Salma is a senior lecturer in Medical Statistics in the School of Life Course & Population Sciences, King’s College London. Experienced in the design and analysis of experimental and observational studies, her research interests include the application of advanced statistical and econometrics techniques to explore prognostic factors in long term health conditions. Her role in the IMPROVE trial will concern elements of study design, sample size calculation, statistical expertise and data management.

Julia is Professor of Health Economics in the School of Life Course and Population Sciences, King’s College London, where she is in charge of health economics and leads the Papworth Trials Unit Collaboration. Her clinical trial work has included studying how physical activity can be used to improve health. Julia specialises in improving the way economic evaluations are undertaken and is particularly interested in improving the ways in which health is measured and valued. She will design and supervise health economic modelling for the IMPROVE trial.

Ka Keat Lim is a health economist with a background in pharmacy, who currently works as a research fellow in Health Economics in the Department of Population Health Sciences, King’s College London. He enjoys learning from and working with patients, clinicians, and policy makers in using health economics to improve population health, especially among older adults and those living with chronic conditions. Ka Keat will work with Professor Julia Fox-Rushby on the economic evaluation which will be conducted as part of the IMPROVE trial.

Emma is a Senior Lecturer in Health Psychology at King’s College London. She is a HCPC registered practitioner psychologist. Emma is particularly interested in developing interventions to support behaviour change and training Health Care Professionals in psychologically informed interventions. She is a core member of the Trial Management Group for IMPROVE, employing her research experience to select and assess theory and behaviour change techniques, which underpin the PR-buddy training and intervention in this trial.

Les has over 6 years experience advising on COPD related research from a patient perspective. He has served on steering groups for other research, participated in a national stakeholder meeting for the NIHR-funded PACE study, and is a member of the Patient Advisory/Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) group for COPD research at the department of Population Health Sciences, King's College London. As someone living with COPD, he has first-hand experience with pulmonary rehabilitation and knows how effective it can be at improving patients’ quality of life. Les will serve as the IMPROVE trial’s patient advisor on the trial management group.

Nick is based at The National Heart and Lung Institute of Imperial College on the Royal Brompton Hospital Campus in London. His research, which has been funded by the MRC, The NIHR, The Wellcome Trust, Asthma + Lung UK and The Moulton Foundation, focuses on addressing exercise and activity limitation in COPD in areas including pulmonary physiology and lung volume reduction, skeletal muscle impairment and pulmonary rehabilitation. He is active in tobacco control advocacy and is Chair of Action on Smoking and Health ASH(UK), as well as Medical Director of Asthma + Lung UK, and @COPDdoc on Twitter. Nick is an expert in pulmonary rehabilitation and one of our trialists.

Simon is Professor of Health Management and Health Systems in the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences at Norwegian University of Science and Technology. He has a keen interest in how research evidence can be used to strengthen health systems, and his methodological interests include approaches for undertaking systematic reviews of complex health system interventions, methods for synthesizing the findings of multiple qualitative studies, and methods for assessing confidence in such findings. Simon is the Joint Co-ordinating Editor of Cochrane Effective Practice and Organisation of Care (EPOC); a Coordinator of the GRADE-CERQual Project Group; and sits on a number of WHO Advisory Committees. He joins us in the IMPROVE Trial as an expert in Lay Health Worker interventions and outcomes.

A Lecturer in Cardiorespiratory Physiotherapy Practice and Research at King’s College London, Arietta has extensive clinical experience as a senior and specialist respiratory physiotherapist in pulmonary rehabilitation and in treating patients with chronic lung conditions. Arietta is the first allied health professional of the British Thoracic Society (BTS) Pulmonary Infection Specialist Advisory Group and one of the few physiotherapy chairs for a European Respiratory Society (ERS) Task Force. She is a core member of the Trial Management Group for IMPROVE due to her expertise in assessment and delivery of pulmonary rehabilitation.

Steph is Professor of Primary Care and Public Health at Queen Mary University of London. She is an experienced trialist in respiratory disease including pulmonary rehabilitation. Her background and specialty training is in both public health and primary care. Steph leads a group of researchers in the Wolfson Institute of Population Health, conducting applied health services research directed at improving the lives of people living with long term conditions, particularly those living with respiratory conditions or with multiple long-term conditions. Her research interests include complex, non-pharmacological interventions for chronic conditions directed at improving quality of life and reducing morbidity, process evaluation and intervention development. Steph holds honorary Consultant posts in Public Health with the UK Health Security Agency and Barts NHS Trust, is Academic Capacity Development Lead for the NIHR School for Primary Care Research and Director of the Wellcome Trust funded Doctoral Training Programme for Primary Care Clinicians.