The Return Project Team in Liverpool

A team of researchers based in Liverpool work on this project.

LLeft to right sitting: Manrose Ghotra (dentist), Marieke van der Zande (sociologist), Victoria Lowers (research associate), Rebecca Harris (project lead), Amy Humphries (trial coordinator). Left to right standing: Richard Cooke (psychologist), Girvan Burnside (senior statistician), Emma Bedson (senior trial manager), Helen Rowe (administrator), Margaret Stanley (patient and public representative), Ashley Best (statistician) In addition, Julie Hennessy and Robyn Maitland who are part of the Liverpool team, are involved in the trial.

Also involved in the project are dental public health researchers in the University of Dundee, Jan Clarkson and Ruth Freeman, a health economist in the University of Exeter, Claire Hulme a clinical psychologist from Queen’s University Belfast, Pauline Adair and a sociologist in Newcastle University, Cath Exley.

Meet the Liverpool Team

Professor Rebecca Harris

Rebecca is a dentist by background and has done a lot of research work in the past about dental services. She is the project lead or Chief Investigator

“There has been so much research over the years which simply describes the problem. This is a real opportunity to actually develop and test out something to help people” Rebecca Harris, Chief Investigator

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Public Engagement and Patient and Public Involvement Lead joins the RETURN team

Having a designated person for Public Engagement and Patient & Public Involvement makes it easier to establish relationships with people in the community and local groups. This is me, Margaret Stanley. I am the lead for Public Enga gement (PE) and Patient & Public Involvement (PPI) on The Return Project. I will share my journey through Public Engagement works as I travel across Merseyside. After previously working in education and social history, I am excited to learn new skills, as well as harnessing the ones I already have. I am fascinated by the aims of the project and excited to work with such an enthusiastic and growing team.

Victoria Lowers

Victoria is a researcher with a background in psychology and has worked in the area of dental research for 4 years. She is the Programme Manager.

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Dr Marieke van der Zande

Marieke is a sociologist who has done a number of studies involving interviews about dental and general health care. She is leading on the interviews with people who attend urgent dental services when they have a dental problem, and seeing what happens in local dental practices and the Liverpool Dental Hospital, where they attend.

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Margaret Stanley

Margaret has a background in teaching. She is the Patient and Public Representative. She works with local communities to find out what they think about visiting the dentist, and what is stopping people from going.

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Julie Hennessy

Julie liaises with dental teams involved in the RETURN study and is involved in training them to take part in the study. She is a qualified and experienced Senior Dental Nurse and has previously worked as a Lecturer in Dental Nursing and Senior Dental Health Promotion Officer in the Community Dental Service.

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Research Nurse

A qualified dental nurse will be involved in helping dental teams recruiting patients to the study.

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Helen Rowe

Helen’s background is in financial administration. She has provides administrative and financial support to a number of research projects at the University. She is the Project Administrator for the RETURN project.

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Dr Emma Bedson

Emma has worked in trials for many years and she is the Senior Trial Manager for the RETURN study.

Robyn Maitland

Robyn is the Trial Manager for the RETURN study. She has previously worked on a number of clinical trials such as those taking place at St Pauls’ Clinical Eye Research centre.

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Dr Girvan Burnside

Girvan is a senior lecturer in Biostatistics, and has over 20 years’ experience working in medical and dental research, primarily in clinical trials.

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Ashley Best

Ashley is a statistician at the Liverpool Clinical Trials Centre. He is the trial statistician and will analyse the data collected during the study.

Dr Richard Cooke

Richard is a health psychologist and has done lots of research work around people’s motivations to attend preventive health screening services, including the NHS Health Checks programme.

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The Return Project Collaborators

Research led by

In collaboration with

This study/project is funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) [PGfAR project reference RP-PG-0616-20004]. The views expressed are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the NIHR or the Department of Health and Social Care.