General Update Speakers

Chairs

Dr Fiona Godlee
Fiona Godlee has been Editor in Chief of the British Medical Journal (BMJ) since 2005. She qualified as a doctor in 1985, trained as a general physician in Cambridge and London, and is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians. Since joining the BMJ in 1990, she has written on a broad range of subjects, including the impact of environmental degradation on health, the future of the World Health Organization, the ethics of academic publication and the problems of editorial peer review.

In 1994 she spent a year at Harvard University as a Harkness Fellow evaluating efforts to bridge the gap between medical research and practice. On returning to the UK, Fiona led the development of BMJ Clinical Evidence, which evaluates the best available evidence on the benefits and harms of treatments and is now provided world wide to over a million clinicians in nine languages. In 2000 she moved to the Current Science Group to establish the open access online publisher BioMed Central as Editorial Director for Medicine. In 2003 she returned to the BMJ Publishing Group to head its new Knowledge division. She has served as President of the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME) and Chair of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and is co-editor of Peer Review in Health Sciences. She lives in Cambridge with her husband and two children.

Professor Domhnall MacAuley
Domhnall MacAuley is currently honorary professor in the Faculty of Life and Health Science at the University of Ulster. He is practising both in general practice and sport and exercise medicine. At the BMJ Publishing Group he has been Editor of the British Journal of Sports Medicine and is now a senior editor at the BMJ with a particular focus on primary care. Professor MacAuley has published widely, most recently the Oxford Handbook of Sport and Exercise Medicine (Dec 2006) and a new edition of Evidence Based Sports Medicine (April 2007).

Professor Mike Pringle
Mike Pringle is Professor of General Practice and Head of the School of Community Health Sciences in the University of Nottingham. He is a member of the General Medical Council and a board member of UK Biobank. He was chairman of the RCGP from 1998 to2001. Mike has recently ceased to be a partner in a rural Nottinghamshire practice and instead is helping to run the Collingham Healthcare Education Centre, an innovative primary care development project. He has recently completed his secondment as part-time national clinical lead for general practice in NHS Connecting for Health and is now strategic director of PRIMIS+.

Dr George Rae
George Rae is the senior partner of a GP practice in Whitley Bay. He is the present chairman of the national BMA Council and General Practitioners Committee and the previous chairman of the annual conference of local medical committees.

Professor Martin Underwood
Martin Underwood is a GP in Coventry and professor of primary care research at Warwick Medical School. His main area of research interest is in management of chronic musculoskeletal disorders including back pain, chronic widespread pain, osteoarthritis and gout in the community.

Dr Philip Cotton
Philip Cotton is a Senior Lecturer in General Practice and Primary Care at the University of Glasgow, where he is Convenor of Community Based Education and Director of Vocational Studies in the Medical School. His research is in medical education and respiratory disease. He has an interest in developing world medical curricula. Dr Cotton is a GP in Springburn and medical examiner with Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture. He is chair of the West of Scotland Faculty of the RCGP. 

Respiratory Medicine

Dr Hilary Pinnock
Hilary Pinnock is a Principal in General Practice in Kent. She also holds a Clinical Research Fellowship in Primary Care in the Division of Community Health Sciences at the University of Edinburgh. Her research interests focus on delivering respiratory care in the “real life” setting of primary care, including evaluating telephone reviews for asthma, the role of GPs with a Special Interest, and the palliative care needs of people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. She is actively involved in the education programme of the General Practice Airways Group, and chairs the self management evidence review group of the British Thoracic Society SIGN asthma guideline. She lectures extensively to GPs, nurses, and pharmacists, both nationally and internationally.

Dr Jon Miles
Jon Miles trained at St Mary’s Hospital Medical School and qualified in 1986. His respiratory training was undertaken in Birmingham and in Wellington NZ, where he developed an interest in severe asthma and allergy. He has been a consultant physician in North Manchester since 1996 and runs severe asthma, allergy, and pleural clinics there. Dr Miles is also one of the NW Deanery associate deans and helps with education research there.

Dr Kevin Gruffydd-Jones
Kevin Gruffydd-Jones trained at the University of Oxford and is a principal in general practice and GP trainer in Box, near Bath. He has a special interest in sports medicine and respiratory medicine. Kevin has research interests in asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and is an honorary lecturer at the Universities of Bath and Aberdeen. He is ex-education lead and current joint policy lead of the General Practice Airways Group and has spoken at national and international meetings. Dr Gruffydd-Jones is involved in the development of national guidelines for asthma and COPD management and guidelines for the employment of practitioners with a special interest in respiratory medicine.

