Newcastle team
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Fiona Beyer | Beth Bareham | Lynne Corner | Dawn Craig | Felicity Dewhurst | Barbara Hanratty | Andrew Kingston | Patience Kunonga | Fiona Matthews | Anosua Mitra | Louise Robinson | David Sinclair | Gemma Spiers | Michelle (Mun Chieng) Tan | Miles Witham
Professor Barbara Hanratty
Deputy Director of Policy Research Unit (Newcastle) and Theme Lead for Long Term Care
Barbara is Professor of Primary Care and Public Health in the Population Health Sciences Institute at Newcastle University and Deputy Director of the Older People and Frailty Policy Research Unit. She also leads the Multimorbidity, Ageing and Frailty theme in the North East and North Cumbria NIHR Applied Research Collaboration, and acts as Training Lead for the Newcastle NIHR School for Primary Care Research.
Barbara trained as a general practitioner and public health physician, and has degrees in medicine, public health and health economics. Her research training was supported with fellowships from the Medical Research Council and NIHR, and she now leads a programme of work concerned with the health and wellbeing of older adults. Her work crosses health and social care, with key themes of end of life care, care homes, loneliness and frailty. She supervises students to undertake research project at PhD, masters and undergraduate level and leads a module on the MSc in Public Health.
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Contact
Email: barbara.hanratty@newcastle.ac.uk
Professor Fiona Matthews
Assistant Director (Newcastle) and Theme Lead for Frailty, Disability, Multimorbidity and Personalised Healthcare
Fiona is Professor of Epidemiology and Dean of Research and Innovation in the Faculty of Medical Sciences at Newcastle University, currently leading the REF 2021 submission for the medical faculty.
A statistician by training, Fiona has been involved in the design, implementation and analysis of epidemiological studies throughout her career. She moved into ageing research in 1997 at the MRC Biostatistics Unit in Cambridge to work on the Cognitive Function and Ageing Study and is now deputy director and principal statistician on this suite of studies.
Fiona’s portfolio of research involves both the design and analysis of studies on ageing, plus research on development of appropriate statistical methods to cope with complexities of ageing research.
Fiona has received numerous grants from UK funders (NIHR, Research Councils and charities), sits on UKRI grant panels and is chair of the ESRC Grant Assessment panel D. She is an author on more than 250 publications and has lots of experience of supervising PhD students and early career researchers.
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Contact
Email: fiona.matthews@newcastle.ac.uk
Professor Dawn Craig
Methodological Lead for Evidence Synthesis
Dawn leads the Evidence Synthesis Group and is co-Lead of the Health Economic and Evidence Synthesis Theme in the Population Health Sciences Institute at Newcastle University.
Dawn is also the Director of the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Innovation Observatory.
Dawn has a background in health economics and evidence synthesis, with over 15 years of research experience. She has a portfolio of funding from a range of funders including, NIHR, DHSC, Public Health England, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, European Commission and WHO.
She currently sits on the Health Care and Research Wales Research for Patient and Public Benefit (RfPPB) funding committee and the NIHR HS&DR Prioritisation Panel. In addition, she sits on the UK PharmaScan Oversight & Governance Committee and is Co-convenor of the Cochrane Campbell Economic Methods Group.
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Contact
Email: dawn.craig@newcastle.ac.uk
Professor Dame Louise Robinson
Primary Care Lead
Louise Robinson is an academic GP and Professor of Primary Care and Ageing at Newcastle University. She has 20 years of experience as a health services researcher with expertise in a mixed methods research.
Louise leads a research programme focused on improving quality of life and quality of care for older people, especially those with dementia. She currently leads a NIHR Global Health project on Dementia Care and 1 of only 3 Alzheimer Society national Centres of Excellence in Dementia Care.
Louise was primary care lead for the Prime Minister’s Dementia Challenge and is a member of the national dementia care guidelines development group.
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Contact
Email: a.l.robinson@newcastle.ac.uk
Dr Andrew Kingston
Senior Lecturer
Andrew is a Chartered Statistician and Senior Lecturer at Newcastle University’s Population Health Sciences Institute. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics, a master’s degree in Medical Statistics, and a doctorate in Epidemiology.
