Sir Michael Rawlins

Sir Michael Rawlins has been chairman of the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) since its formation in 1999. In March 2013 he will become the new president of the Royal Society of Medicine. A medical doctor who went on to research safety and efficacy of pharmacological treatments as a professor at the University of Newcastle, Sir Michael chaired the Committee on Safety of Medicines in the 1990s. Amongst his numerous awards and achievements, he was knighted in 1999 for services to the improvement of patient protection from the side effects of medicinal drugs. He recently told the Guardian, “All young healthcare professionals, irrespective of whether they eventually undertake research themselves, need to know how to understand what really constitutes ‘evidence’ if they are to practice their profession, to the highest standards, in an ever-changing world.”

Prof Steve Jones

Steve Jones is emeritus professor of Human Genetics, at the Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment at University College London; and president of the Galton Institute. An accomplished communicator on evolution and genetics, he appears frequently on radio and television and is a regular columnist for the Daily Telegraph. His academic career is distinguished by his elegant and continuing experimental work on the ecological genetics of snails and fruit flies. Steve Jones is the author of successful and influential books on science for the lay reader, including The Language of the Genes and Darwin’s Ghost.

Dr Margaret McCartney

Margaret McCartney is a GP in Glasgow who writes a weekly column for the BMJ, broadcasts for Radio 4's Inside Health, and is the author of The Patient Paradox - why sexed up medicine is bad for your health, and Living with Dying, finding care and compassion at the end of life. She is also a tutor at the University of Glasgow and chair of the Royal College of GPs Overdiagnosis group — for shared decisions in healthcare.

It's vitally important that we are honest about what we know and what we don't know in  healthcare — and to try and reduce uncertainties where we can. We need to be equally critical of orthodox and alternative medicine — the standard of evidence should be the same, otherwise people are needlessly harmed.

Robin Ince

Robin Ince is a comedian, actor and writer, best known for co-presenting the award-winning BBC Radio 4 science/ comedy chat show “The Infinite Monkey Cage” with physicist Brian Cox. Dubbed an uber-geek for his rationalist and humanist views, he recently explained himself very sensibly in New Scientist: “I think it is a pity to live your life in ignorance and embrace that ignorance—for instance with ideas like intelligent design.” Ince organises highly rational events at the Bloomsbury Theatre and at the Hammersmith Apollo, such as the successful seasonal science, comedy and music show Nine Lessons and Carols for Godless People. In his new one-man show he ponders the benefits of being self-conscious in a vast universe.

Lord Dick Taverne

Dick Taverne is a Liberal Democrat Member of the House of Lords. He was elected as Labour MP for Lincoln in 1962–1972 and was a Minister in the Home Office and Treasury between 1966 and1970. In 1973 he was re-elected as independent social democrat MP for Lincoln until 1974. In 1972 he launched the Institute for Fiscal Studies and was its first director, later chairman, until 1983. After appointment to the Lords in 1996, he founded the charity Sense About Science in 2002 and was its chairman until 2012. He is the author of The March of Unreason, Science, Democracy and the New Fundamentalism (2006) and Against the Tide — Politics and Beyond, a Memoir (2014).

Why I support HealthWatch

I strongly support HealthWatch because it is one of the leading voices exposing bad science and promoting the formidable and vital task of improving the public understanding of science.

President: Nick Ross

Nick is a journalist and campaigner and was one of the founders of HealthWatch. He is a veteran broadcaster who launched British breakfast TV, Watchdog and Crimewatch and whose credits include many of the best-known news and current affairs programmes on radio and TV.

He is a Trustee of Sense About Science and the UK Stem Cell Foundation, Chairman of the Jill Dando Institute of Crime Science at UCL, a non-executive director of one of the largest NHS acute hospital trusts, and a member of the Royal College of Physicians Committee on Ethical Issues in Medicine and of the research steering group of the Royal College of Surgeons. He has twice been Chairman of the Royal Society Science Book Prize and been a member of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics as well as several government committees and inquiries including the Gene Therapy Advisory Committee, the Health of the Nation Working Group and the NHS Taskforce. He is an honorary fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and a visiting professor at UCL.

Chair: Professor Susan Bewley

Susan Bewley is Professor of Women’s Health at King’s College London. She has always been devoted to the cause of rational, empathic and evidence-based medicine and the development of learning cultures. She was Honorary Clinical Director Obstetrics, NHS London (2010–2013) and consultant at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust (1994–2011) where she was responsible for leading a highly regarded maternity unit and introducing innovative services, including perinatal mental health and domestic violence enquiry and advocacy. Her main research interests were severe maternal morbidity, domestic and sexual violence, and institutional abuse, with over 350 publications including seven books. She has chaired the RCOG Ethics Committee 2004–2007 and NICE Guideline Development and Evidence Update Groups (2012–date), as well as performing independent reviews of NHS maternity services and been an expert advisor to Government. She now works as an out-of-hours Sexual Offenses Examiner, and self-employed expert and academic.

 Vice-chair: Dr James May

James graduated from Sheffield Medical School in 1997, and is now a GP principal in Kennington.

