Expert Talks - RB&HH Education

Focusing on prevention approaches in COPD (including inhaled and non-inhaled advanced therapies, use of eosinophil biomarkers etc), approaches to distinguishing viral from bacterial infections (with associated implications for antibiotic stewardship) and an update on current understanding and approaches to managing long COVID syndromes.

Learning objectives:

  1. Options for exacerbation prevention in COPD and what we can additionally consider/offer in secondary care.
  2. Strategies for distinguishing viral and bacterial infections and optimum treatment approaches.
  3. Diagnosis and management of Post-COVID/Long-COVID syndromes.

Dr Aran Singanayagam Background

Dr Aran Singanayagam completed his medical training at the University of Edinburgh in 2005 achieving distinction in his final examinations alongside a first-class intercalated BSc in physiology. He trained as a respiratory doctor within north-west London, primarily at St Mary’s, Royal Brompton and Harefield hospitals.

 

Dr Aran Singanayagam
ALL EXPERT TALKS
22 Feb 2024

Focusing on prevention approaches in COPD (including inhaled and non-inhaled advanced therapies, use of eosinophil biomarkers etc), approaches to distinguishing viral from bacterial infections (with associated implications for antibiotic stewardship) and an update on current understanding and approaches to managing long COVID syndromes.

Learning objectives:

  1. Options for exacerbation prevention in COPD and what we can additionally consider/offer in secondary care.
  2. Strategies for distinguishing viral and bacterial infections and optimum treatment approaches.
  3. Diagnosis and management of Post-COVID/Long-COVID syndromes.

Dr Aran Singanayagam Background

Dr Aran Singanayagam completed his medical training at the University of Edinburgh in 2005 achieving distinction in his final examinations alongside a first-class intercalated BSc in physiology. He trained as a respiratory doctor within north-west London, primarily at St Mary’s, Royal Brompton and Harefield hospitals.

 

Dr Aran Singanayagam
22 Feb 2024

This Grand Round presented by Dr Guy Scadding explores penicillin allergy de-labelling.

 

Guy Scadding
25 Jan 2024

This Grand Round presented by Professor Nizar N. JarJour focuses on the systematic effect of asthma.

Professor Nizar N. JarJour Background

Nizar Jarjour, MD is an Adult Pulmonologist, Ovid Meyer Endowed Professor of Medicine, and the Head of the Division of Allergy, Pulmonary & Critical Care Medicine in the Department of Medicine.

Dr. Jarjour has served as a Principal Investigator for several NIH funded collaborative grants, including the severe asthma research program (SARP) and the precision therapies in severe and exacerbation prone asthma (PrecISE). Most recently, Dr. Jarjour has conducted research studies on the systemic effects of asthma. In 2023, Drs. Jarjour and Melissa Rosenkranz received an RO1 as Co-PIs to study the effects of airway inflammation in asthma on the risk for dementia. Last September, he chaired the International Collaborative Asthma Network (ICAN) meeting in Milan and started a 6-month sabbatical in the UK to explore opportunities for US-UK collaboration on asthma research studies. The first half of his sabbatical was spent at University of Southampton, and he came to Imperial College in late November for the second half of his sabbatical, working closely with Drs. Fan Chung, Salman Siddiqui and Ian Adcock.

Nizar N. JarJour
16 Jan 2024

This talk presented by Dr Owais Dar focuses on heart transplantation and LVAD therapy and analysis where we are now and how we got here.

Dr Owais Dar Background

Dr Dar completed his specialist general cardiology training and sub-speciality heart failure training at:

  1. North West London Hospitals NHS Trust
  2. The Royal Brompton & Harefield NHS Foundation Trust
  3. Whittington Hospital.

He got a funded international fellowship in advanced heart failure, heart transplantation and left ventricular assist devices in Vienna General Hospital (Austria) and Stanford Health Care (California, USA).

Dr Owais Dar
15 Jan 2024

This talk focuses on lung cancer screening tools, investigations and monitoring within primary care, as well as new approaches to lung nodules, including robotic bronchoscopy.

Learning objectives:

  1. Understand screening approaches
  2. Know when and how to investigate within primary care
  3. Understand which patients need referral to secondary care

This webinar will be of interest to GPs and any healthcare practitioners managing lung health in a primary care setting.

