Reducing HCAIs 2013: Addressing the challenges

Conference Speakers

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• Dr Kieran Hand

  Consultant Pharmacist - Anti-infectivesUniversity Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust

  Dr Kieran Hand is consultant pharmacist for anti-infectives at Southampton General Hospital and post-doctoral clinical academic fellow at the University of Southampton. Dr Hand has over eleven years’ experience as an NHS hospital pharmacist working in the speciality of infectious diseases; a PhD in pharmacology from the University of London and an MSc in infection management from Imperial College London. He has served on the Health Protection Agency programme board for healthcare-associated infection and antimicrobial resistance, the council of the British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy and as an editor for the Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy.

  Dr Hand is currently co-opted to the Department of Health advisory committee on antimicrobial resistance and healthcare-associated infection (ARHAI) and is co-author of the chapter on antimicrobial resistance in the recent Chief Medical Officer’s report: Infections and the rise of antimicrobial resistance.

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• Professor David Walker

  Deputy Chief Medical OfficerThe Department of Health (DH)

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• Dr Danilo Lo Fo Wong

  Senior Adviser, Antimicrobial ResistanceWHO Regional Office for Europe

  Dr Danilo Lo Fo Wong holds a MSc in biology from the Wageningen University, The Netherlands, and a PhD in veterinary epidemiology from the Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University, Copenhagen, Denmark. For more than 15 years he worked in the area of food safety and zoonoses, incl antimicrobial resistance, performing research, integrated surveillance, risk assessment, source attribution and outbreak investigation. He is a frequent speaker and trainer at national and international conferences, workshops and training courses.

  In 2007 he joined the World Health Organization (WHO) as the coordinator of the Global Foodborne Infections Network (GFN): a global epidemiology and laboratory capacity-building network. In 2011 he transferred to WHO Regional Office for Europe as senior adviser on antimicrobial resistance with the responsibility for the implementation of the European strategic action plan on antibiotic resistance, by strengthening intersectoral coordination, surveillance of antimicrobial consumption and resistance, infection prevention and control programmes, and promoting antibiotic stewardship, innovation and research, as well as awareness campaigns.

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• Dr Nicholas Brown

  PresidentBritish Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy (BSAC)

  Nick Brown qualified with the degree of MBChB from the University of Bristol in 1985. He has an MD from the same University and MA from the University of Cambridge. He is a Fellow of both the Royal College of Physicians and the Royal College of Pathologists. Nick is a consultant medical microbiologist at Addenbrooke`s Hospital in Cambridge, where he has been Trust infection control doctor since 1997. He works in the Public Health England (PHE) Lead Public Health Laboratory providing clinical microbiology services to hospital Trusts in Cambridge and Huntingdon.

  Nick is also an Associate Lecturer at the University of Cambridge. He has a particular interest in the use of antibiotics and antibiotic resistance. He is currently President of the British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy (BSAC) and has been closely involved with the Antibiotic Action campaign to educate, stimulate debate and act as a conduit to deliver the UK agenda in the areas of research, discovery of new treatments for bacterial infections and measures to contain antimicrobial resistance.

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• Deborah Evans

  National Pathfinder Project LeadHealthy Living Pharmacy Pathfinder Support Group

  Deborah has combined her community pharmacy and senior management corporate experience to work with the NHS, pharmaceutical companies, national and local pharmacy bodies and community pharmacists to facilitate strategic planning and enable change. She has run balance, a consultancy dedicated to engaging, inspiring and enabling community pharmacists, pharmaceutical sales and marketing teams and NHS commissioners for nine years, developing skills and services within community pharmacy.

  Deborah is currently the Director of Pharmacy for the National Pharmacy Association and is leading the Professional Development and Pharmacy Services teams in addition to leading the national Healthy Living Pharmacy pathfinder project on behalf of the national pharmacy bodies and the Department of Health. Deborah is on the Healthy Living Pharmacy workstream of the Pharmacy and Public Health Forum.

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• Dr Manos Perros

  Global Head of Infection, Innovative Medicines, R&D BostonAstraZeneca

  Dr Manos Perros leads the Infection Innovative Medicines (small molecules) organisation and serves as Site Head, Boston R&D. In his role as the iMed Head, Manos is accountable for the Infection delivery from idea to clinical proof-of-concept, from a focused portfolio of programs against serious bacterial infections, respiratory viruses, and neglected infectious diseases (tuberculosis and malaria in particular). Manos’s team is based in Boston and Bangalore (India). As the Site Head, Boston, Manos works with the Site Leadership Team to take advantage of the site’s contiguities and expertise, coordinate our engagement with the academic, biotech and pharma community, and promote the culture of scientific inquisitiveness, continuous learning and initiative.

