The Progress 1000: London's most influential people 2019 – Health & Education: Health & Wellness

Prasanna Sooriakumaran

Dr Prasanna Sooriakumaran

Consultant prostate cancer surgeon, UCLH
Sooriakumaran is a pioneering robotic surgeon investigating new techniques to spare men with prostate cancer the potentially debilitating effects of surgery. Early trials show that Sooriakumaran’s new technique has drastically reduced recovery time for up to 94 per cent of patients.

Duncan Bew

Trauma surgeon at King’s College Hospital | NEW
Bew is a skilled medic whose energy and prominence as a campaigner against knife and gun violence saw him invited to Downing Street as the Government searched for a way forward. Growing Against Violence, the charity Bew co-founded and which educates school children against the dangers of gang membership and knife violence, has reached over 180,000 students in London schools since 2008. Bew also carried out life-saving surgery on survivors of the 2017 London Bridge terrorist attacks.

Sir David Sloman

Tony Buckingham

London regional director, NHS England | NEW
After serving for 10 years as chief executive of the Royal Free hospital — one of the longest chief executive tenures in the NHS — Sloman stepped down last year to become head of the NHS in London, tasked with morale-boosting and blue-sky thinking. Earlier this year he vowed to reduce ambulance use for outpatient appointments over the next 10 years in order to cut pollution in the capital.

Rob Bentley

Director of the South East London Kent and Medway trauma network | NEW
Bentley is a trauma and maxillofacial surgeon at King’s College Hospital and the architect of London’s first 24-hour medical emergency helipad, a project which took the doctor eight years to realise. The helipad at King’s College Hospital opened in 2016 and is trialling round-the-clock use after approval from Lambeth council earlier this year. Patients can now be transferred to the trauma centre from as far away as Margate in 25 minutes. Bentley has also appeared in hit Channel 4 show 24 Hours in A&E.

Katherine Henderson

President-elect of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine | NEW
Trailblazer Henderson was elected as the first woman president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine this year. She has worked as an emergency consultant for over 20 years, and at Guy’s and St Thomas’ hospital since 2006. Henderson has a well-earned reputation as a top medic who often speaks on behalf of A&E doctors on the NHS frontline. She was instrumental in redeveloping St Thomas’ emergency department, officially opened by Princess Anne last year.

Kathryn Channing

Evening Standard

Lead emergency care consultant, Croydon Hospital | NEW
Dr Channing championed the £21 million redevelopment of Croydon Hospital’s emergency department. She spoke candidly to the Health Secretary about the mental health challenges the NHS faces when Matt Hancock opened the new department earlier this year — it is now 30 per cent larger and includes three specialised mental health rooms. She told Hancock the number of mental health patients had “absolutely sky-rocketed” and said: “If we had to go back and build it again, we would probably need a suite of six rooms.”

Jessica Anderson

Nurse, Royal London Hospital | NEW
This year Royal London Hospital nurse Jessica Anderson ran the London Marathon in her NHS uniform, but was denied her title as the fastest marathon runner dressed as a nurse — because she was not wearing a dress. Guinness World Records (GWR) said her nurse’s scrubs did not match the uniform criteria, as its rules state nurses must wear a blue or white dress, a white apron and a nurse’s cap. Thousands tweeted in support of Anderson, branding the rules “outdated” and “sexist”, with hundreds of nurses posting pictures of themselves in their own scrubs under the #WhatNuresWear hastag. GWR duly backtracked and awarded Anderson her rightful title.

Professor Karim Brohi

Matt Writtle

London trauma director
Brohi, a trauma surgeon at the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, is a new appointment to the London Ambulance Service board, and is also director of the capital’s major trauma network. The network, set up in 2010 in response to the 2005 July 7 terror attacks, has led to a 20 per cent reduction in the capital’s mortality rate from major trauma, and was vital in saving many victims of the Westminster, London Bridge and Finsbury Park terror attacks and the Grenfell Tower fire. Brohi also founded one of the first medical websites on the internet, trauma.org, which provides open access trauma education and information to medical professionals around the world.

Ben Challacombe

Urological surgeon, Guy’s Hospital | NEW
The London-based surgeon was handed the tricky task of removing the cancerous prostate of national treasure Stephen Fry — and then, in partnership with Fry, wrote about the experience to help other surgeons and patients. Challacombe admitted to being a little star-struck when the pair first met to discuss treatment options, having watched every episode of both Blackadder and A Little Fry & Laurie.

Pearse Keane

Consultant ophthalmologist, Moorfields Eye Hospital | NEW
Keane has led a clinical trial using artificial intelligence to diagnose eye disease, a breakthrough that could prevent many people from going blind. Early results show the AI system Keane has developed with his team of researchers can correctly identify types of eye disease with a 94.5% accuracy, matching leading eye specialists.

