Speakers

Dr Michelle Dharmasiri

Consultant stroke physician, University Hospitals Dorset NHS Foundation Trust

Dr Michelle Dharmasiri has been a full-time consultant stroke physician at University Hospitals Dorset NHS Foundation Trust since 2016. She provides leadership and clinical input throughout the stroke pathway. She is the current RCP college tutor for the Royal Bournemouth Hospital and is passionate about medical education and supporting doctors in training. Dr Dharmasiri’s other leadership roles include being the chair of the British and Irish Association of Stroke Physicians (BIASP) clinical standards committee (2019–current).

Dr Ajay Bhalla

Consultant stroke physician, Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust

Ajay Bhalla qualified at St George’s Hospital Medical School in 1992. He completed his MSc Gerontology in 2000 at King’s College and his MD thesis in 2001 on physiological homeostasis management after stroke. He is currently a consultant stroke physician at Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust and an Hononary Senior Lecturer at King's College, London. Ajay’s academic interests include health service stroke research with the South London Stroke Register. He is the associate director of Sentinel Stroke National Audit Programme, South East London operational stroke lead and South London stroke research lead for the Clinical Research Network. He is co-editor of the National Clinical Guidelines for Stroke (2023).

Dr Louise Savic

Consultant anaesthetist, Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust

Dr Louise Savic is a consultant anaesthetist with a clinical and research interest in drug allergy and perioperative anaphylaxis. She is currently a doctoral fellow with the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), undertaking mixed-methods research to explore the problems of drug allergy in surgical patients. Her areas of interest include the development of novel diagnostic pathways in drug allergy, ‘delabelling’ of penicillin allergy, and the psychological impact of perioperative anaphylaxis. She recently led the development of a national guideline for penicillin allergy delabelling by non-allergists and is developing a complex intervention for routine delabelling in surgical patients. Working closely with the British Society for Allergy and Clinical Immunology and the Clinical Immunology Professional Network, she is leading a cross-specialty working party for improving allergy care among surgical patients.

Dr Andrew Whyte

Consultant allergist and immunologist, University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust

Dr Whyte graduated from the University of Tasmania in Australia. He trained in immunology and allergy in South Australia and then Plymouth, where he has been a consultant since 2015. His particular clinical interests are anaphylaxis, venom allergy and clonal mast cell disorders.

Dr Andrew Frankel

Consultant nephrologist, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust

Dr Andrew Frankel has been a consultant nephrologist at Imperial College Healthcare NHS trust since 1995. He has extensive experience in managing all aspects of kidney disease, but has a particular interest in relation to the management of diabetes in the context of kidney disease. Dr Frankel maintained a significant research interest in relation to diabetes and the kidneys, both in terms of how diabetes affects the kidneys leading to deterioration in kidney function, but also in relation to how the presence of kidney disease influences the management of diabetes. He has also published in relation to assessment of renal complications in people with diabetes and obesity. Andrew has played a significant role in the development of UK national guidelines on the management of diabetes in the context of kidney disease. He’s joint editor of the UK Kidney Association guidelines on the use of SGLT2 inhibitors in adults with chronic kidney disease and also joint editor of the Joint British Diabetes Societies National Guidelines on the management of diabetes in people on dialysis.

Professor Ifeoma Ulasi

Consultant physician, University of Nigeria

Ifeoma Ulasi is a professor of medicine at the College of Medicine, University of Nigeria. She is affiliated with two teaching hospitals where she is involved in patient management, training medical students, student nurses, postgraduate students and resident doctors. She conducts research in renal medicine: epidemiology, socio-behavioral studies, genetic/genomic research and clinical trials. She is the chief physician of the University of Nigeria Nsukka Centre of Excellence for Clinical Trials, the site principal investigator (PI) for H3Africa Kidney Disease Network, and PI of IDF-sponsored clinical trials in GDM. She is deputy chair of ISN AWG and a member, ISN ExCom (2021–23), and a member of the TTS Ethics Committee and the WHO Taskforce on Organ Donation and Transplantation. She was coordinator of the West Africa College of Post-graduate Medicine Nephrology Subspecialty (2016-2020) and president of the Nigerian Association of Nephrology (2018-2020). Ifeoma is also an international adviser at the RCP, London.

Professor James Galloway

Professor of rheumatology, King’s College London

Dr Siaw Ing Yeo

Senior consultant, Singapore General Hospital

Dr Yeo Siaw Ing is a senior consultant in the department of rheumatology and immunology, Singapore General Hospital (SGH). She graduated from the University of London in 1993 and completed her specialist training in rheumatology and general internal medicine with the London Deanery in 2004. She was previously consultant rheumatologist at Barnet and Chase Farm Hospitals NHS Trust and honorary clinical associate, division of rheumatology and clinical immunology in the University of Hong Kong, where her work encompassed clinical, research and teaching activities. Dr Yeo joined SGH in 2013 and is the department’s director of clinical services. Her focus is optimising delivery of care and expanding the services at the Autoimmunity and Rheumatology Centre (ARC) and Immunology Hub. Dr Yeo is lead of the Singapore National Biological Disease-Modifying Anti-Rheumatic Drug Registry.

Dr Jonathan Guckian

Dermatology registrar, Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust

Dr Jonny Guckian (MBBS, MRCP, MMedEd) is a dermatology registrar in Leeds, UK. He is an advanced medical education fellow at the University of Leeds, as well as working nationally on the Royal College of Physicians Edinburgh Trainees and Members Committee and as Podcast Associate Editor at the British Journal of Dermatology. His research and clinical interests include social media in medical education, dermatology education and psychodermatology.

Dr Alia Ahmed

Consultant dermatologist, Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust

Alia Ahmed is a consultant dermatologist working for Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust and Barts Health NHS Trust. She completed her dermatology training in London. Dr Ahmed also has a BSc in Psychology with Clinical Psychology (University of Kent). In addition to her NHS work, Dr Ahmed is a visiting lecturer at the University of Hertfordshire. She is active in research and has presented internationally, as well as having a number of peer-reviewed publications and a research fellowship with the UK Dermatology Clinical Trials Network. Alia’s specialist interest is in the psychological effects of chronic skin disease. She is part of the Psychodermatology team based at the Royal London Hospital, where she sees tertiary referrals, and is also chair of Psychodermatology UK. Alia is dedicated to providing holistic care to her patients and strongly believes the interaction between the brain, skin and mind is key to achieving healthy skin.

