Patient advocate 

Emma Doble joined the BMJ in 2018 is the patient and public strategy editor at BMJ where she leads on the patient partnership strategy across The BMJ and BMJ Group. Her work includes managing the ‘What your patient is thinking’ series, developing and coordinating the patient partnership strategy across the organisation and leading on patient and public partnership at BMJ events. In 2025 Emma was awarded a Made with Patients award at the Patient Engagement Open Forum for her work at BMJ.

Emma is also a visiting lecturer at King’s College London in the faculty of pharmaceutical medicine and is an independent patient advocate working with many organisations including universities, government and NGOs advising on patient partnership.

Patient advocate 

I am an academic paediatric resident doctor in North West London and a multi-award winning children and young people’s health advocate. I’ve worked across the charitable sector, healthcare system and with government advocating for children and young people, following her experiences as a patient.

I worked as a clinical fellow at the Health and Social Care Select Committee, leading their inquiry into the First 1000 days of Life and the sessions into the work of NHS England. Whilst working at Children in All Policies 2030, an initiative launched in 2021 to further global progress to the Sustainable Development Goals through multi-sectoral action and the recommendations of the WHO – UNICEF – Lancet Commission, I focused on the inclusion of children and young people’s voice in global health work. I am also a Trustee of UKYouth, a charity which works to widen the reach and impact of youth work and outdoor learning.

Jaime Melancia is an active representative of civil society in the field of health in Portugal, with a particular focus on defending the rights of people living with chronic disease, improving access to therapeutic innovation, and promoting patient-centred care within the health system.

He is President of the Board of Plataforma Saúde em Diálogo, an association that brings together patient organisations, health promoters, professional and consumers. Its mission is to promote dialogue among all stakeholders in the health system, strengthen health literacy and enhance citizen participation in health policies.

He is also President of the Board of PSOPortugal, the Portuguese Psoriasis Association, where he works to represent people living with psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis. His work focuses on promoting access to appropriate healthcare, therapeutic innovation and combating the stigma associated with the disease.

At the international level, he is a Board member of IFPA, the International Federation of Psoriatic Disease Associations, and of EUROPSO, the European Federation of Psoriasis Associations.Representing EUROPSO, he also serves on the Advisory Council of the World Skin Health Coalition, a global coalition dedicated to promoting skin health.

Michael brings a rare blend of deep clinical lived experience and high-level technical expertise to patient safety and healthcare quality governance. A 40-year patient advocate and three-time kidney transplant recipient, he has navigated the complexities of long-term chronic illness, complex care coordination, and the health system as both a patient and a caregiver for aging family members.

Professionally, Michael is a senior cybersecurity and risk governance leader specializing in AI safety, data privacy, quantitative risk frameworks, and cloud security. He serves as the Founder of the American Living Organ Donor Fund, an Executive Board Member of The Light Collective, a Global Ambassador for the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI), and an Editorial Board Member for the Journal of Participatory Medicine (and former editor at The BMJ).

His work centers on “Technical Lived Experience”—bridging the critical gap between authentic patient advocacy and the rigorous governance required for emerging healthcare technologies, algorithmic trust, digital health equity, and systemic patient safety.

Patient advocate 

I am a patient advocate and social entrepreneur in Spain, working to turn lived experience into better healthcare decisions. I’m the Founder and President of Fundación Visible, where we make the “asterisks” (the invisible burdens that shape health and quality of life) visible through community, research, and co-creation with professionals, institutions, and innovators. Through Mamá Tiene Migraña,

I also build patient-to-patient education and support, translating real life into practical tools people can actually use. My focus sits at the intersection of patient experience, safety, and digital health: improving communication, reducing avoidable harm, and designing solutions with patients from the start.

Samantha Robinson is a Governor at Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS Foundation Trust and a Director of Making Families Count. Her perspective is shaped by lived experience as a family member and carer navigating perinatal, eating disorder, forensic, community mental health and acute healthcare services, including experiences of serious safeguarding failures and avoidable harm.

Samantha is passionate about recognising families and carers as vital partners in care, safety and recovery. She believes families often hold unique insight into risk, deterioration and recovery, yet are frequently expected to carry significant responsibility without being given the information, support or influence needed to do so effectively. Her interests include family expertise and safety intelligence, patient safety, accountability, organisational learning and how healthcare systems can translate learning into meaningful, lasting improvement.

Patient advocate 

I am a mother of two neurodivergent boys in Norway. My youngest son died at 10,5 years old, being severely sick all his life. He had a rare syndrome, and a complicated condition of chronic intestinal pseudo obstruction, requiring TPN (total parenteral nutrition) 24/7.

In my professional life I have worked with grief therapy after the loss of a child, sibling or parent for over 20 years, and been engaged in user-organization focusing on palliative care for children over the last 10 years. I am especially engaged in ethics of palliative care, children’s perspectives of treatment, and in standards of care.

Cristina Serrão is a passionate advocate for improving health and care for all. She lives with multiple disabilities and long-term physical and mental health conditions. She is both an unpaid carer and yet someone who receives support from a carer herself. After navigating much of her life unaware that she was neurodivergent, Cristina was diagnosed with autism and ADHD at 47. As a disabled, neurodivergent woman proudly married to a woman, she understands how intersecting identities and protected characteristics can shape people’s experiences.

Cristina joined the NHS in 2018 as London’s first Musculoskeletal Patient Director at University College London Hospitals. In 2020, she became the first person intentionally recruited into a senior lived-experience leadership role within NHS England’s national patient experience team. As its national Lived Experience Ambassador, she champions co-production, shared power and the meaningful involvement of people and communities in improving health and care. Her personal and professional perspectives give her a unique understanding of health and care systems.

Cristina’s radical honesty is rooted in her Portuguese and Madeiran heritage, which taught her from an early age about the importance of resilience, as well as her experiences as a young carer.

Mark Taylor is currently part time Head of Strategic Partnerships for the National Institute for Health and Care Research in the UK; Chair of Hope 4 The Community, a community interest company that provides evidence based products and services to empower people to manage their health and wellbeing; and Trustee for Overcoming MS, a charity that supports people with multiple sclerosis to live a healthy and fulfilling life.

He was diagnosed with MS almost a quarter of a century ago and with late stage prostate cancer at the beginning of 2026. He brings a mix of practical research and health care experience and a very different patient lens.