Programme

Professor Sanjay Agrawal

Consultant in respiratory and intensive care medicine, University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust

Professor Sanjay Agrawal is the RCP’s special adviser on tobacco and chairs the RCP Tobacco Advisory Group. This group has published several reports and recommendations on the treatment of tobacco dependency and tobacco control over several decades. Many of the recommendations from these reports have gone on to become adopted within national health policy, most notably setting up tobacco dependency treatment services for all in-patients and maternity services in England. The most recent report focused on the role of e-cigarettes.

Dr Louise Restrick

Integrated consultant respiratory physician, Whittington Health NHS Trust

Dr Louise Restrick is an integrated consultant respiratory physician at the Whittington Hospital, London. She co-leads an award-winning multi-disciplinary COPD team with a long-standing commitment to delivering evidence-based treatment for tobacco dependence as a key component of high-value respiratory care. Louise co-led the 2010–16 London Respiratory Team that developed the ‘COPD Value Pyramid’ and the London Clinical Senate ‘Helping Smokers Quit Programme’, was a member of the 2019 NICE COPD Guidelines Group that named ‘smoking cessation’ as a ‘Fundamental of COPD care’, and is a co-author of the 2024 British Thoracic Society clinical statement on the ‘Medical management of inpatients with tobacco dependency’.

Jacqui Pollington

Respiratory nurse consultant, The Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust

Jacqui Pollington has worked in respiratory care for over 30 years. A registered nurse, independent prescriber with an MSc in advanced nursing, she has led service development in the fields of asthma, COPD, pulmonary rehabilitation, home oxygen therapy, virtual wards, and bronchiectasis. Jacqui has co-authored several British Thoracic Society clinical statements and is the chair of the BTS Specialist Advisory Group on tobacco dependency. She was clinical lead for South Yorkshire's QUIT Programme.

Professor Matthew Evison

Arran Woodhouse

Lead tobacco dependence specialist, Kings College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

Arran Woodhouse has been working in the field of tobacco dependence for over 20 years, working in both acute and community settings. He is the clinical lead for tobacco dependence at King’s College Hospital and was responsible for implementing a version of the Ottawa Model for Smoking Cessation at an NHS England early implementer site. Arran has a background in health psychology and worked with NICE on the latest Tobacco guideline (NG209) as a topic expert, and the Tobacco: treating dependence quality standard (QS207) as a Specialist Committee member. He is a past member of the British Thoracic Society’s Tobacco Specialist Advisory Group and recently worked as a co-author for the National Centre for Smoking Cessation Training (NCSCT) on the NHS standard treatment plan for inpatient tobacco dependence and associated training package.

Dr Shiva Misra

Professor Ketan Dhatariya

Consultant in diabetes and endocrinology and honorary professor of medicine, Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Professor Ketan Dhatariya graduated from the University of London in 1991 and did his diabetes and endocrinology training in and around London. He was also a part-time GP and took some time out of his training to spend a year doing intensive care medicine and anaesthetics. After he finished his training in 2001, he went to do a research fellowship in endocrinology at the Mayo Clinic. He was appointed as a consultant in diabetes, endocrinology and general medicine at Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital in 2004, and as honorary professor of medicine at the University of East Anglia in 2019. Ketan has several national roles. He is the chair of the Association of British Clinical Diabetologists, and was also the chair of the Joint British Diabetes Societies Inpatient Care Group. He is the chair of the Examining Board for the UK Specialist Clinical Exam in Diabetes and Endocrinology. He is the section co-editor for diabetes for www.endotext.org. He is an associate editor of Diabetic Medicine. Ketan has over 190 peer-reviewed publications, and has published over 20 book chapters on inpatient diabetes, perioperative diabetes care or on the diabetic foot.

Dr Helen Simpson

Consultant endocrinologist, University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Dr Helen Simpson is a consultant endocrinologist who has worked at UCLH since 2017 and at Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge for 12 years prior to that. She has extensive clinical experience within endocrinology, in outpatient and inpatient settings, including seeing referrals in ED, acute medicine and surgery, oncology, neurosurgery and ICU. Helen is clinical lead for endocrinology and outpatient transformation at UCLH, with a focus on patient safety and the aim to make outpatient services fit for the new world. She is an active member of the Society for Endocrinology (SfE), recently being elected to Council, and was delighted to receive the 2021 award for outstanding clinical practitioner. Helen is also member of the RCP Patient Safety Committee, working with the RCP, SfE and NHSE&I to improve care for all patients with adrenal insufficiency, including the NHS emergency steroid card. She is also topic adviser for the NICE guideline – the focus of the session at Medicine+. She works closely with patients support groups, and leads Twitter chats on adrenal insufficiency and other endocrinology issues.

