About M-RIC Meet the team
The team behind the Mental Health Research for Innovation Centre (M-RIC) is made up of leading experts in the fields of clinical psychiatry, public health, research, data and innovation. They represent M-RIC’s partnership of Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust and the University of Liverpool.
To get in touch with a member of our team, please use our contact form.
Professor Nusrat Husain, Co-Director of M-RIC, NHS Principal Investigator
Affiliation(s): Honorary Consultant Psychiatrist and Director at the Global Centre for Research on Mental Health Inequalities, Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust. Professor of Psychiatry, University of Manchester. Honorary Professor of Psychiatry, University of Liverpool.
Nusrat Husain’s research focuses on addressing the mental health treatment gap in low and middle-income countries and mental health disparities among ethnic minorities in high-income countries. He leads applied research programmes to reduce self-harm, prevent suicide, and address mental health inequalities. With collaborators in Pakistan, Canada, Brazil, and Kenya, Nusrat is known for his work on culturally adapted psychosocial therapies and innovative pharmacological treatments for mental illness. He has led multiple externally funded projects supported by organisations such as the Medical Research Council, Wellcome Trust, National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), Stanley Medical Research Institute , Canadian International Development Agency, British Council, and Grand Challenges Canada. His most recent NIHR-funded projects include the Affordable Cardiac Rehabilitation Study (ACROSS), the Integrated Psychosocial Care Plan for Comorbid Depression in Breast Cancer Patients in Low Resources Settings, and a randomised controlled trial on quetiapine for people with borderline personality disorder. Nusrat is also involved in various organisations and holds executive positions, such as President of the Manchester Medical Society and executive member of the academic faculty of the Royal College of Psychiatrists.
Professor Iain Buchan, Co-Director of M-RIC, Academic Principal Investigator
Affiliation(s): Associate Pro Vice Chancellor for Innovation and Chair in Public Health and Clinical Informatics, University of Liverpool. Honorary Consultant in Public Health.
Iain Buchan is a public health physician and data scientist working to harness large-scale data and digital innovation for patients and populations. As the inaugural W.H. Duncan Professor of Public Health Systems and Associate Pro Vice Chancellor for Innovation at the University of Liverpool, he is leading around £25m of research and associated strategic partnerships between the University, NHS, local government and industry partners. Recently, he led Liverpool's Institute of Population Health and world-first responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. Iain is a Fellow of the Faculty of Public Health, the American College of Medical Informatics, and the Faculty of Clinical Informatics, and NIHR Senior Investigator. In 2022, he was awarded the Alwyn-Smith medal by the Faculty of Public Health. In 2023, he was awarded the Florence Nightingale prize by the Royal Statistical Society. Read his full biography at https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/population-health/staff/iain-buchan/.
Professor Dan Joyce, M-RIC Theme Lead Investigator
Affiliation(s): Professor of Connected Mental Health, University of Liverpool. Consultant Psychiatrist, Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust.
Professor Dan Joyce is a consultant psychiatrist and professor of connected mental health, researching how data science and machine learning can be applied to improving the detection, treatment and monitoring of interventions for mental illness. Before moving to the University of Liverpool in 2022, he worked at Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust as a consultant psychiatrist in Early Intervention for Psychosis, clinical trial delivery and as a Senior Clinical Research Fellow at the University of Oxford's Department of Psychiatry working on applications of statistical and machine learning to develop deployable technology for clinical decision support. Dan leads on two M-RIC work packages; Mental health avatar and mood disorder care innovations.
Professor Ben Barr, M-RIC Theme Lead Investigator
Professor Ben Barr is Professor in Applied Public Health at the University of Liverpool and co-lead Investigator for M-RIC on population mental health, alongside Professor Rhiannon Corcoran. Ben has a particular interest in research that enables local government to promote health equity by addressing the social determinants of health. His recent research has included demonstrating the link between welfare reforms and adverse mental health outcomes and evaluating the impact of multiple local authority, NHS and community initiatives that aim to reduce health inequalities. From 2020, he took over from Professor Dame Margaret Whitehead as the Head of the World Health Organisation Collaborating Centre for Policy Research on Determinants of Health Equity, hosted in the Department of Public Health, Policy and Systems.
Gary Leeming, M-RIC Chief Technology Officer and Theme Co-lead Investigator
Affiliation(s): Director of the Liverpool City Region Civic Data Cooperative, University of Liverpool.
Gary Leeming is Chief Technology Officer for the Mental Health Research for Innovation Centre and the Director of the Liverpool City Region Civic Data Cooperative, based at the University of Liverpool. Previously, Gary was the Chief Technology Officer at the Connected Health Cities programme, developing technology and infrastructure for learning health systems and Trustworthy Research Environments, as well as investigating distributed ledger technologies for management of health data. He was the Director of Informatics at the Manchester Academic Health Science Network working on digital innovation and health information exchanges; and has also worked on use of real-world data in clinical trials on the Salford Lung Study and other projects.
Dr Inti Qurashi, M-RIC Theme Lead Investigator
Consultant Forensic Psychiatrist Inti Qurashi is a clinical academic at Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust and the University of Liverpool. His research journey started in 2016 when struggling to find treatments that worked for distressing side-effects from antipsychotics that led to patients discontinuing medications, in many cases with poor outcomes. Being research naïve he met with mental health academics regionally and, working closely with service users and Liverpool Clinical Trials Centre, obtained NIHR funding for two successive trials exploring this issue - GOTHIC1 and GOTHIC2. More recently he is interested in repurposed medications for treatments for personality disorder through the QUEST study, funded by HTA; and drug-refractory psychosis, particularly looking at the role of neuroimmune dysregulation in one of the six M-RIC work packages.
Dr Jim Hughes, M-RIC Director of Digital and Data
Affiliation(s): Strategic Advisor for Digital Programmes at IMerseyside.
Jim Hughes is Director of Digital and Data Programmes for both M-RIC and for Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust. He also supports development of the digital and data strategy across NHS Cheshire and Merseyside. In 2020 Jim led the development of the CIPHA (Combined Intelligence for Population Health Action) programme across Cheshire and Merseyside – a fully integrated data platform supporting health and care colleagues to manage the Covid-19 pandemic. This work expanded to develop collaboration on population health management use cases across a further 11 integrated care systems - a programme for which Jim was the senior responsible officer.
Professor Rhiannon Corcoran, M-RIC Theme Lead Investigator
Rhiannon Corcoran is a Professor of Psychology and Public Mental Health at the University of Liverpool, researching the psychological, social and environmental determinants and mechanisms of wellbeing and distress. Rhiannon has particular interests in the living environment, conceptualisations of mental health and distress and the impact and prevention of life adversities that are closely linked with the development of mental distress. Co-leading M-RIC work package population mental health with Professor Ben Barr, Rhiannon works closely in co-production with public and stakeholder advisers to maximise the impact of research.
Dr Jade Thai, Senior Research Manager
Affiliation(s): Honorary Senior Research Fellow, University of Bristol, Bristol Medical School.
Dr Claire Smith, M-RIC Head of Operations (Research programmes)
Affiliation(s): Civic Data Cooperative Manager, University of Liverpool.
Professor Nicola Wilson, M-RIC Programme Director
Affiliation(s): Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust