President

President

President: Nick Ross CBE Trustee

Nick Ross is a journalist and campaigner and was one of the founders of HealthSense, then called 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, is a non-executive director of a large NHS acute hospital trust, a member of the research steering group of the Royal College of Surgeons, a member of the UK Biobank ethics committee and chairs the Advisory Board of the Wales Cancer Bank. He has twice chaired the Royal Society Science Book Prize and served on the Nuffield Council on Bioethics and the Royal College of Physicians Committee on Ethical Issues in Medicine 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 the Royal College of Surgeons and is a visiting professor at University College London (UCL) where he founded and chaired the Jill Dando Institute of Crime Science.

He was awarded CBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours List 2021 for services to broadcasting, charity and crime prevention.

Declaration of interests

I do not believe there is anything that would affect my approach to HW; rather my commitment to the aims of HW is likely to colour my approach to the other tasks. But I suppose I should concede I have multiple interests that might be considered by others to affect the impartiality of my role in HealthSense:

  • Voluntary commitments to boards and advisory committees of several health-related and bioethics charities and not-for-profit organisations.
  • Occasional paid work for, or involving, the Department of Health, NHS, health-related companies including the biotech and pharmaceutical sectors.
  • Broadcasting and journalism sometimes concerning health issues.

Patrons

Sir Michael Rawlins

We report with sadness that Sir Michael Rawlins died on 1 January 2023. He had been an enthusiastic and involved patron of our charity since 2012. We will miss his support of evidence and his great expertise.

Sir Michael Rawlins was the chair of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency from 2014 to 2020, and chair of UK Biobank until December 2019. Previously  he had chaired the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) from 1999 to 2013, and been 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-upon-Tyne, Sir Michael chaired the Committee on Safety of Medicines in the 1990s. ​Amongst his numerous achievements, he was knighted in 1999 for services to the improvement of patient protection from the side effects of medicinal drugs, and was made a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire in June 2017.

He once 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 UCL. A sought-after 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 continuing experimental work on the ecological genetics of snails and fruit flies. Steve Jones is the author of influential books on science for the lay reader, including The Language of the Genes, Darwin’s Ghost, and, most recently, Here Comes the Sun.

Dr Margaret McCartney

Margaret McCartney is a GP in Glasgow who has been a regular column writer for the BMJ and the Financial Times, 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.

She says that 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.

Declaration of interests

My declaration of interest is on Who Pays this Doctor? and on my blog.

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 has 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.

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).

He says, "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."

Declaration of interests

No further interests to declare.

Committee members and trustees

Chair: Roger Fisken Trustee

Roger Fisken 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 HealthSense UK for 20 years and has, on several occasions, acted as an assessor for the student prize competition.

Vice-Chair: Leeza Osipenko Trustee

Dr Leeza Osipenko is a Senior Lecturer in Practice at the London School of Economics and Political Science. She joined the LSE Department of Health Policy in September 2018.

Between 2014 and 2018 she led Scientific Advice at the National Institute for Health and Care Excellent (NICE). She chaired over 150 advisory meetings at NICE and at the EMA (European Medicines Agency) and closely collaborated with EUnetHTA and MHRA. At NICE, Dr Osipenko provided methodological, operational, and strategic leadership for the team which became well-known internationally. During those years Dr Osipenko represented NICE as a Chief Analyst at the Department of Health Appraisal Alignment Working Group.

Prior to joining NICE, she did a post-doc at Warwick Medical school and worked as Principal Economist at the public sector consultancy, Optimity Matrix.

Declaration of interests

No further declaration.

Secretary: Philippa Pigache Trustee

Philippa Pigache has been a journalist and author nearly all her working life. She has contributed (staff or freelance) to The Sunday Times, Daily Mail, Independent Television News, the Mirror, Cosmopolitan, The Daily Telegraph, the Guardian, The Observer and World Medicine. Since the 1990s she has specialised in health and medical science, contributing to The Lancet, Pharmaceutical Visions, Hospital Post Europe and Hospital Imaging & Radiology Europe. She has also authored a number of consumer health books and published short stories and a novel. From 2002 to 2016 she was honorary secretary of the Medical Journalists’ Association and editor of the journal, MJA News.

Treasurer: Dr Saba Ul-Hasan Trustee

Saba is a registered doctor with over five years of experience working in NHS hospitals. She is currently a Research Associate and Operational Manager at Consilium Scientific.

Saba has previously worked in a primary care setting in London, where she created a Whole Systems Integrated Care programme for a local health authority.

In 2020, she completed her MSc in Health Policy, Planning, and Financing from the London School of Economics and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

She is well versed in multidisciplinary methodologies to policy creation, implementation, analysis, and evaluation at the local, national, and international levels.

Declaration of interests

I have no conflicts of interest. My income is mainly from my Limited consultancy company, which provides IT and non-profit research organisation services.

Newsletter Editor: Mandy Payne

Mandy Payne attends committee meetings but is not a trustee of the charity. In the 1980s she left an early career in medical PR to work as a freelance medical journalist and editor, and went on to write regular features for the Sunday Times and Daily Mail. She has edited the charity’s Newsletter since 1995. Mandy also currently provides consultancy and training in bioethics.

Letters for publication are welcome — please contact the Editor.

Declaration of interests

Mandy is paid for her professional services to edit and produce the HealthSense Newsletter.

