Research Leaders
Members of our Research Leaders Scheme
POMCTN aspires to nurture and support interested clinicians with experience in research at a local level, to progress to become grant co-applicants, members of trial clinical investigator groups and ultimately Chief Investigators.
As such we have set up our Research Leaders Scheme (previously known as the Chief Investigator scheme) to develop and mentor the CIs of tomorrow.
All current Research Leaders Scheme members were recruited through open competition. All recruitment rounds are advertised on this website, our newsletter and on our Twitter feed.
Those wishing to register an interest in the Research Leaders Scheme should contact us.
Caroline Thomas
Consultant in Anaesthesia
St James University Hospital
Caroline Thomas was appointed as a Consultant in Anaesthesia at St James University Hospital, Leeds in 2017. Her clinical interests include colorectal and thoracic anaesthesia and developing perioperative services for patients undergoing major elective surgery. As a senior trainee she developed and lead trainee research groups both regionally and nationally. She is on the steering committee of a large multicentre Portfolio study and is currently PI for PQIP (Peri-Operative Quality Improvement Programme) in Leeds. Other work includes a study on the peri-operative patient experience of anxiety and she is a steering group member for the anaesthesia workstream of the Yorkshire Bowel Cancer Improvement Programme. She is an Honorary Senior Clinical Lecturer at the University of Leeds and was recently appointed as the NIHR CRN specialty lead for Anaesthesia, Peri-op Medicine and Pain for Yorkshire & the Humber.
Louise Savic
Consultant in Anaesthesia
Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust
Louise is a consultant anaesthetist in Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust. She has a clinical and research interest in drug allergy, with a focus on the prevention, management and investigation of perioperative drug allergy. She has worked in the Anaesthetic Allergy clinic in Leeds for 8 years and is a founder member of the International Suspected Perioperative Hypersensitivity Reaction group (ISPAR). Louise has a research interest in the effects of penicillin allergy on surgical outcomes and the development of novel pathways to allow preoperative de-labelling of patients. She chaired an ISPAR working party to develop consensus recommendations for the perioperative management of patients with a label of penicillin allergy, and currently chairs the British Society of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (BSACI) working party to develop national guidelines in this area. She led a penicillin de-labelling study (PADLES) and the DALES epidemiological study of drug allergy conducted by the Research and Audit Federation of Trainees (RAFT). In her clinical work she has developed a novel drug provocation service for the investigation of suspected perioperative anaphylaxis including neuromuscular blocking agent allergy.
Mandeep Phull
Consultant in Anaesthesia and intensive care
Royal Free and University College Medical School
I graduated from Royal Free and University College Medical School and after my foundation years obtained run through training in anaesthesia. I completed a perioperative medicine fellowship at the Royal London with Professor Pearse during which time I realized that I wanted to be involved in an eventually be leading in research for the rest of my career. I am a consultant in anaesthesia and intensive care working at Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Trust. I hold a honorary senior clinical lecturer post with the William Harvey Research Institute, Queen Mary University of London. I am departmental research lead and recently have been appointed as North Thames NIHR speciality lead for anaesthesia, perioperative medicine, pain and critical care. My special interest include the high risk surgical patient, emergency surgery and perioperative critical care.
Ciara O’Donnell
Consultant Anaesthetist
Royal Victoria Hospital
Ciara O’Donnell works as a Consultant Anaesthetist in the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast. As a regional centre, emergency and trauma surgery including thoracic and neurosurgery form a large part of her daily job. She has a research interest in the perioperative outcomes of elderly patients with hip fracture which formed the basis of her MD in 2018. Ciara is a co-applicant and principal investigator for the NIHR funded Sugammadex for preventIoN oF pOst-operative pulmoNary complIcAtions (SINFONIA) study. As part of her research experience, she has been the primary site investigator for a GSK sponsored clinical trial and has engaged with RAFT projects such as DALES, as site lead. Ciara has collaborated with groups such as Core Outcome Measures in Effectiveness Trials (COMET) and Fragility Fracture Network UK (FFN UK). She is an Honorary Lecturer at Queen’s University Belfast.
Tom Abbott
NIHR Clinical Lecturer
William Harvey Research Institute, Queen Mary University of London and Anaesthetic registrar at Barts Health NHS Trust, London, UK
Dr Abbott completed his undergraduate training at the University of Oxford and a PhD at Queen Mary University of London. He is a registrar in Anaesthesia in central London. He uses epidemiological methods to investigate the health and well-being of patients undergoing surgery, which includes interventions to improve postoperative survival and reduce perioperative complications. His research interests include perioperative myocardial injury, sub-clinical cardiac failure, cardiopulmonary exercise testing, autonomic dysfunction, postoperative pulmonary complications and the impact of COVID-19 on surgery.
