Dr. John Sandham CEng – EBME Chairman
John has been chairman of EBME (www.ebme.co.uk) since 1999. He is recognised as an expert in his field of healthcare technology management. John is a senior research fellow at Middlesex University.
He has been instrumental in changing device management policies and processes at many NHS and private healthcare organisations and has a proven track record in delivering improvements that advance regulatory compliance and patient care.
His many years of equipment management and maintenance experience includes: biomedical, diagnostic imaging, endoscopy and pathology. John has in excess of 150 published educational articles.
He has been published in the Open University Science review, Engineering Technology Journal (IET), plus various other newspapers, procurement and scientific publications and the EBME website www.ebme.co.uk. John is keen to share his knowledge and raise the profile of Medical Engineering.
Joe Emmerson – Deputy Chairman
Joe Emmerson is the EBME Technical services manager at Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust. Joe began his career in 1990 as an apprentice electronics engineer in the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers. He spent a varied 13-year career in the forces before leaving to become a biomedical engineering technical trainer for Capital Medical. Joe was employed by University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Trust for over 15 years, the first six years being as a site manager for Royal Lancaster infirmary and the latter as the Head of Medical Devices Management with corporate governance responsibility.
Joe has been at Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust since July 2019 and his role involves managing technical services across multiple acute sites, within the largest clinical engineering department in the UK. Joe has a passion for Medical Device Management with particular focus on lean systems of work, operational processes and developing or specifying automated systems to support operational effectiveness. Joe has worked closely with his EBME staff and database suppliers to continue to improve the development of Medical Device Management systems.
Mike Hilditch
Mike Hilditch is Managing Director of The Hilditch Group and Chairman of the Trustees of The Amalthea Trust. Mike and Nicky Hilditch established the charity, which is supported by The Hilditch Group, following research they carried out on the best ways of helping healthcare development in Low Income Countries.
It was apparent from work carried out by, amongst others, The Global Partnership for Anaesthesia and Surgery, that whilst there was not necessarily a shortage of medical equipment in hospitals, there was a huge shortage of trained technicians to maintain the equipment. Hence much of the equipment in major acute hospitals was not working or frequently broke down, medical equipment maintenance has now been recognised as a key area of concern and improvement by the World Health Organisation.
The Amalthea Trust partners existing technical colleges in LIC’s and with the assistance of a band of intrepid NHS Medical Engineer volunteers we offer practical medical equipment training to a range of students. To date we have trained over 80 medical engineering technicians in Uganda and provided Train the Trainer courses in Ethiopia.
Martin Worster
The Amalthea Trust is a UK based registered charity which is focussed on improving the capacity and quality of Biomedical Engineering in Sub-Saharan Africa through the placement of volunteers from the NHS with partner organisations in African countries with a view to providing hands-on practical sessions in various items of medical equipment.
Martin was a founding Trustee of the Amalthea Trust at its inception by Mike and Nicky Hilditch some twelve years ago and has been Program Director since 2015. He has spent his working life in the fields of Education and International Development both in the UK and overseas, with many years of both spent in Sub-Saharan Africa, whether teaching in Kenya or working in public health at the hight of the HIV-AIDS crisis in Zimbabwe. His current role involves overseeing the work of the Amalthea Trust, the setting up of new programs, and liaising with stakeholders in the field as well as advocacy, networking and fundraising. He will be bringing EBME 2021 up to date with the work of the Amalthea Trust, and is more than happy to meet any Engineers willing to give up two weeks of their time to volunteer!
Philip Davenport
Philip Davenport is a senior medical device specialist in the MHRA Devices Safety and Surveillance Group. His undergraduate degree was in Electrical and Mechanical Engineering at Edinburgh University, with a postgraduate MSc in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Surrey.
He trained in clinical engineering in Birmingham Community Healthcare NHS Trust, and registered with the HCPC as a clinical scientist in 2015, qualifying as a chartered scientist at the same time. He studied for a PhD at Bournemouth University, investigating the use of artificial neural networks to evaluate transtibial prosthetic socket load distributions, graduating in 2018.
Since 2017 he has worked for the MHRA, investigating adverse incident reports, producing medical device guidance and working on other projects concerning the safe and effective use of medical devices.
Debbie Pope
Debbie Pope is the Country Manager (UK & Ireland) for Capsule Technologies. Debbie brings 10 years of NHS commercial knowledge and experience working directly with the NHS and their industry partners across most healthcare sectors and divisions.