Dr Felix Yap Boon Bin

Consultant dermatologist, Sunway Medical Centre

Dr Felix Boon Bin Yap is a consultant dermatologist in Sunway Medical Centre in Sunway City Malaysia. He is also an associate professor of medicine and dermatology in Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman in Malaysia. He sits in the Sunway Medical Research Ethics Committee. He is active in the field of research, publishing in more than 60 clinical peer reviewed journals. He is currently involved in multiple international drug trials. His research interests include psoriasis, eczema, biologics and acne. Felix actively participates in education for dermatologists, medical practitioners, paramedical personnel and medical students.

Dr Sarah Clarke

President, Royal College of Physicians

In July 2022 Dr Sarah Clarke was elected the 122nd president of the Royal College of Physicians. Only the fourth female president of the RCP. Previously clinical vice president RCP, president of the British Cardiovascular Society and Joint National Lead for Cardiology for the Getting it Right First Time (GIRFT) programme. She is clinical director for strategic development and an interventional cardiologist at Royal Papworth Hospital in Cambridge. Dr Clarke brings a wealth of experience as a senior clinician, educator, leader of change and transformation within organisations and clinical services, and a leader of quality improvement. She has established a network of influence nationally and internationally through her work with NHS England, GIRFT, British Heart Foundation, European Society of Cardiology, and American College of Cardiology (ACC). In 2018 she was awarded the ACC international service award.

Professor Chris Whitty

Chief medical officer for England, Department of Health and Social Care

Professor Chris Whitty is chief medical officer (CMO) for England, the UK government’s chief medical adviser and head of the public health profession. Chris is a practising NHS consultant physician at University College London Hospitals (UCLH) and the Hospital for Tropical Diseases. He is a visiting professor at Gresham College. Chris is an epidemiologist and has undertaken research and worked as a doctor in the UK, Africa and Asia. He was professor of public and international health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) before becoming chief medical officer (CMO) and remains an honorary professor. Chris was the chief scientific adviser for the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) from January 2016 to August 2021, with overall responsibility for the department’s research and development, including being head of the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), the government’s major funder of clinical, public health, social care and translational research. Chris was the interim government chief scientific adviser from 2017 to 2018, including during the Novichok poisonings. Before that, he was the chief scientific adviser at the Department for International Development (DFID), which included leading technical work on the West Africa Ebola outbreak and other international emergencies.

Dr John Dean

Clinical vice president, Royal College of Physicians

John is clinical vice president (CVP) at the RCP and consultant physician / deputy medical director (transformation) at East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust. As CVP he is a member of the RCP senior leadership team, with responsibility for the RCP’s strategic aim of improving health and care and oversees the work of the Care Quality Improvement Directorate. As the RCP’s clinical director for quality improvement and patient safety from 2017, he represented the college and the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges on a number of NHS improvement boards and provided leadership to RCP patient safety and quality improvement programmes. In East Lancashire he works across the health and care system, leading service improvement. He works clinically as a consultant physician in acute and general medicine and diabetes. He has previously worked in improvement initiatives across the Department of Health, royal colleges, NHSE North West, the Institute for Healthcare Improvement and the Health Foundation.

Dr Sohaib Nazir

Clinical senior lecturer and honorary consultant cardiologist, Royal Brompton Hospital and King's College London

Dr Sohaib Nazir is a consultant cardiologist and clinical senior lecturer in cardio-oncology, multimodal imaging and heart failure at the Royal Brompton Hospital and King’s College London. He is accredited at level III in cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) and cardiac CT by both the European Association of Cardiovascular Imaging (EACVI) and Society of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography (SCCT) / Society for Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance (SCMR), and has achieved board accreditation from the International Cardio-Oncology Society, following a fellowship in cardio-oncology. He is leading on a number of clinical studies related to multimodal imaging in cardio-oncology and coronary artery disease. He has a passion for teaching – he holds a postgraduate certificate in healthcare education and is the current chair of the British Cardiovascular Society (BCS) Education Committee.

Dr Matt Ginks

Consultant cardiologist, Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Matt Ginks is a consultant cardiologist and electrophysiologist at the John Radcliffe Hospital, part of the Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. He is involved in the investigation and treatment of patients with all forms of arrhythmia problems, including ablation and device therapy. His research and clinical interests are centred around catheter ablation of complex cardiac arrhythmias including atrial fibrillation and ventricular tachycardia. He is an active member of the British Heart Rhythm Society (formerly known as Heart Rhythm UK). He is one of the editors of the Oxford handbook of cardiac electrophysiology and catheter ablation and the cardiac arrhythmia section of the Oxford textbook of medicine.

Dr Ayisha Khan-Kheil

Consultant cardiologist, Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust

Dr Khan-Kheil is a Consultant Cardiologist working at New Cross Hospital in Wolverhampton. She sub-specialises in heart failure and cardiac MRI. She has completed her cardiology training in the West Midlands, including a post CCT fellowship in advanced heart failure and transplantation at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham. She is passionate about education, being actively involved in the British Cardiovascular Society and the British Society of Cardiac MRI.

Dr Tom Kaier

Consultant cardiologist, Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospitals NHS Trust

Tom Kaier is a general and interventional cardiologist at Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust. He has completed an MD investigating ischaemia/reperfusion injury, and a subsequent PhD evaluating the role of novel and established biomarkers in ischaemic heart disease. During his clinical training, Tom also completed a Master of Business Administration. He has published extensively on the role of cardiac biomarkers in the assessment of patients with chest pain.

Dr Alison Tavaré

Regional clinical lead, NHS England southwest and west of England Academic Health Science Network

Dr Alison Tavaré is a GP by profession with a portfolio career. One of her roles is as NHSE south west regional clinical lead, supporting the development and delivery of NHS home and virtual wards to enable patients to be looked after at home during an episode of acute illness. She is also primary care clinical lead at the Health Innovation Network (West of England), formerly the West of England Academic Health Science Network. Her special interest is in the prompt identification and management of the deteriorating patient and particularly the use of NEWS2 as a common language across the NHS and its use in out-of-hospital settings. She represents primary care on the RCP NEWS2 advisory group and co-authored a paper on the use of NEWS2 in community settings in Clinical Medicine in 2022. Alison co-leads the South West Learning Disability Collaborative. The SWLDC is a network of clinicians, carers, families and experts with lived experience, who are working together with academics and policy makers to improve outcomes for people with a learning disability. She was one of the authors of the RCP’s acute care toolkit on the care of people with a learning disability. In addition, she is a clinical co-ordinator with the National Confidential Enquiry into Patient Outcome and Death (NCEPOD) and one of the co-authors of The Inbetweeners, a study which looked at the healthcare transition of children and young people with complex illness into adult healthcare services. With others, she is currently writing up an NCEPOD study on community-acquired pneumonia.