Dr Richard Russell
Richard Russell is a Consultant at Wexham Park and Windsor Hospitals and an Honorary Clinical Lecturer at Imperial College, London. He trained at Guy’s Hospital and the Royal Brompton Hospital, where he completed a PhD as a British Lung Foundation Research Fellow. His research interests are in COPD, asthma and delivery of care across the primary/secondary care interface. Dr Russell was recently a member of the committee drawing up the new asthma guidelines and is active in the British Lung Foundation. He is the lead from secondary care on the primary care quality outcomes framework national working party. He is also the founding editor of the International Journal of COPD.

Dermatology

Dr Emma Craythorne
Emma Craythorne is a specialist registrar in dermatology on rotation at King’s College Hospital and St John’s Institute of Dermatology. She underwent undergraduate training in Dundee and postgraduate dermatology training in Glasgow and Newcastle. Dr Craythorne often presents at international and national dermatology conferences; her special interests include dermatological surgery and cutaneous malignancy.

Dr Anthony du Vivier
Anthony du Vivier is Consultant Dermatologist at Kings College Hospital, London, a position he has held since 1978.  He qualified in 1968, trained at St Bartholomew’s, and then held a position as Senior Registrar at St. Mary’s, and a Research Fellow post at Scripps Clinic in La Jolla, California.  His research interests include cutaneous malignancy, topical steroids, and cutaneous aspects of lymphoma and leukaemia, with special relation to bone marrow transplantation.  He is also the author of Atlas of Clinical Dermatology.

Dr Simon Dawe 
Simon Dawe trained at Guy’s and St Thomas’s medical school, graduating in 1994, and was a clinical fellow in dermatology at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital and then specialist registrar at King’s College Hospital and St John’s Institute of Dermatology from 2001 to 2005. He was appointed consultant dermatologist at West Hertfordshire NHS trust in 2005. Dr Dawe’s areas of interest include cutaneous allergy and paediatric eczema and he is clinical lead of his community dermatology service. Dr Dawe is a member of the dermatology council at the RSM and St John’s Institute of Dermatology.

Diabetes

Dr Simon Page
Simon Page graduated from Bristol before completing SHO training at Musgrove Park Hospital, Taunton. His medical registrar and endocrine research training was completed at St George’s Hospital, London, before he joined the Nottingham and Derby senior registrar rotation in 1990. He took up a consultant post at Queen’s Medical Centre, Nottingham in February 1995. Early in his consultant career, Simon was involved in developing the Nottingham medical curriculum as clinical sub-dean and, more recently has survived a spell as clinical director for the general and acute medicine directorates at NUH. Dr Page has published over 50 clinical papers on diabetes and endocrinology and a text book on the management of diabetes in the emergency and hospital setting.

Dr Tahseen Chowdhury
Tahseen Chowdhury is lead clinician in the department of diabetes and metabolism at the Royal London Hospital, in the East End of London. He runs a large specialist diabetes and metabolism unit, dealing with diabetes particularly among the Bangladeshi community of Tower Hamlets. Dr Chowdhury has a research/clinical interest in diabetes in South Asians, and has authored over 100 publications, including a book entitled Diabetes in South Asian people: explained. He qualified from the University of Birmingham and trained in Birmingham and Manchester, before becoming a consultant physician in 2000.

Dr Mark Strachan
Mark Strachan is a consultant in diabetes and endocrinology at the Western General Hospital. He has published extensively on the effects of diabetes on the brain and was a member of the 2008 SIGN group on chronic kidney disease. His subspecialty interests include antenatal diabetes and rare genetic diabetes syndromes.