  Manos is also the executive sponsor for Global Chemistry, and has led the evolution of the organisational and sourcing model in this discipline, including the establishment of the recently announced strategic partnership with Pharmaron (China). A Chemist by training, Manos conducted his PhD work in Belgium, France and Germany, and was Associate in the Biophysics department at Yale from 1993-1995. Prior to joining AstraZeneca, Manos served as Director of the Novartis Institute for Tropical Diseases in Singapore, and prior to that as Vice-President and Chief Scientific Officer, Antivirals at Pfizer.

  Manos has overseen a wide range of therapy areas, but his most important contributions have been in the field of Anti-infectives, where he is a distinguished and widely published scientist, having led research projects against HIV, Hepatitis C, influenza and fungal pathogens. Amongst a number of molecules still in development, Manos is a co-inventor of the first-in-class HIV treatment maraviroc (Celsentri/Selzentry) on which he worked from inception to launch. The medicine earned numerous accolades, including the 2008 Prix Galien USA. For his contributions to the discovery and development of maraviroc, Manos received the PhRMA Discoverer’s Award in 2010.

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• Professor Stephen Green MD BSc FRCP (London & Glasgow) DTM&H FFTM FSLCV

  Consultant Physician & Honorary Professor of International HealthHealth and Safety Laboratory

  Professor Green is Consultant Physician in Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital (Sheffield Teaching Hospitals), Honorary Professor of International Health at Sheffield Hallam University, and Honorary Senior Clinical Lecturer at Sheffield University Medical School.

  He has a number of other roles, among which are Associate of the Health and Safety Laboratory, Meetings Secretary of the British Infection Association, regular host examiner for the MRCP(UK) postgraduate specialist examination for hospital physicians in training, Training Programme Director for Infectious Diseases for South Yorkshire at the Yorkshire and the Humber Postgraduate Deanery, and Managing Director of “QHA Trent Accreditation”, a British-based fully independent holistic accreditation scheme for hospitals and clinics (www.qha-trent.co.uk).

  Steve is particularly interested in infection-related matters, most especially the world-wide flow of infection, infectious diseases and antimicrobial resistance across international borders, especially in an age when more and more serious infection-related problems are arising de novo around the world and year-on-year increasing numbers of patients are crossing borders in order to access medical care.

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• John Harris

  Expert in norovirusPublic Health England

  John Harris is an epidemiologist working in the Gastrointestinal, Emerging and Zoonotic Infecions (GEZI) department at Public Health England in Colindale, London.

  John Graduated from Middlesex University in 1996 with BSc (Hons) in Science, Technology and Society. After graduating, he worked at Imperial College in London in the Department of Public Health from 1997 to 2001. During this time he gained an MSc in Epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, studying part time. After leaving Imperial he started at the Public Health Laboratory Service (PHLS) in the HIV surveillance department before moving to work in gastrointestinal diseases.

  John is now working towards a PhD entitled unravelling the epidemiology of norovirus in hospitals.

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• Dr Kathie Grant

  Head, Laboratory of Gastrointestinal Pathogens, HPA Microbiological ServicesPublic Health England

  Dr Kathie Grant is an internationally recognised expert in foodborne pathogens with 30 years experience in clinical and public health microbiology combined with a strong track record in research. She is head of the Health Protection Agency’s Gastrointestinal Bacteria Reference Unit at Colindale, London which is the national reference laboratory for a range of foodborne pathogens including Salmonella, E. coli VTEC, Campylobacter, Listeria monocytogenes and Clostridium botulinum.

  Since joining the laboratory in 2001 she has championed the use of molecular methods which has lead to improvements in the detection and investigation of bacterial foodborne disease within the UK. Her research interests, which include the development of rapid methods for the detection and characterisation of foodborne pathogens, are currently focused on exploiting whole genome sequencing of bacterial pathogens to improve the understanding and control of foodborne disease.

