Meet The STEER Team

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Chair

Hemel qualified from Imperial College London in 2007 and is currently a ST8 trainee in Addenbrookes Hospital with an interest in HPB & transplant surgery. During his higher training, Hemel was awarded a distinction for a Masters in Surgical Education from Imperial, and went on to successfully complete a PhD in neuroergonomics under the supervision of Professor Darzi. Hemel maintains an active academic role, with a particular interest in surgical cognition, acquisition of technical and non-technical skills, and surgical innovation. He has published in high impact journals, including Annals of Surgery and JAMA Surgery, and has presented at over 50 prestigious international conferences. He serves as a reviewer for many neuroscience and clinical journals, and has co-authored a surgical textbook chapter.

Chair

Annalise graduated from the University of Cambridge in 2008 and is currently an ST7 specialising in Colorectal surgery. She completed her Foundation and Core Training in London and then returned to the East of England in 2013 to take up a training number in General Surgery. Annalise secured a CRUK Clinical Research Fellowship and went on to do a PhD with the Fitzgerald Group, MRC Cancer Unit, Cambridge. Her research involved a combination of wet lab, bioinformatics and clinical: focussing on the early detection of oesophageal adenocarcinoma by integrating genomics with expression and methylation data on samples from a large cohort of patients. Annalise has published in Science, Nature and a number of other high impact journals. She has presented internationally and has won the prestigious Osler award from the Royal College of Physicians and the international Best Abstract prize from United European Gastroenterology. Annalise was delighted to take up the position of Chair alongside Hemel and is excited by what STEER will be able to achieve through the power of trainee collaboration.

Vice Chair

Arkeliana is an ST7 UGI/ Bariatric trainee in EOE deanery with a keen academic interest. She graduated medicine from Barts and the London (2010) after graduating from Medical Engineering (BEng and MEng) at Queen Mary University of London(2006). She has a PhD from Imperial College London in Medical Device Safety and Human Factors. Hence she has a great interest in safe use of technology, artificial intelligence, use of big data and safe use of data to support clinical decision making. Arkeliana is the Roux representative for the deanery and the local trainee representative for endoscopy. She has a number of publications and has presented both nationally and internationally as well as contributed to two textbooks. She is a reviewer for international journals and an honorary lecturer at Imperial College where she teaches on the Masters in Surgical Innovation course.  

Project Coordinator

I am an ST5 general surgery trainee in the East of England with subspecialty interest in Colorectal Surgery. 

I completed my undergraduate medical degree at University College Medical School, UCL. During this time I interrupted my medical degree to complete a PhD in Department of Neurophysiology within the Faculty of Engineering at UCL. My thesis explored the role of Electrical Impedance Tomography in imaging fast neural activity within the brain. It encompassed comparison of reconstruction algorithms for the detection of acute stroke using EIT, the statistical analysis (using second-level statistical parametric and non-parametric mapping) of an imaging dataset of fast neural activity, and lastly, cross-validation of the use of EIT to image fast neural activity was assessed in vivo.

I completed my foundation training in the East of England and then went on to secure a run-through training post in General Surgery during which time I have been involved in local and regional research.

Project Coordinator

Hannah graduated from St George’s Hospital Medical School in 2014. She is an ST6 in General Surgery and having completed core training in the East of England, has recently moved back to the deanery after having her first child.

Throughout her training, Hannah has been appointed to numerous leadership roles and is currently a national trainee representative for a large UK wide RCT - The Sunflower Study. She also has a keen interest in medical education, for which she has received local and national recognition. 

Hannah has peer reviewed publications, has presented her work on both national and international platforms and has contributed to numerous national collaborative projects. 

She is very much looking forward to taking on the role of STEER project developer, to promote trainee collaboration within research and drive improvements in surgical practice. 

Project Coordinator

I am a Core Surgical Trainee based in the East of England Deanery. I completed my primary medical education in Greece and then moved to UK to start my foundation training. I am interested in hepato-pancreato-biliary surgery and surgical innovation. The last few years I have contributed to the leadership of several national and  international collaborative projects.

Treasurer

I am Anchal Jain, a core surgical trainee at Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Trust. I was raised in India and moved to Republic of Ireland to study undergraduate medicine. Having graduated with honours from Trinity College Dublin and completing my foundation years in Waterford and Cork, I moved to the UK for my surgical training. As my interest in surgery continues to grow, my research interests have strongly burgeoned. As the Treasurer, I will secure funding and manage financial affairs of STEER to continue and further flourish the wonderful collaborative work being undertaken.

Secretary

Khalid graduated from the Hull & York Medical School in 2020 and is currently a Core Surgical Trainee in the East of England, on a Vascular & General Surgical theme. He holds a great interest in both education and research. He has completed a PGCert in Health Education (PGCHE) and has presented his research at National and International meetings. Khalid is excited to be joining the team as the new secretary for STEER and contributing to both teaching as well as research within the region.

Journal Club Coordinator

I am a ST3 in East of England deanery. I completed my Primary medical education in Czech Republic. I have completed my foundation year and core surgical training in the North West deanery. Throughout my training I have undertaken multiple leadership roles in a local level, organizing teaching courses, projects and leading mentoring groups supporting the junior doctor’s mental wellbeing. I have a strong academic interest. I have participated in various audits/Quality improvement projects, the result of most of these have also been disseminated as publications/presentations/posters nationally and internationally. The experience obtained from my participation in research projects and publications propelled me in obtaining the role of NIHR accredited associate PI in the ROSSINI project, as well as further participation to more randomized controlled trials.

Webmaster + Social Media

Taner is an ST6 currently completing a PhD centred on robotics and digital surgery. He has been in the deanery for foundation and core training, building strong links. As a regional representative in the Dukes Club, he has become accustomed to leadership and management roles.  He has numerous publications and has presented internationally.  

Honorary Consultant

Alan is a Consultant Bariatric, Upper GI, and General surgeon. He has a strong interest in training, academia, and collaborative work. Alan co-founded the STEER Collaborative and served as its first President, as well as being the East of England Deputy Trainee Representative. He continues to support the Collaborative in an advisory Consultant role.

Alan holds an MSc in Surgical Science & Practice from Oxford and a PhD from Imperial College, London. His research actitivy includes over 140 peer-reviewed publications and numerous book chapters, along with 170+ abstract presentations at international conferences. He is a Trustee for the international surgical charity TUGSS and serves as the Director of Corporate Engagement on the organisation’s executive board. 

As a co-founder of 'Scrubbing In,' a surgical education platform on YouTube and podcasts, Alan is dedicated to mentoring and promoting clinically relevant academia. His past roles as the inaugural ASGBI Moynihan Academy President, ASiT Council member, the National Bariatric Surgery Registry (NBSR) the Social Media Lead for the Roux Group underscores his commitment to advancing medical education in the digital era.