Meet Our Experts
Teresa Taverner
Clinical Pathway Author
Teresa is a Registered Nurse and has over 26 years of Emergency Nursing experience in the UK. Throughout Teresa's career as a Senior Sister and Emergency Nurse Practitioner she has also specialised in leading on the support and further referral pathway management for patients who are at risk of Domestic Violence which has allowed for 1000s of patients to seek safety.
Whilst not carrying out these roles she also covers the out of hours service for primary care, remotely managing patients via telephone triage to support the patient experience and effective management of getting the right patient to the right place at the right time.
Claire Harvey
Clinical Pathway Author
Claire has been a Registered Nurse for 23 years and has worked as an Emergency Nurse for the last 16 years leading on triage. This led her to create and implement a new triage system within a major trauma hospital in London.
She has run triage training programmes and supported the IT teams within the trust to move into the digital world of a paperless triage system. Claire has a passion for training and development and improving working practices to tackle the workforce challenges that currently face the NHS.
Ros Carlile
Clinical Pathway Author
Ros has over 40 years nursing experience, currently a Senior Sister/Emergency Nurse Practitioner working in Emergency Medicine in the Emergency Department, Royal United Hospital Bath, and Advanced Nurse Practitioner in Primary Care GP and Out of Hours/111 Medvivo, Wiltshire.
During the covid 19 pandemic, she played a key role in using and adapting remote triage and clinical consultations. She is the deputy education lead since 2018 for the faculty of emergency nursing and is on the board helping with current competencies for the AFEN programme.
Kerri Porter
Clinical Pathway Author
Kerri is a registered Emergency Nurse and has worked in a Major Trauma hospital in London for the last 14 years and regularly leads the department from a clinical operation perspective. She is also an Emergency Nurse Practitioner, independently seeing and treating patients with minor injuries and illnesses. Kerri is interested in clinical governance and has carried out various root cause analysis of serious incidents within emergency medicine and presented these findings to NHS England which led to quality improvement programmes being implemented within her trust.
Dr Chrissie Hymers
Clinical Quality Assurance & Governance
Chrissie has a wealth of experience in both Pre-Hospital & Emergency Medicine, working in one of the UK’s leading Emergency Departments & with London's Air Ambulance. Her passion for working in the pre-hospital environment has also lead to her working as a Crowd Doctor with Arsenal Football Club. As a strong advocate for trying to empower patients and ensure patients are treated at the right place at the right time, she has involved herself over the years in digital health to support patients attending where appropriate for their concerns. She is keen to develop technology to improve processes to gain appropriate & timely triage of patients within the Urgent & Emergency Care environment.
AnnMarie Richardson
Clinical Governance Advisory Member
AnnMarie moved to the UK in 2002 to continue in her Emergency Nursing career after working as a staff nurse in Jamaica. She has progressed to an Emergency Nurse Practitioner and Prescriber in one of the country’s busiest trauma hospitals, managing the flow of approximately 145,000 patients a year through the Emergency Department, ensuring that patient safety and timely assessments are carried out within targets. AnnMarie took a key role in establishing the clinical decision unit including policy development, procedures and patient flows. She developed change initiatives for Same Day Emergency Care and pathways for Emergency Departments. She has supported flow from the front-end ensuring patients are seen in a timely manner by the correct clinician.
Cassandra Hawes
Clinical Governance Advisory Member
Cassandra is a dual qualified Health and Social Care (Social Work and Mental Health Nursing) professional with over 10 years experience. Working within clinical specialties which include substance misuse, perinatal mental health, acute mental health and crisis management, Best Interest Decisions and Court of Protection, Community and Primary Care and Short Interventions. One of her roles is working for the ‘Alternative to Emergency Department’ assessing people who are experiencing a mental health crisis and are waiting to be seen at an Emergency Department. These patients are benefitting from a new project which aims to ease demand and get people supported sooner. This role provides a safe alternative and relieving pressure in the Emergency Department for people across Devon.
