We would like to thank our former QResearch Scientific Committee members for all of their hard work.
Dr Brian McMillan (Deputy Chair)
Dr Brian McMillan is a Senior Clinical Lecturer at the Centre for Primary Care and Health Services Research, a practising GP, and a Registered Health Psychologist. His research interests include the application of digital technology and psychological theory to improving patients' experiences of primary care. He is currently exploring how patients’ online access to their primary care health record could enhance patient activation.
Brian is funded by the NIHR as an NIHR Advanced Fellow. After qualifying with a BSSc in Psychology from Queen's University Belfast, he completed a PhD at the University of Leeds and worked there as a Research Fellow before returning to student life to study Medicine. He completed his medical academic foundation training in York, was an NIHR Academic Clinical Fellow in Sheffield during his GP training, and then moved to Manchester to take up a post as an NIHR Clinical Lecturer in Primary Care in 2016.
Joined September 2021, term ended June 2026
Dr Rebecca Harmston
Rebecca is a research scientist and has worked at both Cancer Research UK and The University of Cambridge. She holds a B.Sc (Hons), M.Res, and Ph.D in molecular biology and the life sciences. Rebecca has been working in patient involvement in research as a patient representative for nearly eight years. Rebecca is an active member of a number of health research panels including a NIHR Research for Patient Benefit Committee and the NICE Health Technology Assessment Committee D. She has a wealth of experience including writing patient facing documents, ethics, reviewing grant applications and experience as a research co-applicant.
Rebecca is living with a number of long term health conditions and a hidden disability. She is the main carer for a child with special education needs. She hopes to bring a patient perspective to the committee and make sure that research is relevant and important to patients, carers, and their families.
Joined November 2020, term ended June 2026
Dr Hui Guo
Dr Hui Guo is Senior Lecturer in Biostatistics and Lead of the Centre for Biostatistics at The University of Manchester. Hui has been a Fellow at The Alan Turing Institute since 2018. Her research focuses on causal inference (in particular, Bayesian Mendelian randomization) and multimorbidity from observational studies. She is also interested in exploring biological causal pathways/networks of certain diseases by using large-scale multi-omics data.
Joined January 2021, term ended June 2026
Dr Koen Pouwels
Koen Pouwels is a senior researcher at the Health Economics Research Centre in the Nuffield Department of Population Health. He holds a PhD in pharmacoepidemiology and an MSc in Medical Pharmaceutical Sciences (University of Groningen). Having previously held posts at Public Health England (2015-2018), he came to Oxford in January 2019. His research focuses on causal inference, spatiotemporal modelling, infectious diseases and antimicrobial resistance, economic evaluations, and Bayesian statistics.
He has co-designed the national COVID-19 Infection Survey, a large longitudinal community survey, and has extensive experience with analysing large primary care and linked secondary and intensive care databases. His work has directly informed national policies in the UK and the Netherlands, ranging from COVID-19 mitigation measures, to decisions about vaccinations against various infectious diseases, as well as national targets for antibiotic prescribing in primary care.
Joined January 2021, term ended June 2026