Why NewCourse?
NewCourse Healthcare brings together international healthcare experts to provide you, your team and your organisation, with specialist advice and support to drive the delivery of high quality healthcare.
We work with hospitals and healthcare organisations all over the world who are committed to delivering improvements for patients and staff; working with them to enable sustainable change.
Our experiences of working with healthcare organisations, is that there is appetite for a new approach to help drive improvements in the delivery of care. We are committed to changing the way people access help and support and offering an alternative approach to meet your goals.
We will introduce you to a more sustainable, effective and affordable approach to improvement.
Together, we build the foundations and frameworks for on-going improvement.
Our approach
We are committed to changing the way people access help and support and offer an alternative approach
We focus on getting to know you as an organisation first. We believe that understanding your organisation, identifying the right goals and prioritising the development of the capabilities and capacity of your team will lead to better results.
We tailor all our programmes of work around you and ensure that advice and support is delivered in a way that builds your skills and confidence from the outset
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We start our partnership with you with a conversation.
We want to ensure that the next steps we suggest are the right ones for your organisation. We recommend an initial phase that will provide us with information about you and your infrastructure for delivery and improvement.
This can be done rapidly and remotely to provide you with early improvement targets as well as helping us more accurately shape the support you need.
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We will help you identify appropriate goals and give you a range of options for achieving these goals.
The options are tailored to your circumstances, teams and the stage you are at in your journey. We will optimise our delivery to the format that works for you enabling you to personalise every element.
Sustainability is at the heart of what we do. Our priority is on developing your internal infrastructure that will enable improvements to be sustained beyond our collaboration.
Our proposals will often include a combination of mentoring, training, programme management and delivery.
Our diverse network of healthcare professionals enables us to provide you with a range of input from experienced subject matter experts.
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Dependent on your infrastructure and experience, we may use remote technology and virtual diagnostics tools to support continuous monitoring without the need to be onsite all the time.
Alternatively, you may need dedicated capacity or expertise in your organisation to complete specific programmes of work or to carry out detailed clinical reviews.
History
Our vision
Our vision is to change the way people access help and support, offering an alternative approach to enable sustainable transformation and quality improvement in healthcare organisations.
Our values
Expert
Healthcare improvement is nuanced and technical. We believe positive change is the result of a shared vision. We combine the experience of your team with the expertise of our knowledgeable practitioners.
Tailored
Every organisation and its objectives are unique. Quality improvement is not one size fits all. We customise our approach to target and tackle the challenges you face.
Sustainable
Quality improvement isn’t about box ticking. It shouldn’t stop if our collaboration ends. Together, we build foundations and frameworks for your ongoing improvement
Our team
We know how important teams are; they are the lifeblood of an organisation. Our team reflects who we are as an organisation. Experts in healthcare but more than that we are driven by a passion to support lasting change in the organisations we work with.
We feel though that this drive means we offer more than just our collective experiences.
These experiences include both clinical and non-clinical services, public and private healthcare and international healthcare systems. We are all skilled in delivering improvement in front-line, complex, challenging healthcare settings.
We are committed to ensuring that the team you work with chosen from our diverse network of specialists have the skills and expertise that are right for your specific requirements.
We have access to a growing network of associates who provide specific expertise to the work we do with our clients. We provide profiles for all of our team that work with you.
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The delivery of international and national accreditation schemes
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Change management and organisational development including board level development
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Clinical governance, audit and risk management
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Large scale strategic and organisational development
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AI, technology and analytics
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Commercial finance and business planning
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Robust programme and project management
Our specific skills include:
Meet the team
Alf
Ram
Edward
Ana
Niamh
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Fodi
Natalie
Jim
Peter
José
Martina
Ana Howarth
ASSOCIATE
Ana is a research scientist with expertise in population health, health data analytics and statistics. She has a PhD in Behavioural Medicine and has a strong background in evidence synthesis and a practical knowledge of epidemiology, and clinical trials. She is an Honorary Research Fellow and Lecturer at St George’s, University of London.
Ana’s expertise includes:
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Clinical outcomes data
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Complex data analysis and measurement of improvement
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Evaluation of impact and effectiveness
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Behavioural change
Ana’s health research background within academia focuses on pain management interventions within the UK National Health Service. Her work with pharmaceutical companies, governmental agencies, and insurance companies cover a broad spectrum of disease areas and health outcomes. She has lectured on various topics in health psychology and specialises in health intervention design, implementation and evaluation.
