Innovation and Evaluation
Achieving transformation through innovation and evaluation
Why is it important?
To address the needs of the local healthcare system by identifying and supporting the uptake and scaling of effective innovations.
What do we hope to achieve?
To make a lasting impact on the health of the local population through improved translation of innovation into practice in complex systems, building capacity for evaluating and spreading improvement practices across Northwest London and beyond.
How will it benefit people in Northwest London?
Reduce variation in quality of care received
Improve access to innovations, technologies and support services
Improve care experience, quality of life, and outcomes
Theme Projects
Innovation and Evaluation News and Events
Past Event: 18th October 2022
Meet the Innovation and Evaluation Team
Dr Matthew Harris
Theme Lead Innovation and Evaluation
Matthew is the Lead for the Innovation and Evaluation Theme in the NIHR NW London ARC. With a background as a primary care doctor in Brazil, and as a public health doctor in Mozambique and Ethiopia, after his PhD and then qualification as a NHS Consultant in Public Health, Matthew was appointed as a Clinical Senior Lecturer in Public Health Medicine at Imperial College London in 2016.
His research interests focus on how the NHS and other high-income country health systems can learn from low-income country health systems through the adoption of frugal health technologies and models of care.
Dr Grazia Antonacci
Deputy Theme Lead Innovation and Evaluation
Grazia is an applied healthcare researcher, consultant, and manager, passionate about improving quality and efficiency of health systems and services. Her research interests include the adoption, implementation, spread and sustainability of technological and organizational innovations in healthcare systems. She is particularly experienced in systems and process analysis and re-design, using quality improvement and industrial engineering approaches.
Grazia has a Master's Degree in Science in Industrial and Management Engineering, a Postgraduate Master's Degree in Management of Healthcare Organizations and a PhD in Enterprise Engineering with a focus on healthcare systems improvement. Before joining Imperial College, Grazia worked in pharmaceutical and consulting firms. Her early career included 10 years as a manager at an Italian research hospital.
g.antonacci@imperial.ac.uk
Dr Laura Lennox
Improvement Science & Health Improvement Lead
Laura is the Improvement Science and Health Improvement Lead at NIHR ARC NWL within the Department of Primary Care and Public Health at Imperial College London. Laura is an applied healthcare researcher and manager with expertise in implementation science and quality improvement. Her work aims to improve outcomes for patients and the public by improving the quality, delivery and efficiency of health and care services; and increasing the sustainability of the healthcare systems.
Prior to joining Imperial College in 2011, she worked as a registered nurse in Ontario, Canada. Laura obtained a Master’s in Public Health from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in 2010 and was awarded her PhD from the Department of Medicine at Imperial College in 2019. Dr Lennox’s current research focuses on understanding evidenced-based implementation, sustainability and spread in complex systems.
Dr Connie Junghans
Senior Clinical Fellow
Senior Clinical Fellow
Connie is a part time Senior Clinical Fellow on the theme. She combines her academic work with clinical work as a GP in Westminster and as Public Health Specialist at Westminster City Council and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. She is also a SPIN fellow in Westminster, looking at how the newly created community roles in primary care can be integrated into existing services. She is passionate about community led preventative Primary Care.
With her role spanning local authority, academia and clinical care she is uniquely positioned to lead on the first Community Health Worker pilot in the UK, currently running in Churchill Gardens in Westminster. She is interested in establishing a national role for this model which comprehensively addresses community resilience and cohesion, early prevention as well as crisis intervention, and through its proportionate universality, integration with health and social care and comprehensive cradle to grave approach at a household level offers a cost-effective way to provide continuity and holistic primary care.
Sandra Jayacodi
Public Partner
Public Partner
Sandra a former solicitor and a trustee for a mental health charity embarked on her journey as a PPIE Public Contributor following her own lived experiences of poor health. She is an Improvement Leader Fellow of NIHR CLAHRC NWL now known as NIHR Applied Research Collaboration NWL. Sandra holds a portfolio of profiles as PPIE lay advisor and or representative for various health care research studies and quality improvement projects. She is the lay chair for Imperial BRC Public Advisory Panel and is a service user advisor for CNWL NHS Quality Improvement Program Board.
Michelle Kay
Public Partner
Public Partner
Michelle is a stress management and wellbeing trainer, speaker, and therapist. She has worked with charities, community groups, schools, carers and in mental health and dementia care. She has over 20 years’ experience on GP surgery Patient Participation Groups and is an ARC NWL Public Partner with the Multimorbidity & Mental Health, and the Innovation & Evaluation Themes.
Before working in healthcare, Michelle trained in Drama and public speaking. She has lived-experience of multimorbidity and is a carer for elderly parents with complex multimorbidity conditions. Michelle is delighted to be joining the 2023-24 NIHR ARC NWL Improvement Leader Fellowship Programme and she is passionate about finding ways to improve patient outcomes and deliver consistent, joined-up, person-centred care.