Dr David Green

Renal registrar, Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Dr David Green is a renal registrar at Oxford University Hospitals and a QI fellow at the Royal College of Physicians, with a keen interest in the risk prediction and modelling of acute and chronic kidney injury and disease.

Professor Matthew Inada-Kim

National clinical director for infection control, antimicrobial resistance and deterioration, NHS England

Matt is a consultant in acute medicine at Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and visiting professor at the University of Southampton. His national roles are national clinical director for infection control, antimicrobial resistance and deterioration and national specialty adviser in sepsis. He has developed infection assessment hubs linked to both diagnostics and therapeutics to manage infections optimally in out-of-hospital settings. Matt sits on the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges sepsis taskforce, and is also improving the measurement and definitions of sepsis and infection to assist epidemiology, research and policy. His other work includes improving processes in the recognition, escalation, communication and response to the deteriorating patient, developing the soft signs of deterioration/ReSTORE2, standardising the country to using NEWS2 and leading on its CQUIN. He won HSJ awards in sepsis in 2019, deterioration in 2020 and patient safety in 2021.

Dr Andrew Rochford

Consultant gastroenterologist, Royal Free London Hospitals NHS Trust

Andrew Rochford is a consultant gastroenterologist at the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust and improvement clinical director at the RCP. Andrew has a strong background in clinical leadership, patient safety, quality improvement, and education and training. At the RCP, he chairs the Patient Safety Committee and Medicines Safety Joint Working Group and provides clinical leadership to the Patient and Carer Network, accreditation services and national audit programmes hosted by the RCP, as well as the Chief Registrar scheme and the RCP improvement website Medical Care - driving change.

Dr Mariyam Adam

Renal SpR, Liverpool University Hospitals Foundation Trust

Dr John Dean

Clinical vice president, Royal College of Physicians

John is clinical vice president (CVP) at the RCP and consultant physician / deputy medical director (transformation) at East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust. As CVP he is a member of the RCP senior leadership team, with responsibility for the RCP’s strategic aim of improving health and care and oversees the work of the Care Quality Improvement Directorate. As the RCP’s clinical director for quality improvement and patient safety from 2017, he represented the college and the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges on a number of NHS improvement boards and provided leadership to RCP patient safety and quality improvement programmes. In East Lancashire he works across the health and care system, leading service improvement. He works clinically as a consultant physician in acute and general medicine and diabetes. He has previously worked in improvement initiatives across the Department of Health, royal colleges, NHSE North West, the Institute for Healthcare Improvement and the Health Foundation.

Dr Conor Tweed

Respiratory and general internal medicine specialty registrar, Royal Free Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

Conor Tweed is a trainee in respiratory and internal medicine based in North East London. Alongside his clinical post, he is an honorary clinical assistant professor based at the MRC Clinical Trials Unit at University College London. Having studied and completed core medical training in Glasgow, Conor moved to Madagascar to practice community medicine before moving to London, where he has been based since 2015. His clinical and academic interests focus on respiratory infections, in particular tuberculosis and other mycobacterial infections. He has been a member of the RCP Trainee's Committee and Patient Safety Committee since 2022.

Professor Kamilla Hawthorne

Chair of council, Royal College of General Practitioners

Kamila has been a GP for 34 years, with 27 of them spent working in south Wales. She qualified from Somerville College, University of Oxford, in 1984 and completed her GP training in Nottingham in 1988. Kamila is currently chair of RCGP Council, having taken up office in November 2022. She was head of the Graduate Entry Medicine Programme at Swansea University and is on the Trustee Boards of the King’s Fund. She is also a Bevan commissioner and a fellow of the Learned Society of Wales. Her research and clinical working interests have been in health inequalities and access to health services (her MD was based on working with ethnic minority patient groups with type 2 diabetes in Nottingham, Manchester and Cardiff). With wide experience of general practice and running community projects in diabetes and heart disease, she has been named ‘GP of the Year’ twice and was awarded an MBE in 2017 for services to general practice.

Professor Subodh Dave

Professor Phil Kloer

Medical director and deputy CEO, Hywel Dda University Health Board

Phil Kloer is an experienced health service leader with over 10 years’ experience at board level in a large health system organisation, currently working as executive medical director and deputy CEO at Hywel Dda University Health Board . His professional interests include developing leadership capability, improving healthcare service quality and value, and promoting a move to a more social model of health and wellbeing. He trained as a respiratory physician and worked in New Zealand, England and Wales. He is a trustee for the Faculty of Medical Leadership and Management (FMLM) and an honorary professor at Swansea University.

Dr Clara Day

Chief medical officer, NHS Birmingham and Solihull

As a consultant kidney doctor at University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust (UHB), Clara has long had a particular interest in the care of patients with long-term health conditions, recognising the impact of wider determinants of health and the need for joined-up care across whole pathways to ensure best patient and population health outcomes. As medical lead for the Birmingham and Solihull COVID-19 programme, she led the clinical collaboration required for successful delivery. These experiences of joined-up system working encouraged her into a broader clinical leadership and the role of integrated care board chief medical officer. As CMO, Clara has a particular focus on quality, joined-up clinical leadership and system-wide long-term condition transformation. She also has an interest in clinical stewardship and ensuring best value for the health and care spend, having held the position of assistant medical director for finance and value in UHB. She has also held national roles for renal within NHS England, including leading the renal community through the first wave of COVID-19, and is a Health Foundation Generation Q fellow.

Dr Matthew Streetly

Consultant haematologist and honorary senior lecturer, Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust and King's College London

Dr Helen Ward

Respiratory and acute medicine consultant, The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust

Helen Ward has been a consultant respiratory physician at The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust since 2013. She is currently the clinical director for emergency services (emergency department and acute medical unit). She has a particular interest in integrated care, breathlessness management and end-of-life care in non-malignant respiratory disease. She was a trustee for the British Thoracic Society (BTS) and a member of the BTS board for 4 years until June 2023. She also represents the BTS on the NHS England Respiratory Delivery Board, which has oversight of the delivery of the Long Term Plan (LTP) for respiratory medicine. She is the chair for the breathlessness national LTP workstream and current West Midlands respiratory clinical director for the respiratory network.

Professor Onn Min Kon

Consultant in respiratory medicine, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust

Professor Onn Min Kon is a respiratory physician and head of service of the tuberculosis (TB) service at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust. He is the president of the British Thoracic Society and professor of respiratory medicine at Imperial College, with an interest in respiratory infections and airway disease. Onn Min chairs the National MDR-TB Clinical Advice Service and organises the annual London Advanced TB course. He is senior author of the TB drug monograph.