Why am I involved with NewCourse?
Throughout my career in behavioural science, I have been curious about what leads people to change and what can help them stick to better ways of working. This is particularly important as continuous improvement is a fundamental part of delivering high quality healthcare.
Likewise, quality improvement techniques cannot be separated from a good understanding of data. However, many organisations face challenges in understanding, interpreting and using their data to make informed decisions.
NewCourse brings together experts from many different disciplines focused on providing clients with the skills and confidence to drive improvement. They are also committed to making change sustainable. I believe that organisations who make data-led decisions will focus their efforts in the right area and harness the capabilities of their staff to achieve long-term success.
Niamh Usher
ASSOCIATE
Niamh is an experienced director of nursing and accreditation lead with expertise in leading hospitals through the Joint Commission International (JCI) accreditation process. She is a qualified nurse with specialisation in emergency care and also holds an MBA in International Business.
Niamh’s expertise includes: International accreditation / Clinical governance and risk management / Continuous quality improvement and clinical audit / Patient experience.
During her career, Niamh has been a lead for JCI accreditation in both public and private sector hospitals – successfully steering hospitals through their first accreditation as well as working with others on re-accreditation. She has held several senior nursing roles and specialises in a wide range of governance activities including complex root cause analysis and hospital wide monitoring of clinical outcomes. She has held clinical nursing roles in both Ireland and Australia.
Why am I involved with NewCourse?
We are seeing more hospitals across the world understanding the importance of quality improvement and placing value on engaging in accreditation. Having led several hospitals through their JCI accreditation I have experienced many of the challenges that leadership and staff will face. The journey to improvement is not easy.
I believe that when hospitals need help to meet their ambitions it is important that this help provides value and makes a real difference to the hospitals in the long-term. NewCourse is focused on building skills and confidence in frontline staff and leadership to deliver sustainable improvement. I am passionate that staff are an organisation’s most important asset and that successful improvement starts and ends with focusing on people. This approach will provide greater resilience in the future.
Edward Parkes
STRATEGIC ADVISOR / ASSOCIATE
Edward is an experienced organisational development and business transformation professional. He has over 20 years of experience of leading change across public, private and third sectors, specialising in healthcare. He has an MSc in Health Promotion and Education and is a trained lean practitioner and ILM accredited coach.
Edward’s expertise include:
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Organisational and leadership development
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Strategy co-design
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Change management and coaching
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Building quality improvement cultures
As examples of Edward’s breadth of work: he developed a multi-platform leadership academy for 2000 leaders across a healthcare system in the US; worked with teams on the forefront of healthcare innovation to build the skills and confidence to trial and implement disruptive change across London; and facilitated board development, reinvigorated staff engagement and addressed corporate culture, to support a hospital through national accreditation.
Why am I involved with NewCourse?
With the growing pace and scale of change that organisations have to respond to, I believe that building more effective learning organisations is an absolute must. Twinned with this is a need at every level to know ‘why we exist, what is our value-add’ – with leaders and teams aligned around purpose. Quality improvement in healthcare brings together these two requirements: the agility of learning through doing, with a wide-spread commitment to quality of care.
NewCourse brings together the science and disciplines of Quality Improvement, while helping to create an environment where QI can thrive: developing skills and confidence, investing in leadership, aligning strategy and operations. This is supported by the evidence that healthier organisations drive greater staff engagement, which in turn deliver better quality of care.
Ram Rajaraman
CHIEF TECHNOLOGY ADVISOR
Ram has over 11 years experience in developing strategies and leading digital transformation and change programmes for the NHS and the Nordics. He has particular expertise in artificial intelligence (AI) and other innovative technologies to solve complex problems across the health and care economy.
Ram founded CHAI Analytics, an AI start-up developing solutions that provide highly accurate, actionable and trustworthy predictive intelligence that are explainable and universally accessible. He was previously the EMEA Lead for Analytics Consulting for GE Healthcare’s Command Centre business. As product owner he played a critical role in delivering the 1st Command Centre programme outside of North America.
Ram has worked across a variety of sectors including healthcare, financial services and aerospace previously working at KPMG and Rolls-Royce.
Why am I involved with NewCourse?