From NHS Digital and Public Health to CCGs, STPs and directly with Primary & Secondary care organizations, enabling them to improve patient safety, communication, and satisfaction. Capsule is improving clinical workflows by making the complex simple and the simple insightful. The Capsule Medical Device Information Platform simplifies three key workflow challenges: documentation, surveillance and evidence-based interventions.
Debbie has a deep understanding for how clinical data can be used to provide real-time patient information that facilitates early intervention and enables better clinical outcomes, drawing on experience of projects currently being undertaken in the UK and Internationally.
Angela Lynam & Raheela Bibi
Raheela Bibi (Left)
POCT Manager at The Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust. Responsible for the extensive repertoire of POCT across the four hospitals of the Trust (>900 devices) with full connectivity for the majority of devices. In the process of extending the Trust governance structure to the new Division of Community. Collaborative working experience within the Greater Manchester hospitals. Former Deputy Blood Sciences Manager for management of a multi-disciplinary team (Biochemistry / Haematology / Blood Transfusion). Former Advanced Biomedical Scientist in Biochemistry in Laboratory Medicine. MSC in Biomedical Science and fellowship of the IBMS.
Angela Lynam (Right)
POCT Team Lead at The Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust. POCT Training Coordinator; delivering training/education to a MDT promoting equality for learning within the NHS, for the use of point of care devices. In charge of all connectivity, networking and implementation of devices. Responsible for the day to day running of the POCT service across the four sites including Pennine Care and Manchester Mental Health. Former ward based experience in front-line patient care. Gained a Healthcare Science Degree and a certificate in teaching.
Richard West
Richard West is the UK Technical and IV EHR Business Development Manager at ICU Medical in Salisbury.
He manages the UK Technical team and business development for infusion interoperability to electronic health records and e-prescribing systems.
Previous to that, he worked for Hospira as technical sales and support manager. He is an Infusion device specialist, dealing with training NHS Biomedical Engineers, Nurse Managers, and Clinical IT on software products.
Steve MacAlease
Steve MacAleese is Head of Sales at Qardio Europe Ltd. Qardio is a leading MedTech company in remote patient monitoring, which has developed digital devices for cardio- vascular diagnostics including an innovative wearable ECG device and an alternative product to ABPM.
Steve has 30+ years of experience in selling to the NHS and health authorities across EMEA and has previously worked as Vice President of Omron Healthcare and General Manager at Welch Allyn UK. Steve is planning to launch the innovative QardioArm 24/7 device to the NHS in June this year.
Christopher Gale EngTech MIMechE
Chris is the Avensys Training Academy Manager with an extensive engineering background primarily within avionics having served a full 22 year distinguished military career in the Royal Air Force.
He has been in education since 2015 formally at the Defense College of Aeronautical Engineering (DCAE) where he developed many of the advance avionic engineering programs still delivered today.
Since 2017 he has been involved in Human Factors and Error Management training and delivery implementing the current methods used throughout the military. Having firsthand witnessed the effect proactive use of human factors to manage errors can have and how vital it is to productivity, efficiency and ultimately patient safety all of his undertaking professionally are human factors centric. He has a passion for quality modern technique driven training delivery with impeccably high standard being upheld in line with his previous military career.
Jamie Munro
Jamie has worked with Pentland Medical for the last eight years. His role has encompassed many different aspects of business in the Healthcare Industry including sales, marketing, product identification and development. This has given him the opportunity to work closely with Healthcare Professionals covering many different disciplines, subsequently gaining a great understanding of the needs of clinicians in today's cost-conscious healthcare landscape.
Working closely with overseas industry partners and utilising his experience in UK healthcare, Jamie is able to influence the direction and development of exciting technologies that Pentland Medical are delighted to be involved with.
Paul Hinchley
With a background in Critical Care Nursing spanning over 25 years including Cardiothoracic, Paediatric and Burns specialties, Paul now lead the Clinical Teams in Connected Care at Philips in the UK Market.
Paul has been working with Phillips for eight years and remain passionate about ensuring Education and Clinical Services are delivered to the highest standard, enabling true influence on patient safety and clinical outcomes.
