Dr Peter J Lovell, Programme Manager
Peter studied Chemistry at Imperial College, gaining a BSc Honours in 1989 and a PhD in 1992. He started his career at Roche Products in Welwyn Garden City as a team leader in Medicinal Chemistry. Following a move to GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals in 1995, Peter led multidisciplinary research teams on a wide range of projects targeting antipsychotics, antidepressants and drugs for cognitive enhancement, sleep and bipolar disorders. In March 2009, he joined RDS London as Programme Manager and has been involved in the set up and management of the service.
Cath Taylor, Senior Research Advisor
Cath has worked in health services research for over 12 years, subsequent to being awarded her first degree in Psychology from Swansea University. Her research career began in 1997 at Imperial College London where, over a period of six years, she worked on two large multi-centre randomised controlled trials aimed at evaluating interventions to improve outcome for people with severe mental illness, and a mixed methods project aimed at assessing the extent of service user involvement in the development and running of mental health services. Her academic research training continued concurrent to these posts and Cath was awarded a distinction for her Masters degree in Health and Social Policy in 1998. In 2002 Cath joined the Cancer Research UK Promoting Early Presentation Group at Kings College London where she led a programme of research aimed at improving the working lives of cancer health professionals. Cath now holds a joint post between RDS London, as a senior research advisor, and the Florence Nightingale School of Nursing and Midwifery where she is a research fellow and continues research into the wellbeing of the NHS workforce with a particular interest in multidisciplinary team working. Alongside these academic roles, Cath also provides research advice and expertise to the National Cancer Action Team in her role as Research Manager for the Multidisciplinary Team Development Programme.
Dr Caroline Burgess, Senior Research Adviser
Caroline has a BSc in Psychology from City University and a PhD from the University of London. Her research career has focussed mainly on health psychology and cancer, most recently contributing to the development and evaluation of an intervention to promote early presentation of breast cancer amongst older women. This work was conducted with the KCL Promoting Early Presentation Group at the Institute of Psychiatry. In 2010 Caroline moved to a joint post with RDS London as a senior research adviser and research fellow with the Department of Primary Care and Public Health Sciences, researching continuity of care and patient safety in chronic medical conditions.