Ann John is Principal Investigator and Co-Director of DATAMIND,  Health Data Research Hub for Mental Health. She is a Professor of Public Health and Psychiatry at Swansea University and Consultant in Public Health, Public Health Wales NHS Trust. Her research focuses on suicide and self-harm prevention and children and young people’s mental health.   She leads the MQ funded Adolescent Mental Health Data Platform and the informatics workstreams of the Wolfson Centre for Young People’s Mental Health and the National Centre for Mental Health.

Population Data Science and the SAIL Databank at Swansea University have a world-leading reputation in health informatics with particular strengths in population health research, data sharing platforms (e.g. SeRP), innovative governance and a collaborative ethos that underpins many multidisciplinary research activities. Ann has led on the linkage of diverse datasets (family court data, education data to primary and secondary care based mental health data) for in- depth exploration of the causes and the role of bio-psycho-social determinants of mental health, bringing together cross-disciplinary research and data at scale, and solving problems inherent in standardisation and validation. This work has led directly to changes in policy and practice. Ann will bring her experience of innovative data science and its practical translation to the field as Co-Director of DATAMIND with the aim of facilitating innovative multidisciplinary research and improving care