Dr Benjamin Saunders is a Lecturer in Applied Health Research at Keele University Medical School. He has several years’ experience working in applied clinical research in musculoskeletal conditions, and is currently the lead social science qualitative researcher on various NIHR programme grants. His main area of expertise is in the use of qualitative research methods applied to healthcare settings. Ben is Panos’ primary supervisor for his Clinical Doctoral Research Fellowship (CDRF).

Nadine Foster is a physiotherapist, Fellow of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy, and previous National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Senior Investigator and NIHR Research Professor. She has recently moved to the role of Professor and Director of the STARS Education and Research Alliance between the University of Queensland and Metro North Hospital and Health System (HHS) in Queensland, Australia (STARS: Surgical, Treatment and Rehabilitation Service). She leads the Research and Education portfolio within STARS, including a team of conjoint appointments between the University and HHS, across the disciplines of physiotherapy, nursing, speech therapy and occupational therapy, interdisciplinary education and research management. Her research focuses on musculoskeletal pain, including low back pain and osteoarthritis, and she has a particular interest in developing, testing and implementing treatments and health services. She has led or collaborated on more than 22 randomised trials, attracting over £43 million in research funding from.

Sue Jowett is a Professor in the Health Economics Unit at the University of Birmingham and an Honorary Senior Lecturer at the Primary Care Centre Versus Arthritis at Keele University. She has considerable experience of health economics research, working in the discipline for over 15 years. Her research interests focus on applied economic evaluations and the measurement of costs and outcomes, and she has a particular interest in the economics of chronic disease prevention and treatment in primary and community care settings. She leads the long-standing formal collaboration between the Health Economics Unit (HEU) at the University of Birmingham and the Primary Care Centre Versus Arthritis at Keele University. As lead of the collaboration with Keele, Sue oversees the health economics aspects of many trials and cohort studies and is the lead health economist on research grant applications.