As a freelance medical editor she has worked closely with bioethics consultancy Words & Science, Brussels, providing advice and training support for clients that include the vaccine industry. Mandy does not hold, and has never held, shares in any pharma, vaccine or medical device company. She is a member of the Medical Journalists’ Association and an occasional peer reviewer for the Journal of the Royal Medical Association.

Dr James May Trustee

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.

Declaration of interests

I have no conflicts of interest. My income is entirely from work as a General Practitioner for the NHS.

John Illman Trustee

John Illman is a freelance writer and media consultant. A former editor of General Practitioner, he spent five years as medical correspondent on the Daily Mail and eight years on The Guardian as health editor. A former chair of the Medical Journalists’ Association, he spent 19 years as a visiting lecturer in medical journalism at the University of Westminster and eight years lecturing in science communication at the University of Cambridge. His six books include The Body Machine with Christiaan Barnard and the award-winning Use your brain to beat depression.

Declaration of interests

John Illman runs a commercial consultancy, John Illman Communications. Clients include pharmaceutical and healthcare companies, the NHS, charities and representative bodies such as the Royal College of General Practitioners and the Royal College of Psychiatrists. He is a PAYE employee of the University of Westminster and a freelance journalist, broadcaster and author. He was paid by the Research Defence Society (now known as Understanding Animal Research) to write the book: Animal Research in Medicine (2008 100 years of Politics, Protest and Progress: The Story of the Research Defence Society.

Keith Isaacson Trustee

Keith Isaacson is an Emeritus Consultant Orthodontist. He joined the charity, then called HealthWatch, shortly after its formation. He has been on the committee for many years and has served as chair.

Keith worked as a consultant at the Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading where he was involved in speech therapy training at Reading University. He was the visiting consultant to the Island of Jersey. His clinical work is now restricted to advice and treatment planning to practitioners in Ireland.

He was formerly chair of examiners for orthodontics for the Royal College of Surgeons of England and is a life member of the British Orthodontic Society. He has lectured extensively worldwide and co-authored text books which have been translated into 15 different languages. He is lead editor of the British Orthodontic Societies' Guidelines on Radiography.

Les Rose Trustee

Les Rose is a retired clinical research scientist, 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 Royal Society of Biology. Les has a blog at majikthyse.wordpress.com, and tweets as @majikthyse.

Membership Secretary: Alan Henness Trustee

Alan designed, created and maintains the HealthSense website.

Alan gained a BSc in Electrical and Electrical Engineering from Heriot-Watt University and worked for 35 years in the electronic security industry, including as Research and Development Manager for a large multinational company for ten years. He then was Director of the Nightingale Collaboration, which challenged misleading healthcare claims and was initially setup with funding from Dr Simon Singh. 

He was Convenor of the Humanist Society of Scotland from 2003 to 2007 and a volunteer for the British Red Cross for 20 years.

He is now retired but runs a number of websites as a hobby.

Andrew Fulton Trustee

Andrew graduated from Queen Mary University in 2017 and currently works at the Eastman Dental Hospital as a Paediatric Dentist.

He won the HealthWatch Student competition in 2015 and has been involved in HealthWatch since as a committee member and trustee. He is currently pursuing training with the aim of specialising in Paediatric Dentistry.

Declaration of interests

I have no conflicts of interest. My income is entirely from work as a dentist for the NHS.

Tom Moberly Trustee

Tom Moberly is a medical journalist. He is currently UK editor of The BMJ, 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.

Declaration of interests

As UK editor of The BMJ, I am an employee of the British Medical Association. I am a member of the National Union of Journalists.


Jolene Slothouber Galbreath

I’m an ACCS Anaesthetics trainee at Royal United Hospitals Bath. I am a past-president of the Maternity and Newborn Forum at the Royal Society of Medicine. Before coming into medicine, I worked at the University of Aberdeen as a post-doc and lecturer.

Student representatives

Pavithran Maniam

Pavithran is currently a final year medical student at the University of Dundee. He completed his BMSc (Hons) in Genetics, Cancer and Personalised Medicine and he has an interest in evidence-based medicine. His research interests are in the area of cancer genetics and surgery.

Declaration of interests

I have no conflicts of interest.

Robert Grant

I’m currently a fourth year medical student at the University of Leicester. I was a graduate entrant in 2016, with my previous degree being a BS in Chemistry; minor in Maths.

I have a keen interest in teaching, research, and evidence based practice and hope to carry this forward beyond my time as a student. I’m currently the president of the Leicester University Medical Research Society. We’ve been fortunate to help students get involved in projects and gain some research skills which may not be developed during the normal medical curriculum.

My main focus has been in Renal and Cardiovascular medicine over the past few years.

Sylvester Odame-Amoabeng


Sylvester is Registered Nurse and alumnus of King’s College London with an interest in education and service improvement. Prior to nursing, he worked as a Quality assurance analyst at Pearson Education Limited. He is currently employed at University College London Hospital as an Acute medicine nurse.

He won the 2019 HealthWatch student Prize in the Nursing, Midwifery & AHP category and was a Finalist in the 2020 student Nursing Times Awards. Outside the clinical environment, he writes a blog and works as a tutor dedicated to building up the confidence of his students as they prepare for their GCSE examinations.

Declaration of interests

No further declaration.