Dr Narendra Reddy

Consultant endocrinologist, University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust

Dr Narendra Reddy is a consultant endocrinologist, head of service and an honorary senior lecturer in University Hospitals of Leicester. He completed endocrinology specialist training in Oxford and obtained an MD research degree from the University of Warwick for the topic of 'Endocrine determinants of brown fat' research. Narendra’s areas of interest are adrenal, pituitary and electrolyte disorders of sodium and calcium. He has authored multiple publications in leading journals and is a co-author of the national guideline for pituitary apoplexy management. Narendra has written book chapters and is currently an editor of the endocrinology chapter of Kumar and Clarke’s Clinical Medicine. He is currently East Midlands lead for the Clinical Research Network (NIHR) of Metabolism and Endocrinology portfolio, and is involved in the management and conduction of clinical research studies. Narendra is also a member of the Society for Endocrinology Clinical Committee and is on the advisory panel for Parathyroid UK.

Dr Rupert Major

Clinical associate professor and honorary consultant nephrologist, University of Leicester and University Hospital of Leicester NHS Trust

Amy Needleman

Dr Kristin Veighey

NIHR academic clinical fellow in general practice, University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust

Dr Kristin Veighey graduated from Queen’s University Belfast in 2004, prior to moving to Southampton. After a 4-year period as a junior doctor in Wessex, she started renal specialty training in London (North Thames) and completed a PhD. During her research time she supported a multinational clinical trial (REPAIR), and developed a passion for clinical research to improve patient care. She transferred to Portsmouth, where she completed her training, and then worked as a consultant nephrologist for 5 years before making the decision to retrain as a clinical academic GP. Kristin is currently leading on National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR)-funded research to understand how we can better identify and manage people with chronic kidney disease (CKD) in primary care. She sits on the UK Kidney Association CKD Special Interest Group (SIG), leads the Society for Academic Primary Care SIG and works closely with the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Integrated Care System and industry partners to support improvement projects for people living with CKD. She has established a PCN kidney clinic, led by a GP with an extended role (GPwER) in renal medicine, a role that they are working towards being formally recognised by the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP). In addition to this, Kristin works part time at University Hospital Southampton (UHS) as a co-associate director of the Southampton Academy of Research. In this role she leads the UHS Research Leaders’ Programme.

Yusuf Jinadu

Fiona Loud

Policy director, Kidney Care UK

Fiona Loud is policy director of Kidney Care UK, the leading kidney patient support charity providing advice, support and financial assistance to thousands of people every year. She led the charity’s work on COVID-19, the organ donation opt-out law, and continuation of dialysis provision in the EU post-Brexit. Fiona is involved with numerous other groups, working to improve standards of care for kidney patients. She set up and chaired the UK Renal Registry Patient Council and has contributed as a lay representative to many of the kidney guidelines produced by NICE, including those on CKD. She is also chair of the Organ Donation Committee at West Herts Hospital. Fiona spent 5 years on dialysis after her kidneys failed, because of rare disease tuberous sclerosis and kidney cancer, before receiving a transplant from her husband in late 2006. She was voted a HSJ top 50 patient leader and recently become an honorary member of the UK Kidney Association in recognition of her outstanding contribution to the UK kidney community.

Dr Dan Furmedge

Consultant physician in geriatric and internal medicine, IMT Stage 1 TPD, RCP censor, honorary senior clinical lecturer, Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust

Dr Dan Furmedge is a consultant physician in geriatric and internal medicine at Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust. He is also training programme director for internal medicine stage 1, honorary senior clinical lecturer, and censor for RCP London. Dan’s main interests within geriatric medicine are pragmatic individualised care and shared decision making. He is concerned about the rapid loss of generalist skills and the concept of 'too much medicine', particularly for frail older adults. He is an advocate for physicians to be more confident in managing conditions more broadly without needing to call a specialist for everything. Dan is also keen on promoting better treatment escalation, advance care planning and reducing polypharmacy.

