Gillian Leng

Gillian Leng, Lady Cosford
CBE
Gillian Leng, Lady Cosford CBE
Born	Gillian Catherine Leng
Education	University of Leeds
Known for	Former Chief Executive, National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE); President of the Royal Society of Medicine (2024);
Relatives	Sir Paul Cosford (spouse)
	Medical career
Profession	Physician
Field	Public health
Institutions	National Institute for Health and Care Excellence; King's College London; University of Leeds; National University of Singapore; Royal Society of Medicine;

Gillian Catherine Leng, Lady Cosford CBE is a British health administrator, academic, visiting professor at King's College London and the former Chief Executive of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), where she was responsible for several programmes and guidelines including the guidelines on COVID-19. In 2024 she became president of the Royal Society of Medicine (RSM).

She has been involved in the Cochrane collaboration since its foundation, and has worked on clinical trials and epidemiological research in public health medicine. She also teaches at the NUS Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health.

Education

Gillian Leng gained her medical degree from the University of Leeds in 1987, having previously gained a degree in physiology.^[1]^[2] She completed her house jobs at St James's University Hospital and subsequently moved to Scotland to work as a senior house officer in cancer care and in accident and emergency.^[2] She received her MD in 1994.^[2]

Career

Leng has been involved in the Cochrane collaboration since its foundation.^[3] She worked on clinical trials and epidemiological research in Edinburgh, and in London as a consultant in public health medicine.^[4]

Leng participated as a keynote speaker at the 2015 International Festival of Public Health.^[5] She was also speaker at the World Neuroscience Innovation Forum in 2017, where she discussed gene therapy and cell therapy in treating neurological diseases.^[6] She then spoke at the ISPOR Summit 2018.^[7]

Leng delivered a presentation for the European Society of Cardiology at an event titled Digital Health 2019.^[8]

She became Deputy Chief Executive at the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) in 2007.^[9] In April 2020, during the first COVID-19 lockdown, she succeeded Andrew Dillon as the CEO of NICE.^[9]^[10] There, she oversaw the creation of new guidelines on COVID-19.^[10] Previously she was responsible for the initial set up and running of NICE's clinical guidelines programme, for establishing the NICE implementation function, and for setting up NHS Evidence.^[1]^[9] Her other roles included being responsible for the NICE accreditation programme, guideline development in social care, and the NICE programmes of indicators and quality standards.^[9]

She is visiting professor at King's College London, and teaches at NUS Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health.^[9]^[11] She is a trustee and former chair of the Guidelines International Network.^[12] She is also a member of the steering committee of the International Guideline Development Credentialing & Certification Program (INGUIDE).^[13]

Leng is a member of the Global Commission on Evidence to Address Societal Challenges.^[14] The commission is a partnership spawned out of COVID-END, with leadership from McMaster University and the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute.^[15]

In May 2022, Leng was appointed to the advisory board of consulting firm Brevia Health.^[16] The RSM appointed her their dean of education in October 2022.^[17]

Awards and honours

Leng was awarded a CBE in the 2011 Birthday Honours.^[18] She was appointed honorary librarian at the RSM, London, in 2017.^[19] In 2023 she was elected president-elect of the RSM.^[20] She became the RSM's 109th president on 23 July 2024.^[21]

Personal and family

She married Paul Cosford in 2006.^[22] Following his death in 2021, she announced her retirement from NICE;^[23] Dr Samantha Roberts succeeded her on 1 February 2022.^[24]^[25]

Selected publications

Articles

Leng, GC; Fowkes, FGR (February 1993). "The Epidemiology of Peripheral Arterial Disease". Vascular Medicine Review. vmr-4 (1): 5–18. doi:10.1177/1358863x9300400102. ISSN 0954-2582. S2CID 77748948.
Cosford, Paul A.; Leng, Gillian C.; Thomas, Justyn (18 April 2007). "Screening for abdominal aortic aneurysm". The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (2): CD002945. doi:10.1002/14651858.CD002945.pub2. ISSN 1469-493X. PMID 17443519.

Books

Leng, Gillian; Moore, Val; Abraham, Sasha (2014). Achieving High Quality Care: Practical Experience from NICE. Wiley Blackwell. ISBN 978-1-118-54358-0.

