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For any queries or to find out how to be involved with HPAG, please get in touch:

hpag@imperial.ac.uk

Who We Are

The Healthcare Professional Academic Group (HPAG) represents a community of research excellence in healthcare science Imperial College London (Imperial) and serves as an academic hub in the Faculty of Medicine for clinical academics in the healthcare professions1 from across the Imperial College Academic Health Science Centre (AHSC).2 The HPAG was launched in 2018 with an initial event. Today we have 135 registered members. 

The HPAG provides a multidisciplinary network for a wide range of healthcare professionals1 who work with clinical and health-related research undertaken at Imperial College AHSC. The HPAG supports this research by bringing together a critical mass of clinical academics in the healthcare professions at Imperial College and its affiliated hospitals2. The HPAG aims to inspire more healthcare professionals to undertake research and become clinical academic leaders. 

Non-medical healthcare professionals1 bring a person-centred perspective to multidisciplinary clinical and health services research.  As the largest group of professional staff working in healthcare, we contribute unique insights into the realities of the clinical environment, and can therefore enhance both the implementation of research into practice and practice into research. Our clinical expertise includes symptom management, rehabilitation and recovery, patient-reported outcomes and experiences, and patient safety.  In addition, we contribute knowledge and experience of research approaches that are essential to contemporary health care, including mixed-methods, qualitative, realist, intervention development and evaluation, patient-reported outcome assessment, and implementation science.

HPAG’s mission

  • To inspire, support and increase the number of clinically active healthcare professionals to pursue an academic pathway
  • To grow the number of clinical academic leaders from across the Imperial College AHSC;
  • To increase the amount of cross professional research from different disciplines to strengthen the research impact and effectiveness;
  • To increase the quality and volume of research undertaken by healthcare professionals.

HPAG’s vision

To become an Internationally renowned centre of research excellence and academic leadership in the field of healthcare sciences.

HPAG objectives

To develop the HPAG network and increase the volume of high-quality research led by healthcare professionals at Imperial and its affiliated hospitals through:

  • Research Seminars;
  • Multidisciplinary working within HPAG and with the broader health research community at Imperial;
  • Networking, peer-to-peer support, and mentoring;
  • Identifying support needs for research finances, grants and fellowships;
  • Career advice and support. For AHSC staff in clinical academic training, HPAG works closely with the Imperial Clinical Academic Training Office (CATO).

If you are a healthcare professionalwho is leading research or aspiring to be a clinical academic and are interested in the work of the group, please sign up to become a member of HPAG.

In this context, ‘healthcare professionals’ relates to the non-medical clinical workforce e.g. nurses, allied health professionals, healthcare scientists, midwives, psychologists and pharmacy staff, clinical research practitioners

Imperial College London, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, Chelsea and Westminster NHS Foundation Trust and Institute of Cancer Research 

Latest News

Congratulations to HPAGs Justin Roe who has been promoted to Professor of Practice in Speech and Swallowing Rehabilitation.

 

Congratulations to HPAGs Professor Mary Wells and Professor Caroline Alexander, who have been awarded the FoM 25th Anniversary Staff Award Winners for Outstanding Contribution from Honorary Staff and to Professor Mary Morrell who has been awarded the FoM 25th Anniversary Staff Award Winner for Outstanding Leadership in Education. 

Find out more

Activities and Events

Upcoming HPAG Seminars

Next event to be announced. 

Previous HPAG Seminars

Title: Patient Public Involvement & Engagement- how, why and when
Date: Tuesday 30th January at 12.00-14.00

Chair: Dr Margaret Coffey

Speakers:

  • Maria Piggin - Introduction to the NIHR Imperial Patient Experience Research Centre (PERC) and Public Involvement in Research (Maria Piggin presentation HPAG)
  • Jenny Crow - How patient and public involvement and engagement (PPIE) is informing and shaping my research focused on a personalised approach to follow-up care after minor stroke
    (Jenny Crow presentation HPAG)

Title: Collecting good data to inform future care
Date: Monday 20th February 2023 13.30-14.45

Chair: Dr Justin Roe

Speakers:

  • Lauren Leigh-Doyle, SLT working in oncology in the Royal Marsden Hospital Foundation Trust
  • Pernilla Lagergren, nurse and professor of surgical care science working at Department of Surgery and Cancer, Imperial College London and Karolinska Institutet, Sweden
  • Q&A

 Title: Medical physics research, development and innovation to deliver best practice care for our patients
Date: Wednesday 29th June 2022 14.00-15.30

Chair: Dr Ruth McLauchlan

Speakers:

  • Meagan de la Bastide & Oli Steel, Department of Radiation Physics & Radiobiology
  • Priten Khagram, Radiological Sciences Unit (Nuclear Medicine)
  • Dr Mary Finnegan, Radiological Sciences Unit (MRI)
  • Dr Simona Avramova-Cholakova, Radiological Sciences Unit (DR)
  • Q&A

Watch the recording


Title: Utilising routinely collected data for research
Date: Friday 22nd April 12.30-14.30

Chair: Professor Mary Wells

Speakers and schedule:

  • Mr Ben Glampson, Research Informatics Programme Manager | NIHR HIC Programme Lead ICHT | ICHT Data Officer, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust
  • Mr Erik Mayer, Clinical Reader in Urology |Transformation Chief Clinical Information Officer (Analytics & Informatics) | Consultant Surgeon | Imperial College London | Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust | Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust
  • Mr Scott O’Brien, Research Fellow and former Head of Children’s Nursing | Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust

Watch the recording.


