About Us

Dr Karan Jutlla

Head of CAIR

CAIR Cluster Lead for Living Well with Dementia

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Dr Karan Jutlla, Reader in Dementia Care and Inclusion, is the Founder and Head of the Centre for Applied and Inclusive Health Research and Dementia Lead at the University of Wolverhampton. In her role, she promotes national leadership for the development and delivery of a culturally competent healthcare workforce, with relation to dementia care. As an academic, Karan’s research interests in the challenge of dementia care, particularly within south Asian communities have spanned over 15 years. Her work continues to support policy makers, and health and social care service providers both domestically and abroad to ensure that their care systems are inclusive to all communities affected by dementia. Karan has worked extensively with media stakeholders and regularly provides evidence to the Dementia APPG. She has spoken to the House of Lords on the importance of person-centred, culturally inclusive dementia care and is a passionate campaigner for those who experience health inequalities in dementia care. Karan has a ‘grass roots’ approach and is fervent about ensuring that leadership level decisions are reflected in the quality of care received by service users. For more information about Karan, and her work, visit www.drjutlla.com

Professor Ruoling Chen

CAIR Cluster Lead for Population Health

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Ruoling Chen, Professor of Public Health and Medical Statistics, obtained his PhD at the University of Aberdeen in 1997, after studying medicine (MB) and a 3-year full-time postgraduate course for medical statistics (MSc) in China. Before joining the University of Wolverhampton as a Reader in 2009 Dr Chen worked at the Universities of Liverpool, Dundee and London as a lecturer and senior lecturer in medical statistics and epidemiology for 14 years. He has worked on epidemiology and public health for 30 years. Prof Chen has been involved in many large-scale cohort studies, for example, the MRC-ALPHA study for mental health in older people in Liverpool, the Scottish Heart Health Study and the Myocardial Infarction National Audit Project, England & Wales. He has established a large-scale population-based cohort study of dementia and other chronic diseases in older people in six provinces in China.

Dr Chris Kite

CAIR Cluster Lead for Living Well Across the Life Course

Dr Chris Kite has a PhD in Life and Health Sciences (Aston University, UK) and a master’s in research (University of Wolverhampton, UK). Dr Kite is a Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy (Advance HE) and is currently a senior lecturer of Public Health and Health Studies within the School of Health and Society at the University of Wolverhampton. As an early career researcher, he holds honorary research fellowships at University Hospital Coventry & Warwickshire (UHCW) NHS Trust, Coventry University, and the University of Chester where he works across a range of multidisciplinary research projects. With a background in exercise science, his research has focused on the role of physical activity in the treatment of women with PCOS, but more recently his work has diversified to include studies on metabolic dysregulation, cardiovascular disease, mental health, and the impact of COVID-19. Dr Kite has spoken as an invited speaker at national and international conferences and has a growing body of peer-reviewed publications (H-index: 8; >640 citations).

Dr David Matheson

CAIR Cluster Lead for Understanding Lived Experience of Health, Illness and Healthcare

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Dr David Matheson, Reader in Education for Health, is a highly experienced researcher and educator in healthcare and medical education with proven experience in course development, leadership as well as academic supervision and external examining at undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral levels. To date, he has over 50 peer-reviewed academic publications in education, healthcare and medical education and 14 successful doctoral completions. He is currently supervising 16 doctoral students and is the Postgraduate Research Tutor for all doctoral students researching health-related topics in the Faculty of Education, Health and Wellbeing, managing the admissions process for PhD applicants across health. He delivers front-line pastoral care & support to doctoral students and supports academic colleagues who supervise doctoral students.

Dr Martin Bollard

Cluster Lead for Citizen, patient, and community-led knowledge with impact

Dr Martin Bollard, Professor of Nursing and Innovation, is a specialist nurse recognised for his practice development work for people with Learning Disabilities and his inclusive research expertise. Martin pioneered the first health assessment tool and associated Health Facilitator role in primary and acute care for People with Learning Disabilities, overcoming the health inequalities this population experience in mainstream health care. This work was instrumental in General Practitioners being renumerated for delivering health assessments for People with Learning Disabilities. Martin has just completed a national evaluation of the Advanced Clinical Practice role for People with Learning Disability and Autism, funded by NHSE-WTE. His work combines design thinking with experience-based methods to develop health and social care solutions for citizens who experience inequality. This method is currently being applied with community leaders and the NHS across the Black Country to further understand the delays in breast cancer screening decision-making by Black people.

Dr Ben Appleby

Co-lead for Knowledge development for communities and practitioners

Dr Ben Appleby is Head of Nursing and Principal Lecturer at University of Wolverhampton. Ben has been learning and teaching about research and evidence-informed practice since graduating in 1998.  He completed a Masters in Nursing Research in 2003 (Kings College, London) and went on to teach Evidence-informed Practice and Research Methods for over 17 years at Birmingham City University.  Ben completed his PhD in 2016 from University of Birmingham, exploring Nurses and Health Care Assistants intention to implement evidence-based clinical practice guidelines (Appleby, 2016).  He continues to evaluate health professionals’ behaviour and their approach to achieve evidence informed care, focusing also on how knowledge is moved to maximise patient/service user outcomes (Appleby et al, 2021).  Ben’s passion is exploring and growing knowledge for practice, which revolves around a desire to help health care professions to be evidence-informed, from undergraduates to advanced practice and beyond.   Recent and current funded projects include exploring the impact of PG certificate Advanced Practice programme in Learning Disability and Autism on Health Professionals’ knowledge, skills, behaviour and capabilities of advancing practice.  Working also with local NHS Trust partners to implement and evaluate the role of Nursing Associates in the extensive clinical areas they are employed.

Understanding the impact of health education on patient care and building careers to empower an evidence-informed approach to practice lie at the heart of his research.  In his current role he is inspired to motivate the current and next generation of Nurses to enhance patient care through the use and implementation of best evidence, working in partnership with all stakeholders. He is passionate about championing knowledge to care methodologies, for undergraduates, postgraduates and advanced practice; with a focus on advancing practice and enhancing patient care.