Ophthalmology

Professor Philip Bloom
Philip Bloom is a consultant ophthalmic surgeon with special interests in glaucoma, cataract and anterior segment surgery. He holds a joint consultant appointment between the Western Eye Hospital (London) and the Hillingdon Hospital (Uxbridge) is an honorary senior lecturer at Imperial College School of Medicine and an honorary professor at Middlesex University, London. He qualified in medicine in 1984 from Bristol University and began his basic ophthalmology training at the Bristol Eye Hospital in 1986. From 1992 Philip continued his higher surgical training in London at the Western Eye Hospital and at Moorfields Eye Hospital, where he subsequently undertook a clinical glaucoma fellowship in 1994–5. His particular clinical and research interests include: spectacle independence after cataract surgery; toric and multifocal intraocular lenses; medical, laser and surgical treatment of glaucoma; cyclophotocoagulation (trans-scleral and endoscopic); combined cataract and glaucoma surgery.

Mr Brian Leatherbarrow
Brian Leatherbarrow was appointed as consultant at Manchester Royal Eye Hospital in 1992 where he trained in general ophthalmology before training in oculoplastic and orbital surgery at Moorfields Eye Hospital, London, and the University of Iowa, USA. He is the author of the textbook Oculoplastic Surgery (published by Martin Dunitz, 2002). Mr Leatherbarrow has made over 70 contributions to journals and written five book chapters. He undertakes all aspects of ophthalmic plastic surgery and cataract surgery. He is the clinic director for Face & Eye, a new ambulatory surgical centre in Northenden, Manchester, specialising in day case cataract, ophthalmic and cosmetic surgery.

Interpreting Lab Results

Dr Stuart Smellie
Stuart Smellie is consultant chemical pathologist at County Durham and Darlington Acute Hospitals NHS Trust. He qualified from St John's College, Cambridge and the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford and took up his current post in 1994. His main research interest is good practice in laboratory medicine and he chairs a cross-discipline group researching common questions for primary care. Dr Smellie leads the special clinical interests group in the Association of Clinical Biochemists clinical practice section and sits on the council of the Association of Clinical Pathologists and the HTA diagnostics panel.

Dr Rob Cramb
Rob Cramb is a consultant chemical pathologist with a specialist interest in the diagnosis and management of hyperlipidaemia, and is participating in a programme funded by the HTA to assess the functionality of liver function tests in GP surgeries. Dr Cramb has contributed to reviews on point of care testing and is the programme director for medical training in clinical biochemistry in the West Midlands.

Paediatrics

Dr Warren Hyer
Warren Hyer is a consultant paediatrician and paediatric gastroenterologist based in northwest London. As a full time children's doctor at Northwick Park and St Mark's Hospitals in Harrow, Middlesex, he specialises in general and acute paediatrics and paediatric gastroenterology, food allergy and nutrition. Warren has just returned from a three month exchange as consultant paediatrician at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne, Australia. Dr Hyer has published widely on many aspects of paediatric gastroenterology and has lectured internationally on paediatric polyposis syndromes. In addition, he is an adviser to the Dorling Kindersley series of medical books.

Dr Tim Lee
Tim Lee is consultant in paediatric medicine at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, working in general paediatrics and paediatric respiratory medicine. He is also honorary senior lecturer and co-organiser of the MSc in child health at the University of Leeds, a highly regarded taught postgraduate course for medical practitioners working in paediatrics and child health. This course uses case based and small group approaches to teach experienced students who are usually at post-membership (MRCPCH) level. Dr Lee also has a background in undergraduate paediatric teaching.

Cardiology

Dr John Bayliss
John Bayliss has been a consultant cardiologist at West Hertfordshire Hospitals (Hemel Hempstead and St Albans) since 1988 and is clinical lead for local cardiac services. Trained at Hillingdon, Westminster and the National Heart Hospital, he has particular interests in heart failure, arrhythmias and pacing and has long championed evidence based medicine.

Dr Jerry Murphy
Jerry Murphy qualified at the University of London and underwent specialist cardiovascular training in Manchester, Nottingham and Leicester. He was appointed consultant cardiologist at Darlington Memorial Hospital 16 years ago. For many years Dr Murphy was a single-handed cardiologist and introduced a number of services, focusing on improved patient care. His interest in clinical research began by studying the herb feverfew to treat migraine! He has since published over 70 papers on a variety of areas, including heart failure, angina and stroke. Dr Murphy is senior lecturer at the University of Durham.

Dr Iqbal Malik
Iqbal Malik is a consultant at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, London. He trained at Peterhouse, Cambridge and then at Guy's and St Thomas’ Hospital, London. He was appointed as a consultant cardiologist at St Mary’s Hospital, London in 2001. He is National Clinical Lead for Web Transfer systems and commissioning editor on Heart. His research interests are in stroke prevention (patent foramen ovale closure and carotid stenting). In addition he has set up a cardiac catheter laboaratory practitioner course, and runs an annual stroke meeting at the Royal College of Physicians, London.

