Panel Discussion

Beth is Senior Scientific Advisor at NICE (since September 2024) and Honorary Professorial Fellow at the University of Warwick. Her research focuses on evaluation methods for diagnostic and screening tests, particularly in earlier diagnosis and screening.

She was involved in the Yorkshire Lung Screening Trial, which informed the UK NSC's recommendation for a national targeted lung cancer screening programme. She currently works on challenging evaluation questions including whole genome sequencing and multi-cancer detection tests.

Previously Associate Director of the NIHR Leeds In Vitro Diagnostics Co-operative, where she worked with industry (particularly SMEs) to support evidence generation for NHS adoption.

At NICE, Beth works in the research team. She's on the UK National Screening Committee as a test expert member.

Neil is Professor of HTA at the University of Glasgow and Deputy Director of the NIHR Complex Reviews Support Unit. His work focuses on evidence synthesis, decision-analytic modelling, precision medicine, and early-stage HTA.

His career spans pharma industry, academic research, and consultancy. He's particularly interested in "development-focused" HTA approaches for nascent technologies where traditional evidence is limited.

Neil is Vice Chair of NICE's Diagnostics Advisory Committee and a member of the MedTech Advisory Committee and Antimicrobials Evaluation Committee. He's also a Partner and Director at Visible Analytics and has served on the Board of ISPOR.

He holds a PhD in Pharmacology (Bristol), Master's degrees in Health Economics (York) and Applied Statistics (Sheffield), and an MBA (Oxford). He's conducted over thirty HTAs and teaches evidence synthesis and modelling internationally.

Katherine is Professor of Health Economics at The University of Manchester, NIHR Senior Investigator, and Deputy Director of the Division of Population Health. She has 29 years of research experience in economic evaluation, focusing on precision medicine, genomics, diagnostics, and digital health.

She's a registered pharmacist and Fellow of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, and worked as a hospital pharmacist from 1990-1993. Her research covers model-based and trial-based economic evaluations, stated preference methods (DCEs, contingent valuation), and valuing health and non-health outcomes. She's published over 170 peer-reviewed articles.

Katherine served on a NICE Technology Appraisal Committee from 2003-2012 and currently sits on the UK National Screening Committee's Research and Methodology Group. She's Theme 4 Lead for the NIHR HealthTech Research Centre in Emergency and Acute Care.

Her work includes leading the economics component of large MRC-funded consortia developing prescribing algorithms for biologics in lupus, psoriasis, and rheumatoid arthritis.

Joy is Head of Market Access and Public Affairs at Roche Diagnostics UK & Ireland. She has a background in applied mathematics and theoretical physics (Queen's University Belfast) and joined the NIHR Diagnostic Evidence Co-operative Newcastle in 2014.

Over six years at the NIHR In Vitro Diagnostics Co-operative Newcastle, she became Principal Research Associate and Senior Diagnostics Evaluation Methodologist. Her work focused on clinical and health economic evaluation of rapid tests for viral infections, antimicrobial resistance, and inherited conditions. A key interest was evaluating diagnostics when the reference standard is imperfect or non-existent.

During COVID-19, Joy co-founded CONDOR (COVID-19 National Diagnostic Research and Evaluation Platform), which provided a national route to evaluate new COVID-19 diagnostic tests at scale.

She's been a member of NICE's Diagnostics Advisory Committee since 2022. Joy is particularly interested in health equity and innovative delivery models like community pharmacy-based diagnostics.