Andrew’s primary technical focus is on developing statistical methods to analyse complex longitudinal data, with a particular interest in investigating the pathways that lead to disability and dependency in older people. In addition, Andrew has a specialisation in calculating health expectancies and examining the factors that contribute to disparities in the duration of healthy living.
Andrew utilises longitudinal data to better understand how age-related functional decline can be constrained to the shortest possible period before death. He is the Principle Investigator for several high-profile healthy ageing grants, and he shares his expertise by teaching both undergraduate and post-graduate students, as well as supervising several PhD students.
Ultimately, Andrew’s goal is to improve the quality of life for older adults by compressing their period of dependency and age more healthily.
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Contact
Email: andrew.kingston@ncl.ac.uk
Professor Lynne Corner
SPPIE Lead
Professor Lynne Corner is Director of VOICE, which works with the public to co-develop evidence-based products and services to support healthy ageing, based at the National Innovation Centre for Ageing.
She is also Director of Engagement at the Newcastle University Institute for Ageing and leads the Public Insights Programme at the NIHR Innovation Observatory.
She co-led the NIHR James Lind Alliance Priority Setting Partnership on older people living with multiple conditions, and was a member of NIHR INVOLVE advisory group between 2010 and 17.
Lynne has a special interest in dementia, and works with families with dementia to develop training and support to help people live well with dementia through the Dementia Innovation Hub at Newcastle University.
Professor Miles Witham
Professor of Trials for Older People at the NIHR Newcastle Biomedical Research Centre and Consultant Geriatrician, Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals Trust
Miles’s research includes improving physical function and quality of life for older people using clinical trials, health informatics and other methodologies, with a particular focus on frailty, sarcopenia and multimorbidity.
His research has been funded by NIHR, the Scottish government, and a range of charities including BHF, Diabetes UK and Dunhill Medical Trust. He is National Specialty Lead for the NIHR Ageing Clinical Research Network, and an NIHR spokesperson on ageing and multimorbidity.
Miles teaches undergraduate medical and postgraduate students, and is co-founder of a range of Introduction to Research courses run by Tayside Academic Science Centre, the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, and the NIHR Newcastle Biomedical Research Centre.
In addition, Miles is the deputy lead for the NIHR Newcastle Biomedical Research Centre Ageing theme, and Ageing lead for the Newcastle Medtech and In-vitro diagnostics Collaborative (MIC).
Fiona Beyer
Information Scientist
Fiona is a member of the Evidence Synthesis Team, based in the Population Health Sciences Institute at Newcastle University.
She has a background as an information specialist, and has worked on systematic reviews for many years on a range of topics relating to health, public health and social care. She previously worked for Cochrane and the Centre for Reviews and Dissemination.
Fiona is studying for her PhD part-time by publication, looking at the use of evidence synthesis methods to optimise the use of complex behaviour change interventions.
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Contact
Email: fiona.beyer@ncl.ac.uk
Dr Gemma Spiers
Senior Research Associate
Gemma has worked in academic research since 2005, beginning in psychology before moving into the field of health and social care research.
Having worked previously at York University, Gemma moved to Newcastle University in 2016 and completed her doctoral studies in 2019, exploring the relationship between access to social care and healthcare use by older people.
Her current research interests include understanding and mitigating the impact of material deprivation on staying independent in later life, socioeconomic inequalities in health, and identifying ways to improve equitable access to health and social care for older populations.
Gemma is a mixed methods researcher with a particular focus on systematic review methodology.
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Contact
Email: Gemma-Frances.Spiers@newcastle.ac.uk
Dr David Sinclair
Senior Research Associate
David is a Postdoctoral Senior Research Associate in the Population Health Sciences Institute, Newcastle University, where he specialises in computational and mathematical modelling.
David was previously a Postdoc in the Public Health Dynamics Laboratory, University of Pittsburgh, where he developed simulations of infectious disease spread, drug use and mortality.
David completed a PhD in Astrophysics at the University of Oxford, in which he modelled the performance of the world’s largest radio telescope, the Square Kilometre Array.
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Contact
Email: david.r.sinclair@newcastle.ac.uk
Patience Kunonga
Research Associate
Patience is a Research Associate in the Evidence Synthesis Team in the Population Health Sciences Institute at Newcastle University.