Alison Armstrong

Nurse consultant, Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Alison Armstrong is a nurse consultant within the regional North-East Assisted Ventilation Service, where she has worked for over 20 years. Alison represents nursing in a number of groups nationally. She is currently chair of the British Thoracic Society (BTS) Education and Training Committee, and until recently she was co-chair of the BTS Nurse Specialist Advisory Group. She has been the host of the Specialists in Long-term Ventilation at Home (SiLVaH) national network for the last 15 years and is also the chair of the Home Mechanical Ventilation in Partnership (HMViP) group. Alison has an MSc in Practice Development and is an independent prescriber. One of her main interests lies in education. She is passionate about promoting independence and ensuring an enhanced quality of life for her complex patient group.

Professor Nick Maskell

Professor of respiratory medicine, University of Bristol and North Bristol NHS Trust

Nick Maskell undertook his DM thesis on pleural diseases in Oxford prior to taking up a consultant post at North Bristol NHS Trust in 2003 and a University of Bristol post in 2005. His research interests include clinical trials in pleural infection, pneumothorax and pleural malignancy, and patient safety during pleural procedures. He leads the Academic Respiratory Unit at the University of Bristol and the respiratory theme of the Bristol Biomedical Research Centre. He is a National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) senior investigator and currently the chief investigator for a number of NIHR multi-centre randomised controlled trials. His current h-index is 64, with over 250 peer-reviewed publications and 18,800 citations. He is part of the faculty of the newly developed European Respiratory Society (ERS) thoracic ultrasound certified training programme. He co-chaired the 2018 British Thoracic Society (BTS) mesothelioma guidelines and the 2019 ERS malignant pleural effusion taskforce statement. He is also co-chair of the 2023 BTS pleural disease guidelines and 2023 ERS pneumothorax guidelines.

Dr Claire Dewsnap

Consultant genitourinary medicine physician, Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and BASHH

Dr Claire Dewsnap is a consultant physician in genitourinary medicine at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. Claire has delivered in a number of leadership roles within the NHS, including clinical lead for quality improvement across outpatient services. Claire has an interest in education, including being a Dip GUM examiner, and is an honorary senior lecturer at Sheffield University. Her research interests include management of bacterial sexually transmitted infections and online testing. Organisational areas of interest include change implementation, quality and service improvement, and teaching and training. Claire has led and been involved in numerous quality improvement and change implementation projects within the field, both strategically and operationally. Claire became British Association for Sexual Health and HIV (BASHH) conference and communication chair in 2018 and is the current BASHH president.

Dr Catherine Rowan

ST6 respiratory registrar, Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust

Dr Catherine is ST6 specialty registrar in respiratory and general internal medicine. Catherine graduated from Bristol medical school in 2012 with honours and a first-class BSc in physiology. Since graduating, she has worked in West Yorkshire and spent a year working as a medical registrar in Christchurch, New Zealand. She currently works at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust. Catherine has been involved in the Royal College of Physicians since she became associate college tutor in Mid Yorkshire NHS Trust in 2017. In 2022, she joined the RCP Trainees Committee as a Yorkshire representative. More recently she has been elected as deputy chair of the committee.

Dr David Partridge

Consultant microbiologist, Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Dave completed training in infectious diseases and microbiology and was appointed as a consultant microbiologist in Sheffield in 2012. His clinical interests include medical mycology, infections in the immunocompromised host, diabetic foot infection, antimicrobial stewardship and bacteriophage therapy. He is an honorary senior lecturer at the Florey Institute for Host–Pathogen Interactions, University of Sheffield, and is currently president of the British Infection Association.

Dr Laura Waters

Consultant physician in sexual health and HIV, Central and Northwest London NHS Trust

Dr Laura Waters is a HIV and sexual consultant, HIV lead at the Mortimer Market Centre in London and an honorary associate professor at the Institute of Global Health, University College London. She is the national specialty advisor for HIV, chairing the group that advises NHS England on HIV treatment, the immediate past chair of the British HIV Association (BHIVA) and chair of the British Association of Sexual Health and HIV (BASHH) Patient and Public Voice panel. Laura has led or co-authored several national guidelines. She has published and presented widely, is a trustee for The Food Chain and previously for the Terrence Higgins Trust. She teaches regularly at local, regional and national level, including on HIV courses for University College London and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Laura founded the People First Charter in July 2021.

Dr Anne Tunbridge

Consultant physician in infectious diseases, Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Dr Tunbridge has been a consultant in infectious diseases at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals since 2006, following training in Birmingham, London, Liverpool, South Africa, Poole and Sheffield. Her interest in safe management of high-risk imported infections began while she was a registrar, after volunteering to work in Toronto during the SARS outbreak in 2003. She was a member of the UK Advisory Committee for Dangerous Pathogens from 2012–22. In 2014, the Sheffield infectious disease unit was designated as one of four UK Ebola surge capacity centres and is now one of the five national High Consequence Infectious Disease (HCID) units. The HCID network supported the first admissions of patients with COVID-19 in 2020 and Mpox in 2022. Alongside these new and emerging infections, Anne’s specialist clinical interests are in imported infections and HIV medicine. She is the training programme director for infectious diseases in South Yorkshire, and chair of the Specialty Advisory Committee for Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine.

Professor Margaret Kingston

Consultant physician and director of undergraduate medical studies University of Manchester and Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust

Margaret has been a consultant physician in genitourinary medicine at Manchester Royal Infirmary (now part of Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust) for 20 years. She has held many roles in medical education and is presently director of undergraduate medical studies at the University of Manchester. Margaret has been the lead author of the UK guidelines on the management of syphilis since 1995 and is chair of the British Association for Sexual Health and HIV (BASHH) Clinical Effectiveness Group, which oversees all of the UK guidelines for the management of sexually transmitted infections and related conditions.

Dr Hilary Williams

Medical oncology consultant, Velindre Cancer Centre and RCP vice president for Wales

Dr Hilary Williams is vice president for RCP in Wales, was previously a regional adviser in south Wales and elected RCP Council member. RCP Wales aims to champion and support physicians in Wales, whatever their grade or background and whether they work in a big or small hospital or the community. Dr Williams is an GI oncologist based at Velindre Cancer Centre and previous associate medical director. She has developed acute oncology services linking cancer, palliative care and acute care across the UK. She has helped found the UK acute oncology society and develop RCP AOS tool kit 2023. RCP Wales is focusing on reducing health inequalities and leading change on misogyny and harassment in medicine. Dr Williams has developed her leadership and team working skills by both completing and teaching on the King’s Fund Top Manager Programme.