Dr Christopher Orton Background

Dr Christopher Orton graduated from St George’s Hospital Medical School with MBBS and a BSc in Biochemistry and Immunology. After having completed his general medical and respiratory specialty training in London, he has worked at prestigious teaching hospitals, including Hammersmith Hospital, St Mary’s Hospital, St George’s Hospital, and the Royal Brompton Hospital. Moreover, dr Orton has completed a PhD with Imperial College London on the effects of epithelial resurfacing with liquid nitrogen using Metered Cryospray in patients with COPD.

Dr Orton’s NHS base is the Royal Brompton Hospital, where he is a member of the lung cancer, and interventional bronchoscopy unit.

Moreover, through his continued links with Imperial College London, Dr Orton is highly active in basic science and clinical research, conducting studies, supervising PhD students, and publishing papers in high-impact medical journals.

Dr Christopher Orton’s expertise is in airways disease, lung cancer and bronchoscopy including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, pulmonary nodules, emphysema, asthma, acute and chronic cough, lung cancer.

 

Dr Chris Orton
30 Nov 2023

Professor Michael Polkey, Interim Director of Research and Care Group Chair for Lung Failure, Royal Brompton Hospital.

With the second longest commute in the NHS, Professor Poley works for 8 weeks per year in the NHS Highland where he provides respiratory services to Lochaber, Skye and Points West.

Professor Michael Polkey Background

Professor Michael Polkey is an academic and continues as a professor of respiratory medicine at Imperial College London.

Professor Polkey specialises in many respiratory conditions, including: chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), respiratory aspects of neurological disease, advanced lung disease which results in respiratory failure, sleep disordered breathing, emphysema, diaphragm disease.

In particular, he is an expert in the management of chronic respiratory failure, treating COPD, weaning patients from invasive mechanical ventilation and is highly considered for his expertise in neurological diseases as motor neurone disease (MND) known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and Lou Gehrig’s disease.

Professor Michael Polkey Professor Michael Polkey Consultant respiratory physician
21 Nov 2023

Focusing on how to diagnose chronic cough in children and decide who needs investigations within primary care.

  1. Prolonged cough in children – who needs investigating?
  2. Type of cough
  3. Diagnosis

Dr Ian Balfou-Lynn Background

Dr Ian Balfour-Lynn is a consultant in paediatric respiratory medicine at Royal Brompton and Harefield hospitals.

Dr Ian Balfour-Lynn specialises in all aspects of paediatric respiratory medicine and performs all complex investigations including flexible bronchoscopy as a diagnostic tool. He is a specialist in severe infant wheezing, severe asthma, cystic fibrosis and recurrent chest infections.

 

Dr Ian Balfour-Lynn Dr Ian Balfour-Lynn Consultant in paediatric respiratory medicine and co-director of children's services
09 Nov 2023

Jens Spiesshoefer, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor (Privatdozent) of Respiratory Medicine and Binaya Regmi, MD: Jens graduated from medical school in 2016 with his MD thesis on sleep disordered breathing (group Professor Olaf Oldenburg) and completed a PhD program in translational medicine at Scuola Superiore Sant’ Anna Pisa from 2019-2022 (group Professor Alberto Giannoni).

Since 2021 and together with Binaya Regmi who defended his MD on diaphragm dysfunction in Long Covid in 2023 their now RWTH Aachen University Hospital (Department Prof Michael Dreher) based own labs and groups translational research focuses mainly on diaphragm dysfunction and its clinical consequences. This comprises invasive gold standard techniques to determine respiratory muscle activity as well as sympathetic nerve activity.

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Jens Spiesshofer
Binaya Regmi
02 Nov 2023

This talk will focus on the analysis of audit data and how and where clinical data gets used. 

Learning Objectives:

  1. Discuss cases entered into the audit-adultan and CYP asthma
  2. Background to NRAP
  3. How the data gets used
  4. Coding of cases in NRAP
  5. Coding rules

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Dr Jennifer Quint
Hrishi Mehta
30 Oct 2023

This talk by Mr Espeed Khoshbin focuses on on managing post cardiac surgical patients in the primary care setting.

Focusing on the role of primary care physicians in managing post operative complications and secondary prevention after coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG), with reference to antiplatelet agents and lipid-lowering medications. Management of hypertension, diabetes mellitus, smoking cessation, weight loss, and cardiac rehabilitation.

