SPCR Trainees Event 2025

Simon Cain – Owner of Westbourne Training & Consulting

Day 1 | 11:10 - 12:25 - Delivering a Flash Talk

Simon specialises in training in presentation / pitching skills. Over the past 25 years, he has delivered workshops to a wide range of organisations within health and research including the Academy of Medical Sciences, Royal Society, Royal College of Psychiatrists, Royal College of Surgeons, Medical Research Council, Royal College of GPs, NIHR, Health Education England and numerous NHS Trusts. He also works for over forty universities and medical schools across the UK and has supported 400 individuals with their pitch for a funding grant.

Nisreen Alwan, Helen Atherton, Hajira Dambh-Miller and James Sheppard

Day 2 | 08.30 - 10:00 - Panel Discussion

Hajira Dambh-Miller:

Dr Hajira Dambha-Miller is a General Practitioner and NIHR Clinical Lecturer in Primary Care and Population Health. She also serves as Editor-in-Chief of BJGP Open, the open-access journal of the British Journal of General Practice. Her work bridges clinical practice, research, and medical publishing, with a focus on improving primary care delivery and population health outcomes.

Dr Dambha-Miller’s research interests include the prevention and management of long-term conditions, health inequalities, and the integration of evidence-based approaches into everyday general practice. Through her academic and editorial leadership, she is committed to advancing high-quality research that supports and informs primary care worldwide.

Nisreen Alwan: 

Nisreen Alwan is a Professor of Public Health at the University of Southampton and Honorary Consultant in Public Health at University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust. She leads the Healthy Communities Theme at the NIHR Applied Research Collaboration (ARC) Wessex. She in passionate about conducting population health research towards optimising the wellbeing of families and preventing future chronic disease with a sharp focus on reducing life course health inequities.

During the pandemic, she focused on the recognition and prevention of Long Covid and was awarded an MBE for services to Medicine and Public Health in 2021. She was also named among women leading change from across the world in the BBC 100 Women 2020 list. She founded and chairs the national Academic Intersectionality Mentoring in Medical Schools (AIMMS Mentoring) programme. She is a mother of 3 children.

Helen Atherton:

Professor Helen is Professor of Primary Care Research at the University of Southampton and co-Head of the Primary Care Research Centre. She is a Health Services Researcher with a PhD in Primary Care Health Services Research and a Master of Public Health from Imperial College London, as well as an MSc in Biological Anthropology and a BSc in Ecology from the University of Durham. Helen began her research career in 2005 as a research assistant in the general practice group at St George’s, University of London. In 2007, she commenced a 1+3 MRC studentship in the Department of Primary Care and Social Medicine at Imperial College. She went on to undertake a SPCR postdoctoral fellowship in the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford, in 2012. After taking maternity leave during her fellowship, she has worked part-time since 2014.

Following the completion of her fellowship in 2015, Helen joined Warwick Medical School, where she contributed to establishing the Unit of Academic Primary Care and served as Deputy Head and later Head of Unit. She became Associate Professor at Warwick in 2019 and was promoted to Professor in 2023. In January 2024, she moved to the University of Southampton and took on the role of co-Head of the Primary Care Research Centre in January 2025.

Helen’s research focuses on digital primary care and its relationship with access to healthcare, examining the use of digital and remote approaches across the care pathway. Her methodological expertise lies in qualitative research, mixed methods for complex service delivery questions, and review methodology. She is passionate about developing capacity in academic primary care among both clinicians and scientists and currently supervises an NIHR In Practice Fellow and several PhD students in the UK and across Europe.

James Sheppard:

James Sheppard is a Professor of Applied Health Research at the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford. He has been a researcher at Oxford for the past 12 years, having previously studied for a PhD in Cardiorespiratory Physiology at the University of Birmingham.

His research focusses on better understanding the benefits and harms of commonly prescribed treatments using large scale routine electronic health record data, with a particular emphasis on medications used for cardiovascular disease prevention. His work involves systematic reviews, statistical modelling, causal inference epidemiology and primary care based clinical trials. James has many years of experience applying for postdoc research fellowships, including those from the Medical Research Council.

Lauren Southwell - The Lancet

Day 2 | 10:30 - 11-15 / 11.20 - 12:05 - Publishing with the Lancet Primary Care Masterclass

Lauren Southwell is a Senior Editor at The Lancet, where she plays a key role in overseeing the review and publication of high-impact research across global health and clinical medicine. With extensive experience in scientific publishing, she is dedicated to ensuring the highest standards of editorial quality, integrity, and innovation in medical research communication. Lauren works closely with authors, reviewers, and editorial teams to support the dissemination of evidence that advances healthcare policy and practice worldwide.

 Francesca Dakin and Kirsten Nothangel: SPCR Trainees

Day 2 | 10:30 - 11-15 / 11.20 - 12:05 - Bridging the Gap: Empowering PGRs to Engage with Policy Makers Masterclass

Francesca Dakin:

Francesca Dakin is a Qualitative and Digital Health Researcher at the University of Oxford, working across the IRIHS and ARC research groups. Her work focuses on remote consulting in primary care and the use of digital health technologies in palliative and social care settings. Francesca’s research explores how technology can support equitable, high-quality care and improve patient and clinician experiences in increasingly digital healthcare environments.

Kirsten Nothangel: 

Kerstin Nothnagel is a PhD student in Population Health Sciences at the University of Bristol, where her research focuses on the use of artificial intelligence (AI) for diagnosing deep vein thrombosis (DVT) to enhance diagnostic access in primary care.

She recently completed an internship at the UK House of Lords, gaining valuable insight into AI policy-making and the roles of key stakeholders. She is now working on an international project funded by the Alan Turing Institute, based at the Human Technopole Government Research Centre in Milan, Italy. This project investigates how AI policies influence healthcare adoption globally and explores how fragmented regulations may exacerbate inequalities in access to healthcare between high- and low-income countries.