NewCourse has been established to offer an alternative approach to traditional consulting focused on delivering long-term sustainable change, by empowering healthcare organisations to drive their improvement agenda. Since Alf and I first worked together, I have seen the ethos of NewCourse develop and it is refreshing to see this new model come to life. As Chief Technology Advisor, I am excited to input into the strategic development of the organisation.
I believe in the principles of co-design and co-development in order to drive truly sustainable change. I believe the expertise that NewCourse has brought together through their strategic partnerships and professional networks will enable more hospitals to access the help and support they need to drive long-lasting improvement.
Alf Theodorou
MANAGING DIRECTOR AND FOUNDER
Alf is an international healthcare specialist with a background in epidemiology, public health sciences and quality improvement. He has a track record of initiating large scale cultural change and quality improvement programmes in both the public and private healthcare sector through roles in acute and specialist healthcare providers as well as management consultancy and global health insurance.
Alf most recently worked in one of the UK’s busiest acute hospital NHS Trusts to implement a lean management system. This built on previous experience of working with over 170 hospitals in more than 40 countries to develop protocols to benchmark facilities using recognised international standards and clinical indicators.
Why am I involved with NewCourse?
My career has taken me to many different hospitals from Latin American to the Far East via Europe and Africa. I have met so many healthcare colleagues committed to doing the best for their patients and staff.
Sometimes we need help to deliver improvement when faced with the day-to-day challenges that healthcare brings. I believe that this help and support is often rather generic, enshrined in short-term thinking and does not provide the right degree of flexibility or value for money.
Starting NewCourse is the opportunity to do things differently. We want to help hospitals and healthcare organisations, whoever and wherever they are, that are committed to developing their teams and driving improvement. I have been encouraged by the number of people I have met who want to be part of a new way of working. I am surrounded by colleagues – new and old – who are ready to break the mould and deliver something different for the hospitals that want our help.
Fodi Kyriakos
STRATEGIC ADVISOR
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Fodi Kyriakos is a healthcare workforce specialist with over 20 years of experience in workforce and staffing solutions. He has particular expertise within Diagnostic Imaging and Oncology and extensive experience of both public and private healthcare systems.
Fodi founded Skilled Personnel Consulting and now acts as an advisor to organisations within the imaging & oncology field facilitating many relationships across the profession. He previously founded the company RIG Reporting, which specialised in delivering X-ray reporting services to the UK NHS. The success of this was realised in 2016 when RIG Reporting was acquired by the InHealth Group. Most recently he headed up reporting services as part of the senior management team at InHealth and established InHealth Reporting which specialises in backlog recovery & SLA turnaround management for the NHS.
As a Strategic Advisor to NewCourse Healthcare, Fodi provides specific support around developing - and delivering - solutions focused on optimising diagnostic services with an additional focus on engaging allied health professionals in change. He is also a key ally as we look to expand our activity across Cyprus and Greece.
Dr Natalie Robson
CLINICAL ADVISOR
Natalie Robson is a GP and Acute/Emergency Medic with over 15 years of experience delivering healthcare across acute NHS Trusts and General Practice. She has particular expertise in the complex care needs of older people as well as those receiving palliative care in the community, and a specialist interest in public health standards and their relevance in long term management of conditions across primary and secondary care.
Throughout her clinical career, Natalie has combined her clinical expertise across different healthcare settings with her passion for providing patient-centred care, maintaining a focus on individual patient care-plans to enhance improvement whilst looking ahead to optimisation and long-term disease prevention. Working in one of the UK's busiest acute care providers, she has experienced the complexity of delivering high quality care in a high pressure environment as well as a real-life understanding of the challenge of maintaining clinical standards and professional development, faced with increasing demands at the point of care.
As a Clinical Advisor to NewCourse Healthcare, Natalie provides specific support around developing - and delivering - solutions focused on optimising clinical care, including pathway development, with an additional focus on engaging clinicians in the measurement of healthcare outcomes, continuous professional development and continuous improvement. She is a key part of our clinical learning solutions.
Dr Peter Mills
CLINICAL ADVISOR
Peter is an experienced clinician and established healthcare executive with a unique blend of high level commercial and direct clinical practice experience. A specialist in respiratory medicine with over 30 years of experience in direct patient care, Peter has extensive and practical experience of the international health insurance industry, with a deep understanding of the challenges and opportunities faced within the sector including managing healthcare quality, medical evacuation and complex case management.