Professor Asma Khalil

Consultant obstetrician, St George’s Hospital
Charismatic, dynamic expert on high-risk pregnancies, multiple births and on intervening in the womb when a baby is at risk of growth problems. In 2018, Professor Khalil delivered the first set of quadruplets born in St George’s for 13 years. The relieved mother named one of her new-born daughters Asma, after the obstetrician.

Matthew Gould

Chief executive, NHSX
Former UK ambassador to Israel and ex-director at the Department for Culture, he has been tasked with leading the NHS technology revolution at NHSX, making it easier for doctors and patients to access medical records and patients to maintain good health online.

Simon Stevens

Chief executive, NHS England
The de facto head of the NHS has fought battles — with some success — with the Treasury and Downing Street to obtain desperately-needed funding as patient numbers soar and hospitals crumble. The long-term plan lays out the vision, but not where the billions will come from.

Martin Griffiths

NHS clinical director for violent crime
Consultant trauma surgeon at the Royal London hospital who was this year appointed as the NHS’s first clinical director for violent crime, leading efforts to deliver the “public health” approach to tackling the underlying factors driving the capital’s knife crime epidemic. Has championed preventative work for years, partnering with the St Giles Trust and visiting schools to warn pupils of the dangers of carrying a knife.

Dr Ali Parsa

Founder of Babylon Health
The British-Iranian entrepreneur is disrupting conventional thinking about how Britons — and millions across the globe — access health care. In London, his GP at Hand service has proved popular with those wanting smartphone video consultations with a GP, but controversial as it requires them to de-register from their local GP surgery (thus depriving it of NHS income). Health Secretary Matt Hancock is a big fan.

Grace Graham

Daniel Hambury/@stellapicsltd

Founder of WorkSpa and Prince’s Trust ambassador | NEW
Hackney-born massage therapist tackling the anxiety epidemic across London’s offices. Graham set up her popular corporate massage business with the help of the Prince’s Trust and bravely shared how she struggled to cope after the death of her father and boyfriend. This year she was awarded Young Ambassador of the Year in recognition of her work inspiring other young people and raising awareness around the work of the Prince’s Trust.

Charlie Dark

Founder of Run Dem Crew and lululemon’s first global run ambassador | NEW
The DJ, poet and youth mentor works with schools and young people to prove that runners “come in all different shapes, sizes and mentalities”. Dark took up running aged 35, training deep into the night on the streets of Stratford so no one would see him. Now his “non-running club”, Run Dem Crew, has more than 500 members and cult status in the running community.

Pip Black and Joan Murphy

Rebecca Reid

Founders of Move Your Frame | NEW
Launched Move Your Frame gym in 2009 to “make sure keeping fit and healthy never feels like a chore”. They now have six studios across London and their classes are fused with a sense of fun and feel-good vibes with titles such as “Bend it like Barbie” and “Beyonce for Beginners”.

Gill Sinclair

Co-founder of online wellness retailer Victoria Health | NEW
A global beauty magpie for her innate ability to discover the best in wellness and beauty from across the globe, Sinclair was one of the first to get online with her wellness and beauty e-tailer Victoria Health. Co-founded in 1999 with pharmacist Shabir Daya, Victoria Health has a huge online community with a monthly newsletter reaching over 350K fans and this autumn sees the unveiling of a new section, VH Living.

Sasha Sabapathy

Founder of Glow Bar | NEW
The Duchess of Sussex-approved wellness guru opened London’s first self-care centre making traditional remedies accessible to modern consumers. Now based in London, Sabapathy was suffering from burn-out from her fast-paced New York job when she quit to set up Glow Bar — and its success means she is due to make her first million in the next 12 months.

Stuart Sandeman

Matt Writtle

Founder of Breathpod | NEW
Former banker and DJ turned breath coach, helping Londoners de-stress with his revolutionary practice Transformational Breath. Sandeman believes the brain’s response to stress can be altered simply by changing our breathing patterns. Beware: participants in his classes have been known to have emotional epiphanies, laugh and weep uncontrollably or even decide to quit their jobs.

Michal Homola

Founder of Terra Hale | NEW
The former professional snowboarder launched London’s first eco-friendly, human-powered gym. The eco-gym’s interiors are crafted from recycled or planet-friendly materials, while the energy generated from a Terra Hale spin class on their “Eco-Power” cycles helps supply the gym during off-peak hours.

The Progress 1000, in partnership with the global bank Citi, is the Evening Standard’s celebration of the people changing London’s future for the better. #Progress1000

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