Meet Sprout – Dr Alicia Hughes, Senior Scientist

In our Meet Sprout series, we ask each member of the Sprout Health Solutions team about their work, what brought them here and what makes them tick. Next up is Dr Alicia Hughes, Senior Scientist.

1. What does your role at Sprout involve?

As a Health Psychologist I am passionate about finding ways to help people adjust to and manage health conditions. My role at Sprout fulfils this passion! I work with colleagues and clients on projects which aim to understand the challenges of living with different conditions and develop programs to support people with these challenges. This involves a whole range of different activities depending on the project. From writing protocols and results reports, to conducting interviews and training healthcare professionals. Seeing our work being implemented and having an impact is incredibly rewarding.

2. What led you to this career?

I’ve been fortunate to meet and work with some very inspiring people, who have really sparked my interests. By being curious and open to new opportunities I have found myself working in my ideal career.

I have always been interested in human behaviour and so Psychology was an obvious choice for me. During my degree I become particularly interested in how the mind and body interact, which led to my master’s in Health Psychology. This opened-up the opportunity to complete my PhD, which explored the cognitive impacts of fatigue. My PhD led to a large body of ongoing work which explores fatigue in various conditions and the development of a novel intervention to help people with fatigue. Along the way I have worked with brilliant academics, inspiring patients and healthcare professionals and enthusiastic research consultancies.

3. What do you value most about the work you do at Sprout?

Working at Sprout brings out the best in me- I can utilize my knowledge and skills, call upon others for their expert input and be assured that the awesome project managers have the timelines and spreadsheets under control. Everyone at Sprout is highly skilled and knowledgeable at what they do. Working together feels like singing in harmony (ignoring the fact that in reality I can’t sing).

4. What’s one thing you’re learning now, and why is it important?

Sprout’s work on clinical outcome assessments (COA) is exciting. Industry partners and regulatory bodies are investing more in exploring patient perspectives and identifying key burdens and unmet needs in relation to COA. Applying my research skills on these projects gleans important insights which then informs the selection of development of COA endpoints for clinical trials. Working on projects that have this level of impact is invigorating.

5. What 3 words would your friends use to describe you?

I did a poll…. so perhaps I should add ‘over-the top’ 😊

• Empathetic
• Diligent
• Fun

6. If you could choose a superpower, what would it be?

To turn into any animal at will. Exploring the ocean as a whale, travelling the globe as a bird, having a nap as a domestic cat…the possibilities are endless.

Follow Alicia Hughes on twitter here and on LinkedIn here. You can read Alicia’s latest blog on Fatigue, one of the biggest unmet needs in healthcare here.