Dr Elena Mucci

Consultant geriatrician, East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust

Dr Elena Mucci trained as a geriatrician at King’s College Hospital, London and was a visiting geriatrician at Yale University Hospitals, USA. She was appointed as a consultant geriatrician in 2011 and has been based at Conquest Hospital since. Elena is passionate about delivering personalised care to her patients and her areas of interest are frailty, polypharmacy and anticipatory care planning. Elena is also an honorary senior clinical lecturer at Brighton and Sussex Medical School and is very passionate about education and training. She is a national and international speaker and her talks have been praised as most engaging and practical sessions with tools for everyday use.

Dr Norris Igbineweka

Specialist registrar haematology and clinical research PhD fellow in haematology, King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

Dr Norris Igbineweka is a haematology registrar at King’s College Hospital, London. He is completing his PhD at Imperial College London in molecular haematology using gene editing experimental work to investigate certain undiagnosed red blood diseases in collaboration with Oxford University. Norris is also part of the UK arm of an international multicentre study, investigating genomic integrity and the safety of gene therapy in patients with sickle cell disease (SCD). Norris’ research interests surround exploring novel gene environmental modulators that may contribute to the understanding of SCD phenotype through studying space and microgravity effects on SCD red blood cells. This initial work has led to acceptance of a first-author publication in the journal Nature Genomic Medicine. Norris has done previous research into fetal haemoglobin (HbF), a known biological marker of clinical severity in SCD. For his academic clinical fellowship, Norris initiated studies examining genetic regulators of HbF in patients with haematological malignancies. He found that some HbF gene variants may affect pathobiological processes and treatment responses in certain blood cancers. This study received a BSH early investigator grant, ASH abstract achievement award, abstract publication in the journal Blood, and a full manuscript in Annals of Haematology and Oncology. In 2016, Dr Norris was awarded and undertook a Fulbright scholarship for research at the NIH SCD branch, USA.

Dr Anita Arasaretnam

Consultant haematologist, University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust

Dr Anita Arasaretnam has been a consultant haematologist based in Brighton since 2015, having trained at King's College London. Her haematology interests include education and liaison haematology, as well as a sub speciality focus on myeloproliferative neoplasms.

Dr Michael Desborough

Consultant haematologist, Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Dr Michael Desborough is a consultant haematologist at Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, honorary consultant haematologist at NHS Blood and Transplant and associate professor of haematology at the University of Oxford. Clinically, he subspecialises in immunohaematology, obstetric haematology and transfusion medicine. He leads the Oxford thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP) and immune thrombocytopenia (ITP) centres. His research is in the field of platelet disorders and platelet dysfunction, including randomised trials of reversal agents for anti-platelet drugs in intracerebral haemorrhage. https://www.rdm.ox.ac.uk/people/michael-desborough.

Dr Sarah Wheeldon

ST7 haematology registrar, Royal Devon and Exeter University Healthcare Foundation Trust

Dr Sarah Wheeldon is an ST7 haematology specialty training registrar in Exeter, having commenced her specialty training in the Peninsula Deanery in 2019. Sarah went to medical school at the University of Oxford, followed by foundation training in Thames Valley, core medical training in Peninsula and a trust grade post in ICU in Exeter. She has an undergraduate degree in physiological sciences and a postgraduate certificate in clinical education (PgCert). In 2023/2024 Sarah held a 1-year post with NHS Blood and Transplant as a transfusion education fellow, responsible for populating the RCPath Pathology Portal. Her main interests include transfusion, clotting, liaison haematology and medical education.

Dr Liberty-Isabelle Todd

IMT 1 doctor, University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust

Dr Liberty-Isabelle Todd is currently working as an IMT 1 doctor in Plymouth. She is the chair for the Student and Trainee Association for Sexual Health and HIV (STASHH), working as part of the British Association of Sexual Health and HIV (BASHH) to create educational resources, generate project opportunities and endorse leadership development for medical students and early career doctors, with the aim to widen access and encourage them to consider a career genitourinary medicine (GUM).