Peter has in-depth knowledge and understanding of data analytics and data insights in healthcare and how technology can be leveraged to drive growth, efficiency and quality in the industry. Most recently Peter was European Medical Director at Cigna International. His role included acting as the clinical lead for provider care quality assessment and validation, and working with healthcare providers, including clinicians, to ensure the appropriateness of clinical care and to drive improvements in patient outcomes as well as mitigate annual medical inflation.
As a Clinical Advisor to NewCourse Healthcare, Peter provides strategic, and practical, input to solutions focused on optimising clinical care and understanding and managing clinical data to drive improved performance. He is a key part of our clinical technology and healthcare optimisation solutions.
Dr José Quesada
STRATEGIC ADVISOR
José is an established healthcare executive with over 25 years of experience across the health sector from health funders, to providers and digital / technology solutions. Throughout his career, José has been driven by a passion for improving access to care and the quality of care for consumers, and has led and supported initiatives in healthcare strategy, operations, and technology, leveraging his expertise in customer relationship management (CRM), data analysis, and clinical operations.
He has worked for some of the biggest companies in the industry, most recently as Managing Director at PwC, working with healthcare clients to transform their digital capabilities, optimize their operations, and enhance their customer experience. He was previously Vice President of Global Healthcare at Salesforce and also held executive roles at Cigna and Bupa, where he oversaw clinical, wellness, and service operations, medical cost containment, and provider and vendor management. He has extensive international experience having worked with diverse and multicultural teams and stakeholders across the USA, Asia, Middle East, Europe and Latin America.
As an advisor to NewCourse Healthcare, José provides strategic input into solutions focused on optimising clinical care, improving patient experience and delivering innovative digital solutions to drive high quality health outcomes. He is a key part of our clinical technology and healthcare optimisation solutions for both provision and insurance businesses.
Martina Wright
CLINICAL ADVISOR / ASSOCIATE
Martina is an experienced clinical quality expert with 20 years of experience in governance, quality, and risk management across global healthcare markets. She has worked across public and private healthcare organisations and health insurance. Martina is a Registered Nurse, with a deep understanding of international healthcare quality standards and patient safety having helped multiple healthcare organisations prepare for international accreditation by Joint Commission International (JCI).
In her most recent role as Chief Risk Officer and Data Protection Officer at Doctor Care Anywhere, Martina has responsibility for the management of risk for the business including clinical, privacy, financial, cyber and systems security, reputational and operational, digital safety. Martina was previously Global Director of Clinical Risk and Governance for Bupa Group and Bupa Global which included internal risk assessment of all 34 health provision businesses globally, as well as leading the review into the quality of services provided by Bupa’s network of third-party providers. She also led the clinical operations functions – providing clinical input into complex case management – and was responsible for the governance of medical evacuations services.
As a clinical advisor to NewCourse Healthcare, Martina’s nursing and clinical governance background enables her to provides strategic input into solutions focused on optimising clinical practice, patient safety, risk management and clinical governance. She is a key part of our accreditation solutions for clients across the world.
Jim Lane
HEALTHCARE ANALYTICS AND DATA ADVISOR / ASSOCIATE
Jim is a highly skilled healthcare consultant and data scientist, with over 20 years of experience in helping clients to mobilise, deliver and sustain change, with an attention for detail and pitching the key insights at the right level.
Jim has worked across the UK NHS landscape and for international healthcare and pharmaceutical clients, helping to solve technical and challenging analytical problems. Focusing on health informatics and business intelligence, specific experience includes complex data analysis, demand, capacity and performance modelling, workforce modelling and waiting list forecasting. He was previously the lead for modelling and analytics GE Healthcare Partners in the UK before setting up Lane Analytics, and partnering with NewCourse Healthcare.
Jim is passionate about coaching clients to deliver positive, sustainable results and successful outcomes themselves. With a strong work ethic, combined with a values-based approach, Jim thrives on doing the work that matters most and makes a real difference to people’s lives, ensuring that projects provide lasting value to clients well beyond the raw findings.
As part of the NewCourse Healthcare team, Jim provides strategic advice and practical analytics input. This includes complex hospital and system wide modelling (demand and capacity), performance and payment analysis and specialty specific pathway analysis. With a focus on making data visible, Jim’s expertise support service optimisation, data-led decision making and improved patient experience.