in an academic contract research organization, a quantitative research mentor in a medical school and a review methodologist for the Cochrane Collaboration. Whilst mostly involved in studies of women and children's health, Dianne also supported clinical trials in schizophrenia, ADHD, social anxiety disorder and improving cognition and memory among the elderly. She has actively contributed in developing and validating outcome assessment tools and clinical prediction rules. Dianne obtained her PhD in Statistics from Ohio State University (2009) working on the simultaneous optimization of multiple goal functions using computer experiments.
Tel: 01865 387904
Email: dianne.bautista@nhsbt.nhs.uk
Our Data Management Team
Our Data Management team provides overall data management support; from data capture form and database design, to data entry, query production and resolution, and final data cleaning. An industry standard clinical trial database management software system – MACROTM - is used for the design, management and capture of clinical trial data for all our randomised clinical trials, and supports data entry via a web browser.
Renate Hodge
Clinical Data Services Manager
Renate has a BSc (Hons) in Biology from Portsmouth. She began her career in the haematology lab of the local hospital where she went on to complete an MSc in Biomedical Science specialising in haematology. Renate moved into clinical research and gained over 12 years experience working in the pharmaceutical industry before joining CTU in 2010 when she worked on several trials in the portfolio. In her current role as Data Services Manager, she manages the data management team and the clinical database management systems.
Tel: 07471 147968
Email: renate.hodge@nhsbt.nhs.uk
Siobhan Martin
Clinical Data Manager
Siobhan joined the CTU in May 2017 after completing a Physiology degree at the University of Nottingham. She is currently working on several Electronic Data Capture studies, performing database build and data clean-up while providing training and support to sites. She is also involved in CRF design and writing standard operating procedures for data management processes.
Tel: 01223 588924
Email: siobhan.martin@nhsbt.nhs.uk
Rupa Sharma
Clinical Data Manager
Rupa joined NHSBT CTU data management team in April 2017. She is the lead data manager for the CRYOSTAT-2 trial and ITOPS trial and is involved in all aspects of processing the trial data. Rupa's role encompasses database build, CRF design, handling data queries, and she provides training and support to sites. Rupa also supports several other trials in the CTU portfolio.
Email: Rupa.Sharma@nhsbt.nhs.uk
Nikki Dallas
Data Management Support Officer
Nikki has recently joined the clinical data services team as a Data Management Support Officer. She has 12 years experience in a pharmaceutical laboratory setting, liaising with clients and generating and assessing data packages. Nikki also has experience in dealing with governing bodies such as the MHRA and adhering to Good Manufacturing Practice.
Tel: 01223 588151
Email: nikki.dallas@nhsbt.nhs.uk
Emily Arbon
Data Management Support Officer
Emily joined CTU in April 2018. She is involved in supporting the data management team with the various trials in the portfolio. Her duties include data entry and CRF receipt; ensuring the clinical data collected is reviewed for accuracy, which includes query management.
Tel: 01223 588151
Email: emily.arbon@nhsbt.nhs.uk
Lisha Gracias
Junior Clinical Data Manager
Lisha has recently joined the CTU data management team. She has completed her MSc in Biochemistry and has a Diploma in clinical research. Lisha has overall 3+ years of clinical data management experience working on a variety of trials for a consultancy firm in India. At CTU she will be working on SONAR and Redjuvenate studies.
Tel: 01223 588060
Email: lisha.gracias@nhsbt.nhs.uk
Jo Mullings
Senior Clinical Data Manager
Jo joined the NHSBT CTU as a Senior Clinical Data Manager in October 2019. Jo started her career in research at GlaxoSmithKline where she obtained a BSc (Hons) in Pharmacology from the University of Hertfordshire. She later moved into clinical data management and most recently has over 6 of years experience as a senior data manager in Early Phase Oncology trials within the Cambridge Clinical Trials Unit based at Addenbrooke's.
Tel: 01223 588 070
Email: joanne.mullings@nhsbt.nhs.uk
Our Clinical Operations Team
The Clinical Operations team work with investigators to ensure that the trial is successful. A Clinical Operations Manager will be assigned to your trial at the beginning of our involvement and will remain with the trial until completion. They will oversee the work of the trial manager, manage the budget and timelines and liaise with data management and statistical staff as required.
Alison Deary
Head of Operations
Alison graduated from University College Cardiff with an honours degree in Biochemistry before training as a general nurse, and then a midwife. She has an MSc in Clinical Research with over 15 years experience, including managing international trials in various therapeutic areas. Alison joined CTU April 2010, and has been Head of Operations since January 2013. She is responsible for the development and implementation of the CTUs programme of clinical research and overseeing the operational aspects of trial and data management, including ensuring compliance with all relevant guidelines and regulations.
