Why I joined Lindus Health? Luke Twelves, Medical Lead
I joined Lindus Health as employee number 3 as the team’s Medical Lead. Since then I’ve been working with our primary care partners and advising on any of the medical and governance questions that come up.
Reason 1: To help make trials more accessible to patients and clinicians.
When I started my career as a GP I was fortunate to join Prof David Haslam’s practice - a progressive GP partnership that supported its partners to develop portfolio careers both within and outside the practice. I followed my interests and found roles at NICE, local medicines management, the Local Medical Committee (LMC), and commissioning as well as doing minor surgery alongside my GP work. Within these roles, and as my career developed, I saw first-hand the benefits of high quality research trials, but also the challenges of getting involved at a GP level. In more recent years much of my GP work has been working within highly ethnically diverse populations, and this really brought home both the need to deliver more ethnically diverse trials, but also some of the challenges that need to be overcome. Joining Lindus Health meant I can help more patients from all backgrounds get involved with research and make it easier and more sustainable for primary care and GPs to do so too.
Reason 2: To help bring novel and innovative treatments to the frontline of care faster.
In my commissioning and medicines management roles, and especially my time with NICE, I was fortunate to see the huge impact novel treatments can have. For example, I sat in a NICE committee that approved anti-tnf’s for use in the NHS for patients with psoriatic arthritis. (Anti-tnfs are a type of biologic medicine that acts to suppress unwanted inflammatory responses and are used in auto-immune diseases). It was fascinating to be able to review and debate the research papers in detail, and to contribute to evidence-based commissioning. It was, however, nothing, compared to being in my GP surgery a few months later and seeing a patient with arthritis who I knew well, have their quality of life transformed by this new treatment with significantly reduced pain and improved mobility. Since then, of course, anti-tnf’s have become routine, but that consultation remains with me as a clear reminder of the power of research and of the ability of novel and innovative treatments to transform people’s lives. Joining Lindus has given me the opportunity to help contribute to getting the treatments of the future developed.
Reason 3: To stretch myself and work as part of a really exciting team
I’ve been exceptionally fortunate with my career to date, but I have never really had a career plan, instead, my career decisions have been made on the basis of three questions; 1) Can the organisation make a positive difference for patients? 2) Is the job right for me? i.e., will I be able to make a positive difference? Will the role challenge me and help me grow? Will I enjoy it? And 3) Is the team and the culture a good fit? I can safely say all three are a yes at Lindus! We have a fantastic team and I am confident that we are building a solution to the challenges of clinical trials that will bring benefits to patients, to clinicians, and to the wider economy.
At Lindus Health, we’re always looking for people to join our team and help fix clinical trials. Check out our open positions.
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Luke is Lindus Health’s Medical Lead. He has been a GP for 25 years and was formerly CEO of Omnes Healthcare and director of clinical governance at Optum - UnitedHealth.
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