Nuala Foley
Portfolio Lead: Commercial and Partnerships
la co-leads on our commercial and industry engagement with health tech companies and their networks, to support them and their business with their route into the NHS and further growth and spread.
She comes from an industry (mainly SME) background, having worked with companies across every sector with their innovation and commercialisation. In her role in Health Innovation KSS she oversees the Office of Life Science commission and represents Health Innovation KSS in the commercial directors national Health Innovation Network.
Nuala has vast experience in navigating the funding landscape and in supporting companies to develop their strategic plan and to understand their customer base and value proposition for their target customer.
Dr Charlotte Roberts
Senior Programme Manager
Charlotte obtained her medical degree and BSc in International Health from UCL where her passion for population health and policy began. She completed the Foundation Programme at Oxford University Hospitals in clinical areas including respiratory, infectious diseases, ENT, neurosurgery, GP and paediatrics, followed by a NHS National Medical Director’s Clinical Fellowship seconded to Public Health England. Most recently she was Vice President for Standardisation at the International Consortium for Health Outcomes Measurement driving value-based healthcare international through patient-centred outcome measurement. At Health Innovation KSS she co-leads the Industry and Technology Navigation team as well as support ICSs with their clinical priorities to best serve the needs of the local population.
Athina Lockyer
Innovation Manager
Athina is dual qualified as a health visitor and adult nurse, and also has a PGCert in Leadership in Health and a Masters in Public Health Practice. She has also worked in quality improvement, digital record keeping and was a Darzi Fellow with Surrey County Council.
Athina is passionate about co-production and working collaboratively to improve patient outcomes using innovations and technology. She works across the region to support the spread and adoption of new evidence based technologies and the Kent and Medway STP workstreams.
Alastair Kirby
Innovation Manager
Alastair provides support to our ‘Bridging the Gap’ and ‘Technology Navigation’ programmes, focusing on helping health tech companies navigate their route into the NHS.
Alastair has a background supporting start-ups and SMEs to grow and innovate within government accelerators. Having previously co-founded his own MedTech start-up, he has worked across multiple technology sectors to help companies scale and grow within the public sector.
Using his experience, Alastair supports innovators to develop their strategic business plans and understand their value for the NHS.
Alastair also has an academic background, having completed a Ph.D. in Neuro-oncology at King’s College London.
Jenny Partridge
Innovation Manager
Jenny is an Innovation Manager in the Industry and Technology Navigation Team. Her recent experience is in primary care, working in practice management and setting up the local PCN and federation.
She has worked on many primary care initiatives including a complete redesign of a practice and setting up a locality same day service. In addition, Jenny worked with Wessex LMC to advise and support practices, and with CQC as a primary care inspector.
Jenny’s introduction to quality improvement was at Mars Confectionery where she worked in production management and then HR. Using this experience, she ran her own business supporting SMEs.
She has recently completed an MBA in strategic leadership and is continually looking for ways to learn and share best practice.
Claire Rosten
Innovation Manager
Dr Claire Rosten is a clinical research psychologist and health research methodologist with expertise in developing and evaluating mental health interventions and digital health technology to improve outcomes for NHS service users. She has a track record of contributing to successful bids to NIHR, Innovate UK, and SBRI Healthcare.
Claire previously worked for 15-years with the NIHR Research Design Service South East (RDS) and as a Principal Research Fellow at the University of Brighton. She has experience of research governance and delivery in the NHS and has served as an independent scientific adviser for a number of NHS Trust’s Research Strategy and Governance Committees. She was also a member of the NIHR Research for Patient Benefit programme’s London Regional Advisory Committee and a peer reviewer for NIHR funding programmes and a number of academic journals.
Following an undergraduate degree in Psychology and Philosophy from the University of Oxford and a PhD investigating cognitive factors associated with the development and maintenance anxiety disorders from the University of Southampton, Claire worked for the NIHR’s Health Technology Assessment programme. She managed the Identification and Prioritisation of research topics for the programme’s commissioned calls and also worked on the FP7-funded EUnetHTA project.
Julian O'Kelly
Innovation Manager
Julian brings a diverse range of skills and experience to the Tech Nav team. His Doctoral research combined music therapy with neuroscience methods, and he also holds a Masters in Palliative Care. Most recently he has programme managed NIHR funded research in mental health, and the development of virtual wards for both Surrey Downs Health Care and the Royal Surrey Foundation Trust.
Having worked across the NHS, academia, social enterprises and the voluntary sector, he understands from all sides the challenges innovators face engaging with these complex systems, and how best to develop value propositions that engage decision makers. His responsibilities will include supporting the Med Tech Funding Mandate across the region.
Catherine Young
Innovation Manager
Cat is an Innovation Manager in the Industry and Technology Navigation team at Health Innovation KSS. Her portfolio focuses on Team organisation and ‘Needs Articulation’; working with citizens and system partners to identify challenges that could benefit from innovative change, and then describing these needs and challenges in ways that industry can respond to, bringing innovators in to help co-develop solutions.
Cat joined Health Innovation KSS in 2019 as a Programme Coordinator and supported the Technology Navigation and ICS engagement team to understand and respond to system priorities. Cat has been involved in exciting transformation projects and led an improvement project aimed at ensuring reasonable adjustments underpin the annual health checks process for people with Learning Disabilities.
Prior to joining Health Innovation KSS, Cat worked in the private healthcare industry. She has a Masters in Oceanography.
Sarah Barker
Innovation Manager
Sarah joined the Enterprise and Industry team at Health Innovation KSS in November 2023 as an Innovation Manager. Sarah’s role is to connect different parts of the health and care system with innovators who can help find ways to work more effectively and improve patient outcomes. Her particular focus is on innovations that will improve cancer care. These include prevention, screening, early diagnosis, treatment and support for people living with and beyond cancer.
Sarah has a career in healthcare, having graduated with a degree in nursing and then gone on to work in a variety of roles in the NHS, private healthcare and the charity sector. Her recent experience includes working as a healthcare facilitator at Cancer Research UK, and as an early diagnosis project manager at Kent and Medway Cancer Alliance. Sarah is passionate about improving early diagnosis of cancer and reducing the inequalities that many groups face in accessing cancer diagnostics and treatment.
Vivienne Gray
Innovation Coordinator
Vivienne has worked across a broad range of public sector initiatives, spanning higher education, industry and business support to promote innovation, knowledge transfer and regional economic development.
Prior to joining Health Innovation KSS she worked for the Kent Surrey Sussex Local Enterprise Training Board.
Vivienne provides project coordination and communications engagement support to programme work streams with specific responsibility for the ‘Bridging the Gap’ and the ‘Technology Navigation’ programmes.
Matthew Peach
Innovation Coordinator
Matthew joined Health Innovation KSS in August 2023, supporting the Enterprise and Industry Team in his role as an Innovation Coordinator.
Having qualified from the University of the West of England with a first-class honours degree in Business Management, Matt worked for the Ministry of Defence for two years prior to joining NHS Sussex (Sussex ICB) in September 2021. As a Governance Officer he gained great insight into the vast array of work being undertaken across Sussex, in addition to understanding how NHS organisations interact with one another to commission and provide services for the population.