Dr Enya Cooney: Building Precision and Compassion at Clerkenwell Health
A foundation built on ethics and clinical depth
Dr. Enya Cooney’s path into medicine has always been shaped by her desireto see the bigger picture. Alongside her medical degree at UCL, she pursued an intercalated degree in ethics and law at King’s College, driven by a deep appreciation for the often-overlooked importance of medical ethics and the complexities of medical law.
After qualifying, she spent six years in the NHS focusing on intensive care and anaesthetics — roles that demanded not only technical expertise but also a steady, compassionate presence. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she took on a new challenge as a sub-investigator on vaccine trials. This experience sparked her interest in clinical research and opened up new ways to leverage her medical background beyond direct patient care.
She soon transitioned fully into pharmaceutical medicine, joining a clinical research facility dedicated to central nervous system (CNS) diseases. There, she worked on around 20 trials, spanning Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s disease, migraine, and autism spectrum disorders in children. This experience gave her a firsthand view of how clinical research can transform lives and help address some of the most complex challenges in brain and mental health.
“Research is a gift both ways. We give participants the hope of a potentially life-changing treatment. But they also give us a gift: their time, their trust, and their stories.”
Designing Systems that Serve People
At Clerkenwell Health, Enya is applying her clinical expertise and research insight to solve operational challenges that many sites overlook. One of her first priorities has been to map out patient journeys in meticulous detail. She studies each visit protocol, defines exactly how long participants will be onsite, what resources are needed, and who they’ll interact with — all to make every visit smoother and more supportive.
These frameworks are more than schedules on paper. They are the backbone that allows Clerkenwell Health to maintain high-quality experiences for both participants and staff, even as the organisation grows.
“Processes and procedures don’t have to be strict and confining,” Enya says. “They can provide a framework that supports the team.”
By giving the admin and clinical teams clear, flexible structures, Enya’s work helps prevent delays, reduce staff burnout, and ultimately ensures that participants feel respected and valued. Importantly, this approach also lays the groundwork for scalability — a necessity as Clerkenwell Health opens new sites and expands its reach in brain and mental health research.
A Future Built on Quality and Mentorship
What excites Enya most about the future at Clerkenwell Health is the unique position the company occupies: both a contract research organisation and a clinical research facility. This integrated model allows the team not just to design and develop exceptional trials but to deliver them with precision and compassion.
Beyond systems and processes, Enya is passionate about training the next generation of research physicians. She points out that clinical research often remains a “hidden secret” in medical education, with many doctors unaware of how to step into the field or maintain Good Clinical Practice (GCP) compliance.
She hopes to change that by mentoring new starters, sharing knowledge on data integrity, and instilling an understanding of why, in research, “you really do have to get it perfect.”
Through her work, Enya is helping to build a future where clinical trials are not just rigorous and scalable but deeply human. And in doing so, she embodies the spirit of Clerkenwell Health’s mission: to build what’s next — with science, with care, and with purpose.
In this short clip, Dr Cooney shares her view on what care means — and why it’s the foundation of effective mental health research.