Dr Robert Conway
Clinical Governance Advisory Member
Robert is currently an Emergency Medicine trainee based in the Thames Valley Deanery and ranked 14th nationally in Acute Care Common Stem – Emergency Medicine Applications. Outside of his training, he has a significant interest in medical education and has held a Clinical Lectureship at University College, Oxford since 2020.He has helped introduce new multi-disciplinary simulation teaching to nursing and medical students in Oxford. More recently, he was appointed as a Doll Fellow at Green Templeton College, Oxford where he oversees 5th year medical students, including in their Emergency Medicine and Community placements. Robert has peer reviewed papers for the British Journal of Healthcare Management since 2021 and has recently been appointed as a member of the editorial board.
Dr Sam Gunning
Clinical Governance Advisory Member
Sam is currently an Acute Medicine core trainee at Royal United Hospitals, Bath. Having degrees in both Medicine and Medical Physics he is now currently pursuing a postgraduate Master’s in healthcare data at the University of Cambridge. His interest in the use of large datasets and machine learning has led to proficiency with multiple coding languages. He has published research and at his prior appointment as a clinical fellow for Vinehealth AI, he advised on device licensing and user experience. More recently, he has fulfilled the role of Principal Investigator for RUH in the Trainee Emergency Research Network’s national study on Investigation of Cardiac Chest Pain Management.
Dr Neil Patel
Clinical Governance Advisory Member
Neil is a registered Dental Specialist with 15 years of clinical experience in Oral and Maxillofacial and Prosthodontic Surgery both in a hospital and private setting. Currently, Neil is a director of Dentasmile Limited, a family business which owns and operates a small collection of dental clinics in the London area. Alongside his clinical obligations, Neil is currently an Honorary Clinical Lecturer at the Royal College of Surgeons, a visiting Lecture at King's College London and an examiner for Health Education England. Neil has experience with digital frameworks, having worked with one of the UK's leading digital health organisations to develop their Urgent and Emergency Care framework. Neil currently holds a double Master's and recently received a Diploma from the Royal College of Surgeon's Edinburgh.
Dr Paul Hotton
Clinical Governance Advisory Member
Paul is a Paediatrician with a focus on community child health, child safety and working with vulnerable children. He is the paediatric clinical lead at the Northern Sydney Local Health District (NSLHD) and works in the Child Protection Unit at Sydney Children’s Hospital Network. He completed his medical training at Imperial College, UK in 2006, before moving to Australia in 2010. Paul spent several years working in emergency medicine before specializing in paediatrics. He is the Chair of the Chapter of Community Child Health Committee at the Royal Australasian College of Physicians (RACP). Paul has a Master's degree in Public Health and a Master's degree in Clinical Forensic Medicine. He is currently enrolled in a Master of Criminology and Medical Law. Paul’s experience and qualifications make him a valuable asset to the field of paediatrics, particularly in child safety and welfare.
Dr Dimitrois Tsiakiris
Clinical Governance Advisory Member
Most of Dimitrios’ training in General Adult Psychiatry & Neurology was completed at a Regional General Hospital in Greece, at times serving as the only psychiatrist in the entire hospital. He later completed his training at a Specialist Psychiatric Hospital, gaining experience in Systemic Family Therapy.
In 2013, he moved to the UK, working in Leicester as a Locum Consultant in several community and inpatient settings, as well as HMP Leicester. He then spent 5 years as an NHS Psychiatrist for Devon Partnership NHS Trust, before joining Livewell Southwest CIC in 2020 to work with the Plymouth Community Perinatal Service and has recently been appointed as the Clinical Lead for Research and Innovation.
Dimitrios is passionate about tackling mental illness related stigma and discrimination, with strong believes that mental health patients are among the most vulnerable. He is also interested in exploring the implementation on novel technologies into clinical practice and the co-production of health services with people with lived experience
Alice Milligan
Clinical Governance Advisory Member
Alice is an Ophthalmology Specialist Registrar with an interest in Emergency Eye Care and Infection. She has trained in London, working at Moorfields Eye Hospital, Western Eye Hospital Imperial College, Guy's and St Thomas' Hospital and the Royal Free Hospital.
Describing her work in A&E as an honour, she appreciates the simple privilege of being able to apply her years of knowledge to help people. Alice thrives off the busy atmosphere and the formidable team dynamics.
