Roberta James is the Programme Lead at the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN) and is responsible for the currency, quality, validity and timely development and dissemination of national clinical guidelines for the NHS in Scotland. She has over 20 years of experience producing evidence-based guidelines, developing new methods and improving processes. One of her main interests is in presenting recommendations in ways that fit the needs of professional and public audiences so that high-quality evidence-based recommendations are easily accessible and make an impact on patient care.
Roberta has been a member of the GIN Board of Trustees since September 2020 and was elected Chair in 2025. She is a member of the GIN Updating Guidelines working group, and has an interest in developing methods for keeping guidelines current while making the best use of scarce resources. She is also a member of the Implementation working group, which aims to advance the science of guideline implementation by generating knowledge and associated outputs on planning, undertaking, enabling and evaluating guideline implementation.
Along with colleagues at Healthcare Improvement Scotland and other GIN members, Roberta is part of the Cost Conscious Care Consortium. The consortium developed and has delivered an educational programme to several cohorts of medical residents across Europe. The objectives are two-fold: to teach residents the basics of developing and implementing high-quality, evidence-based guidelines, and to equip residents with the competencies to work in a cost-conscious manner.
Roberta started her career as a research scientist after undergraduate and postgraduate study at Edinburgh University and prior to joining SIGN spent 10 years as a research scientist at the Medical Research Council Human Genetics Unit in Edinburgh, the Roslin Institute and the Cancer Research UK labs at the University of Edinburgh.