CLRN leadership

Clinical Director

The Clinical Director for the Thames Valley CLRN is Professor Jeremy Fairbank.

Professor Jeremy Fairbank’s medical education was at Cambridge and St Thomas’s. He became interested in the spine during his first house job, then spent two years at the Orthopaedic Hospital in Oswestry learning more about this most central but poorly understood structure that led to his MD thesis. His training in orthopaedic surgery was through a rotation based in St Bartholomew’s Hospital and Great Ormond Street Hospital, which, along with a year of Paediatric surgery in Nottingham, extended his interest and expertise into children’s spines and scoliosis. He was a consultant in Birmingham for five years before moving to Oxford in 1989.

He has been a member of the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre R & D Committee since 1995 and Chair since 1999. He has also been a member of the Oxford R&D Consortium since 1999. He has experience of obtaining funding for, organising and implementing a large, complex and very challenging Randomised Controlled Trial (MRC Spine Stabilisation Trial). This involved orthopaedic surgeons and physiotherapists, many of whom had not been previously involved in clinical research. This gave him first-hand experience of the “reality gap” between policy supporting research and the actuality of implementing it on the “shop floor”.

He feels that we live in exciting times for clinical and health service research and expects the Thames Valley CLRN to be in the vanguard in this initiative.

Co-Director

The Co-Director for the Thames Valley CLRN is Professor Andrew Farmer.

Professor Farmer’s background derives from 25 years as a principal in Primary Care. His main research interest has been Diabetes. He has research experience both in Primary Care, and in the interface with Secondary Care, which is a critical area of NHS clinical research. He has considerable experience in raising research grants and in research management. He has worked in purchasing of health care and the evidence base underlying these decisions. He is a trainer of GP’s and the research advisor to the Royal College of General Practitioners. Since 2001, he has worked in the Academic Department of Primary Care in the University of Oxford in the Diabetes Trial Unit. He brings a considerable body of expertise in clinical research and research management to the TVCLRN.

Val Woods, Senior Manager

Val joined Thames Valley CLRN as Senior Manager in March 2009. She has degrees in Economics, Corporate Governance and an MBA. After qualifying as a Chartered Accountant with Arthur Andersen in the 1980's, she spent most of her career in the private sector working in a variety of sectors in senior finance and general management roles. She has been actively involved with the NHS for the past six years and was Vice Chairman for Oxfordshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust, and more recently served as a Non-Executive Director on the Board of South Central Ambulance Service NHS Trust.

Core Team

The CLRN Core Team is led by the Senior Manager, Val Woods, and the Lead RM&G Manager is Dr Mark Dolman. Katerina Samouri is the Global Checks RM&G Manager. Leona Payne is the Information Manager and Elaine Cherry is the Research Facilitator. The CLRN Administrator is Ursula Warnecke and Jennifer Robinson is the RM&G (CSP) Administrator. Hema Collappen, Industry Manager, is maternity cover for Morag Burton (who will return mid-July 2011.) The vacancy for our Lead Network Manager has recently been appointed and the name will be announced soon.

Executive Group

The day to day operation of the CLRN is supported by an Executive Group which is led by the CLRN Clinical Director, and has representation from primary, secondary and tertiary care and mental health.