Dr Fiona Godlee

Editor, BMJ

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 Adam Timmis

Professor of Clinical Cardiology, London Chest Hospital, London

Adam Timmis is professor of clinical cardiology at the London Chest Hospital. He qualified at the University of Cambridge and St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical College in 1973. His cardiology training was at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, and at Guy's Hospital, London, where he was senior registrar before taking up his current post. Professor Timmis has published extensively in the cardiovascular literature, his major interests being cardiovascular outcomes in angina and acute coronary syndromes. He chaired NICE guideline groups on investigation of stable chest pain and management of angina and is editor of Heart and chair of the academic group of the Myocardial Infarction National Audit Process (MINAP).

Dr Omar Usmani

NIHR Career Development Fellow, Clinical Senior Lecturer and Consultant Physician in Respiratory and Internal Medicine, National Heart and Lung Institute (NHLI), Imperial College London and Royal Brompton Hospital

Omar Usmani qualified in medicine at King’s College London and completed a PhD at Imperial College London. His doctoral research into medical inhalers and aerosol science received the 2005 NHLI – Imperial College prize for the best PhD thesis.

Dr Sally Edmonds

Consultant Rheumatologist, Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust

Dr Ian Starke

Director of Continuing Professional Development, RCP London

Dr Tahseen Chowdhury

Consultant Physician and Diabetologist, Barts and The London NHS Trust

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 and 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 Ed Wilkins

Consultant and clinical director of infectious diseases at North Manchester General Hospital

Dr Giles Elrington

Medical Director and Consultant Neurologist, National Migraine Centre

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 Philip Zack (sponsored symposium)

Medicolegal advisor at the MDU

Dr Philip Zack is a medicolegal adviser at the MDU. Prior to joining the MDU he was a clinical editor at BMJ Learning. Dr Zack’s trained as a clinical geneticist, and was in hospital practice for many years. He is currently studying for a law degree