Tel: 07889 304290
Email: alison.deary@nhsbt.nhs.uk
Claire Dyer
Clinical Operations Manager
Claire joined CTU in 2004 and is one of our Clinical Operations Managers. She is a nursing graduate who specialised in haematology oncology nursing. Claire has worked as a haematology research nurse on phase II and phase III multicentre trials in the cancer field. She joined NHSBT and coordinated the Safe Transfusion project involving evaluating a barcode patient identification system. Her current responsibilities include providing project management and team leadership to support the expanding clinical trials portfolio. Claire completed an MSc in Clinical Research in 2016.
Tel: 07764 280855
Email: claire.dyer@nhsbt.nhs.uk
Claire Foley
Clinical Operations Manager
Claire graduated from University of Wales with an honours degree in Psychology before embarking on a career as a trial manager in cardiovascular and respiratory disease. She managed multi-centre CTIMP and non CTIMP studies funded by NIHR, charities and commercial companies. Claire has over 15 years experience and holds a PgDip in Clinical Trials from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Claire joined CTU in 2014 and became a Clinical Operations Manager in 2017. Her particular interest is in cardiovascular disease, trauma, bleeding and transfusion medicine.
Tel: 07823 351738
Email: claire.foley@nhsbt.nhs.uk
Emma Laing
Clinical Trial Manager
Emma graduated from King's College London with an honours degree in Biomedical Science. She started working in clinical research at Luton and Dunstable Hospital in 2012, and was involved in cancer trial co-ordination and set-up. Emma’s clinical experience includes discussing trials with patients, obtaining informed consent and performing trial assessments. Emma joined NHSBT CTU in 2015 as a Trial Manager and is currently working on DRIVE, PITHIA and PROGRES.
Tel: 07471 147868
Email: emma.laing@nhsbt.nhs.uk
Ana Mora
Clinical Operations Manager
Ana holds a PhD in neurodevelopment from University College London and a PgDip in Clinical Trials. Her previous experience was gained in stem-cell technologies for novel therapies at ReNeuron and pre-clinical research at GlaxoSmithKline. Ana co-ordinated a wide portfolio of commercial and non commercial phase I to phase III haemato-oncology clinical trials for the Cambridge Cancer Trials Centre before joining CTU in 2010. She was appointed Clinical Operations Manager September 2013 with responsibilities for project management support for a portfolio of clinical trials.
Tel: 07889 304288
Email: ana.mora@nhsbt.nhs.uk
Gillian Powter
Clinical Trial Manager/Senior Research Nurse
Gillian is a registered nurse with a degree in Health Care Studies and a Diploma in Critical Care. Her clinical background is in the specialities of intensive care, intravenous therapy and blood transfusion. She initially joined CTU as a research nurse in 2008 and was involved in co-ordinating the TOPPS, GIN, ATHENA and ISOC2 trials.She is now managing the TREATT trial.
Tel: 07590 353091
Email: Gillian.powter@nhsbt.nhs.uk
Anna Sidders
Clinical Trial Manager
Anna’s background is in medical microbiology. She worked for Sanofi-Aventis and then Roche as a Clinical Research Associate. When the Clinical Research Networks expanded, she joined the Kent & Medway CLRN as their Industry Manager, looking after their portfolio of commercial trials. Anna moved on to work at Addenbrooke's Hospital in neurosciences research, working in paediatric epilepsy and Parkinson's disease. Anna joined CTU in November 2017, initially working on PLANET2 and is now managing SONAR.
Tel: 07392 139868
Email: anna.sidders@nhsbt.nhs.uk
Heather Smethurst
Clinical Trial Co-ordinator
Heather is a registered sick children’s and general nurse with over 30 years experience in paediatric nursing at Great Ormond Street, Queens Medical Centre and Addenbrooke’s hospitals. She worked for the University of Cambridge in the haematology department before moving to CTU in 2006. More recently Heather has been working as Trial Manager on feasibility studies in transfusion threshold strategies and patient quality of life in myelodysplastic syndromes and acute myeloid leukaemia; REDDS, REAL and REPAST.