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• Dr Anna Cichowska

  Consultant Public Health Strategy, Public Health Strategy DivisionPublic Health England

  Dr. Anna Cichowska, is currently working as a Consultant Public Health Strategy, at Public Health England’s Head Office in London, UK. She has completed her medical training at Maastricht University (the Netherlands), and her Public Health Specialist Training in Scotland. Within PHE her work portfolio includes strategic leadership of the Healthcare Associated Infections and Antimicrobial Resistance and Stewardship (HCAI& AMRS) Programme and PHE’s role in sustainable development to build sustainable and resilient communities.

  She is currently involved in a MRC-funded collaborative research project to link health and environmental data to facilitate research into climate and health. Previously, at the Health Protection Agency, she successfully led the development of the Health Protection Academy and the Pandemic Influenza Programme. She is interested in global public health and has recently returned from a secondment to Vietnam Ministry of Health, which focussed on developing public health collaborations between the UK and Vietnam.

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• Peter Hoffman

  Member, Rapid Review Panel, DH and Consultant Clinical Scientist, Antimicrobial Resistance and Healthcare Infections Reference UnitPublic Health England

  Peter Hoffman has a long-standing and varied interest in the ways that infections transmit in healthcare and analogous situations, and the ways in which such transmission can be prevented. This takes effect in both proactive and reactive approaches. Proactively, he has input to standards setting and the production of guidance, provides specialist training and publishes widely. He is an Assistant Editor on the Journal of Hospital Infection. He has been a member of the Rapid Review Panel (a panel convened at the request of The Department of Health to provide a prompt assessment of novel means of reducing hospital acquired infections) since its inception in 2005. Reactively, he is a source of advice to healthcare providers and investigates outbreaks of infection.

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• Dr Evonne Curran

  Nurse Consultant, Infection ControlHealth Protection Scotland

  Evonne’s infection control career began late in 1987 and is continuing to date. Initially the post was single-handed at the Glasgow Royal Infirmary, later with a much larger team for North Glasgow and eventually with a co-position as advisor to the NHS Greater Glasgow. Since 2006, Evonne has been working as nurse consultant at Health Protection Scotland, with the specific programme of work including healthcare related outbreaks. Evonne provides support to minimise the incidence and impact and design systems and tools to minimise the risk of them arising.

  Specific infection control areas of interest, research and publication embrace: how to better manager and prepare for outbreaks, delivering health-care quality improvement, understanding how to use of data, human error theory and high-reliability, to better prevent and control infection.

  Evonne completed her Doctorate of Nursing exploring the safety issues associated with infusate contamination, she now writes an outbreak column for the Journal of Infection Prevention.

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• Professor David Leaper

  Emeritus Professor of SurgeryNewcastle University

  Professor Leaper qualified from Leeds Medical School in 1970 MB ChB (with honours) and trained in general surgery in Leeds, Scarborough, King’s College and Westminster Hospitals in London with research periods as a Cancer Research Campaign Fellow and Medical Research Council Fellow. He has the Fellowship in Surgery of the Royal Colleges of Edinburgh, England and Glasgow; by thesis the MD and ChM; and the Fellowship of the American College of Surgeons. He was Senior Lecturer in Surgery/Consultant surgeon at the University of Bristol (1981-1995), Professor of Surgery at the University of Hong Kong (1988-1990) and the University of Newcastle upon Tyne (1995-2004), and now Emeritus Professor, with Visiting Chair status at Cardiff University and Imperial College, London.

  Professor Leaper’s research interests include surgical infection and sepsis, wound healing, breast and colorectal cancer, computer-aided diagnosis and education and training. He has been an editor/reviewer for many journals. He is a past president of the Surgical Infection Society of Europe, the European Wound Management Association, Hunterian Professor and a Zachary Cope lecturer. He has published over 10 books, 50 chapters and 300 original research and review papers (over 150 on Medline).

  Professor Leaper is a past member of the Court of Examiners and has examined for the Intercollegiate Fellowship and serves as an external examiner for other undergraduate and postgraduate examinations (senior examiner Imperial College). He was an instigator of the Care of the Critically Ill Surgical Patient course (CCrISP). He is a past programme director (Northern Deanery) and served on the Specialist Advisory Board in general surgery. He was Chair of the NICE guideline on SSI, is a member of the Antimicrobial Resistance and Healthcare Associated Infection committee and Fellow of the Linnaean Society.