Core research team
These are the people who oversee the day-to-day running of the trial.
Professor Patrick White
Chief Investigator
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Patrick is a Professor of Primary Care Respiratory Medicine in the Department of Population Health Sciences at King’s College London. He was formerly a GP in south London. Patrick developed the PR-buddy intervention with Gill Gilworth and a COPD Patient and Public Involvement Group in south London. His research interests are focussed on the management of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in primary care. Patrick is particularly interested in the use of lay health workers in improving uptake of treatment, over-prescription of medications for COPD, and the diagnosis of obstructive lung disease.
Dr Gill Gilworth
Senior Research Fellow
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A physiotherapist by training, Gill worked on the initial feasibility study along with Patrick White. After 5 years at King’s College London, she has recently returned to live in West Yorkshire, where she will head the Leeds office for the IMPROVE trial. Gill is based in the Academic Department of Rehabilitation Medicine at the University of Leeds.
Experienced in qualitative methods and the process evaluation of complex interventions Gill will take the lead in the qualitative aspects of the process evaluation for the trial. Gill is also leading the development of training resources. Gill is a committed supporter of patient and public involvement (PPI) in research and will liaise with the patient advisory group supporting the IMPROVE trial.
Dr Selina Cox
Trial Manager – London
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Dr Selina Cox previously completed her PhD and a post-doctoral research associate role in the department of Nutritional Sciences at KCL, where she ran complex dietary intervention trials in inflammatory bowel diseases.
She joined the King’s Clinical Trials Unit (KCTU) as a Senior Trial Manager in August 2023, managing and overseeing various aspects of clinical trials. She joined IMPROVE in September 2024.
Miss Riddhi Daryanani
Research Assistant - London
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Driven by her passion for understanding the intersection between physical and mental wellbeing, Riddhi completed her undergraduate studies in Psychology in India and more recently a Master’s degree (MSc) in Health Psychology at King’s College London. Riddhi’s interests lie in intervention development and evaluation, particularly those incorporating health psychology models as well as women’s health care and holistic wellbeing.
Riddhi had the opportunity to work on the IMPROVE trial when she was completing the dissertation for her MSc, and joined the IMPROVE team in April 2024 as a Research Assistant. Riddhi will be working on the process evaluation aspects of the trial, completing site visits and supporting the intervention sites with data collection.
Mrs Kim Terry
Research Assistant - London
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After eleven years as a psychology and research methods teacher, Kim embarked on a change of career.
Having completed a master’s degree in Bioethics and Society at King’s College London, Kim began her health researcher career at King’s College London in February 2020. Since then, she has worked on several projects including the co-design of a medical device for people with hand deformities, a randomised controlled feasibility study looking at the effects of chemotherapy and a peer support trial for the caregivers of individuals with a progressive illness. Kim is passionate about co- design methodologies – creating medical devices and interventions with the people that use them and welcomes the opportunity to continue working with diverse groups with long term health conditions. Kim joined the research team for the IMPROVE trail in January 2024.
Mr Ben Odin
Research Assistant - Leeds
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Benjamin completed his first degree in Financial Economics at the University of Dundee before graduating from his National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) sponsored Masters degree in Health Economics at the University of York, with distinction, in 2017.
Benjamin has an array of research interests, including non-communicable diseases, veteran’s mental health and youth offending, and has recently published a rapid review looking at the role of known educational, police and social services engagement on youth violent offending.
Benjamin joined the IMPROVE trial research team in June 2024. He is based in the Academic Department of Rehabilitation Medicine at the University of Leeds and will provide support with site-visits to Pulmonary Rehabilitation services in the north of England and data collection analysis for the remainder of the trial.
Miss Morgan Bell-Ricketts
Research Assistant - London
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Morgan completed a BSc in Biomedical Science from King’s College London in 2023. She has since worked as a research assistant across various fields, including the development of prenatal therapies for Sickle Cell Disease and a trial evaluating the effects of financial education interventions on primary school-aged children. She is interested in research that improves patient health outcomes and advocates for equality, diversity, and inclusion.
Morgan joined the IMPROVE trial in October 2024 and will be carrying out site visits and contributing to data collection and analysis.
Dr Rebecca Mackenzie
Junior Clinical Researcher - London
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Rebecca is a junior doctor training in General Practice and is also an Academic Clinical Fellow at King’s College London. Rebecca undertook her undergraduate medical degree at University College London, where she also completed an iBSc in Clinical Sciences with first class honours. Rebecca is passionate about health services research and improving the quality of healthcare. She has an interest in implementation science and the behaviour and performance of healthcare systems.
Rebecca joined the IMPROVE trial as a junior clinical researcher in August 2024. She will mainly be working on the trial’s process evaluation which is concerned with explaining the observable results. Furthermore, she will assist in site visits and in the collection and analysis of data.
With thanks to previous staff who have worked on the trial:
Dr Kate Harris
Health Psychology Research Associate
Mr Richard Turner
Research Assistant - London
Dr Jessica Kawalek
Research Assistant – Leeds
Miss Natalie King
Research Assistant - London
Mrs Alison Dickson
Trial administrator - London
Trial management group
While the core research team will be largely responsible for conducting the trial on the ground, the Trial Management Group is responsible for the overall management of the trial. Most are also co-applicants on the grant that is funding the IMPROVE trial.
Dr Salma Ayis
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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.
Professor Julia Fox-Rushby
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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.
Dr Ka Keat Lim
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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.
Dr Emma Godfrey
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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 Hamilton
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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.
Professor Nicholas Hopkinson
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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.
Professor Simon Lewin
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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.
Dr Arietta Spinou
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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.
Professor Stephanie Taylor
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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.
Patient advisors
Patient and public involvement (PPI) refers to an active partnership between patients and/or members of the public and researchers. Researchers and clinicians may not have first-hand experience of the illness, disease or health condition that they wish to research. PPI groups can therefore provide researchers with insights into what it is like to live with a particular disease, illness or health condition helping to make health research more relevant to the needs of patients, carers and service users.
Our group of patient advisors all have COPD and first-hand experience of Pulmonary Rehabilitation.
Sue Green (London)
Les Hamilton (London)
Angie Pearson (London)
Pat Pooke (London)
Pat Goodacre (Leeds)
Sue Squires (Leeds)
With thanks to previous patient advisors:
Stan Hutchins
London
