DrMelody Zhifang Ni

Dr. Melody Ni is an expert in Decision making. She is Enterprise Champion within the Faculty of Medicine at Imperial College London. Her work is based primarily wtihin the NIHR HealthTech Research Centre in Vitro Diagnostics (HRC IVD), where she serves as the co-deputy director and methodology theme Co-Lead, with a focus on leading Health Technology Assessment for HRC, including health economics, market analysis, and regulatory sciences, with an overall aim to  accelerate the route to commercialisation. 

Melody began her career at Imperial in 2007 as a post-doctoral researcher in the Division of Surgery and Cancer, following the completion of her PhD at the London School of Economics in Management Sciences. Her research is dedicated to enhancing decision-making by integrating behavioural insights with modelling techniques including multi-criteria decision analytics (MCDA), Bayesian networks, behavioural sciences and health technology assessments. Operating at the intersection of research, clinical practice, and health innovation, she collaborates with a wide range of innovators, and leads a highly multi-disciplinary teams to develop practical tools that facilitate the efficient translation of innovative technologies into clinical practice.

Previously, Dr. Ni was the educational research lead of the National Training Programme in Laparoscopic Colorectal Cancer Surgery (Lapco), which trained 144 consultant colorectal surgeons in England between 2009 and 2013. HES data showed that Lapco-trained surgeons achieved higher uptake of laparoscopic techniques and better patient outcomes post-training. The Lapco model has since been adopted as a national and international best-practice standard for ensuring patient safety and maintaining surgical quality during the implementation of novel surgical techniques and technologies.