ENT

Mr Gerald McGarry   Gerry McGarry is a consultant surgeon in ENT in Glasgow with a special interest in head and neck surgery and rhinology. He has a particular interest in endoscopic surgical techniques for managing sinonasal tumours. Gerry is active in postgraduate surgical education and is on the faculty of many courses both in the UK and abroad. In addition to his clinical and teaching activities, Gerry regularly publishes clinical research. He is a section author for BMJ Clinical Evidence and is a team leader for the GMC performance procedures.    

Mr Ken MacKenzie   Ken MacKenzie is consultant otorhinolaryngologist head and neck surgeon and honorary senior lecturer, University of Glasgow. He is based at Glasgow Royal Infirmary and Gartnavel General Hospital, Glasgow. Mr MacKenzie graduated from the University of Dundee in 1978 and became a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in 1982. He was appointed consultant in 1989 and has since developed his subspecialty, clinical and research interests in laryngology, complex upper airway disorders, and head and neck surgery.

Mr Martin Burton
Martin Burton is consultant otolaryngologist at the Oxford Radcliffe NHS Trust, based at the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, senior clinical lecturer at the University of Oxford and lecturer in clinical medicine at Balliol College. He is the founding coordinating editor of the Cochrane Ear, Nose and Throat Disorders Group (http://www.cochrane-ent.org) and clinical lead of the ENT and audiology specialist library of the UK’s National Library for Health (http://www.library.nhs.uk/ENT). He is interested in teaching and is an examiner for the Royal College of Surgeons of England IMRCS and IDOHNS. He was a medical student at Cambridge and Oxford Universities and did his early clinical training in Oxford and Bristol. He was a Fulbright scholar and undertook research training at the Kresge Hearing Research Institute at the University of Michigan. After a period as lecturer in otolaryngology at the University of Melbourne, he completed his doctoral thesis on the safety of cochlear implantation in small children. His higher surgical training was completed in London and as Fellow in otology, neurotology and skull base surgery at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, USA. His clinical practice is otological - particularly middle ear surgery, tinnitus and balance disorders. He is interested in the application of evidence- (and wisdom-) based medicine in otolaryngology and in otolaryngological epistemology and heuristics.

Neurology

Dr Giles Elrington
Giles Elrington qualified at St Bartholomew’s Hospital in 1980 and has been consultant neurologist at Barts and the London NHS Trust since 1993. From 1993 to 2001 he was also consultant neurologist in Colchester. Since 2001 he has had a portfolio career. Regular NHS sessions include the headache clinic and clinical research at the London Hospital, general and botulinum toxin clinics at Southend General Hospital, contract work for North and Mid-Essex PCTs and a rehabilitation clinic in Stowmarket. He has a private practice in Colchester and London. Dr Elrington is a general neurologist with particular interest in headache, multiple sclerosis, rehabilitation and neuropsychiatry.

Dr Tom Hughes
Tom Hughes qualified in the Royal London Hospital in 1987 and trained in neurology in Cardiff where he completed an MD thesis on swallowing in health and in motor neurone disease. He is interested in acute neurology and the interface between diagnostic neurology and enablement.

Dr John Paul Leach
John Paul Leach has been a Consultant Neurologist in the Southern General Hospital and the Western Infirmary, Glasgow since 2002. He also runs general neurology clinics in Wishaw and Hairmyres Hospitals, Lanarkshire. Dr Leach’s specialist interest is in the diagnosis and treatment of epilepsy and he runs first seizure services for north Glasgow. 

Musculoskeletal Medicine

Professor Chris Lavy
Chris Lavy is a senior research fellow at Oxford and also holds honorary professorial posts both at Oxford and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. In addition, he is an honorary orthopaedic surgeon at the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre in Oxford. He undertook undergraduate studies in London and then pursued his orthopaedic training in the UK, South Africa and France. Chris was appointed consultant orthopaedic surgeon at the Middlesex Hospital and University College Hospitals in 1992. In 1996 he moved to Malawi where, as professor at the new medical school, he helped set up orthopaedic training in the region and built an orthopaedic teaching hospital. Satisfying the orthopaedic needs of developing countries remains his passion. Within UK orthopaedic surgery, Professor Levy’s clinical interests are problems of the spine, hip and knee. He holds fellowships from the Royal Colleges of England and Edinburgh, and also the College of Surgeons of East, Central and Southern Africa, which he helped found. He holds a Mastership in orthopaedic surgery from the University of Liverpool and an MD from the University of London.