Professor Margaret Kingston

Consultant physician, Manchester Royal Infirmary

Margaret is a consultant physician in genitourinary medicine at Manchester Royal Infirmary and is lead author of the UK national guidelines for the management of syphilis. She is also director of undergraduate medical studies at the University of Manchester.

Dr Elizabeth Okecha

Consultant in GUM and HIV | clinical lead, St Helens Sexual Health | Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust

Dr Elizabeth Okecha is a consultant in genitourinary (GUM) and HIV medicine, as well as clinical lead for St Helens Sexual Health Clinic in Merseyside. Elizabeth has recently been appointed as key opinion lead for the St Helens borough HIV fast track cities and is chair of the British Association for Sexual Health and HIV (BASHH) HIV and Blood Borne Virus Special Interest Group. Within the RCP, Elizabeth is the GUM and HIV representative to the Joint Specialty Committee for Infectious Diseases. She has a keen interest in education and completed a postgraduate certificate in medical education during her higher specialist training. Elizabeth is a faculty registered trainer for contraception, STI foundation trainer for GUM, and an honorary research fellow at the University of Bristol.

Dr Joseph Heskin

Consultant in genitourinary and HIV medicine, Chelsea and Westminster NHS Foundation Trust

Dr Joseph Heskin is a consultant in genitourinary and HIV medicine at 10 Hammersmith Broadway Clinic in West London. He is also a clinical tutor at Imperial College London Medical School, and a forensic physician at The Havens SARC. Joseph diagnosed the first UK case of sexually acquired Mpox in 2022 and was part of the national and international response to the outbreak with an ongoing clinical and research interest in the topic.

Dr Jessica Manson

Consultant rheumatologist, University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Dr Jessica Manson is a consultant rheumatologist at University College London Hospital (UCLH) and an honorary associate professor at University College London (UCL). She is a general rheumatologist with a special interest in acute rheumatology and hyperinflammation. Jessica leads the multidisciplinary haemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH) service at UCLH, helping to manage patients with complex needs from around the UK. She also co-founded and co-chairs HiHASC, a group of doctors and scientists committed to improving outcome for patients with HLH and other forms of hyperinflammation. She did her PhD at UCL on lupus nephritis and now co-leads a hyperinflammation translational research programme.

Professor Abhishek

Professor of rheumatology, The University of Nottingham

Abhishek is a professor of rheumatology at the University of Nottingham and honorary consultant rheumatologist at the Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust. He qualified in 1999 from Seth GS Medical College in Mumbai (India) and completed residency in internal medicine from NSCB Medical College in Jabalpur (India). After initial medical training posts in Rhyl, Cardiff and Liverpool, Abhishek joined the Rheumatology and General Medicine Specialist Registrar Training Programme in Nottingham (2005–2013). Here, he developed a clinical and research interest in crystal arthritis. He completed a PhD on calcium pyrophosphate deposition (CPPD) in 2012. After completing his clinical and research training in January 2013, Abhishek took up a substantiative NHS consultant rheumatologist post in Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge, where he worked till August 2014. He moved back to the University of Nottingham in September 2014 when the opportunity arose to take up a clinical academic appointment as clinical associate professor of rheumatology and pursue his research interests. He was promoted to full professor in August 2020. Apart from crystal arthritis, Abhishek’s other research interests include epidemiology of autoimmune rheumatic diseases, osteoarthritis, pragmatic clinical trials and clinical effectiveness studies using big-data, and evidence-based medicine. Abhishek was the co-PI of ‘American College of Rheumatology/European League Against Rheumatism CPPD classification criteria’ project, and co-chairs the OMERACT CPPD Working Group. He is also the founding co-convenor of British Society for Rheumatology Crystal Arthritis Special Interest Group.

Professor Hector Chinoy

Professor of rheumatology and neuromuscular disease| consultant rheumatologist, The University of Manchester

Hector Chinoy is professor of rheumatology and neuromuscular disease at the University of Manchester, UK, where he leads an active programme of translational research within the Manchester Myositis Research Group. He is an honorary consultant rheumatologist at Salford Royal Hospital, and runs the Salford Neuromuscular Clinic, also offering an active trial programme for myositis patients. He is chair of the international MYONET registry, a consortium that collects standardised clinical data globally. As of July 2024, he has 247 publications and an h-index of 52.