Dr Aicha Bouraoui

Rheumatology ST7, Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust

Aicha Bouraoui is clinical research fellow in adolescent rheumatology and an ST7 in rheumatology and general internal medicine. She is member of the RCP Trainee Committee and content advisor for the RCP medical care driving change. She took part in leadership program, Darzi fellowship and coaching fellowship with the institute for healthcare improvement (IHI). As an ambassador for Personalised Care Institute, Aicha has a keen interest in health coaching and personalised care more broadly, as a means to transform relationships with patients. She is also passionate about driving service improvement and creating meaningful change in the health and care system through a range of mechanisms including co-production.

Dr Theresa Barnes

Consultant rheumatologist, Countess of Chester NHS Hospital Trust and RCP clinical lead for outpatients

Dr Theresa Barnes is a consultant rheumatologist and associate medical director for diagnostics and clinical support services at the Countess of Chester Hospital Foundation Trust. Theresa is providing overarching clinical leadership for the RCP’s work to develop and implement guidance and good practice principles for modern outpatient care, including partnering with NHS England to develop a strategy for outpatient care in 2023. With previous experience as a chief clinical information officer at the Countess of Chester Hospital, she has an interest in how digital solutions will benefit outpatient transformation. Theresa has extensive experience in delivering outpatient transformation locally and is passionate about integrating patient care pathways across primary, secondary and tertiary care. Her focus is on improving patient and staff experience of outpatient care.

Dr Omar Mustafa

Consultant physician in diabetes and general internal medicine, King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

Dr Omar Mustafa is a consultant physician in diabetes and general internal medicine based at King’s College Hospital in London. He is also honorary senior clinical lecturer at King’s College London, training programme director for endocrinology and diabetes in south London and associate global director for the Middle East and North Africa at the RCP. He is interested in the management of complex diabetes, inpatient diabetes, medical education and digital health.

Malcolm Bennison

Diabetes specialist nurse, Kings College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

Malcom has been a diabetes specialist nurse for over 4 years and has worked at five acute trusts across London. He is currently working in the Young Adult Diabetes Team (19–25 years old) at King’s College Hospital.

Dr Katie Malbon

Consultant paediatrician, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust

Having trained in London, Katie moved to New York in 2007 to undertake a fellowship in adolescent medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital. During that time, she established a text messaging service, ‘Text in the City’, for young people attending an adolescent health centre. She used this platform to run a randomised controlled trial into birth control adherence. While in New York, she trained and practised as a forensic medical examiner for cases of sexual assault. Following her fellowship, she worked as an attending consultant in adolescent medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital. In 2013 she took a position at Tribeca Pediatrics, where she developed and led a specialist adolescent service. Katie moved to London in 2015 to take up her current post. She is currently lead for paediatric mental health. She was safeguarding trustee to the Girls’ Day School Trust during the pandemic and currently advises on a health and wellbeing app for young people – Luna. She is a clinical coordinator for NCEPOD.

Dr Hannah Nicholson

Paediatric neurodisability consultant, Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

Hannah is a paediatric neurodisability consultant at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital. She is passionate about improving care for children with medical complexity and their families, and sits on the Executive Committee of the CoLab Partnership as co-lead for education. She is a current innovation fellow at Chelsea and is looking at innovative ways to improve transition to adult care for these young people.

Dr Dawn Wilkinson

Consultant in sexual health and HIV, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust

Dawn Wilkinson has been a consultant in sexual health and HIV at Jefferiss Wing, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, since 2003, with specialist interest areas in contraception and adolescent sexual health. She is an active member of the British Association for Sexual Health and HIV (BASHH) Adolescent Specialist Interest Group. Her recent work includes chairing the writing group for BASHH Management of STIs in children and young people 2021, co-lead for the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health STI CSA chapter working group to update The physical signs of child sexual abuse: an evidence review and best practice guidance, a member of the advisory group to update the national Brook/BASHH Spotting the signs CSE toolkit, and editor of the STI/HIV e-Learning for Healthcare pregnancy and children module. Her hobbies include yoga and travel.

Dr Nicola Burch

Consultant gastroenterologist, clinical lead for nutrition, University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust

Dr Nicola Burch qualified from Leicester Medical School in 2001 and completed her specialist gastroenterology and general medicine training in the East Midlands. She was appointed as a consultant gastroenterologist and clinical lead for nutrition in 2011 at University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust (UHCW) and was clinical lead for gastroenterology from November 2018 until 2022. Since her appointment, she has been instrumental in developing the gastroenterology and intestinal failure service at UHCW, which was designated as a ‘Severe Intestinal Failure’ (SIF) unit in 2022. She is a member of the RCP Advisory Committee on Nutrition and Health and a member of the British Association of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (BAPEN) BANS-IF committee, having previously worked as BAPEN treasurer from 2015 to 2019. She has been involved in several recent national publications including the RCP Feeding at Risk Guidance, RCP Supporting people who have eating and drinking difficulties update, and revised British Society of Gastroenterology gastrostomy guidelines (in press).

Professor Ramesh Arasaradnam

Academic vice president, Royal College of Physicians

Professor Ramesh Arasaradnam was elected as academic vice president and assumed the role in August 2021. Ramesh is a consultant gastroenterologist at University Hospital Coventry & Warwickshire. As well as his clinical work and research interests, he provides teaching, learning and educational leadership at the University of Warwick, University of Coventry and the University of Leicester. Ramesh’s innovative work has had a huge impact on gastroenterology as a specialty, and on efforts to fight COVID-19. In 2020, he received the OBE for services to the NHS during the pandemic as part of the Queen’s Birthday Honours, having designed a clinical trial for a new COVID-19 treatment, known as the IONIC trial. Ramesh led strategic priorities during COVID-19 across the British Society of Gastroenterology (BSG), where he is Chair of the Research Committee. He is Specialty Lead for Gastroenterology for the West Midlands Local Research Network and a member of the Research Advisory Board for the National Bowel Cancer Screening Programme. At the RCP Ramesh is senior college officer for the Communications, Policy and Research directorate. Along with leading and advising on research and academic medicine, his responsibilities include the award-winning RCP Medicine conferences and the RCP’s medical publishing programme.

Dr Barry Monk

Consultant dermatologist, Manor Hospital

Dr Barry Monk studied medicine at Cambridge University and Westminster Medical School, qualifying in 1975. He passed the MRCP in 1977 and trained in dermatology at the Royal Free and King’s College Hospitals, London. Barry went on to establish the dermatology service at Bedford Hospital, where he was a consultant from 1987 to 2012. He then worked part time as a consultant dermatologist at Northampton General Hospital, and retired from the NHS in 2020. He is a past president of the section of dermatology of the Royal Society of Medicine. In 2021 he published a book, Lifeline, on the safety failings of the NHS, which won the 2022 BMA Medical Book Awards in the category ‘Good medical practice’.

