Rebeka Sultana

Currently I work in school for children with Special Educational Needs. I have a background in biomedical sciences (bachelor degree in pharmacy, MSc in Clinical Pharmacy and Pharmacology and PhD in Molecular Oncology). I have significant experience in cancer research and patient and public involvement and engagement (PPIE) in health research.

I always have had an interest to make a contribution to improve the treatment and care of people with different health conditions/diseases through involving patient and public in research. Hence I have been actively involved in PPIE work since more than five years in different capacities including Biomedical Research centre’s management board member, steering committee member in NIHR funded primary care research centre, working group member in different research projects at different universities. I often see the barriers that people with long term health conditions/diseases (particularly with disabilities, older generation, and minor ethnicities whose first language is not English) face to receive treatment that they need and so I am passionate about using my experiences to help researchers, funding bodies, policy makers and patients/public to make the research more effective, inclusive and diverse as inclusion and diversity in research is crucial to ensuring treatment and care are tailored to everyone’s needs.

I am passionate about co- production/co-development and embedding PPIE in different stages of research; from initial study design to final dissemination, and have several published papers as first author and co-author, in high impact journals.

In my personal life I am a parent of a child with autism so I have lived experience about how the lives can be of people living with long term health conditions/ diseases/neurodiversity, what matters most to them and how important it is to receive treatment and care that is effective, evidence based and easy accessible.