Tim Ringrose trained in nephrology and intensive care in Oxford before joining Doctors.net.uk in 2000. Tim has led the development of services provided to doctors and has had considerable experience working with a wide variety of healthcare clients to deliver market research, targeted online communications and educational programmes to doctors.

Doctors.net.uk leads the Networks in Health Alliance, an international alliance of online professional networks and services for healthcare practitioners. Tim has authored many articles and has spoken at many national and international events and conferences. Doctors.net.uk (@Doctors_net_uk) is part of M3 Inc – a Sony company.


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Jocelyn Cornwell is the Director of The Point of Care programme at the King's Fund, a programme that combines policy analysis and reports with research and practical support for clinical teams and senior leaders in acute trusts in England to improve the experiences of staff and patients in general hospital.

Following training in medical sociology and ethnography and a period of academic research, Jocelyn managed NHS community health services in Islington. She worked in health regulation at the Audit Commission, directing national value for money studies, and at the Commission for Health Improvement (CHI) where she was Director of Policy and Deputy Chief Executive 2000-2004.

Jocelyn served as a panel member on the King's Fund investigation into the Safety of Maternity Services (2008) and on the Public Inquiry into an Outbreak of C. difficile in the Northern Trust, Northern Ireland (2010). She is a trustee of the Picker Institute Europe and recently retired from the board of trustees after 10 years at Connect UK, an innovative, user-led charity that works with people with aphasia.

Presentation: Putting the patient first - what's stopping us?

The NHS Future Forum report outlined how healthcare professionals should 'make every contact count' to encourage healthier lifestyles and think about preventing the next problem and not just the current. Patients currently experience fragmented care; how can we achieve more joined-up services and what's preventing improved patient care on the ground?

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Michael Dixon has been a GP in Cullompton, Devon, for almost 30 years. He is Chair of NHS Alliance and co-leads the NHS Alliance/NAPC Coalition, which represents and champions clinical commissioning groups. He is also Chair of Council of the College of Medicine.

He has been involved nationally and locally in GP/clinical commissioning for many years and currently sits on the national steering and strategy groups for clinical commissioning.

Other appointments include visiting professor to the University of Westminster (Integrated School of Health), Honorary Senior Fellow in Public Policy at HSMC (University of Birmingham), Chair of the LifeCheck Board, Senior Associate of the King's Fund, Honorary Senior Lecturer in Integrated Health at the Peninsula Medical School and President of the Health Writers Guild.

Presentation: Delivering better care, delivering a modern health service

How health services, commissioning groups and partners work together is key to ensuring care is integrated around the needs of the patient. There are already good examples of commissioning groups that are offering services that are tailored to the patient's particular needs and seeing the benefits and value of a patient centred approach. Although there have been successes so far, what more must be done to deliver a modern health service? What does an NHS that is focused on patient outcomes mean for clinical commissioning groups and management of our services?

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David Bennett has worked for some years in and around the public sector. Before joining Monitor he was the non-political Chief Policy Advisor to Prime Minister Tony Blair and Head of the Policy Directorate and the Strategy Unit in 10 Downing Street.

He has also worked as an independent advisor to various NHS bodies. Before this, David was a senior partner at McKinsey & Co. In his 18 years with the firm, he served a wide range of companies in most industry sectors, but with a particular focus on regulated, technology intensive industries.

Presentation: Integrating care, knocking down barriers, improving outcomes

Integrated healthcare services has been a long-held policy aim, yet the time for debating how to deliver integrated care is over. The time for implementing a new approach is now. The Nicholson challenge has presented a pressing need for care to be more efficient, but integration is also about improving the patient's experience of the services they receive. What are the barriers that are preventing change and how can we make integration a reality and on a significant scale across the health system?

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Susan Hamer is Organisational and Workforce Development Director at the NIHR Clinical Research Network. As part of this role she takes responsibility for the patient and public involvement activity of the network. For the past two years she has held the post of Director of Nursing, Midwifery and Allied Health Professionals at Connecting for Health, where she is part of a clinical team with responsibility for developing informatics capability across the whole of the NHS.

Susan is passionate about the possibilities for technology to enhance practice and to support innovation in the development of patient-led services. She sees the development of accessible information as crucial to this. As a nurse herself, she also provides clinical leadership around the nurse workforce, which is so crucial to the delivery of the clinical research network objectives.

Susan is the author of 'Achieving Evidence-Based Practice' and 'Leadership and Management: A Three-Dimensional Approach'. She is a Fellow of the Queen's Nursing Institute.

Presentation: Patient-led innovation: The potential of choice and the challenge of disruption

The scale and nature of changes in how we deliver services is unprecedented. The need to do things differently is all too evident and patients and carers are a valuable asset in the development of new thinking in the design of services. The role of patients in clinical research is no exception as we move away from patients as passive recipients to active collaborators in the development of new research processes. Using examples from the work of the NIHR Clinical Research Network and related organisations, this session will explore how – by actively engaging with patients throughout the research pathway – it is possible to develop innovative solutions. The challenge of these innovations to the broader system is a key consideration and can produce some unanticipated reactions. Susan Hamer will be looking at how these reactions can be channelled to drive future positive change.

