Who We Are
NIHR Devices for Dignity MedTech Co-operative (D4D) operates nationally, bringing together the optimal team of expert clinicians, academics, members of the public, carers, charities and industry to deliver solutions to address specific needs.
D4D has a multidisciplinary Core Team hosted at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. Members of the team come from a range of backgrounds – healthcare, research, management, charity, technology, industry – and work together with other experts to take projects from concept to commercialisation.
Our Core Team
Professor Wendy Tindale
Clinical Director
Professor Wendy Tindale OBE is Consultant Clinical Scientist and Director of Innovation at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, and holds a Chair at the University of Sheffield. She leads one of the largest NHS medical technology centres in the UK and has extensive experience in front line patient care and healthcare innovation. She has contributed to national and international committees, including Royal College and Government advisory bodies.
As Clinical Director of NIHR Devices for Dignity MedTech Co-operative and with many years of experience in the medtech sector, Wendy leads D4D’s national positioning and strategy, and provides oversight of our delivery of innovation excellence.
Professor Tindale was honoured with the title of Healthcare Scientist of the Year at the 2016 Healthcare Science Awards.
Liz Pryde
Programme Manager
Liz manages relationships across our national network of industry, academic, NHS and third sector partners and is responsible for capturing the impact of our work and communicating this to our stakeholders. The relationship management element of the role allows Liz to work closely with the consortium to develop business cases for new D4D high-profile initiatives, ensuring the NIHR Devices for Dignity MedTech Co-operative (D4D MIC) continues to develop its national brand as a key player within the health and technology innovation sectors.
As D4D’s Programme Manager Liz provides overall management for the programme and day-to-day operations. As part of her role she works with key personnel within the consortium to co-ordinate all activities to secure a coherent approach to administration, communication, project development and budget management. Liz works closely with our Clinical Director to develop the overall NIHR Devices for Dignity MedTech Co-operative strategy and ensures that we are responsive to the ever-changing innovation landscape.
David Coyle
Patient Partnership Lead
David advises and facilitates quality patient, carer and public involvement and engagement across the D4D portfolio, driving the NIHR Devices for Dignity MedTech Co-operative’s reputation as a patient-centric organisation.
David’s professional background is in the private sector and includes roles in Corporate Planning, Management Consulting and Board level line management roles. David has worked for SMEs, public limited companies and venture capitalists to turn ideas and concepts into realistic implementation plans that deliver tangible outcomes.
With over 40 years of experience as a patient receiving a range of health care treatments across the UK and in Europe, David is well embedded within the renal community. He is a representative on Patient Advisory Groups, a public reviewer for several funding bodies, and co-applicant and PPI lead on a number of funded research projects and service initiatives. David is a Trustee of the National Kidney Federation (NKF) and founder and former chair of the Kidney Patient Involvement Network (KPIN), a national network of renal clinicians, charities, universities and patient experts promoting quality patient involvement and engagement.
Philippa Hedley-Takhar
Business Development Manager
Philippa leads on industry engagement and building strategic relationships with national partners to support NIHR Devices for Dignity MedTech Co-operative’s programme portfolio and catalyse opportunities across Devices for Dignity’s clinical and cross-cutting themes.
Philippa manages the Long-Term Neurological Conditions Theme, providing multi-stakeholder project management expertise, leading on strategic funding applications to accelerate collaborations, validating unmet needs through proof of market research, and facilitating the development of commercialisation strategies.
With a background in economic development and urban renewal, Philippa has an MSc in Urban Regeneration, focusing on addressing population health challenges and health inequalities through re-imagining the design of housing and communities. She was the Programme Manager for the Digital Care Home project for the Perfect Patient Pathway NHS England Wave 1 Test Bed, implementing, testing and evaluating novel combinations of digital technology and service re-design to support the care home community.
Kirsty Kassim
Programme Administrator
Kirsty Kassim has supported administrative and logistical functions for D4D’s Core Team and clinical/cross-cutting themes since D4D was established. She is well-connected with operational staff across Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and with staff at our partner organisations. Kirsty chairs D4D’s weekly team meetings, contributing to the day-to-day co-ordination and management of our multidisciplinary team’s operational activities and events. She is also the initial point of contact for collaboration requests.
Kirsty has worked at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust in various administrative roles for over 20 years. In addition to supporting the NIHR Devices for Dignity MedTech Co-operative, for the last ten years Kirsty has worked with the Department of Medical Physics and Clinical Engineering.