Mark Skopec
PhD Student
PhD Student
Mark has been a Research Assistant at Imperial College since September 2018. His research and publications include investigating subconscious biases in the knowledge diffusion process in higher education and barriers to the uptake and implementation of innovations from low- and middle-income countries in healthcare. Mark joined the NHR ARC NWL Innovation & Evaluation Theme in 2020.
His work for the I&E Theme has focused on developing and delivering the Collaborative Learning Network, an interactive workshop for healthcare professionals and academics based in NW London and beyond.
Allison Williams
Research Assistant
Research Assistant
Allison completed a BSc in Health Education and Behaviour with a minor in Disabilities in Society from the University of Florida before obtaining a Master of Public Health from Imperial College London. Here she did her dissertation on the use of Normalisation Process Theory to assess and inform implementation within randomised controlled trials.
She joined the NIHR ARC NWL Innovation & Evaluation Theme in 2022 as a Research Assistant. Her work supports assessing the adoption of frugal innovations in the NHS and mixed-methods evaluations of healthcare interventions.
Dr Natasha Dsouza
Research Assistant
Research Assistant
Natasha is a Research Assistant at the Department of Primary Care and Public Health at Imperial College London, within the Innovation and Evaluation theme and Ethnicity and Health Unit, funded by the NIHR ARC NWL. Her research work focuses on understanding the impact of community-led initiatives on the health and well-being of the targeted communities, improving the quality of healthcare services, and understanding the views and ways to drive diversity in research.
She is a medical doctor by training, has a postgraduate degree in Healthcare Management from the Royal College of Surgeons Ireland, a Certified Professional in Healthcare Quality (CPHQ) certification from the National Association of Healthcare Quality, USA, and she obtained a Master’s Degree in Public Health in 2021 from Imperial College London. Natasha has a considerable prior experience in healthcare as a quality improvement manager, contributing to improved clinical effectiveness, patient-centred healthcare services, and implementing data-driven strategies and tools.
Dr Keivan Armani
Clinical Pharmacist / Researcher
Clinical Pharmacist / Researcher
Keivan is an overseas registered clinical pharmacist. He has worked in low income, middle income, high middle income and high-income countries as both academic and practitioner. He is a member of the core team at the NIHR ARC NWL as well as the Innovation & Evaluation Theme, and the Ethnicity Health Unit (EHU). Keivan's research mainly focuses on the quantifiable measures that contribute to our understanding of Global Burden of Disease (GBD) with a focus on clinical conditions such as diabetes, infectious disease, and lung diseases. Since 2017, he have been a GBD Collaborator with the Institute for Health Metrics Evaluation (IHME), University of Washington, U.S. Currently, he is am working on the evaluation aspects of a number of projects such as Westminster Community Priorities Programme, Integrated Care System Research Engagement Network Development, Polypharmacy, etc. Keivan is very much interested in conducting randomised controlled trials of complex educational interventions with a focus on evolving roles of clinical pharmacists. Antimicrobial resistance and the involvement of community pharmacists is another area of my research. Keivan actively seeks to understand the effects of vaping as a smoking cessation strategy amongst pregnant women and ethnic minority groups/ marginalised population. Health education, Interprofessional education, Health and Equality remain the main agendas of his research.
Husa Aldossary
PhD student
PhD student
Husa is a PhD student in the Department of Primary Care and Public at Imperial College London.Her PhD focuses on exploring the implementation of healthcare improvements and innovations in practice. Specifically, her work will investigate how quality improvement teams navigate the balance between maintaining fidelity to an intervention and making necessary adaptations, and how this affects the perception of intervention delivery and sustainability. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Health Information Management and Technology from Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University (IAU) in Saudi Arabia and a Master's degree in Health Management with a major in Quality and Patient Safety from Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane. Husa has been a lecturer at IAU since 2016 and was awarded a scholarship from the Ministry of Education, Government of Saudi Arabia, to continue her postgraduate studies.
Chandni N Hindocha
PhD Student
PhD Student
Chandni is a PhD student at the Department of Primary Care and Public Health at Imperial College London, specifically working within the Innovation and Evaluation theme, funded by the NIHR ARC NWL. Her PhD work focuses on the conceptualisation of frugal innovation and its acceptability and adoption in the UK’s NHS. Chandni is also working alongside Dr Laura Lennox on evaluating the implementation of community projects funded by Imperial Health Charity.
She has an advanced background in Psychiatry, Pharmacy, Cellular Pathology and qualitative research methods. Prior to starting her PhD, Chandni graduated with a Master’s in Neuroscience from Kings College London.