He has an MA in Bioethics from St Mary’s College in Twickenham, writing a dissertation on the mind-body problem in medicine, and he has a long-term interest in the history and philosophy of science.

Treasurer: Anne Raikes

Anne is an Oxford maths graduate who qualified as a Chartered Accountant.

She has since acquired fifteen years’ experience as a fund manager for Merrill Lynch Investment Managers, specialising in asset allocation mainly for international corporate clients.

In her spare time she is a keen choral singer who also enjoys skiing, tennis and walking.

Secretary: Professor David A Bender

David is Emeritus Professor of Nutritional Biochemistry at University College London. His research has been mainly in the area of tryptophan, niacin and vitamin B6, and especially the role of vitamin B6 in steroid hormone action. His main activity prior to retirement was teaching, especially to medical students.

More information at http://www.david-bender.co.uk

Newsletter Editor: Mandy Payne

Mandy attends committee meetings, but is not a Trustee of the Charity

Letters for publication are welcome — please contact the Editor.

Malcolm Brahams

Malcolm is a former chairman  of HealthWatch and a solicitor, was Honorary Treasurer of Concern for the Mentally Ill, Council member of the Medico-Legal Society. Published Commercial Leases (Collins, 1985) and Property (Croner Publications, 1994).

Dr John Illman

Dr John Illman is a former editor of General Practioner. He spent five years as medical correspondent on the Daily Mail and eight years on The Guardian as health editor. The immediate past chair of the Medical Journalists Asssociation, he divides his time between writing, lecturing and media consultancy work. He is a visting lecturer in medical journalism at the University of Westminster and is writing a series of books on mental health. His former titles include The Body Machine with Christiaan Barnard. He has received several awards.

Keith Isaacson

Keith is a Senior Consultant Orthodontist. He joined HealthWatch shortly after its formation and has been on the committee for many years. He is currently Vice Chairman of the committee. Professionally he was formerly Chairman of Examiners for Orthodontics for the Royal College of Surgeons of England and formerly Chairman of the Medical Writers Group of the Society of Authors. Life Member of the British Orthodontic Society. He has lectured extensively worldwide and co-authored four text books, which has been translated into 15 different languages. He is lead editor of the British Orthodontic Societies' Guidelines on Radiography.

Les Rose

Les is a freelance consultant clinical scientist, now mostly retired, and worked for over 35 years in managing clinical trials, training and advising clinical researchers, and evaluating results of trials. He is an Honorary Fellow of the Institute of Clinical Research, and a Life Fellow of the Society of Biology. He serves on the editorial boards of The Biologist, Focus on Alternative and Complementary Medicine (FACT), and the Journal of Evidence-Based Complementary & Alternative Medicine. Les has a blog at majikthyse.wordpress.com, and tweets as @majikthyse.

Membership Secretary: Alan Henness
	Alan designed, created and maintains the HealthWatch website. Alan is Director of the Nightingale Collaboration, which challenges misleading healthcare claims and was initially setup with funding from Dr Simon Singh. Declaration of interests None declared.
Professor John Kirwan
	John trained in Rheumatology at The Royal London Hospital, where he also undertook his MD thesis working on appropriate outcome assessment techniques in rheumatoid arthritis. After moving to Bristol University he coordinated the clinical trial team that first showed unequivocally that glucocorticoids (often called “steroids”) are able to hold back the progress of rheumatoid arthritis. He was Head of the Academic Rheumatology Unit in Bristol from 1995 to 2014, and a prominent member of OMERACT, the international organisation standardising clinical trials in rheumatology. At OMERACT and in Bristol he pioneered collaboration with patients as partners in the whole research process. John has also been instrumental in developing and testing new approaches to long term patient management, particularly in rheumatoid arthritis. Working in close collaboration with GP and nursing colleagues his unit developed and won national awards for their NICE-compliant care pathway for newly diagnosed patients and their 'direct access’ system for managing established disease. Declaration of interests None declared.
Roger Fisken
	Roger read medicine at Oxford, where he also undertook a PhD in neuroanatomy. He trained in clinical medicine in Birmingham, then received specialist training in Birmingham, London (St Bartholomew's Hospital) and Liverpool before becoming a consultant physician in North Yorkshire, specialising in diabetes and endocrinology. He retired in 2010. Roger's endocrine research focussed on hypercalcaemia and hyperparathyroidism. During his working life he was a referee for several medical journals, including The Lancet and Diabetic Medicine. He has been a member of HealthWatch UK for twenty years and has, on several occasions, acted as an assessor for the student prize competition. Declaration of interests None declared.

Coopted committee members

Tom Moberly

Tom is a medical journalist. He is currently editor of BMJ Careers, and has previously worked as clinical news editor at GP magazine, science reporter at Scrip World Pharmaceutical News, and as a news and feature writer at the Pharmaceutical Journal.

Jolene Galbraith

Jolene is junior doctor representative.

Sofia Hart

Sofia is a student representative.

James Illman

James is a medical journalist.