Mark Charny

Mark has focused on evidence based medicine throughout his career. He qualified as a doctor and worked in general (family) practice before carrying out research into variations in clinical behaviour and their implications for guidelines and clinical audit. He obtained a PhD in identifying groups of patients most likely to benefit from health interventions.

He was a senior medical manager in the NHS for eight years, before spending two years at the UK Department of Health working on clinical effectiveness and clinical guidelines, including health needs assessment. He left the Department of Health when he became Director of the National Centre for Clinical Audit, which was funded by the UK government to promote clinical audit and quality improvement in the NHS.

As Managing Director of Translucency, he supports clients in the medical device and pharmaceutical industries in making the strongest possible business cases to payors in the UK, elsewhere in the EU and in the US. Translucency uses a blend of scientific, clinical, marketing and communications skills, market knowledge, and an extensive network of contacts in healthcare systems to advise and support clients who need to understand and manage the healthcare environment as it affects new and existing products.

Mark has published widely in the peer-reviewed medical literature and in other journals. He has spoken at many national and international conferences to a wide variety of audiences, in the UK and abroad. He has refereed for peer-reviewed journals such as the British Medical Journal and Social Science in Medicine, as well as reviewing proposals for the NHS HTA programme.

Suzy Gallier

Suzy Gallier has a mathematics degree and is a qualified teacher. She worked for several years in the National Health Service (NHS) producing statistics on service usage and case loads. Her specialist areas were statistical analysis, mathematical modelling of data, and the design/use of complex relational databases. She has supported work in the National Service Frameworks for coronary heart disease, diabetes and mental health, including work with disease registers, standardisation of clinical work, clinical audit and NHS targets

As Operations Director for Translucency, Suzy is responsible for ensuring efficient and effective use of IT and consistent use of project planning and management, as well as modelling, analysis of health service activity data and simulations.

Fiona James

Fiona worked as a nurse and health visitor for several years before moving into NHS management. She has served as chief officer of a Primary Care Group in Birmingham and was the manager for the Health Authority Council of the National Association of Health Authorities and Trusts (NAHAT), developing policy on behalf of members and working closely with the Department of Health and the National Health Service (NHS) Executive.

Her experience includes work for a large Primary Care Trust (PCT) where she was responsible for developing a system for performance management of both local Hospital Trusts and the services provided by the PCT. She also took the lead for capacity planning and reforming emergency care.

Since joining Translucency, Fiona has worked on the NHS Independent Sector Treatment Centre (ISTC) programme. This involved interviewing all private sector preferred bidders, producing a report on each one; followed by an overall analysis for the Department of Health of clinical risk. She managed a project on Nursing/Residential Home care and has on-going work with PCTs, helping with commissioning and data warehousing and working on Local Delivery Plans (LDPs) and other aspects of commissioning.

Paula Wittels

Paula started her career with a degree in natural sciences from Cambridge University and has worked in a variety of commercial roles in the healthcare industry. Starting in the pharmaceutical industry in product information she moved to product management with UK responsibility for cardiovascular and psychotropic products. From there she moved to Amersham International and had worldwide marketing responsibility for the introduction of a novel immunoassay technology comprising instrumentation and reagents.

With a focus on product launches and building successful product lines Paula moved to Howmedica (then a Pfizer company) as International Marketing Director for the company’s line of orthopaedic implants. When the company was purchased by Stryker she moved to Quintiles Consulting as Director of Operations managing a number of consulting projects and with a focus on market access, funding and product reimbursement.

As a Programme Director for Translucency Paula provides reimbursement, marketing and business support to companies in the medical technology sector. Paula is a Member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing and speaks regularly at conferences on the reimbursement of medical devices.

Robert Handschuh

Robert started his career as a general practitioner in France. He specialized in sports medicine and worked for 13 years with top French athletes.

Since 1992, Robert has been working with medical technologies undertaking a range of roles. He has been a professional service manager (in France and in Europe) and a project leader in health information systems. He has worked for the French competent authority (AFSSAPS) with responsibility for medical device regulatory affairs and he has managed health care economics for 3M.

For the last eight years Robert has worked for B Braun as an internal and external consultant on a wide range of matters relating to medical affairs and health care economics, e.g. reimbursement, pricing, marketing strategy, clinical investigations, relation with unions and authorities.

Robert has been an active participant in several working groups in Snitem, the French manufacturing organization, including public affairs, prospective payment system, clinical investigations, and innovation.

Now working with Translucency, Robert undertakes work in France for a wide range of medical device companies providing strategic advice and hands on support with reimbursement applications. He also provides services to hospitals with a focus on mapping clinical pathways and improving service efficiency.