Jon Lartey appointed new Associate Medical Director for Research

Congratulations to Clinical Associate Professor Jon Lartey on his appointment as Associate Medical Director for Research.

Mr Lartey joined us as a Consultant Obstetrician in maternal medicine in 2017 and is the Trust lead in preterm birth and infectious diseases in pregnancy. He became a Clinical Associate Professor in 2022 and has many active research collaborations with researchers at UEA, Earlham Institute (EI) and Quadram Institute Bioscience (QIB) exploring the use of genomics in diagnosing and treating prematurity and fetal growth disorders in pregnancy.

Mr Lartey will take over from Prof Kristian Bowles who was appointed as the new Dean of Norwich Medical School at the University of East Anglia (UEA) earlier this year.

The Associate Medical Director for Research is a key position to drive our Research Strategy and continue our work to embed a culture of research, creating an environment that’s recognised nationally and internationally which inspires future leaders of clinical research.

Mr Lartey is the current Chair of the Research Leads Group and holds other research management and governance roles in the Trust. He has grant funding with colleagues at UEA and EI and has recently been awarded several NIHR awards to extend research to our neighbouring Trusts, a key prerequisite to support the upcoming Norfolk Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) bid. The Obstetric team was also awarded a NIHR Capital Grant Award to set up a NIHR Perinatology Centre at QIB. His research programme was recently awarded an Excellence in Innovation Award by the East of England Perinatology Group.

Mr Lartey will formally take up his new post later this summer and is looking forward to working with our partners at James Paget University Hospital and Queen Elizabeth Hospital King’s Lynn in utilising the world-leading scientific expertise available at Norwich Research Park to create a flourishing and thriving clinical scientific environment necessary to support other programme grant bids and the future BRC bid.

He said: “There was an excellent cadre who could do this job. I applied because of the excellent R&D team who I know well and have been very supportive over the years and are a very dynamic team. I am very pleased to be working with them further and raising the profile of research regionally and nationally.”

“We are already doing world-leading research at NNUH and if we choose what we are excellent at, we will thrive and be successful.”