Patients Participate!

At the workshop I managed to record the welcome and introduction to the project by Liz Lyon using a Flip camera, and this is now available from vimeo. Warning: there is flash photography which can be seen in the recording.

Liz Lyon opening the Patients Participate! Workshop, Jun 2011 from UKOLN on Vimeo.

The Biographies for all of the speakers at the Patients Participate Workshop are as follows:

Dr Liz Lyon is Director of UKOLN, University of Bath, and Associate Director, Digital Curation Centre. She is author of major direction-setting Reports: Open Science at Web-Scale: Optimising Participation and Predictive Potential (2009), Scaling Up (2008) and Dealing with Data (2007), and has led pioneering research data management projects: eBank, eCrystals Federation, Infrastructure for Integration in Structural Sciences (I2S2) and SageCite. She has a PhD in cellular biochemistry.

Dr Lee-Ann Coleman joined the British Library in 2007 to take up the post of Head of Scientific, Technical and Medical Information. For ten years prior to that, she worked in science policy and administration, and gained experience in the funding, university and medical research charity sectors. She has a PhD from the University of Western Australia where she studied the development of the visual system and completed postdoctoral research in the United States and at Oxford before moving into scientific administration.

Dr Sara Ellis is communications manager at the Association of Medical Research Charities (AMRC) where she supports the team on print, online and media communications. Sara has a PhD in biochemistry from the University of Bristol and spent seven years in the lab as a researcher before crossing over into the charity sector. Sara hates jargon, although sometimes is guilty of it, loves clear communication and is particularly interested in social media.

Professor Melanie Welham started her scientific career as an undergraduate in Biochemistry at Imperial College, London and moved to the Imperial Cancer Research Fund for her PhD. After several years of post-doctoral research at The Biomedical Research Centre, University of British Columbia, in Vancouver, Canada, Melanie was appointed to a Lectureship in the Department of Pharmacy and Pharmacology, University of Bath, where she is now Professor of Molecular Signalling and co-Director of the University’s Centre for Regenerative Medicine. She leads a team of researchers whose focus is on investigating the behaviour and biology of stem cells, work initiated during her time as a BBSRC Research Development Fellowship (2003-2006). In her alternate career, Melanie cares for two daughters, a husband and three guinea pigs!

Graham Steel has been actively involved in Patient Advocacy work in his spare time since 2001. Graham acted as Vice-Chairman for a UK Charity, the Human BSE Foundation 2001 – 2005 and then as Information Resource Manager for the CJD International Support Alliance (CJDISA) 2005 – 2007. More recently, his activities have been focused mainly on Neurodegenerative conditions such as Motor Neurone Disease. He is also involved in advocating for Open Access/Science/Data and acts in advisory capacities to the Open Knowledge Foundation, the Public Library of Science (PLoS) and most recently, Digital Science.

Simon Denegri is chief executive of Ovarian Cancer Action. Before taking up this appointment in June 2011, he spent five years as chief executive of the Association of Medical Research Priorities (AMRC). Simon was appointed chair of INVOLVE – the national advisory group for the promotion and support of public involvement – in May 2011.  He is also a member of the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Advisory Board, the NIHR Strategy Board and the UK Clinical Research Collaboration (UKCRC) Board. He has written and spoken extensively on issues concerning medical and health research policy and practice and writes a popular blog on the world of medical research, charities, public engagement and involvement: http://simondenegri.com/