Dr. Scott Brown
Scott has worked in the healthcare sector for 30 years and is a registered clinical scientist with Health and Care Professionals Council (HCPC); he has a PhD in healthcare science and a background in engineering and science having begun his career serving an apprenticeship with British Telecom, previously the General Post Office. He has previously sat on a number of IPEM committees including Council, EGB and the CESIG during which he was an author and editor of Report 97. Scott has published widely in the clinical engineering field including contributing to three books. Recently he has become interested in Lean service improvement and been involved in a number of innovative projects around operating theatre patient pathways and health records.
In 2014 he established Health Tech Solutions Ltd offering consultancy services to the healthcare sector focusing on technical and user training, risk management, replacement planning and lean service improvement. He works in partnership with a number of providers developing educational materials including FdSc and BSc programmes and updating existing courses. In addition he delivers medical and dental equipment training for Eastwood Park including specialist courses on Servicing Ventilation and Anaesthetic Equipment, Servicing Cardiovascular equipment, Servicing Dental Operating Units as well as the introductory Biomedical Equipment Maintenance Practice.
Iain Menneer
Iain Menneer has a PhD in Chemistry from Newcastle University and is the Chief Executive Officer at SageTech Medical Equipment.
SageTech Medical is developing a comprehensive way to capture, extract and purify volatile anaesthetic gases to PhEur monograph standard. This will dramatically reduce the carbon footprint of operating theatres around the world. He is honoured to lead the talented and driven team at SageTech Medical.
Dr. Sebastian Brown
Sebastian Brown is a medical doctor in anaesthesia and critical care by with a love of science and technology. He is the research director of Sage Tech Medical Equipment.
Sebastian invented and patented a technology to improve the environmental sustainability of anaesthesia. He Founded a biotech company and is working with a great team to bring the technology to market with new skills in CAD, robotics and medical drug/device regulations
He still harbours persistent interest in immunology and virology from University days.
Ruth Strickland
Ruth Strickland has been the Joint Managing Director at MTS Health Ltd for over 21 years jointly leading the company to become one of the largest independent Equipment Asset Management companies in the UK.
Ruth is responsible for the corporate strategy and bidding of new business, working with NHS Trusts to plan, cost, procure, manage and install medical and non-medical equipment for some of the countries’ largest hospital schemes such as: Barts Health, Great Ormond Street, Midland Met, Papworth, Chelsea and Westminster and many more. Alongside this work, MTS are also working with clients to review their management of medical equipment assets and delivering maintenance based operational services with public and private sector customers, such as the Lloyds Pharmacy and Kent Community NHS Trust. Her involvement at a strategic level has resulted in MTS Health operating over 30 contracts in the UK. The MTS team played an instrumental role in mobilising a number of Nightingale Hospitals across the country in London; Manchester; Exeter and Cardiff.
Dr. Helen Meese CEng MIMechE
Founder & CEO, The Care Machine Ltd.
IMechE Trustee; IMechE Vice Chair, Biomedical Engineering Division & Committee Member Pharma Group; Committee Member, Healthcare Policy Topic Group, Royal Academy of Engineering.
Helen is an Electro-Mechanical Power Engineer with over 20 years’ experience in both academia and industry. She studied for her PhD in Mechanical Engineering at Loughborough University.
Helen spent many years in the defence industry before joining the IMechE in 2013 as Head of Engineering in Society. She became Head of Healthcare in 2015, managing its programme on medical technology and infrastructure, across all aspects of health and social care; with focus on impact to UK and global communities.
Helen has appeared on TV and radio as well as writing numerous reports, policy statements and articles on health-related matters. Now as CEO of The Care Machine Ltd, Helen provides innovative technology solutions to medtech start-ups and SMEs.
She continues to deliver thought leadership across the medtech sector, championing the importance of biomedical, pharmaceutical and mechanical engineering in medicine.
Justin McCarthy
Justin joined the Medial Physics Department in Cardiff in 1968, after graduating from Manchester University. He was recruited specifically because he had an engineering degree and the department was developing a bioengineering section to support the new University Hospital of Wales. In his early career he was also given the opportunity to develop new medical devices and equipment. His contribution as part of the multi-disciplinary team that developed the first commercially available intravenous PCA apparatus gained him a research MSc degree.