Mr John Williams
John Williams has been a consultant in Newcastle for 11 years, specialising in trauma and upper limb surgery, particularly of the shoulder. He holds a clinical senior lectureship at the medical school in Newcastle. Before coming to Newcastle, Mr Williams trained at the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre and John Radcliffe Hospitals in Oxford and held fellowships at the Wrightington Hospital for Joint Diseases in Lancashire and the Mayo Clinic in the USA. He has a DM degree in upper limb biomechanics from the Oxford Orthopaedic Engineering Department.

Mr David Stubbs
David Stubbs is a full time NHS consultant at the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre, a renowned specialist orthopaedic hospital and tertiary referral centre, whose interests lie in hip and knee replacement surgery and limb reconstruction surgery. This is a subspecialty of orthopaedic surgery which deals with deformity correction and bone regeneration following major trauma, bone loss or congenital problems. Mr Stubbs has a particular interest in problem fractures that have gone on to non-union (failure to unite) or mal-union (healed in an unacceptable position). Many of these problems are secondary to infection and he works in a team running the only dedicated bone infection unit in the country. Mr Stubbs is interested in teaching and research and has published papers relating to limb lengthening, non-union surgery and bone infection. He is a regular faculty member on the Oxford FRCS(Orth) revision course and is coordinator of the SHO training in the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre.

Polypharmacy

Dr Martin Duerden
Martin Duerden was a full time GP in the North East for 8 years at Whickham, until 1994. He trained in public health medicine at Cambridge and then worked as medical director for the National Prescribing Centre for England. From 2001 Dr Duerden worked on various projects as a consultant in University College London Hospitals Trust, PRODIGY and at Keele University. He did regular sessional work as a part time GP in Conwy, North Wales from 1999 and in 2003 became medical director at Conwy Local Health Board. Since September 2005, Martin has been course organiser for the Diploma in Therapeutics at Cardiff University and is on the editorial board of the Drug and Therapeutics Bulletin.

Mr Peter Burrill
An experienced pharmaceutical adviser, Peter Burrill contributes to the prescribing and clinical effectiveness agenda for the Derbyshire Public Health Network. He is involved with the appraisal of evidence, evaluation of new drugs and guideline development, and runs the Derbyshire Joint Area Prescribing Committee. Mr Burrill also trains health professionals in the principles of critical appraisal and evidence-based medicine and is an editorial board member for the Drug and Therapeutics Bulletin. He produces the Prescribing and Clinical Effectiveness (PACE) newsletter and is a fellow of the College of Pharmacy Practice and the Faculty of Prescribing and Medicines Management.

Women's Health

Miss Shirin Irani
Shirin Irani is a consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist at the Heart of England Foundation Trust, an honorary senior clinical lecturer affiliated to the University of Birmingham and consultant adolescent gynaecologist at Birmingham Children’s Hospital. A consultant in the UK since 2000, and in gynaecology since 1987, Shirin Irani’s training background is extensive and varied. She completed a training fellowship in minimal access surgery (MAS) in Kiel with Professors Semm and Mettler, and has been carrying out MAS for 19 years. She is the lead for ablation techniques in the trust, which was one of the first to introduce microwave ablations and which uses a variety of techniques. This led to the start of a holistic service for heavy/abnormal uterine bleeding and, jointly with the interventional radiology team, a tertiary service for women with fibroids. Miss Irani is a practising colposcopist and also run a gynaecological adolescent transplant clinic for girls after transplants and liver problems at the Children’s Hospital.

Dr Meera Kishen
Meera Kishen has been a consultant in Liverpool community service since 1996 and has extensive experience in sexual and reproductive healthcare primary delivery and training. She was president of the Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare of the RCOG in 2005–8. Dr Kishen works with the Department of Health to improve contraception training and service provision across the UK and with the RCGP and its sex, drugs and HIV task group to support primary care led training in sexual and reproductive healthcare.

View past speakers in the General Update series