IBMS Congress 2023

Debra Padgett FIBMS CSci

IBMS President,

Debra is passionate about promoting and recognising excellence in all IBMS members. In her eight years as an IBMS Council member, she has advocated, listened, represented and addressed the issues that are most important to our membership at national, regional and local levels.

Debra started her career as a Medical Laboratory Assistant in Microbiology and has successfully worked her way through the career grades to her current role as Clinical Pathology Lead at Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust. This means that she understands the many routes to achieve a senior management position within our profession, and how management decisions affect every member of the laboratory.

Her post encompasses provision of leadership and management with accountability for the delivery of cost effective, high quality, safe and sustainable services across the Northumbria health economy. These responsibilities give her a strategic insight to deliver operational priorities both for her own Trust and those of National programmes.
 

Maggie Throup MP

Member of Parliament for Erewash,

No bio provided

Professor Bola Owolabi MRCGP, MFPH Hon

Director, National Healthcare Inequalities Improvement Programme at NHS England (NHSE)

Professor Bola Owolabi (MRCGP, MFPH Hon) is Director of the National Healthcare Inequalities Improvement Programme at NHS England (NHSE). She works as a General Practitioner in the Midlands and is an Honorary Professor at the Institute of Applied Health Research, College of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Birmingham.

Bola has particular interest in reducing healthcare inequalities through integrated care models, service transformation, and using data insights for quality improvement. She has spearheaded NHSE’s Core20PLUS5 approach to narrowing healthcare inequalities.

She was, until recently, National Speciality Advisor for Older People and Integrated Person-Centred Care at NHS England, where she led the Anticipatory Care workstream of the National Ageing Well Programme. She collaborated with teams across NHSE and the Department of Health and Social Care as part of the Covid-19 pandemic response.

Bola is an alumna of Ashridge Executive Education / Hult International Business School and holds a Masters degree with distinction in Leadership (Quality Improvement). She also received an NHS Leadership Academy Award in Executive Healthcare Leadership for Clinicians.

David Wells

Chief Executive, IBMS

In June 2021, David became the IBMS Chief Executive following leading the NHS England and Improvement Pathology consolidation programme as Head of Pathology for NHS England and NHS Improvement. He led England’s pathology services in the national response to the COVID-19 pandemic, ensuring that NHS laboratories were able to respond to the national need in standing up the required testing at pace and scale.

For three years running, David was recognised as being one of the top 100 most powerful advocates for pathology in the global community by The Pathologist magazine (2018, 2019 and 2020). 

Previously, as an elected IBMS Council Member for the London region, David was chair of the Membership and Marketing Committee. He has also represented the IBMS on NICE diagnostic advisory panels, and various national forums, including an observer on the Royal College of Pathologist Council and in the Parliamentary and Science committee.

In October 2020, the Royal College of Pathologists awarded David Honorary Fellowship in recognition of his contribution to pathology.

Professor Sandi Deans

Director, GenQA, National Laboratory & Scientific Lead, Genomic Implementation Unit NHS England and Professor of Clinical Genomics, Institute of Genetic and Molecular Medicine, University of Edinburgh

Professor Sandi Deans is the Scientific and Laboratory Deputy Director of the Genomics Unit, NHS England embedding the National Genomic Medicine Service for rare disease and cancer including whole genome sequencing within the NHS. She was Scientific Advisor and directly involved in the delivery of the 100,000 Genomes Project.

She is a Consultant Clinical Scientist and the Director of Genomics Quality Assessment (GenQA) part of the UK National External Quality Assessment Service (UK NEQAS). The EQA Scheme delivers assessment of the standard of the full clinical genomics testing pathway through 120 different schemes. This includes clinical genetics, molecular genetics, molecular pathology, cytogenomic testing, newborn screening, prenatal diagnosis, preimplantation genetic testing and variant interpretation.

Sandi also holds a chair as Professor of Clinical Genomics at the University of Edinburgh.

Dr Fiona Carragher FRCPath

Executive Director of Research and Influencing, Alzheimer’s Society

Fiona Carragher joined Alzheimer’s Society as Executive Director of Research and Influencing in January 2019. She plays a pivotal role at the Society as we aim to be a leading force for change and improve the lives of people affected by dementia now and in the future.

Fiona is a Clinical Biochemist by background and a Fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists. Driving evidence-based policy making and connecting science and research into practise has underpinned her career. Before joining Alzheimer’ Society Fiona was the Deputy Chief Scientific Officer for NHS England providing leadership for the 50,000 healthcare science professionals in the NHS and expert advice to the health system on science, innovation, and diagnostics. She led a broad portfolio of policy responsibilities including establishing the UK Antimicrobial Resistance Diagnostics programme, the system wide Action Plan on Hearing Loss and the CSO Knowledge Transfer Partnership programme. She is a passionate advocate for women in health and led the establishment of the first Women in Science and Engineering fellowship programme in the NHS.

In recent years Fiona has broadened her Board level experience as a Trustee of the world-leading UK Dementia Research Institute and Non-Executive Director as Kent and Medway Health and Social Care Partnership NHS Trust. She is a Member of the National Physical Laboratory Science and Technology Advisory Council and Chair of the Government Chemical and Biological Metrology Programme Expert Group.

Gordon McNair

Treasurer, Institute of Biomedical Science

No bio provided

Professor Lucy Easthope

University of Lincoln

No bio provided