From the 1980s, as Head of Clinical Engineering, he lead the teams that provided HTM services to the Trust’s medical equipment and he advised on risk, procurement and healthcare technology regulatory issues. He helped establish the Clinical Engineering MSc course at Cardiff University and continues teaching on the undergraduate Medical Engineering course. He retired from the NHS in 2009 but continues to provide consultancy services to Trusts, Welsh Government and small businesses. He has been involved in Standards at UK and international level. His current focus is on the implications for the NHS of the new Medical Devices Regulations. He is a Chartered Engineer and a Fellow of the IET and of IPEM.
Dr. Farhang Daemi BSc(Hons), PhD, MBCS
Farhang Daemi is an internationally recognised health tech expert with a distinguished ability in joining up technology, commercial and clinical operations disciplines to deliver significant value to the NHS, SMEs, multinationals and smart investors.
He has initiated, led, evaluated and delivered a wide range of assignments, programmes and businesses over the past 25 years across the emerging technology sector. His current work includes investment advice, comprehensive due diligence, market access, commercialisation, bid and tender management, strategic programme management and med tech asset management.
Farhang has degrees of BSc (Hons) and PhD in Electronic Engineering. His career highlights include R&D leadership in Computer Science with a focus on AI and VAR, development and global launch of the first FDA and CE approved AI solutions for cancer detection and commissioning multiple hospitals as an executive in charge of medical technology and procurement.
Prof. Paul White
Professor White is a Consultant Clinical Scientist and Head of Clinical Engineering at Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.
In 1994 he was awarded an MSc in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Surrey and a PhD and DIC through Imperial College London in 1998.
His research interests have specialised in physiological measurement of the cardiovascular system.
He is responsible for medical technology, equipment strategy, research and innovation. He has an international reputation in cardiovascular research in the area of ventricular dynamics and energetic.
Dave Mulvey
David’s Medical Engineering experience goes back some 35 years. Working in the commercial sector with S&W, Vickers Medical and his own company Artemis Medical Ltd, David held roles of Senior Engineer, Technical Training Manager and Technical Director. Having a passion to help Biomedical Engineers develop their skill and knowledge in such areas as Anaesthesia, Cardiology, Neonatology and Ventilation, David has run countless training courses and seminars. His training has gained a worthy reputation for a quality and practical approach to many complex clinical engineering subjects.
The past 8 years David has worked within the NHS as both Technical Trainer and Technical Support Engineer. He has broadened his engineering experience with roles in Pathology and Imaging (MR, CT and X-Ray) and remains committed to providing close support to the clinicians in these areas. Throughout his career David has sought to ensure that equipment and support are provided at the best possible value for money. David has been at the forefront training, and presenting over many year, sharing his wide knowledge experience with the wider EBME community.
Paul Lee BA (Hons) Cert. Ed, RSci, RCT, MIPEM
Medical Devices Training Manager, Swansea Bay University Health Board.
In 1986, Paul completed his apprenticeship and HNC in Electronic Engineering, and started his NHS career as a medical technical officer in Cardiff Royal Infirmary. In 2003, he became the lead for medical device training in Swansea University Health Board.
He has written and published articles on equipment management and his research work around infusion therapy and presented this at many national and international conferences. In 2017, Paul was seconded to NHS Improvement as the Patient Safety Lead for Medical Devices, and worked on several key projects, including; neuraxial connectors, medical device incidents, coroners reports on alcohol hand gel and portable oxygen cylinder safety.
He is a member of the National Medical Device Safety Officer (MDSO) Editorial Board and the National Patient Safety Response Advisory Panel (NatRAP).
In 2020, he led the NAMDET project team culminating in the publication of the ‘Position Statement on Dose Error Reduction Systems’ in the UK. Paul is an active member of the Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine (IPEM) and is Chair of the NAMDET board and consultant editor of the MDET journal. Paul’s talk will look at the design and development of medical gas and oxygen safety training and how this can be rolled out across the UK, sharing links and resources to help, culminating in a national free e-learning course for all NHS staff.
Sarah Jennings
Sarah Jennings is currently the National Patient Safety Clinical Lead for Medical Devices at NHS England & Improvement. She has a BSc. in Nursing Studies and 30 years’ experience in acute and primary care as an ED nurse, 111 advisor, Medical Equipment Sister, Medical Device Safety Officer and Decontamination Lead.
She has established links with the MHRA, CAPA and Clinical Procurement, Users, Industry and other groups such as NAMDET and CHFG to improve understanding of device use. Sarah is keen to raise the profile of medical device governance to ensure appropriate access and use of safe and effective devices and consumables to meet the needs of today’s high-pressured healthcare settings.