Learning Objectives

  1. Understanding common adult cardiac surgical procedures
  2. Understanding common complications after cardiac surgery and how they present
  3. Understanding the role of primary care physicians in risk factor modification after coronary surgery
  4. Understanding current evidence on preventive therapies after CABG.

Mr Espeed Khoshbin Background

Mr Espeed Khoshbin is a consultant in cardiac surgery transplantation and mechanical circulatory support at Royal Brompton and Harefield hospitals. He is also an honorary clinical senior lecturer at Imperial College and The National Heart and Lung Institute (NHLI) in London.

Firstly, he qualified from Aberdeen Medical School with an MB ChB and achieved a post graduate research doctorate (MD) from the University of Leicester.

Further to his studies, mr Khoshbin began his training in cardiac surgery at St Marys Hospital in London as part of east Thames rotation. As a national trainee in cardiac surgery, he achieved a fellowship of The Surgical Royal Colleges of Great Britain and Ireland (FRCS CTh). He was later on appointed to the UK’s prestigious National Peri-CCT Fellowship in cardiothoracic transplantation.

He was also awarded a travelling scholarship through the International Society of Heart and Lung Transplantation to the University College Los Angeles (UCLA), California.

Moreover, he is the national lead for heart and lung transplant education, local lead for cardiac surgical training and an examiner for the board of examiners of the European and UK cardiac surgery.

Mr Khoshbin is the NHS lead for organ utilisation at Royal Brompton and Harefield Hospitals.

Mr Khoshbin performs a variety of major cardiac procedures. He is specialised in surgical therapy for heart and lung diseases through transplantation and ventricular assist device technologies.

 

Mr Espeed Khoshbin
26 Oct 2023

This talk by professor Mona Bafadhel focuses on eosinophilis in COPD as a major healthcare burden and cause of mortality worldwide.

Learning Objectives

  1. Eosinophilis in COPD
  2. COPD as a major healthcare burden and cause of mortality worldwide
  3. Exacerbations are a hallmark of COPD
  4. Damage from exacerbations goes beyond the lungs
  5. Biology-led approaches in COPD
  6. Eosinophilic and non-eosinophilic COPD: Blood
  7. COPD and Asthma
  8. Monoclonal antibodies in eosinophilic COPD?

Professor Mona Bafadhel Background

Mona Bafadhel holds the positions of Chair in Respiratory Medicine at King’s College London and Director of the recently established King’s Centre for Lung Health. Additionally, she works as a consultant respiratory physician at the Guy’s and St. Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust. Her areas of interest in both clinical and research are asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). With a strong desire to use clinical research to better patient outcomes, Mona is a leading international academic in the field of respiratory medicine. Her research on COVID-19 and COPD has changed therapeutic practices that impact millions of people worldwide. The Royal College of Physicians bestowed to Mona the Goulstonian Lectureship in 2018 in recognition of her achievements in the clinical sciences. She is the first woman from an ethnic minority and just the fourth overall.

Professor Mona Bafadhel
19 Oct 2023

This talks by Professor Nicholas Hopkinson covers COPD as a structural violence.

Professor Nicholas Hopkinson background

Nicholas Hopkinson is professor of respiratory medicine at Imperial College and an honorary consultant physician at Royal Brompton Hospital. He qualified in medicine at Cambridge University and the London Hospital Medical College and went on to train in respiratory and general internal medicine at St George’s Hospital and St Thomas’ Hospital.

Professor Hopkinson is clinical lead for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) at Royal Brompton Hospital. This includes systematic evaluation of patients within a multidisciplinary team and addressing issues such as: hypoxia, recurrent exacerbations, alpha one antitrypsin deficiency, early onset disease.

His major research interest looks at the causes of exercise limitation in patients with COPD, and his publications have looked at the: effect of pulmonary rehabilitation, influence of genetic polymorphisms, the effect of dietary nitrate supplementation, lung volume reduction techniques for emphysema, singing for lung health as an approach to relieve breathlessness in COPD and other conditions.

Working with the NW London Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research (CLAHRC), Professor Hopkinson has developed a more systematic Care Bundle for COPD patients as they are discharged. Addittionally, he has published work on tobacco uptake among children and in support of tobacco control measures, such as standardised packaging and smoke-free legislation.

Moreover, the NIHR, Medical Research Council, Wellcome Trust, European Union, British Lung Foundation, and Moulton Foundation have all funded professor Hopkinson’s work.

Professor Nicholas Hopkinson