Dr Ajay Aggarwal
MSc MRCP FRCR PhD
Associate Professor
NIHR Advanced Fellow
LSHTM
Keppel Street
London
WC1E 7HT
United Kingdom
I am a Consultant Clinical Oncologist at Guy's St Thomas' NHS Trust specialising in the delivery of radiation and systemic therapies for cancer. In 2020 I received a National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Advanced Fellowship to undertake a four-year programme of research to inform different options for the re-design of NHS cancer treatment services to optimise equity, access and outcomes using both qualitative and quantitative "big data" methods (epidemiology, GIS and econometrics).
I graduated from Guy’s, Kings’ & St Thomas’ Medical school having attained a BSc in Management at Imperial College London. I have an MSc in the Science of Cancer from The Institute of Cancer Research and an MSc in Health, Population and Society from The London School of Economics. I completed my PhD in Health Services Research at LSHTM as part of a NIHR Doctoral Research Fellowship. In addition to my role at LSHTM I have honorary senior lecturer positions at the Institute of Cancer Policy (King's College London) and the MRC Clincial Trials Unit (University College London).
I am the current editor of the Journal of Cancer Policy.
Affiliations
Teaching
I am a faculty member of CREDO (International Collaboration for Research Methods Development in Oncology), which is an annual one-week research protocol development workshop involving senior oncology trainees from within and outside of India.
I am a faculty member of the Institute of Cancer Research MSc in Oncology course. I teach on two modules "Global Oncology" and "Cancer Economics".
Research
My academic career to date brings together my training in clinical oncology (radiation and medical oncology) with national and global health services research, with a particular focus on evidence-based policy implementation and impact. I have a wide skill set in research methodologies including epidemiology, demography, geographic information systems, econometrics, and qualitative methods.
I have 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 both WHO Cancer Drug Pricing and Benefits Taskforces, and the European Medicines Agency. I am directly involved in international policymaking within the European Commission and ESTRO (European Society of Radiation Oncology) to inform reimbursement of medical devices. In 2017, I completed a NIHR Doctoral Research Fellowship at LSHTM which identified patient choice and hospital competition as key drivers in the adoption of robotic surgery for cancer treatment in the NHS.
I have experience and expertise in global health research. I have previously worked at the World Health Organisation in Geneva in the TB disease domain, and have ongoing global health projects aimed at building radiotherapy capacity and research capability in low and middle income countries. I was recently awarded, in collaboration with the MD Anderson Cancer Centre, USA, and Stellenbosch University, South Africa, a Wellcome Trust Digital Innovator Award, to use Artificial Intelligence to automate radiotherapy treatment planning for the treatment of urgent and emergency presentations of advanced cancers.