References

^ ^a ^b "Professor Gillian Leng CBE (The University of Manchester)". www.festivalofpublichealth.co.uk. Archived from the original on 11 January 2022. Retrieved 11 January 2022.
^ ^a ^b ^c Davies, Emma (2022). "Leeds Alumni Magazine | Guiding light". magazine.alumni.leeds.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 11 January 2022. Retrieved 11 January 2022.
^ "Professor Gillian Leng CBE". International Festival of Public Health. Retrieved 29 December 2020.
^ "Gillian Leng" (PDF). British Medical Medical Journal. 13 December 2014.
^ "International Festival of Public Health UK 2015" (PDF). International Festival of Public Health. 2015. Archived (PDF) from the original on 15 June 2022. Retrieved 15 June 2022.
^ "Gillian Leng, MD". World Neuroscience Innovation Forum. Archived from the original on 15 June 2022. Retrieved 15 June 2022.
^ "Gillian Leng, CBE". ISPOR | International Society For Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research. Archived from the original on 15 June 2022. Retrieved 15 June 2022.
^ "A NICE perspective on real world evidence. Session at Digital Health 2019". ESC 365. 2019. Archived from the original on 15 June 2022. Retrieved 15 June 2022.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e "NICE appoints Professor Gillian Leng as new chief executive". www.nationalhealthexecutive.com. Archived from the original on 31 October 2020. Retrieved 11 January 2022.
^ ^a ^b Robinson, Julia (30 December 2020). "Gillian Leng: 'COVID-19 has been a strain, but also an opportunity'". The Pharmaceutical Journal. Archived from the original on 11 January 2022.
^ "Gillian Leng". sph.nus.edu.sg. NUS Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health. Retrieved 24 March 2022.
^ Toolan, Michael; Maisuria, Roshni (27 April 2021). "Ten minutes with Professor Gillian Leng, Chief Executive, National Institute for Health and Care Excellence". BMJ Leader. 6 (2): 161–162. doi:10.1136/leader-2021-000472. ISSN 2398-631X. PMID 36170521. S2CID 233416233.
^ "About". INGUIDE. Archived from the original on 10 June 2022. Retrieved 15 June 2022.
^ "Gillian Leng". McMaster Health Forum. Archived from the original on 14 June 2022. Retrieved 15 June 2022.
^ "1.5 Connection to COVID-END" (PDF). McMaster Health Forum. January 2022. Archived (PDF) from the original on 21 February 2022. Retrieved 15 June 2022.
^ "Professor Gillian Leng CBE joins Brevia Health". Public Affairs Networking. 27 May 2022. Archived from the original on 15 June 2022. Retrieved 15 June 2022.
^ "Professor Gillian Leng CBE appointed Dean of Education at the Royal Society of Medicine". www.rsm.ac.uk. 17 October 2022. Retrieved 21 October 2022.
^ "Five minutes with ... Prof Gillian Leng, deputy chief executive of Nice | Healthcare Professionals Network". The Guardian. 10 May 2013. Retrieved 4 September 2015.
^ "Professor Gillian Leng announced as RSM Honorary Librarian | The Royal Society of Medicine". www.rsm.ac.uk. 15 May 2017. Archived from the original on 11 January 2022. Retrieved 11 January 2022.
^ "Professor Gillian Leng CBE elected next President of the Royal Society of Medicine". www.rsm.ac.uk. 27 June 2023. Archived from the original on 14 July 2023. Retrieved 14 July 2023.
^ "Professor Gillian Leng CBE vows to "look to the future" as she becomes RSM President". www.rsm.ac.uk. 31 July 2024. Archived from the original on 26 July 2024. Retrieved 26 July 2024.
^ Gregory, Andrew (15 August 2021). "'My husband had a bad death — he suffered. It shouldn't be like that'". Archived from the original on 11 January 2022. Retrieved 11 January 2022.
^ "Professor Gillian Leng to retire as NICE Chief Executive". Guidelines. Archived from the original on 11 January 2022. Retrieved 11 January 2022.
^ Taylor, Phil (20 December 2021). "Samantha Roberts to replace Gillian Leng as CEO of NICE -". pharmaphorum.com. Archived from the original on 11 January 2022. Retrieved 11 January 2022.
^ "Dr Samantha Roberts starts work as NICE CEO today. | News and features | News". NICE. February 2022. Archived from the original on 2 February 2022. Retrieved 2 February 2022.