Prof. Darren M. Ashcroft graduated in Pharmacy (BPharm)
from the University of Nottingham and was awarded an MSc in Clinical Pharmacy
(with Distinction) from the Queen’s University of Belfast and a PhD from the
University of Aston. In 2002, he was appointed as Senior Clinical Lecturer at
the University of Manchester. He was subsequently promoted to Reader in
Medicines Usage and Safety in 2007 and Foundation Professor of
Pharmacoepidemiology in 2010. He is the Director of the National Institute for
Health and Care Research (NIHR) Greater Manchester Patient Safety Research
Collaboration (GMPSRC). He is an Honorary Professor at the Northern Care
Alliance NHS Foundation Trust and the University of Hong Kong. As the GMPSTRC’s
Director, he leads the integration of an extensive program of innovative
research to improve patient safety across partner NHS Trusts, primary care
networks, and the Universities of Manchester, Leicester, and Nottingham. In
2017, he was appointed to the Pharmacovigilance Expert Advisory Group (PEAG) at
the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and routinely
provides expert advice on the public health importance of new safety signals
and how these risks should be managed.
Tjeerd Pieter van Staa is a Professor of Health eResearch at the Centre
for Health Informatics, University of Manchester. His main research interest is to implement the Learning
Healthcare System, providing better actionable information to clinicians based
on data analytics and better evaluation of digital interventions including efficient
randomized trials. One ongoing research project is to provide GPs and patients
with better personalised information during consultation for common infections
using a Knowledge Support System that is integrated with the Electronic Health
Record. He has extensive experience using OpenSAFELY which is a most secure
health data analysis platform.
