Our Team

Meet our team

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FOUNDER & MANAGING DIRECTOR

Karina Malhotra

Acumentice’s founder Karina is a former NHS Director and senior leader, with extensive experience and subject matter expertise in all aspects of elective care management. She has provided expert advisory support to executive teams at some of the UK’s largest Trusts utilising her extensive knowledge and passion for patient care.

Karina started her NHS journey on the NHS Graduate Training scheme, moving on to leading operational management roles in the Acute sector. Here, she focused on improving performance through data quality and operational processes and went on to win leadership awards for her work on recovering elective care performance metrics.

Karina is a data-driven, subject matter expert on Referral to Treatment, Diagnostics and Cancer pathway management and Patient Administration Systems, with a recognised talent for understanding data and system workflows, as well as their impact.

Karina founded Acumentice in 2014, with a view to share this expertise through the development of clear and sustainable methodologies and frameworks. The Acumentice philosophy of, adding sustainable value and improving patient experience is at the heart of all her work.

What are they up to now?

Karina recently worked with associates at Qubit Health to develop a ‘smart’ software, that reduces the need for manual validation through the use of artificial intelligence. She also completed the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses programme in May 2022.

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PRINCIPAL CONSULTANT

Philip Purdy

Philip has over 13 years experience in the NHS and has spent much of this leading and assuring elective care recovery and improvement programmes. He previously worked at NHS England and Improvement as part of the national Elective Improvement Support Team (IST) and is a former graduate of the NHS Management Training Scheme. Philip’s focus is on supporting the NHS to deliver timely, high-quality care which concentrates on the experience of those patients waiting to be seen.

Philip has provided expert advice and support to many organisations across the NHS and is an established subject matter expert on key areas including demand and capacity modelling, recovery planning, information reporting and KPI development. As well as delivering direct support to provider organisations, Philip is also an expert in the field of elective data quality and co-led the strategy development and implementation of this work within the IST.

What are they up to now?

Philip now consults on all elements of our elective care business as well as supporting Acumentice to develop its elective care management and recovery offer.

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HEAD OF BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT AND OPERATIONS

Lucy Mills

Lucy is an experienced business professional and has nine years’ experience in partnerships, sales, operations, and team leadership. She has a passion for building strong, long-lasting relationships with all stakeholders and strives to do the best in everything she does.

Having previously worked in the private education sector, Lucy has worked in the UK and in many international markets, including long stints in South East Asia working with businesses from their inception to growing networks of international schools.

What are they up to now?

Lucy joined Acumentice in June 2020 and is thoroughly enjoying her new role and learning all things healthcare. Leading the Business Development for Acumentice is an exciting challenge and she balances that with leading the internal operations for the company.

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ASSOCIATE CONSULTANT – BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT AND OPERATIONS

Paul Couzens

Paul brings over 10 years of NHS management experience to the team, with both extensive knowledge of project/programme management experience and extensive operational expertise.

Having worked at several leading London Foundation Trusts and on numerous multi-Trust network projects, Paul understands the wide range of solutions that can be used to address operational challenges and the ways to implement them effectively.

Paul has a Masters in Business Administration (MBA) with distinction and is PRINCEII Practitioner qualified.

What are they up to now?

Paul supports Acumentice’s teams both in coordination of client projects and also on site as an operational lead. With a proven track record of successful project and programme management delivery, Paul acutely understands the needs of various stakeholder groups and how to deliver sustainable improvement in both clinical and non-clinical settings.

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BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT CONSULTANT

Stephen Hall MA FCM

Stephen joined Acumentice in December 2018. He has over 18 years of NHS experience, working in strategic, operational and performance roles.

Stephen’s experience spans acute, community and commissioning organisations, in a mixture of medium and large complex trusts. Stephen has extensive experience of overseeing and delivering targets, including referral to treatment, cancer and diagnostic waiting times.

Stephen is a Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) and holds a Masters of Art (MA) in Management qualification with distinction.

What are they up to now?

Along with supporting Acumentice, Stephen is a director of clinical services within community health care in South West London.

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ON-SITE DELIVERY ASSOCIATE

Claire Phipps

Claire has over 18 years of experience working in a variety of NHS organisations, leading projects and managing services covering all aspects of patient care. This ranges from outpatients & diagnostics to independent sector outsourcing.

As a result of this knowledge and experience of a patient’s journey, Claire is able to offer detailed insights into the complexities of pathway management at each milestone and use that understanding to consistently drive improvement.

Claire joined Acumentice at its inception and has been consistently proven herself an invaluable member of the on-site delivery team. She is a logical thinker, who prides herself of the ability to manage large projects calmly, delivering to tight timescales and building relationships with multi-disciplinary teams so no one is left behind.

What are they up to now?

Claire is currently supporting a Diagnostics Improvement project at a large London Trust where she has led the reduction of backlogs and improve data quality to deliver the 1% target.

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ANALYST

Abigail Smith

Abigail is a recent graduate in International Business and Spanish at the University of Greenwich, which included a placement year working in exportation/importation of fast-moving consumer goods. She has a passion for sustainability, diversified thinking and developing strong team dynamics.

Her previous work in the agricultural sector led to work in different countries and cultures, developing her Spanish skills and understanding of the Spanish market.

What are they up to now?

Abigail joined Acumentice in March 2022 as Business Analyst providing data analytics to support a range of projects. She moved into the healthcare industry to broaden her experience and is excited to work in a sector that can make a real difference to society.