HLA:Ideas | Healthcareleadership

What is HLA:IDEAS?

HLA:IDEAS is an incubator for non-profit organisations in healthcare.

The programme is open to all healthcare professionals/students involved in running a not-for-profit organisation. We accept organisations at any stage - from just having started to a few years into running.

The two-year programme empowers healthcare professionals to take their ideas further. Through educational webinars we teach them about topics relevant to starting an organisation and setting up solid foundations for further developments. They also receive close mentorship to support them with achieving their goals.

We help our organisations grow and achieve their full potential, with focus on being sustainable and having significant impact.

Our aim is to foster leadership in healthcare through entrepreneurship, empowering the next generation of clinical leaders and promoting frontline innovation.

To find out more about the programme and apply click here.

If you would like to support our initiatives, have a specialist knowledge or a background that can help make an impact, and would like to give your time as a mentor, please fill in this form and a member of our team will be in contact with you.

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Our Faculty

Ali Jawad - Director

Ali is the Director of HLA:IDEAS, as well as General Director at The Healthcare Leadership Academy. He is also a GP and an NHS Clinical Innovation and Entrepreneur Fellow as part of the first-ever cohort under the National Clinical Director for Innovation at NHS England.

Ali has a background in graphic design, technology, charities, management, and education. He regularly gives talks on innovation in medical education, and has presented his research internationally. He continues to teach locally and also leads a national teaching course for medical students.

Natalia Skorupska - Programme Manager

Natalia is a current HLA Scholar. She graduated from the University of Cambridge, and is currently doing the Academic Foundation Programme, with research in nutrition.

Johann Malawana - Managing Director

Johann founded The Healthcare Leadership Academy to address many of the issues he faced and witnessed in his career. Johann wanted to create a focus and attention on developing students and professionals earlier in their career. The HLA wants to support these individuals so they can take up leadership roles with more confidence and to improve the health systems they are part off.

Our Mentors

Our organisations receive close, individualised mentorship throughout their time on the programme. We recruit mentors from a variety of fields and backgrounds in order to meet their needs and support them with achieving their goals.

Yusuf Karmali

Yusuf is a Medics.Academy Programme Manager, Clinical Lead for the Medics.Academy Fellows Programme, and a Foundation Year doctor, graduated from Barts and The London School of Medicine. Throughout medical school, Yusuf was awarded numerous prizes for outstanding academic achievement and he delivered high-quality peer-teaching through student-led societies, in which he held various positions of leadership.

His passion for education led to him joining Medics.Academy in July 2018, where he started as a fellow and lead author on the clinical genetics course. He went on to become a member of the Medics.Academy team this year as a Clinical Programme Manager and then has been the Clinical Lead on the highly successful Medics.Academy Fellowship Programme. His other interests include medical technology and health policy.

Owain Rhys Hughes

Owain is the founder and CEO of Cinapsis a digital health company revolutionising how patients are referred between healthcare organisations. He is also a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England and a specialist in otolaryngology - head and neck surgery.

Suzanne McCarthy

A lawyer, with an LL.M. degree from Cambridge, Suzanne left private practice and after lecturing in law at Manchester University went into the civil service working first at the Home Office, where she served as Private Secretary to two Home Secretaries, and then at HM Treasury. She was CEO of both the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority and the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. Her last Executive role was as the UK’s Immigration Services Commissioner.

Currently she is the Chair of Depaul UK, a homeless charity focused primarily on young people, Right to Succeed, concerned with educational inequalities, Lepra, an NGO, the Joint Audit Panel for the Mayor’s Office of Policing and Crime and the Metropolitan Police, the Fire Standards Board and Deputy Chair of the Valuation Tribunal Service. She is a member of the Fundraising Regulator’s Board and Chair of its Standards Committee, Senior Independent Director of the Advertising Standards Authority and the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority.

Oliver Trampleasure

Originally working in the digital education space, utilising wearable and immersive technology to create large-scale global education events. Now concentrating on developing and delivering MedTech solutions in low-resource environments.

Hugo Layard Horsfall

Clinical Research Fellow in Neurosurgery, Robotics & AI at the Wellcome / EPSRC Centre for Interventional and Surgical Sciences (WEISS), University College London.

Hugo works clinically at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, Queen Square and completed the Academic Foundation Programme at the University of Cambridge, supervised by Professor Peter Hutchinson.

He has vast experience in medical research, healthcare policy and student wellbeing. Open to collaborative connections and always willing to help.

Simon Pleydell

An experienced NHS career CEO, with leadership experience in the acute sector, Service integration, workforce and innovation and technology.

Professor Namita Kumar

Involvement in medical education started when Namita was a doctor in training. In 2003 Namita was appointed as a board member of the Postgraduate Medical and Education Training Board, the first UK regulator of Postgraduate Medical Education. In 2010 she was appointed as Foundation School director for Northern Deanery, in 2013 to the post of Postgraduate dean for HEE NE and in 2019 Regional Postgraduate Dean for HEE North East and Yorkshire.

She was made an Honorary Clinical Professor by Durham University in 2014, Newcastle and Sunderland Universities, as well as UCLAN in 2017. She was a council member of the Academy of Medical Educators 2014-2017, and elected as a Trustee Councillor Royal college of Physicians in 2019. Namita is also an assessor for World Federation of Medical Education. She does a general Rheumatology clinic every Monday morning at South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust.

Hasan Naveed

I am an ST5 Ophthalmology Trainee in the KSS Deanery. I have rotated through several NHS institutions and worked on introducing new technological solutions to improve quality of care including BioDigital Eye Models, Induction app (for directory usage for off site on calls and guidelines), and Femtosecond Lasers for cataract surgery. I have also set up a new initiative with my colleagues in the deanery entitled KSS Ophthalmic Trainees Network to encourage collaborations and access to Simulation, Research, Management and Leadership projects.

I am driven to learn and work with colleagues from wider disciplines and improve care delivery for the ultimate benefit of our patients in Ophthalmology.

Dr Lewis Potter

Lewis Potter is a GP trainee and the founder of Geeky Medics, an online medical education platform used my millions of healthcare students and professionals worldwide. Lewis founded Geeky Medics back in 2010, whilst he was a medical student and continues to work on the project alongside his training.

Hesham Abdalla

Hesham is a consultant paediatrician and director of medical education and quality improvement. He has over 10 years experience of service improvement seen through the twin lenses of patient and staff experience and has led teams to a number of Patient Experience National Network and HSJ awards and is a trustee at the Point of Care Foundation.

He teaches extensively on leadership and QI and was a senior lecturer at Birmingham and subsequently Keele University, teaching on the NHS Leadership Academy Elizabeth Garrett Anderson programme for senior leaders. He was also a trustee of Doctors Worldwide, a charity delivering quality medical care and relief in over 22 countries across the globe.

Hesham co-founded Hexitime, the first time banking platform for improvement of Health and Care, which has been nominated for a number of regional and national awards. Hexitime has also been shortlisted for a number of HSJ awards, including best not-for-profit organisation working with the NHS, the best digital healthcare innovation and best workforce innovation.

Gus Booth-Clibborn

I am digital health entrepeneur who spent five years building Hello Tomo, an NHS commissioned digital mental health tool that aided self management of depression and anxiety. I exited in 2021, selling the company to ICAS World where I am in charge of building global digital healthcare products.