Course details

  • Duration:  2 x 2 days 
  • Fees:
    - £685 (for both modules)
    - 10% discount for CAHPR & CHAIN members
  • Limited bursary places available for NMAHPPs ICL/ICHNT staff - apply here
  • Venue: Online & South Kensington Campus
  • Contact us
Register interest

Dr Gemma Clunie (Course Director)
Gemma Clunie is the Lead Clinical Academic for Allied Health Professions at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust. She is passionate about building research capacity and capability for her AHPs. Her research interests focus on swallowing and voice disorders that are particularly focused on benign ENT and head and neck cancer populations, and she has methodological expertise and experience in qualitative research, observational studies and mixed methods. She has an interest in the use of ultrasound in SLT practice, particularly its applications within head and neck cancer assessment and rehabilitation and is a member of the International Ultrasound Group. She is Chair and clinical-academic representative for the Community for Allied Health Professionals Research (CAHPR) strategy committee. Since completing her PhD in 2022 she has had several funded post-doctoral fellowships and is currently a NIHR Senior Clinical and Practitioner Research Award (SCPRA) fellow.

Dr Lina Johansson (Course Director)

Lina Johansson is the co-Lead for Clinical Academic for Allied Health Professionals at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust.  Her clinical background is as a dietitian specialising in Renal. She has been an active clinician and academic researcher since 2012 after completing her PhD through Imperial College London. 
Lina has extensive experience in research methodologies from running observational studies, randomised trials including a Clinical Trial of Investigational Medicinal Product. She has also undertaken qualitative studies.  Lina has supported numerous allied health professionals on their research journeys from predoctoral to post-doctoral level.  In addition, Lina has supported delivery of an MRes programme on research skills in Human Nutrition at Imperial College London.

Dr Margaret Coffey
Dr Margaret Coffey is a Speech and Language Therapist as we as Honorary Clinical Senior Lecturer at Imperial College with extensive experience in the evaluation and treatment of dysphagia arising from multiple aetiologies.  She is especially interested in the rehabilitation of communication and swallowing after Laryngectomy and other Head and Neck cancers, the use of Fiberoptic Endoscopic Evaluation of Swallowing (FEES) in multidisciplinary clinical practice and evidence based management of dysphagia.  Margaret has developed her clinical skills working in recognised centres of excellence in both the UK and the USA.  Margaret completed a NIHR Clinical Doctoral Fellowship in 2013 and a post doctoral fellowship in 2017.  She has published in leading peer reviewed journals on the field.

Dr Donna Kennedy
Donna Kennedy is an NIHR Imperial BRC Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Pain Research Group, Department of Surgery & Cancer, Imperial College London (ICL) and Clinical Specialist in Hand Therapy at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust (ICHT). Donna has extensive clinical experience with expertise in hand trauma and acquired, rheumatologic and surgical conditions of the hand and upper limb. Donna has a BSc in Occupational Therapy from Tufts University and an MSc in Health Sciences from the University of East Anglia. In 2018 she completed an NIHR funded Clinical Doctoral Research Fellowship, receiving a PhD in Pain Research from ICL. Her Doctoral work investigates the association of neuropathic pain phenotype with the outcome of carpal tunnel surgery. 

Ms Maria Piggin
Maria Piggin is the Partnerships and Training Manager within the Patient Experience Research Centre (PERC) providing public involvement training, advice and support primarily to the NIHR Imperial Biomedical Research Centre but also to a number of research teams across Imperial College including the Health Protection Research Unit (HPRU) in Modelling Methodology.

Dr Mary Wells
Mary Wells is the Lead Nurse for Research at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust and a Professor of Practice in Cancer Nursing at Imperial College.  As Lead Nurse for Research at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, Mary is leading the development of clinical academic careers and research in nursing and midwifery, and is part of the CATO team to mentor and support nurses and midwives who wish to pursue a clinical academic role.