Patience specialises in appraising and summarising evidence from a range of sources to inform health decisions and policy.
Prior to her PRU role, Patience worked as an Evidence Synthesis Analyst at NIHR Innovation Observatory.
Patience is also working towards a PhD to develop a bespoke framework for the incorporation of assessments of health inequalities and/or inequities within evidence synthesis.
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Contact
Email: patience.kunonga@newcastle.ac.uk
Dr Beth Bareham
Postdoctoral Research Associate
Beth Bareham is a post-doctoral research associate and NIHR School for Primary Care Research Fellow at Newcastle University. She has a background in health psychology, and her research focuses on understanding and addressing hazardous alcohol use in older populations. She came to the field in 2015, when she began her doctorate studying health and psychosocial factors shaping older people’s alcohol use (completed 2019, Newcastle University). She has expertise in qualitative research and qualitative evidence synthesis.
Beth leads interest groups in Aging, Alcohol and Addictions (Gerontological Society of America) and Substance Use and Ageing (British Society of Gerontology), where she fosters international collaborations in the field. She is a fellow of the Newcastle University Policy Academy, where she receives support to influence policymaking in her research activities.
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Contact
- Email: Beth.bareham@newcastle.ac.uk
Dr Felicity Dewhurst
NIHR Academic Clinical Lecturer in the Population Health Sciences Institute and an Honorary Consultant at St Oswald’s Hospice in Newcastle.
Felicity’s postgraduate qualifications include an original research MD and a Masters’ in Health Professions Education. She has received research grants from NIHR, the Dunhill Foundation and the Royal College of Physicians, and research prizes from both Marie Curie and the British Geriatric Society. Her research interests include promoting equity in palliative care particularly in relation to frailty, multimorbidity, non-malignant disease and ethnic minority groups. She is passionate about trying to improve care through education and service modification. Felicity has previously been a Co-Chair of North East Palliative Registrars Research Alliance (NEPRRA) and is now a supporting consultant. She is on the steering Committee of the UK Palliative Trainees Research Collaborative (UKPRC), the Education Committee of the Association of Palliative Medicine (APM) and the organising committee for the Palliative Care Congress (PCC).
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Dr Michelle (Mun Chieng) Tan
Postdoctoral Research Associate
Michelle is a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Older People and Frailty (OPF) Policy Research Unit (PRU), Population Health Sciences Institute, Newcastle University. She is also an affiliate Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Department of Health Service and Population Research, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King’s College London.
Her current policy-focused work is devoted to understanding and contributing to healthy ageing and the care of older adults in the UK. Besides Newcastle University, Michelle works in collaboration with colleagues at The University of Manchester, the London School of Economics and Political Science, the Department of Health and Social Care, and arms-length bodies (e.g. NHS England and Improvement). Prior to joining NIHR OPF PRU, she was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow of Monash University and King’s College London working on a Medical Research Council (MRC)-funded multi-country multimorbidity project, followed by an appointment as a Research Fellow in the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine of the National University of Singapore.
Michelle received her PhD in Medicine from the University of Sydney, focused on a longitudinal research for improving a multidisciplinary publicly funded bariatric surgery service provided by three hospitals integrated with a range of adjunct treatments in highly complex adult patients with clinically severe obesity and multiple comorbidities in New South Wales, Australia. During her PhD, Michelle also worked in several academic roles throughout her time at the University of Sydney and its affiliated hospital. The positions included Research Officer, Research Administrative Officer, Tutor in Diet and Nutrition for Health and Sport, and Clinical Trials Support Administration Assistant.
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Contact
- Email: michelle.tan@newcastle.ac.uk
Anosua Mitra
PRU Administrator (Newcastle)
Anosua is the Professional Services lead for the OPF PRU team at Newcastle University.
She has 21 years’ experience working in university research supporting a variety of health and social research projects. She has been based within the Faculty of Medical Sciences at Newcastle University since 2012.
While working full-time for the Families & Social Capital ESRC Research Group at London South Bank University, she completed a part-time MA in Media Writing. She spent 3 years living and working in Kolkata, India where she taught English and supported applicants preparing for the IELTS exam.
Contact
Email: anosua.mitra@newcastle.ac.uk
