Introducing Dr Ajay Aggarwal: NATCAN’s Clinical Director

We are delighted to announce that Dr Ajay Aggarwal has been appointed Clinical Director, National Cancer Audit Collaborating Centre (NATCAN) following a highly competitive recruitment process amongst the NATCAN Clinical Leads. Ajay officially joins from the 1^st of October 2023.

Ajay has worked closely with many of us in the existing cancer audit teams for over 10 years and brings a unique set of skills and experience.

Ajay is a Consultant Clinical Oncologist at Guy’s & St Thomas’ NHS Trust, London and Associate Professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM). He is Clinical Lead for the National Prostate Cancer Audit, as part of which he led the development and delivery of the first ever national hospital outcome reporting programme for radiotherapy. He is a passionate advocate for driving improvements in the quality of NHS cancer services across the disease spectrum, from diagnosis to treatment and longer-term survivorship.

As Clinical Director, Ajay will play an important role in developing the strategic direction of NATCAN to ensure it engages effectively at the interface between cancer service performance assessment, methodological development, and national initiatives supporting quality improvement and implementation activities. Ajay brings extensive experience in these three areas at national and international level.

His main research areas are performance assessment of cancer care, health system design, and Global Health.  He was awarded an Advanced Fellowship by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) in 2020 and is the current editor of the Journal of Cancer Policy. His research has contributed significantly to national and international policy discussion around the affordability of cancer care and the value of new technologies in cancer medicine which has directly influenced the WHO Cancer Drug Pricing and Benefits Taskforces. He is the Chief Investigator of the NIH funded ARCHERY study, the first prospective international multicentre trial across India, Jordan, Malaysia and South Africa evaluating the role of AI in radiotherapy.

We are thrilled to collaborate with Ajay and eagerly anticipate the clinical leadership he brings in his new role as NATCAN ambassador.