A qualified nurse, Hilary has worked in the public and private health sectors in the UK and Ireland. She is currently managing director of research development and innovation at University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust (UHB). During her time at UHB, she has led delivery of a number of local, regional and national initiatives, including the whole-site redesign of the trust’s clinical services in preparation for the move to UHB’s £545m new Queen Elizabeth Hospital in June 2010.

Under Hilary’s stewardship, UHB’s research, development and innovation (RD&I) department has grown to manage more than £300m research infrastructure and around 350 whole time equivalent (WTE) staff, and it supports the full spectrum of research at UHB, including research business support; research governance and grant preparation for submission for funding though to delivery of clinical trials; and support for generation, evaluation, implementation and audit of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies.

UHB’s RD&I innovation portfolio encompasses healthcare data research infrastructure including the HDR UK INSIGHT, HDR UK PIONEER and UHB PATHWAY health data research hubs. The hubs have been nationally recognised for their innovative approaches to the safe and transparent use of health data to drive improvements in patient care and have played a key role in setting out how to meaningfully involve patients and the public in decision-making around health data use for research.

In 2022, she took on the additional role of programme director for West Midlands Secure Data Environment, hosted by UHB. In 2023, she received an Honorary MBE (Honorary awards are made to foreign nationals) for services to genomic delivery in the NHS.