Tony Jamieson

Patient safety specialist, Medicines Safety Improvement Programme, NHS England

Throughout his career, Tony has supported others to improve quality and safety, as a dispenser of care, a Local Pharmaceutical Committee secretary, a GP practice pharmacist, a pharmaceutical adviser, and an innovator in patient safety. He brought safety science to general practices, quality improvement methods to community pharmacies and culture change to polypharmacy. He led energetic national communities of practice in stroke prevention and safety in care homes and now leads the NHS England Medicines Safety Improvement Programme.

Nishali Patel

Clinical lead, Digital Medicines Programme, NHS England

Nishali is a pharmacist, clinical lead and clinical safety officer of the Electronic Prescription Service, with 5+ years' experience in the digital health sector. She has led national products and services, such as the Electronic Referral Service and the COVID-19 Test Programme, and more recently the prescriptions feature in the NHS App. Nishali has over 10 years' experience in the hospital sector, specialising in cancer, and has supported build and implementation of local ePMA systems. Nishali completed the Darzi fellowship in 2018 and co-chaired the community pharmacy sub-group of British Oncology Pharmacist Association in 2017–2019.

Professor Miles Witham

Professor of trials for older people, Newcastle University

Professor Miles Witham is Professor of trials for older people in the AGE Research Group at Newcastle University. He is co-lead for the ageing, sarcopenia and multimorbidity theme at NIHR Newcastle Biomedical Research Centre, theme lead for ageing and long-term conditions at NIHR Newcastle MIC and honorary consultant geriatrician at Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals Foundation NHS Trust. His research focuses on ageing and multiple long-term conditions (MLTC) using both clinical trials and routinely collected health and social care data. He co-leads the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI)-funded ART of Healthy Ageing Network for translational ageing research, leads work on pathways of hospital care in the UKRI-funded ADMISSION Research Collaborative, and is workstream co-lead in the cross-NIHR Collaboration on MLTC. Miles was national specialty lead for the NIHR Clinical Research Network Ageing specialty (2019–22) and has a longstanding interest in improving inclusion of under-served groups in clinical research.

Dr Stephen Lim

Consultant geriatrician, University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust

Dr Stephen Lim is a consultant geriatrician at University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust and a principal clinical research fellow at the University of Southampton. He leads a programme of work exploring physical activity and nutrition interventions for older people. He is the theme lead for the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Applied Research Collaboration Wessex Ageing and Dementia theme. He was awarded an NIHR Advanced Fellowship in 2022 to explore the implementation of volunteer-led physical activity intervention for hospitalised older adults to prevent deconditioning. His research interests are in frailty, sarcopenia, physical activity and nutrition.

Dr Shazia Din

GP co-lead, DECaH Hospital at Home team, NHS Tayside

Dr Shazia Din MBChB MRCGP MRCP (Edin) DFSRH previously worked as a GP and accredited trainer in Edinburgh. She is currently working in medicine for older people in Dundee and co-leads the Dundee Enhanced Care at Home (DECaH) team, which aligns itself to hospital at home. Her interests include advanced care planning, patient-centred care and frailty, and she continues to keep her hand in general practice as a locum. She has recently been appointed as the interface representative for the British Geriatrics Society (BGS) Community and Primary Care Group (CPCG) and is a committee member on the UK Hospital at Home Society and BGS Scotland Council.

Dr Lucy Pollock

Consultant geriatrician, Somerset Foundation Trust

Dr Lucy Pollock is a consultant geriatrician. She is passionate about high-quality patient-centred care of older people. She believes that we all will all become old if we are lucky – older people are just the rest of us, grown up. Lucy enjoys meeting and teaching students and allied health professionals, and watching trainees learn what it is about geriatric medicine that is so irresistible. She trained at Cambridge and Barts and worked as a junior doctor in the East End, Camden and Lambeth, before moving to Somerset in 1997. She chaired a clinical ethics committee for 10 years, sat on the NICE hypertension guidelines update group and is currently clinical director for frailty at Somerset NHS Foundation Trust. She’s proud to have contributed a tiny part of the Medicine for Older People syllabus for Bristol University Medical School, which she confidently believes to be the most comprehensive, effective (and popular) undergraduate training in geriatric medicine in the world.

Dr Ruth Law

Consultant geriatrician, Whittington Health NHS Trust, and RCP Censor

Ruth Law is a consultant physician in integrated geriatric medicine and general internal medicine at Whittington Health NHS Trust in London where she is clinical lead. Within her department she has set up the nationally renowned Integrated community ageing team (ICAT) which delivers comprehensive geriatric assessment to care home residents and housebound older people. Ruth is currently deputy honorary secretary of the British Geriatrics Society. She was selected to join the first cohort of the RCP’s Emerging Women Leaders Programme and elected to RCP Council in 2019. She is currently one of the RCP Censors. She also contributes widely to postgraduate education; she has been a question writer for the specialty certificate examination (SCE) in geriatric medicine since 2017 and sits on the SCE Exam Board. She is also a PACES examiner and is passionate about integrated multidisciplinary working and interdisciplinary learning to deliver person-centred care for frail older people.

Dr Nana Gyimah-Kessie

Stroke and COTE Registrar, Wrexham Maelor Hospital

Dr Tim Cooksley

Consultant in acute medicine, The Christie NHS Foundation Trust

Tim is a consultant in acute medicine at Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust and honorary consultant at The Christie. He is honorary senior lecturer at the University of Manchester. Tim is currently president of the Society for Acute Medicine (SAM) and a member of RCP Council. He was previously treasurer of SAM. He is also on the founding board of the UK Acute Oncology Society. Tim has been involved in several national projects focused on the development of urgent and emergency care. He was co-chair of the acute care workstream for the 10-year NHS England urgent and emergency care plan. Tim has led the development of an acute medical and specialty support service at a tertiary cancer hospital. He has co-authored national and international guidelines for the emergency management of acute cancer presentations.

Dr Thomas Knight

Dr Thomas Knight is a trainee in acute and general internal medicine and a doctoral clinical research fellow at the University of Birmingham. His current research focuses on the use of routinely collected health care data to optimise the acute care pathway. His work has a particular focus on older people living with frailty and care models which deliver hospital level care in community settings.

Dr Cat Atkin

Assistant clinical professor in acute medicine, University of Birmingham

Cat is an assistant professor in acute medicine at the University of Birmingham, working within the Birmingham Acute Care Research group, and a consultant in acute medicine at Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham. She recently completed her training in the West Midlands deanery. Cat is currently the lead for the Society for Acute Medicine Benchmarking Audit (SAMBA); her research interest is in patient pathways through acute medicine services, particularly same-day emergency care.

