Our team

Simona Fourie (Research Manager)

I qualified as a nurse over 30 years ago, and have worked in health research for over ten years following work as specialist colorectal/ pelvic floor nurse. My main area of expertise is gastrointestinal disease, surgery and cancer. For the last 7 years, I have been building up and leading ORNIID. I currently work on national and international collaborative work, study design, securing approvals from ethics and funders, and supporting other research nurses to fulfil their career progression. Alongside my post as a research manager, I have also recently completed a PhD in Nursing, and hope to pursue a clinical academic role in the future. Enthusiast in raising the nursing profession profile and supporting early career nurse researchers, I am hoping that our current and future team work will set an example for others to follow.

Heather Barnes (Research Practitioner/ Study Coordinator)

I first became interested in research during University; realising its value in advancing our knowledge of science and medicine, improving treatments for life threatening/life altering diseases and ultimately refining medical practice. This inspired me to join ORNIID, where I started  work as a Research practitioner and Lab technician alongside the nurses. Having both a laboratory and clinical role has offered me fantastic insight into multiple aspects of translational gastroenterology.  It has also allowed me to not only endeavour into the pathology of chronic diseases like IBD, but also to see how such diseases can affect a person’s quality of life. I have progressed to study coordinator and I now ensure a smooth running of our multi site national study, as well as working alongside the team on our own research projects.

Gerard Mawhinney (Senior Research Nurse)

 I am a registered adult nurse and have worked in healthcare both clinically and commercially for over 15 years. I have a keen interest in “benchtop to bedside research”. Research within healthcare helps to improve quality, safety and efficiency of patient care. I have recently completed an MSc in Nursing, my research interests include, digital health, video informed consent, shared decision making and patient experience in perioperative care  My work in research is helping me in my clinical role, and I currently conduct a service evaluation on the use of video consent for spinal cancers.

Luminita Puta (Research Nurse)

While working as an endoscopy nurse a few years back I met one of the research nurses who was conducting a study in Endoscopy at the time. My curiosity made me ask questions about research and different projects in clinical trials and apply for a job in Gastroenterology and Hepatology Clinical Trials. I worked in clinical trials mainly with IBD patients and I realised the complexity of these diseases and how little I knew about it. I then started working as an IBD nurse specialist where I learnt a lot about IBD and the people living with these chronic diseases. In 2017 an opportunity arose to work for Oxford University and now I am back in the interesting and fascinating world of research working on non-interventional cohort studies. Currently I am completing a "Research Methods" module at Birmingham University in order to gain more knowledge and further develop my research skills.

Janette Miah (Research Nurse)

"When a person decides to become a nurse, they make the most important decision of their lives. They choose to dedicate themselves to the care of others". And this is exactly what happened to me. To begin I was considering between being a lawyer or a doctor but somehow things have changed and I became a Nurse instead. I knew I'd be a good nurse, but I wanted to be more than that. I wanted to be a nurse who could make a change in a community; one who could improve the lives of a patients through quality, compassion and culturally centred patient care. My name is Janette and I have been a nurse for 26 years having worked in almost all specialised areas of care. My background lies in Adult Nursing, specialising in Respiratory, Medical and Surgical. What made me decided to work as a Research Nurse is the uniqueness of its approach to different people, its key role as a patient advocate whilst ensuring patient safety and protection and making sure that patients are well supported throughout the research study. During my experience in Endoscopy I have met a lot of people in the field of Research Nursing and they seemed to really love their job and it made me wonder if I would like to do a similar role and it intrigued me to know more about it; and now I'm part of their team. I've now realised that being a Research Nurse is not just about collecting samples, it requires knowledge and understanding of everything that you do. It needs a wide range of skills including management and organisational skills, teaching, mentoring, communication and IT. And being independent in making decisions and is vital. And I like that.

 Elenita Relucio ( Research Nurse)

Following my retirement I decided to stay involved with the team and support their work when needed. My extensive experience as an endoscopy nurse and also, the last 4 years as a research nurse, have helped me gain skills and knowledge that add to the team's skill mix.