Penny joined in the MHRA in June 2022, having been seconded from Innovate UK to DHSC and UKHSA as a Lead Scientific Advisor in the Technology Validation Group. The Innovative Devices team in the MHRA has 3 main pillars of activity, (a) diagnostics (b) software and AI as a medical device and (c) regulation – which has a focus on the new regulatory regime. Focusing on patient safety, the MHRA is working in partnerships with industry, academia, across government and internationally to put the MHRA at the heart of innovation in regulatory science. In Innovate UK Penny held a number of positions, including Senior Diagnostic Specialist in UKRI’s Data to Early Diagnosis and Precision Medicine programme, Senior Specialist in AMR Vaccines and Global Health and responsibility for the organisations Precision Medicine and Infectious Disease programmes. Penny has delivered a series of major programmes across the UK and leveraged significant funding from industry and the third sector. Penny worked for over 25 years in the diagnostics industry in a number of senior and strategy roles, including Director of technology assessment and acquisition, for what is now Siemens Healthineers, and Senior Director of Advanced Technologies for a company in the US developing a point-of-care system for use in primary care. She has been an advisor to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation and the African Union on the development and use of diagnostic technologies.