Title: Lessons learnt & looking ahead in Healthcare Science and innovation
Date: Tuesday 21st December 2021

Chair: Dr Emma Walker

Speakers:
Ian Wright and Michael Fudge - Advanced Cardiac Physiologists
Gill Twigg - Principle Clinical Scientist in Sleep Science
Arthi Anand - Consultant Clinical Scientist in Histocompatibility
Emily Frost - Healthcare Science Education Lead
Ed Wilkes - Consultant Clinical Scientist in Clinical Biochemistry
Q&A

Watch the recording


Title: Co-Design of care pathways; examples from the shop floor
Date: Wednesday 6th October 2021 12.30-13.30

Chair: Dr Caroline Alexander

Speakers and schedule:

Dr Justin Roe, Speech and Language Therapist
National Centre for Airway Reconstruction | Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust
Division of Surgery | Department of Surgery and Cancer | Imperial College London

PhD student Grainne Brady, Speech and Language Therapist working at the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust in London. NIHR Clinical Doctoral Research Fellow.


Title: Medication adherence and resilience - and doing research in the Covid-19 pandemic
Date: Wednesday 21 April 2021

Chair: Professor Bryony Dean Franklin

Speakers and schedule

"Medication adherence and resilience: What can we learn from the Covid-19 pandemic?"

Dr Sara Garfield, research pharmacist at The Centre for Medication Safety and Service Quality, Pharmacy Department, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, London, & UCL School of Pharmacy, London.

“A facilitated discussion and sharing of experiences and suggestions around conducting research during a global pandemic”

Led by Professor Bryony Dean Franklin, Executive Lead Pharmacist Research & Director, Centre for Medication Safety and Service Quality | Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust and Alison McGregor, Professor of Musculoskeletal Biodynamics, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Surgery & Cancer. Imperial College London.


Title: Use of research to positively impact patient care - Seminar and networking

Date: Tuesday 13th October 2020

Speakers and schedule: 

"Not just dysp​noea - swallowing as a concern for adults with laryngotracheal stenosis who undergo reconstructive surgery?"
Gemma Clunie, NIHR Clinical Doctoral Fellow, Department of Surgery & Cancer

"Understanding the biomechanical impact of recurrent low back pain in patients with lumbar disc degeneration using state of the art technology"
Dr Janet Deane - Post doctoral research associate, Department of Surgery & Cancer

"Peer support for Healthcare Professionals outside of Medicine"
Dr Janet Deane - Post doctoral research associate, Department of Surgery & Cancer

Chair: Dr Margaret Coffey


Title: Using wearables in healthcare research

Date: Thursday 9th January 2020

Location: Charing Cross Campus

Speakers and schedule: 

Chair: Professor Mary Wells

"Breaking the mould of dietary assessment"

Professor Gary Frost Department of Metabolism, Digestion and Reproduction and Dr Benny Lo, Department of Surgery & Cancer

"Developing a screening tool for shoulder dysfunction in breast cancer patients’"

Marie-Clare Johnson, Physiotherapy Practitioner Upper Limb, Therapies Department, Charing Cross Hospital


Title: HPAG Seminar 3

Date: Wednesday 4th September 2019

Location: Hammersmith Hospital, Wolfson Centre, Seminar Room 4

Speakers and schedule:

"Exploiting routinely collected data to improve nurse-sensitive outcomes: delayed discharges and adverse events" Enrique Castro Sanchez, Lead Academic Research Nurse

"A day in the life of a Female genital mutilation (FGM) specialist service" Juliet Albert, Specialist FGM Midwife


Title: HPAG Seminar 2

Date: Tuesday 11th June 2019

Location: 

Speakers and schedule: 

"Keeping amputees on their feet" Professor Alison McGregor

"An exploration of the relationships between staff perceptions of safety in adult intensive care (ICU) and patient and staff characteristics" Clare-Leon Villapalos


Title: Writing for Publication Workshop – facilitated by Felicia Cox FRCN MSc RN

Date: Friday 10th May 2019

Location: 

Speakers and schedule: 

Workshops offering staff who are already writing for publication an opportunity to explore the development of a framework for a publication – involving identifying a topic, audience, platform, and undertaking a basic lit search.


Title: HPAG Seminar 1

Date: Thursday 6th December 2018

Location: St Mary’s Hospital, Clinical Lecture Theatre (2nd Floor Cambridge Wing)

Speakers and schedule: 

"From a clinical observation to a randomised clinical trial and change of clinical practice – an example" Professor Pernilla Lagergren

"A feasibility study on intervention for swallowing dysfunction after laryngectomy" Dr. Margaret Coffey


 

CATO Events

The Clinical Academic Training Office (CATO) at Imperial is the Imperial College AHSC centralised pan-professional academic training hub for advice and information on academic careers, recruitment, training and funding.

Click here to access forthcoming CATO events relevant to health professional clinical academic trainees.

HPAG membership

Professions in HPAG:

Professions in HPAGHPAG member affiliations:

HPAG members affiliation

HPAG Steering group members