The CHI team has a broad background and skill set that is necessary in today’s interdisciplinary care and health informatics research. The expertise we draw on includes the core CHI team based at the University of Liverpool, our public advisors, PhD students who work on projects associated with CHI, and other academics based at the ARC NWC sites.

Sarah Rodgers – Theme lead

I am a Professor of Health Informatics with expertise in evaluating natural experiments and non-randomised intervention studies using anonymised linked administrative and health datasets.

I am principal investigator for the NIHR funded study evaluating the mental health and wellbeing impact of access to green and blue spaces (e.g. parks and beaches).

I am an investigator on the Wellcome Trust funded birth cohort Children Growing Up in Liverpool and Civic Data Cooperative data linkage initiative.

We are working with partners across the north to use routinely collected data to help clinicians provide better care for their patients.

From 2006-2018 I worked at Swansea University, establishing data linkage methodologies enabling retrospective individual level exposure allocation.

My research focuses on using safe haven data that have been linked across health, social and environmental domains to explore the impact of exposures such as decent housing conditions, alcohol outlets, pollution, and natural outdoor spaces, on health and wellbeing.

You can see more of my projects and publications on my University of Liverpool profile page.

Peter Lloyd – PA Co-Lead

Peter is a co-lead lead for CHI- his work with the ARC NWC dovetails with a career-long interest in improving the well-being of the poorest people in the poorest locations.

He is a highly experienced, much travelled and now retired senior academic with a second career in international public policy consultancy. He retired from full-time work in 2011 to become a carer at home for his wife Ros who suffers from dementia.

Over 40 years as an academic at the Universities of Queensland, Manchester and finally Liverpool, Peter covered the full spectrum of HE roles. He left Higher Education in 2001 as Professor of Urban Geography, Head of the Department of Geography and Dean of the Faculty of Social and Environmental Studies.

For over 20 years Peter supplied academic expertise on local development and employment to the European Commission and to the OECD. He was an expert on the Digital Transformation and Governance project for (European Commission JRC) and on Future Work and Local Skills Policy (OECD – LEED).

His recent activity has been dominated by writing on Covid see here.

Terry Bryant – PA Co-Lead

I have a background in business where, as an independent consultant, I worked with companies to understand how they operated and help them identify and recruit key personnel to develop their operations. Observing and listening to people and identifying team dynamics were elements I really enjoyed. Later, my passion for people-focussed roles and also language took me into teaching and writing which I still pursue.

I have acted as a carer to my wife for years but her need for both mental and physical health support increased substantially over the last decade. Shielding in the pandemic allowed me time to take stock and renew my engagement with science, psychology and research which has found a new outlet now in service user/public advisor roles.

I now work closely with the DClin Psychology programme at Liverpool, in a variety of positions with the NHS/HEE and UK wide in research. So, a circuitous route to my role with ARC as Public Adviser Co-lead on the Care & Health Informatics theme and my introduction into the world of Health Big Data!

Olly Butters

I am a population health data scientist working to join up datasets, gain insight from complex systems and make health research more open.

I have a strong background in data management and infrastructure of cohort studies, having been heavily involved in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC – www.bristol.ac.uk/alspac) and the 1958 Birth Cohort Genetics Repository. In addition to this I have also been involved in biomedical data infrastructure projects with Connected Health Cities NENC and BRISSKit.

I have a keen interest in how to open up research datasets with non-disclosive federated analysis techniques, particularly DataSHIELD.

You can see more of my projects and publications on my University of Liverpool profile page.

Pieta Schofield

I have taken a few turns on my road to CHI, but most have been closely associated with computing one way or another. I started as a FORTRAN analyst-programmer in finance in London the 1980s, worked as computer systems manager for a pharmaceutical company laboratory in Cambridge in the 1990s then after a spell contracting as a network specialist I entered academia in Dundee working for a PhD in mathematical modelling of the evolution of reproduction distortion strategies of insect endosymbionts. This led to a spell in 2000s working in molecular biology and chemical entomology attempting find parameters for the models develop in my PhD. Then followed a few years working in computer vision and remote sensing of plants for application to crop irrigation systems. Then during the 2010s I spent a relatively long period working in bioinformatics, initially preclinical in Dundee and eventually clinical bioinformatics with CRUK in Manchester. I switched from cancer and computational genomics to public health in 2019 moving to Liverpool to work on the use of routinely collected healthcare data for observational research, with particular interest in data quality and inequalities, and the question “Does the data reflect what we assume it does?”

Konstantinos Daras

I am a Research Associate in Health Data Analysis within the Department of Public Health, Policy & Systems with expertise in quantitative geography methods, big data analysis and geocomputation applied in population studies.

Currently, I am working on the development of linked neighbourhood datasets using large datasets including Hospital Episode Statistics; NHS open data, enabling the tracking of the determinants of health and health outcomes within neighbourhoods along with novel neighbourhood level contextual indicators, funded by the NIHR ARC North West Coast.

You can see more of my projects and publications on my University of Liverpool profile page.

Becca Wilson

I am an interdisciplinary researcher with a career spanning the space, atmospheric and health sciences. I am currently at the University of Liverpool developing open source software for the sharing, access and immersive data visualisation of sensitive health data. I hold significant expertise in science communication and public engagement – working with schools, museums and funders nationally. I am passionate about increasing diversity in STEM, particularly amongst ethnic minority groups and people with disabilities, and I’m a disability activist committed to improving inclusivity in the academic sector. I blog for AccessAble about accessibility.

You can see more of my projects and publications on my University of Liverpool profile page.

Pete Dixon

Originally with a background in botany, I have been working at the University of Liverpool on health-related research (primarily epilepsy) since 2007. I am the Theme Manager for both the Care & Health Informatics and Person-Centred Complex Care themes of ARC North West Coast. My previous work has included:
• Managing and analysing the National Audit of Seizure management in Hospitals (NASH)
• Research Theme Manager for the NIHR Collaborations for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care (CLAHRC) North West Coast
• Research Associate for Connected Health Cities North West Coast, analysing routinely collected administrative datasets to improve emergency care pathways in epilepsy, COPD and alcohol-related liver disease.
• Research Associate on the ‘COLLABORATE’ project – developing patient-centred, feasible alternative care for emergency department users with epilepsy.

I am also a trustee and treasurer of Mersey Region Epilepsy Association.

University of Liverpool

• Dr Ben Barr
• Dr Keith Bodger
• Professor Iain Buchan
• Dr Banushka Bollegala
• Professor Tony Marson
• Professor Simon Maskell
• Professor Paula Williamson

University of Lancaster

• Professor Joanne Knight
• Dr David Worthington

UCLan

• Professor Soo Downe

Local Government and NHS

• Jonny Keville
• Kate Warriner