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Angie Usher is a Tutor, Assessor and Patient Voice for EPP CIC, and a highly respected ambassador for self-management. In addition to her roles at EPP CIC, she is the Patient Representative for Unexplained Symptoms for the London Deanery and a Self-Management Project Worker for Social Action for Health.

Angie had a vibrant fashion career prior to being diagnosed with multiple long-term conditions, including managing a chain of stores, and producing her own clothing line which dressed Take That and the Spice Girls, amongst others.

Angie is an engaged Expert Patient and an active self-manager. She manages her Fibromyalgia and other long-term conditions using the tools she learned on an Expert Patient Programme and now enjoys a second career as a trainer and self-management ambassador, making frequent appearances at events and in the media.

More recently she has been involved in the 'Supporting Self Management for Life' programme as a Patient Voice – a specialised role integral to teaching healthcare professionals about self-management.

Presentation: The Benefits of Patients Self-Managing

Expert Patient Angie Usher shares her own patient experience and explains how supporting patients with long-term conditions to self-manage produces health benefits to the patient and cost benefits to the service.

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Pip Hardy co-founded the Patient Voices Programme in 2003 as an effective, affective and reflective way of communicating patients', carers' and clinicians' experiences to those who design and deliver healthcare.

The high quality patient feedback provided by Patient Voices reflective digital stories is used throughout the world to encourage reflection, stimulate discussion, promote empathy, and remind viewers of the need for compassionate and humane care. Each story offers viewers the chance to walk in someone else's shoes for a few moments, reminding us all of our shared humanity. The programme has won several awards, including the 2010 BMJ award for Excellence in Healthcare Education.

Pip is an honorary research fellow at the University of Salford, a visiting teaching fellow at Manchester Metropolitan University and a Fellow of the RSA. And, as if that's not enough to do, Pip is completing a PhD investigating the impact of the Patient Voices digital stories.

Presentation: Listening to Patient Voices: Humanising Healthcare

The presentation will focus on the need to listen to the heartfelt stories of all stakeholders in healthcare and highlight effective ways of conveying and using those experiences to improve the quality and humanity of care.

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James Kingsland is the Senior Partner and GP trainer in an award-winning personal medical services partnership in Wallasey. His practice is part of a first-wave clinical commissioning consortia pathfinder.

He is the national clinical commissioning network lead funded by the Department of Health to support the country-wide development and implementation of clinical commissioning.

He is President of the National Association of Primary Care.

James is part of the NHS Top Leaders programme of the National Leadership Council. He has been a GP advisor to the Department of Health on a number of policy areas over the last 12 years including an appointment as a personal advisor to Lord Darzi for the Next Stage Review.

He has been a vice chair of a health authority, member of the GPC and currently serves as a non-executive director on the board of a foundation trust.

James includes broadcasting in his hobbies, hosting a weekly programme for BBC radio.

Presentation: Clinically-led commissioning – how clinicians can design services around the patient's needs

CCGs can make fundamental improvements to patient care and treatment but what are the policy barriers that are preventing innovation and integration? On a practical level how are collaborative care arrangements being delivered and what are the outcomes?

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Richard Vautrey is Deputy Chair of the British Medical Association's General Practice Committee and is involved in all aspects of GP contract negotiations.

He is a nationally elected member of BMA Council and RCGP Council. He is a GP in Leeds and assistant medical secretary of Leeds LMC.


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David Branford is an elected member of the English Pharmacy Board of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society. He is currently a chief pharmacist for an NHS Foundation Trust in Derby. For most of his career he has worked clinically in the specialities of psychiatry and learning disabilities.

In addition to working within the NHS, David has been a Mental Health Act Commissioner (where he specialised in consent to treatment). He was involved in the establishment of the College of Mental Health Pharmacy and is an active author of many publications.

In addition to secondary care, David has worked in community pharmacy in the UK, Australia and New Zealand. The pharmacy profession offers a unique skill base in relation to medicines and offers opportunities across both primary and secondary care to improve the way medicines are used. The Healthy Lives Healthy People white paper set out an expanded role for community pharmacies in improving public health, recognising the accessibility such services can bring to communities.


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Mark Platt is the Royal College of Nursing's lead policy advisor on patient and public involvement, patient choice, and patient experience. In that capacity he is currently leading on developing the college's work on shared decision-making, and is a member of the DH England SDM advisory group.

Prior to working for the RCN he was the Dir. of Policy and Public Affairs for the Long-term Conditions Alliance, and its successor organisation Nation Voices.

Mark has been involved with a number of patient involvement and experience focused projects, including advising on the DH information prescriptions project, and the NHS Constitution, and was member of the NHS National Centre for Involvement's board from 2008 to 2009.

In a voluntary capacity he is vice-chair of both the Westminster Local Involvement Network, and of the Victoria Medical Centre Patient Participation Group, a well-respected PPG active in Pimlico, SW1.


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