Dr Sarb Clare

Deputy chief medical officer, acute medical consultant, NHSEI Midlands AIM RCA, Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust

Dr Sarb Clare is the deputy medical director and an acute medical consultant at SWBH NHS Trust. She is the NHSEI Midlands regional adviser for acute internal medicine. She was the first appointed acute physician at City Hospital in Birmingham in 2008, where she set up acute medicine from infancy and has been pivotal in developing acute medicine regionally and nationally. She is a national/international pioneer in point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS), on which she lectures and teaches nationally. She runs a yearly course, ‘Ultrasound at the front door’, and has created many free online learning tools and released her first medical book Ultrasound for the generalist – a guide to point of care imaging in 2021. She is taking POCUS out into the community with her Hospital At Home project (EPICENTRE). She leads a Women Empowering Women movement, hosts a podcast and has delivered a TEDx Talk on the subject. In 2020 she was awarded an MBE Queen’s Honour for her service to the NHS and her leadership during the pandemic.

Dr Latif Raiyan Rahman

Chief registrar, specialist medicine, University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust

Latif Raiyan Rahman obtained his MBBS degree from Dhaka Medical College, Bangladesh in 2014. He has been working as a HST in acute internal medicine and general internal medicine since 2019 and is currently working as chief registrar at University Hospitals of Leicester (UHL). Alongside his work at UHL, he is currently working at the RCP Trainee Committee, as a trainee representative for acute medicine at the Society for Acute Medicine (SAM) Council, and is currently doing an MSc in medical education at the University of Nottingham. Latif has special interests in point of care ultrasound and echo, medical education and leadership. He holds the post of secretary for international affairs at the Acute and Critical Care Physicians’ Foundation Bangladesh (ACCPFB). He has authored a book called Acute Medicine in Ward for

Dr Shivan Sivakumar

Associate professor of oncology, University of Birmingham

2023–present: associate professor, University of Birmingham. Honorary consultant in medical oncology, University Hospitals of Birmingham NHS Trust. 2019–2023: Clinical career development fellow, University of Oxford. Bristol Myers Squibb translational fellow. Honorary consultant in medical oncology, Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. 2015–2019: National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) academic clinical lecturer in medical oncology, University of Oxford. 2013–2015: NIHR academic clinical fellow in medical oncology, University of Leeds / Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust. 2010–2013: Cancer Research UK clinical research fellow, University of Cambridge. 2008–2010: Academic Foundation Programme, University of Leeds / Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust. 2002–2008: undergraduate medical student, Queen Mary University of London.

Professor Johann de Bono

Regius professor of cancer research, professor of experimental cancer medicine and honorary consultant in medical oncology, head of the Division of Clinical Studies, director of the Drug Development Unit and head of the Prostate Cancer Targeted Therapy Group, Institute of Cancer Research and Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust

Johann de Bono is a leader in cancer drug development and prostate cancer, changing the treatment of advanced prostate cancer through trials of abiraterone, cabazitaxel, enzalutamide, olaparib and lutetium PSMA (prostate-specific membrane antigen). His work on PARP inhibitors for advanced prostate cancer led to discovering that germline and somatic DNA repair defects are common in lethal prostate cancer and has led to routine somatic and germline mutation testing in these patients for DNA repair genes, including BRCA2. His group co‐led studies mapping the genomic landscape of advanced prostate cancer, developing circulating biomarkers for managing these diseases. He has also led on the clinical development of many other novel agents, including the AKT inhibitor ipatasertib, ATR inhibitors, immunoconjugates and radioimmunoconjugates targeting for example PSMA, and multi‐specific antibody constructs

Dr Carys Phillips

Acute medicine SpR, Cardiff and Vale University Health Board

Carys is an acute medicine trainee in Wales. Her specialist skill during training has been acute oncology, which has led her to participate in revising the RCP acute oncology toolkit. When not in work, she can be found running, cycling or chasing around after her increasingly ambulant baby!

Dr Dalip Kumar

Consultant in emergency medicine and trauma director, Southend University Hospital

Dr Kate Fayers

Consultant diabetologist, Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust

Patient empowerment has been at the heart of Kate’s strategy for developing an intermediate community diabetes service, which has relocated type 1 and type 2 diabetes care into the community since 2010. Kate’s interest in leadership development and quality improvement has supported the development of a number of transformation projects across many aspects of diabetes care, improving community integration and access across west Hampshire. Kate’s current roles include training programme director for diabetes and endocrinology, less-than-full-time trust champion and Association of British Clinical Diabetologists (ABCD) meeting secretary.

Dr Peter Hammond

Consultant endocrinologist, Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust

Dr Peter Hammond qualified from Oxford University in 1987 and completed his MD thesis at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School in 1993. He has been a consultant physician specialising in diabetes and endocrinology in Harrogate since 1996. He has established Harrogate as a nationally recognised centre for insulin pump therapy and related technologies, such as continuous glucose sensing. He has a particular interest in the use of these technologies to improve the outcomes for diabetes in pregnancy. Peter has been expert adviser to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) appraisals of insulin pump therapy. He was NHS diabetes clinical lead for insulin pump therapy, a member of the NICE type 1 diabetes in adults guideline development group and co-author of the Diabetes Technology Network (DTN) guidelines on insulin pump therapy and use of diabetes technology in pregnancy. He has been involved in research into the role of insulin pump therapy and related technologies, notably the Five Nations Study, REPOSE, SMILE, ADAPT and the NHS England closed loop pilot.

Dr Umasuthan Srirangalingam

Consultant in endocrinology and diabetes, University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Umasuthan Srirangalingam is a consultant physician in endocrinology and diabetes based at University College London Hospitals (UCLH). He graduated from the University of Edinburgh in 1999 and completed specialist training in endocrinology and diabetes at St Bartholomew’s Hospital, London. Umasuthan was awarded a PhD in 2012, investigating the use of splicing therapeutics in hormonal systems, and went on to gain an NIHR Clinical Lectureship developing an interest in adrenal disease and hereditary paraganglioma syndromes. At University College London Hospitals (UCLH) he leads the endocrine service for congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH), male hypogonadism/infertility and Klinefelter syndrome. Umasuthan is actively involved in clinical trials and is a keen educator and has been recognised with a 'Top Teacher' award at UCL.

