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Liz Breen

Professor of Health Service Operations

Area
School of Pharmacy & Medical Sciences
Faculty of Life Sciences
Language
Irish
E-mail
L.Breen@bradford.ac.uk
Phone
+441274233460
+441274233460
Liz Breen
4 research projects
109 publications
2 awards

Biography

Professor Liz Breen is the Director of the Digital Health Enterprise Zone at the University of Bradford. The facility, which hosted the Phase 3 trials of the Novovax Covid-19 vaccine (2020/21) and Covid-19 vaccine booster trial and houses state-of-the-art health facilities, business incubation space, research and teaching facilities.

Liz is also a Professor of Health Service Operations based in the School of Pharmacy and Medical Sciences having held the previous position of Senior Lecturer in Operations Management at the University of Bradford Faculty of Management and Law for 13 years. Prior to this she worked in the University of Manchester Business School as a Lecturer in Operations Management and within the NHS as a Supply Chain Development Manager.

Her research is broadly focused on end-to-end healthcare supply chains with a particular focus on the pharmaceutical supply chain. This covers a multitude of areas including supply chain sustainability, medicines optimisation, digital innovation, patient safety, process analysis and risk management. Liz has more recently undertaken extensive analysis of the UK Covid-19 vaccine supply chain and has commented on this in widespread media coverage. 

Liz was the co-lead on the Process Evaluation stream of the ISCOMAT study (National Institute for Health Research programme) focusing on patient safety/medicines transitions and Deputy theme lead for the Safe Use of Medicines theme in the Yorkshire and Humber Patient Safety Translational Research Centre. She is a Wolfson Centre for Applied Health Research Fellow and an Affiliate member of the NIHR Yorkshire & Humber Patient Safety Research Collaboration.

Liz has co-authored a series of articles focusing on the Covid-19 vaccine supply chain in The Conversation, these have achieved global readership. More recently she was commissioned by The Conversation to create a specialist article on supply chain learning from the Covid-19 pandemic which featured in the PreventionWeb collection with the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction.

She has appeared as a supply chain expert on TV for BBC News, ITV, Channel 5 as well as international coverage with Sky News Australia, Alhurra, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and TRT World. Liz has also contributed to numerous live radio broadcasts in the UK with BBC Newsday, BBC Radio 5 Live, BBC Radio Ulster and Scotland, but further afield with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. She has contributed to and been cited in articles in The Guardian, BBC News and in international articles from France, Poland, Mexico, Vietnam, Australia, Norway and other countries.

Liz is interested in supervising PhD students with complementary interests in these overarching themes and other sector supply chain studies. She is keen to develop the profile and relevance of Operations and Supply Chain Management in healthcare service supply chains within her research, teaching and business engagement.

Research

Sustainability in service supply chains; healthcare systems; medicines optimization; patient safety;
green logistics; supply chain optimization. 

Research projects

Date
to
Role
PI

In order to deliver safe and effective healthcare to patients the NHS needs to create a good working environment for its staff. Healthcare professionals report high levels of physical and mental illness which can be related to their work. In particular, work-related stress can result in poor retention rates in healthcare organisations and poor staff wellbeing impacts on patients’ experiences and care quality. As such there is a need to focus on the health and wellbeing of NHS staff, and in particular those who have become mentally stressed and physically ill as a result of their job. This is sometimes referred to as ‘burnout’. We aim to work with Yorkshire Ambulance Services YAS NHS Trust and their staff to explore burnout in the workforce as perceived/experienced by call handlers. The examination of this will be guided by current research and thinking in this field. Work is ongoing within YAS to support their staff in addressing factors affecting burnout levels, e.g. stress triggers, shift patterns, job content etc. This study will complement these.

Date
Role
Workstream Co-lead

This study is funded by the NIHR and sits within the Patient Safety Translational Research Centre. The study focuses on stopping problematic/ineffective medicines in primary care to achieve safer use of medicines for frail older patients living at home.

Date
to
Role
PI Phase 4 of study

This study is being delivered by a team from the Universities of Southampton, Bradford and Leeds. It is a national study aimed at understanding patient and carer access to palliative care medicines during the last year of life. Phase 4 of the study is about understanding how the supply chain into community pharmacies operate and wholesaler and distributor perspectives on this are key. The study is funded by the National Institute for Health Research.

Date
Role
Work package Co-Lead

Improving efficiency and safety for high risk medicines in dynamic healthcare systems (Collaborative Project between University of Bradford School of Pharmacy, Leeds University and Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust). I'm part of a large research team designing and delivering an innovative healthcare intervention

Teaching

Teaching experience includes: Economics of Healthcare Management and Management of Global Pharmaceutical Supply; Operations Management; Service Operations Management; Supply Chain Management (reverse logistics, risk management); Change Management and Research Methods.  I also support other modules which require healthcare management and supply chain input. 

Professional activities

  • #NorthInnovationWomen list (1 March 2019)
  • Most Promising Pharmacologistics Project (1 April 2005)

  • Manchester Business School (UMIST) - PhD
  • University of Ulster, Jordanstown, Northern Ireland - Pg/Dip
  • University of Ulster, Jordanstown, Northern Ireland - BSc (Hons)
  • Manchester Business School (UMIST) - MSc

  • University of Manchester (UMIST) - Lecturer
  • University of Bradford School of Pharmacy & Medical Sciences - Reader
  • Supply Chain Development Manager - Supply Chain Development Manager
  • University of Bradford School of Management - Lecturer

  • Editorial Board - Pharmacy Management Healthcare journal:
  • Editorial Board Member: Supply Chain Management: An International Journal :
  • Editorial Board - Exploratory Research in Clinical and Social Pharmacy:

  • British Academy of Management, Member British Academy of Management
  • Higher Education Academy, Fellow Higher Education Academy

Publications

  • New solution for old problem: How to reduce the volume of waste medicines

    Breen L.;Xie Y.;Thiaray K. (2010) Pharmaceutical Journal.

  • Pharmaceutical supply chain - Update on the current NHS review

    Miles R.;Breen L. (2005) Hospital Pharmacist.