Tel: 07471 147896
Samaher Sweity
Clinical Trial Manager
Samaher is a registered nurse and has worked in adult and paediatric cardiac surgery intensive care. She completed an MSc in Advanced Nursing Practice at Nottingham University in 2005 and a PhD in Public Health Research Policy from University of Central Lancashire in 2016. Samaher has been involved in clinical research since 2007, having worked as a research nurse for several medical and surgical phase II and III oncology and haematology clinical trials in Leeds and Lancaster. Samaher joined CTU in 2017.
Tel: 07392 139747
Email: samaher.sweity@nhsbt.nhs.uk
Joanne Lucas
Clinical Trial Manager
Jo has previously worked as a trial manager in the Cardiovascular Epidemiology Unit at the Department of Public Health and Primary Care, and in the Faculty of Medicine & Health Sciences at the University of East Anglia. Most recently Jo worked as research & development co-ordinator at the James Paget University Hospital. Her research interests include trauma, critical care, cardiovascular and mental health. Jo is currently managing CRYOSTAT-2 study, looking at the effect of early cryoprecipitate on mortality in patients with major haemorrhage.
CRYOSTAT-2Tel: 07764 280606
Email: joanne.lucas@nhsbt.nhs.uk
Anna Welford
Clinical Trials Support Officer
Anna has recently joined the CTU team, working on the TREATT trial as a Clinical Trials Support Officer. Anna has worked for NHSBT for 3 years now in various admin roles and has nearly completed her level 3 apprenticeship in Business Administration. She is looking forward to learning more about clinical trials, gaining further qualifications and furthering her knowledge within the NHS.
Amy Evans
Clinical Trial Co-ordinator
Amy studied Medical Genetics at The University of Leicester and then went on to study a Masters in Assisted Reproduction Technology at Nottingham University. After University Amy started working for a clinical research organisation, both in the QA department and in toxicology as a trainee study manager, and then started working for NHSBT CTU in 2018. Amy is the Clinical Trial Co-ordinator for CRYOSTAT-2; looking at the effect of early cryoprecipitate on mortality in patients with major haemorrhage.
Tel: 0776 4280175
Email: amy.evans@nhsbt.nhs.uk
Val Hopkins
Clinical Trial Co-ordinator
Val has both an administrative and clinical background which began in Higher Education at Anglia Ruskin University and The School of Clinical Medicine, Cambridge. She went on to train as an Assistant Practitioner in Breast Imaging, working at The West Suffolk Hospital and The Rosie, Addenbrooke's Hospital for the NHS Breast Screening Programme. Prior to joining CTU, Val worked as a Medical Laboratory Assistant at The Pathology Partnership’. Val joined the CTU Data Management Team in March 2014 working on the PlaNeT-2 trial. She is now part of the operations team working on SONAR and REPAST.
Tel: 01223 588188
Email: valerie.hopkins@nhsbt.nhs.uk
Our Administration Team
The CTU is supported by our business manager together with a trial administrator. They ensure that the unit is running smoothly.
Chloe Fitzpatrick-Creamer
Clinical Trial Administrator
Chloe has progressed from being an apprentice business administrator to the role of Clinical Trials Administrator. Her new role involves providing administrative support to the Trial Managers on a day-to-day basis. It entails taking trial meeting minutes, arranging venues, catering, registration and travel requirements, as well as archiving trial documentation. Chloe is largely involved with helping to manage PROGRES and is responsible for sending randomisations to sites for CRYOSTAT-2.
Tel: 01223 580175
Jayne Gipp
CTU Business Manager
Jayne is usually the first point of contact for CTU, and she will be able to direct your call to the relevant person. She provides administrative support to the team with organisation of meetings, venue bookings and associated travel. Her knowledge includes HR and financial support for the Unit, ethical applications, site legal agreements, co-ordination of research trial activities, maintaining the Quality Management System documentation and training, as well as having primary responsibility for archiving.
Tel: 01223 588088
Email: jayne.gipp@nhsbt.nhs.uk
Katie Keen
GCP Quality Project Specialist
Katie has a BSc (Hons) in Biological Sciences from the University of Birmingham. She joined the QA team in July 2019 specifically to provide Quality Assurance support to the CTU by ensuring compliance with Good Clinical Practice (GCP) and the regulatory environment for clinical research. Katie joined NHSBT as a Senior Clinical Data Manager in 2018 and prior to that worked in safety and quality support at Cambridge University Hospitals specialising in applying the principles of root cause analysis to the investigation of serious patient incidents in areas of oncology, haematology and imaging. Katie has over 10 years' experience in clinical data management and clinical research gained in the biotechnology industry and contact research organisations, primarily in the fields of oncology and haematology.
Tel: 01223 588177
Email: katie.keen@nhsbt.nhs.uk