Cat completed medical school in Portugal in 2012 and moved to the UK inspired by her dream of working for the NHS. She completed her foundation training in Oxford and moved to Manchester, where she was meant to continue her medical specialty training in Cardiothoracic Surgery. However, her long-term illness forced a sharp turn in her career. She moved back to Oxford, where she completed her DPhil in Women and Reproductive Health, whilst simultaneously doing an MSc in Public Health at KCL. She started her specialty training in Public Health in August 2020 as NIHR Academic Clinical Fellow at KCL. 

She has an insatiable curiosity and broad research interests, which explains why she has been involved in many different types of research over the years. She has finally committed to her two passions: environment/climate and health and women’s health/gender inequalities.

Cat will be working with Ed Mullins on an Improvement Leader Fellowship project that aims to:

1. Improve data collection on smoking by maternity services, including carbon monoxide monitoring

2. Implement vouchers to support smoking cessation in pregnancy at maternity services in ICHT. 

We know that smoking during pregnancy increases the risk of poor outcomes for mothers and their babies and smoking cessation during pregnancy can reduce those risks to a level almost comparable to non-smokers. Although the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) in England recommends offering financial incentives (i.e. vouchers) to support smoking cessation during pregnancy in addition to NRT and behavioural support, this is not yet offered to pregnant women in NW London. This project, if successful, will ensure that vouchers are offered during pregnancy to help women stop smoking.