Dr Avril McCarthy
MedTech Lead
Avril is Medical Device Innovation lead at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and D4D’s MedTech Theme lead in addition to being a member of the NIHR Devices for Dignity MedTech Co-operative’s core management team. She advises the team and collaborators from industry, academia and the NHS, to ensure that devices and technologies emerging from projects are safe, meet, or will meet, relevant regulatory requirements, and are likely to be exploitable. Avril has been an active member of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) Medical Technology’s Advisory Committee (MTAC) since 2017 contributing to NICE technology adoption guidance spanning a wide range of medical technologies.
Avril’s extensive background blends clinical, academic and industrial experience in the medical device and in vitro diagnostics sectors. She has a BSc (Hons) from the University of Liverpool and is dual registered with the Health and Care Professions Council as a clinical scientist and biomedical scientist in two different disciplines: clinical engineering and blood sciences, previously spanning NHS clinical delivery of specialist human systems modelling with routine and emergency diagnostic services. She has a PhD from the Faculty of Engineering, attained while an ESPRC researcher investigating the use of virtual reality systems for surgical training at the University of Sheffield. This was followed by post-doctoral experience in medical imaging and computational modelling in orthopaedic device development gained via pan-European research and development collaborations with industry and academic partners. Examples include: Smith and Nephew Ltd, Engineering Systems International, NEC Europe Ltd, Advanced Numerical Technologies BV, the Max-Planck Institute.
Avril is passionate about supporting the development and adoption of medical devices that deliver NHS value and which bring benefits to people living with long-term conditions. She has experienced a wide and varied range of device development projects, from urological to rehabilitative, incorporating collaborative working with industry, academic colleagues, and product users, within multi- and interdisciplinary teams.
Nathaniel Mills
Paediatric Programme Manager
Nathaniel Mills works across both NIHR CYP MedTech Co-operative and NIHR Devices for Dignity MedTech Co-operative as Paediatric Programme Manager. He was instrumental in establishing the TITCH (Technology and Innovation Transforming Child Health) network of experts from across the paediatric health sector, and continues to support the development, evaluation and adoption of paediatric health technologies. He also oversees management of the Starworks project, which is developing technologies for children who require prosthetics. His passion and drive for his role comes from the belief that children and families should be at the centre of medtech development, and that openness, honesty, and transparency within innovation leads to good outcomes.
Nathaniel is a trained nurse and prior to his role with NIHR CYP MedTech he was the lead nurse for the South Yorkshire Clinical Research Network (since renamed the NIHR CRN Yorkshire and Humber).
Abigail Needham
Project Manager
Abigail manages the Rehabilitation Technologies Theme on behalf of D4D. She is also part of the Starworks team, developing technologies for users of paediatric prostheses, and supports the project teams who were awarded follow on funding as part of Starworks 2, the Starworks Expert Network, and manages the Starworks website.
Abigail is a trained Physiotherapist and prior to joining the NIHR Devices for Dignity MedTech Co-operative was working in the pharmaceutical industry. She has over 12 years’ experience working as a Sales Representative and Account Manager working in numerous areas including Diabetes, Cardiovascular, Respiratory – Asthma and COPD, and Vaccines.
Lise Sproson
NHS Innovation Manager
PPI Lead
As an NHS Innovation Manager Lise has recently delivered priority setting events, proof of market studies, and clinical research of technologies that are now commercially available. She also manages the Diabetes Theme, working together with a network of patients, carers, professional organisations and industry partners to develop and harness new technologies and interventions in order to support people living with Diabetes.
As Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) Lead, Lise has responsibility for overseeing development of creative ways of engaging patients, carers and members of the public. This collaborative approach is an essential aspect of the identification of priority areas of unmet need and patient outcome measures, and ensuring that lived experience and patient-centred technology evaluation are a central component of all technology projects within D4D’s portfolio in order to develop technologies and services that are fit for purpose.
Lise has over 20 years’ experience delivering patient care as an Allied Health Professional in the NHS, and expertise in the development and delivery of research studies.
Amir Dean
Project Manager (Digital Health)
Amir is Project Manager (Digital Health) working across the NIHR Devices for Dignity MedTech Co-operative portfolio and the D4D clinical and cross-cutting themes.
With a background in business development and project management in digital healthcare, Amir is passionate about the transformation of services with a view to improve care outcomes. Having graduated in Biomedical Science and accredited by The Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry, Amir brings his extensive industry experience of stakeholder management in order to embed technologies within care pathways and clinical trials alike.
Amir has been instrumental in successfully enabling transformation in multiple pathways at Trusts including diabetes and wound care management, from project conception through to the provision of services. He has many years’ experience of working across multiple, integrated pathways including dermatology and bone health.
