OPTIMAL research project

Our team includes patients, public members, and world leading experts from three universities with expertise in biology, AI, medicine, health service research, public health, and general practice.

University of Birmingham / University Hospitals Birmingham

• Dr Thomas Jackson - OPTIMAL Lead Applicant
• Professor Krishnarajah Nirantharakumar - OPTIMAL Joint Lead Applicant
• Dr Aditya Acharya – Research Fellow
• Dr Marco Canducci – Computer Science Research Fellow
• Dr Jenny Cooper – Academic Clinical Fellow
• Dr Francesca Crowe - Lecturer in Epidemiology and Health Informatics
• Professor Alastair Denniston - Consultant Ophthalmologist & Director of INSIGHT
• Dr Sarah Flanagan – Research Fellow
• Dr Suzy Gallier - Head of Informatics Research & Commercial Development 
• Professor Georgios Gkoutos - Chair of Clinical Bioinformatics
• Mr Krishna Gokhale – Health Informatics Research Fellow
• Dr Tiffany Gooden – Research Fellow
• Professor Sheila Greenfield – Professor of Medical Sociology
• Dr Shamil Haroon – Clinical Senior Lecturer
• Dr Ellie Hathaway – Academic Clinical Lecturer
• Dr Louise Jackson – Senior Lecturer
• Bob Jasper – Patient Co-applicant
• Dr Max Little – Senior Lecturer
• Professor Janet Lord CBE – Professor of Immune Cell Biology
• Professor Tom Marshall – Professor of Public Health & Primary Care
• Christine Michael – Patient Co-applicant
• Professor Elizabeth Sapey – Director of the Institute of Inflammation & Ageing
• Professor Peter Tino – Professor of Complex & Adaptive Systems
• Steven Wambua – PhD student

University of Oxford:

• Professor Christopher Yau – Professor of Artificial Intelligence
• Dr Charles Gadd – Research Associate
• Dr Kaspar Martens – Research Fellow

Univesity of St Andrews:

• Professor Colin McCowan – Professor in Health Data Science
• Dr Amaya Azcoaga-Lorenzo - Honorary Senior Lecturer
• Luciana Rocha Pedro – Research Fellow
• Muhammad Usman – Research Fellow

NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde:

• Dr Chris Sainsbury – Consultant Physician, Diabetes & Endocrinology

MHRA CPRD:

• Dr Tim Williams – Head of Interventional Research
• Dr Puja Myles – Director of CPRD

Patient Advisory Group:

Our patient advisory group (PAG) consists of our 2 public co-applicants, plus 6 people with a range of diverse lived experiences of multiple long-term conditions, either managing their own conditions or supporting someone they are close to. Our PAG influences how the research is carried out across all work packages.

As the ageing population increases, larger numbers of older people will experience multiple long-term conditions which require medical treatment. 

A better understanding of how to manage these conditions with the best combination of medical treatments will help older people to manage their symptoms more effectively and improve their quality of life.

We hope that this work will mean that patients with multiple long-term conditions in the future receive the best possible combination of medical treatments.

Two Patient/Public partners have been involved with the development of the OPTIMAL programme from the application stage. Both partners attend regular management, executive and data meetings, as well as a Patient Advisory Group.

This project is funded by the National Institute for Health & Care Research (NIHR) under its Programme Artificial Intelligence for Multiple and Long-Term Conditions (NIHR202632). The views expressed are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the NIHR or the Department of Health and Social Care.

The OPTIMAL programme has received just under £2.5m in funding from the NIHR and will run until April 2025.

Public Involvement & Engagement enquiries: Leah Fitzsimmons (l.fitzsimmons@bham.ac.uk) 

Any other enquiries – optimal@contacts.bham.ac.uk 

• College of MDS Twitter
  
• Institute of Inflammation and Ageing (IIA) Twitter
  
• Institute of Applied Health Research (IAHR) Twitter
  
• NIHR Involvement Twitter
  
• AIM RSF glossary of terms