Dr Dipesh Patel

Consultant physician in diabetes and endocrinology, Royal Free NHS Foundation Trust, and honorary clinical associate professor, University College London

Dr Dipesh C Patel is a consultant physician involved in the delivery of specialist clinical care in diabetes and general endocrinology and acute medicine at the Royal Free Hospital and Cleveland Clinic in London. His academic interests include cardiovascular disease, lipids and type 2 diabetes; he undertook work in cellular cholesterol transport, leading to a PhD in 2010 at Imperial College. He has an interest in the use of newer diabetes therapies and clinical trials. He has undergraduate teaching lead and clinical trial responsibilities at the Royal Free campus and is an honorary clinical associate professor at University College London. Dr Patel has had a number of specialist advisory roles for the RCP and NHS England, and is ex-chairman of the national body of UK diabetes consultant physicians and trainees, the Association of British Clinical Diabetologists (ABCD).

Dr Natalie Vanderpant

Specialist registrar in diabetes and endocrinology, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust

Dr Nwe Ni Than

Consultant hepatologist, University Hospital Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust

Dr Nwe Ni Than is a consultant hepatologist working at the University Hospital Coventry. Her area of interest is metabolic steatotic liver disease, liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma.

Dr Melanie Nana

NIHR clinical research fellow, Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust

Dr Shanika de Silva

Consultant gastroenterologist, Dudley Group NHS Trust

Shanika graduated from the University of Leeds, completed a master’s in education at the University of Warwick and an IBD fellowship at University of Calgary in Canada while completing gastroenterology training in the West Midlands. Shanika has worked as a consultant with a subspecialty interest in IBD since 2010 and is actively involved in teaching, research and recently completed training in bowel ultrasound in IBD.

Professor Catherine Williamson

Professor of women's health, Imperial College London

Catherine Williamson is professor of women’s health at Imperial College London. She is also a consultant in obstetric medicine at Queen Charlotte’s, St Thomas’ and King’s College Hospitals. She is a fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences and a NIHR senior investigator. In her clinical practice she manages women with medical disorders in pregnancy. Her research focuses on the endocrine signals that influence alterations in bile acid, lipid and glucose homeostasis in normal and pathological pregnancies. She also studies the maternal and fetal aetiology, outcomes and management of intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy, gestational diabetes mellitus, thyroid disease and severe hyperemesis gravidarum.

Dr Kathryn Mannix

Writer and retired palliative physician

As a pioneer-generation palliative physician, and a founder member of the Association for Palliative Medicine, Kathryn knitted her own training scheme that included a postgraduate qualification in cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), as well as a period in research that developed her interest in the management of nausea. Kathryn has served as a consultant in a hospice, in the hospital palliative care service of a large UK teaching hospital and in community settings. Her research includes developing and evaluating CBT interventions in a palliative care setting. She believes that we have lost familiarity with dying, both as a nation and as a profession, and she is working to restore the lost wisdom of the deathbed. Her first book, With the end in mind, was shortlisted for the Wellcome book prize and is a Times book of the year. Her second book, Listen, was published to critical acclaim by William Collins in September 2021. She’s still getting over her surprise.

Dr Natasha Wiggins

Consultant in palliative medicine, Great Western Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

Dr Natasha Wiggins trained at Imperial College London. She works as clinical lead and consultant in palliative medicine for the Great Western Hospital Foundation Trust. She is co-chair of the trust Clinical Ethics Committee, co-clinical lead for Schwartz rounds, chairs the tri-regional end of life guidelines and formulary group, and digital EOL lead rolling out the UK's first digital ReSPECT. She is treasurer for the Association of Palliative Medicine for the UK and Ireland, sub-editor of the BMJ Journal of Pain and Symptom Management, and holds several national advisory roles. Natasha gained a distinction in a masters in palliative medicine at the Cicely Saunders Institute and was nominated for the Cicely Saunders Medal. She feels particularly passionately about the importance of good pharmacological knowledge in palliative care, strong communication skills education for all, the value of the arts in medicine, and ways in which we can increase environmental sustainability in healthcare.

Dr Stephanie Meddick-Dyson

Academic clinical fellow in palliative medicine, Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust

Stephanie Meddick-Dyson is a National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) academic clinical fellow in palliative medicine, working in Yorkshire. After completing acute medical training with time spent working in the emergency department, intensive care and medical specialties, Stephanie chose to focus on acute palliative care. Although her clinical work covers the breadth of palliative and end-of-life care, her area of interest for research is palliative care within the intensive care unit, particularly implementation of interventions. She created the End-of-life and Palliative Care in the ICU Research Network (EPCIN) in order to share knowledge between professionals and drive collaboration (@EPCINetwork).

Dr Sarah Cox

Consultant in palliative medicine, Chelsea and Westminster NHS Hospital Foundation Trust

Dr Sarah Cox trained in palliative medicine in London and was appointed to a new consultant post at Royal Trinity Hospice and Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in 1998. She is an honorary consultant at Royal Hospital Chelsea (for the Chelsea pensioners). She is lead medical examiner at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital. She also runs the clinical decision support group, set up in March 2020 to support clinicians with challenging decisions 24/7. Her clinical work is now focused in the acute hospital setting. She has a special interest in the palliative care of people living with non-malignant conditions, including people living with HIV and patients within an intensive care unit. She was elected vice president of the Association for Palliative Medicine of GB and Ireland in 2021 and became its president in March 2023.

Dr David Brooks

Macmillan consultant in palliative medicine, Chesterfield Royal Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

David Brooks has been Macmillan consultant in palliative medicine in Chesterfield Royal Hospital and Ashgate Hospice for 25 years. He is the chair of the RCP Joint Specialty Committee for Palliative Medicine and past president of the Association for Palliative Medicine. He has been a member of the RCP Specialty Advisory Committee on Palliative Medicine and a member of the Palliative Medicine Specialty Certificate Examination Board and now sits on the standard-setting group. Until recently, he was a member of the National Audit of Care at the End of Life (NACEL) steering group. He was a member of the Leadership Alliance for the Care of Dying People Clinical Advisory Group and advised on ‘One chance to get it right’. He set up a pioneering service in 2008 for patients with suspected malignancy of unknown primary origin, which he still leads, and went on to be a member of the NICE Guideline Development Group on this topic.

Professor Alf Collins

Clinical director for personalised care, NHS England

Professor Alf Collins is NHS England’s clinical director for personalised care. Shared decision making, care planning, self-management support, social prescribing and health literacy sit within his policy portfolio. He was a community consultant in pain management for many years and, in parallel, worked for a decade with the Health Foundation, helping to lead applied research and implementation programmes in person-centred care. He has researched and published widely on all aspects of person-centred care and has a particular interest in ‘changing the relationship’ between patients and healthcare professionals. He has honorary fellowships from the RCP and the Royal College of General Practitioners and a visiting professorship in healthcare policy at Coventry University.

Eddie Kinsella

Chair of the Royal College of Physicians patient and carer network