She has travelled the world through her medical career, including being part of expeditions to Bolivia to deliver eye surgery. She is passionate about medical education and teaches ophthalmology at both undergraduate and postgraduate level. During this time, Alice has impacted the teaching world by developing new training simulations for high-stress emergency procedures, better preparing our clinicians for the future.
Alice has joined our clinical governance advisory team to ensure clinical best practice, adherence to NICE guidelines within our clinical pathways and provide additional assurance to our multi-disciplinary team.
Dr Sam Deiratany
Clinical Quality Assurance for Middle East
Sam has gained over 25 years of experience in Clinical Consultancy worldwide, currently working as a Locum Consultant in Paediatric Emergency Medicine for the Royal Free Hospital, Chelsea and Westminster Hospital and Tallaght Hospital (National Children’s Hospital) in Dublin
Sam’s outstanding career has seen him obtain two first prize presentation awards for the Irish Neurological Association and the Irish Paediatric association (IPA).
Amongst this, Sam is also fluent in English, French and Arabic, allowing him to diversify his clinical practice internationally.
Sam will be clinically assuring all our clinical pathways for translation into Arabic.
Hector Morales
Clinical Governance Advisory Member
Hector trained to become a registered nurse both in the North Africa and the south of Spain navigating the particular challenges that the healthcare systems of underdeveloped countries present.
After qualifying Hector has worked in the NHS for the last 20 years, 15 of those within Emergency Care in various roles as a junior and senior nurse, pharmacy lead, and Emergency Nurse Practitioner. During this time, he has acted as a mentor of both medical and nursing students and is now progressing to gain his certification as an Advanced Clinical Practitioner in Spring 2024.
He has authored multiple Emergency Department Patient Group Directives to facilitate rapid analgesia and adequate treatment for ED patients. Alongside this work Hector has implemented many Quality Improvement Programmes in several hospitals.
Currently working in The Royal United Hospital Bath (where he sub-specialises in doughnuts and good quality coffee), Hector joins Opto as part of our Clinical Governance Advisory Team and to oversee the development of our platform into various Hispanic languages.
Arthur Henderson
Clinical Governance Advisory Member
Arthur Henderson is a Consultant ENT Surgeon at the Royal United Hospitals (RUH), Bath.
He has a particular sub-specialist interest in diseases of the ear, as well as in diving, underwater medicine and aviation, being the lead surgeon for ENT in the Royal Navy. He is the national advisor to Defence on Diving and Aviation related ENT conditions, as well as an advisor to the HSE on occupational diving and ENT. He lectures nationally and internationally on these topics and has written military and civilian guidelines on ENT conditions, fitness for diving and flying.
He qualified with distinction from Guy’s King’s and St Thomas’ Hospitals in London, with further training in Bristol, Southampton and the South-West, before undertaking a fellowship in lateral skull base surgery, otology and neurotology at the internationally renowned Rotary hearing centre in St Paul’s Hospital, Vancouver. During his training he completed a Master’s degree with distinction in leadership, the Diploma in Occupational Medicine and was awarded the Royal Society of Medicine Otology gold medal.
Sarah Trippick
Clinical Governance Advisory Member
Dr. Sarah Trippick is a seasoned medical professional specialising in Emergency Medicine and Paediatric Emergency Medicine. She holds notable qualifications, including Fellowship of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (FRCEM) and Membership of the Royal College of Physicians (MRCP). With over two decades of experience, she has served in a variety of clinical and leadership roles, spanning different healthcare institutions in the UK and Australia.
Currently working as a Consultant in Emergency Medicine and Paediatric Emergency Medicine in the South West, Sarah plays a pivotal role in a busy teaching hospital. Her responsibilities encompass direct patient care, team supervision, and departmental leadership. She is committed to medical education, including serving as an instructor for advanced life support courses and developing simulation training. Furthermore, her research contributions and involvement in quality improvement initiatives underscore her dedication to advancing the field of emergency medicine. Sarah's extensive expertise and leadership make her a valuable asset to the Opto Clinical Governance team.
