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Prof. Mike Thomas
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Prof. Josep M. Antó
Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal)Universitat Pompeu Fabra
Doctor Aiguader, 88 (Barcelona)
Josep M. Antó is a respiratory physician and epidemiologist whose research has focused on the epidemiology of asthma and COPD with special interest on the environmental determinants and prevention of these diseases. He is Professor at Barcelona Institute of Global Health (ISGlobal) and at Universitat Pompeu Fabra. Among other leading positions, has been the Founding Director of Centre for Research in Environmental Epidemiology (CREAL) (2005-2016) and Founding Scientific Director of ISGlobal (2016-2019). His research has focused on the epidemiology of asthma and COPD with special interest on the environmental determinants and prevention of these diseases, and he has published over 300 papers in leading scientific journals. During the last years he has been increasingly devoted to adapt environmental health strategies to the fight against climate change and to promote the concept of planetary health locally and internationally.
Prof. Antonio Anzueto
Antonio Anzueto is Professor of Medicine at the University of Texas Health Science Center and Chief of the Pulmonary Section for the South Texas Veterans Health Care System, San Antonio, Texas, USA. In addition, he is a faculty member of the Pulmonary Disease and Critical Care Medicine Division, the Medical Director for the Pulmonary Function Laboratory at the University Hospital in San Antonio, and an adjunct scientist at the Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research, San Antonio, Texas.His areas of interest include chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, chronic bronchitis, community-acquired pneumonia, sepsis, acute respiratory distress syndrome, and lung transplantation.
He is a member of a number of medical committees, a reviewer for various scientific journals including the New England Journal of Medicine, and has published over 250 manuscripts in highly rated medical journals. He has extensive research experience as has been the principal investigator of numerous large multicenter clinical trials. He is member of several international committees such as the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD); ATS/IDSA Community Acquired Pneumonia Guidelines Committee; International committee – consensus conference on ALI/ARDS. He is also a practicing physician that has been nominated over the last 8 years as a “Best Pulmonary Doctor” in San Antonio, Texas.
Prof. Sinthia Bosnic-Anticevich
Sinthia Bosnic-Anticevich is Professor at the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research, University of Sydney. Internationally recognised as a leader in in the field of respiratory medicines, she is the founder and Team Leader of the Quality Use of Respiratory Medicines Group, located at the Woolcock Institute, University of Sydney and Sydney Local Health District. The group focuses on generating new knowledge about the use of respiratory medicines from the patient, health care provider and societal perspective with output of over 120 research publications. The research of Sinthia and her group has changed the landscape of inhaler technique research; impacting on national and international treatment guidelines. Sinthia is on the executive of ARIA (Allergic Rhinitis in Asthma) and chair of Pharmacy ARIA, which is the leading global initiative for the management of Allergic Rhinitis in pharmacy. She is Vice President of the Respiratory Effectiveness Group (REG). Sinthia sits on several global advisory boards associated with the use of medicines in the management of respiratory diseases. Sinthia is actively involved in the practice of pharmacy and committed to the education of current and future health care providers around the use of respiratory medicines in practice.
Prof. Henry Chrystyn
Henry Chrystyn is an Emeritus Professor and a Fellow of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain. He registered as a pharmacist in 1973 and was appointed Professor of Clinical Pharmacy at the University of Bradford in 1992 before being appointed Professor and Head of Pharmacy at the University of Huddersfield in 2007.Professor Chrystyn has published over 250 original research articles involving inhalers and supervised 53 PhD students. He is internationally recognized for his research on inhaled therapies, which has a strong emphasis on how patients use inhalers, and the integration of pharmaceutical sciences with routine patient care.
Professor Chrystyn was lead author of the ERS Consensus Statement on the use of inhalers published in the European Respiratory Journal in 2011. He is a member of the inhaler devices section of the British Thoracic Society (BTS) and the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN) Guidelines on the Management of Asthma and, until his retirement, he was an Executive Editor of the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology for approximately 20 years.
Prof. David Halpin
Professor Halpin is Consultant Physician & Honorary Professor in Respiratory Medicine at the University of Exeter. He was appointed as a Consultant in 1994. He has a busy clinical practice and for 13 years he was Clinical Lead for the Department in Exeter, overseeing the growth in its clinical and research activity.He is also Honorary Professor of Respiratory Medicine at the Observational and Pragmatic Research Institute (OPRI) in Singapore.
He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Global Initiative on Obstructive Lung Diseases (GOLD) and of the GOLD Science Committee. He was the Chairman and Clinical Expert for the COPD Guideline Development Group of the National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE) in the UK.
He studied at Oxford University (first class honours) & St Thomas Hospital Medical School, qualifying in 1986. He was awarded an MRC scholarship to undertake a D.Phil. in the Department of Human Anatomy at Oxford University, between his pre-clinical and clinical training. He trained in respiratory medicine at the Brompton Hospital in London.
He is a Fellow of Royal College Physicians, and a Member of the BTS, ERS & ATS.
He has served on various BTS committees.
In 2018 he was elected as a Fellow of ERS in recognition of lifetime excellence and contributions to research, education and clinical leadership in respiratory medicine.
His research is focussed on clinical aspects of COPD and asthma. He has published extensively and frequently gives presentations on COPD and asthma at lectures and meetings around the world.
He was an Associate Editor of Thorax and is on the editorial board of several journals and is a peer reviewer for many others.
Prof. MeiLan Han
Scientific Advisory Committee, ACRC Principal Investigator, National SpokespersonCOPD, interstitial lung disease, lung transplant and women's respiratory health
Professor, Internal Medicine, Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, University of Michigan Health System and Director of the Michigan Airways Program
MeiLan K. Han, M.D., MS, is professor of internal medicine in the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at the University of Michigan Health System and director of the Michigan Airways Program.After graduating from the University of Washington School of Medicine, she completed her residency in Internal Medicine and Fellowship in Pulmonary and Critical Care at the University of Michigan. Dr. Han has also completed a Master's of Science degree in Clinical Research Design and Statistical Analysis at the University of Michigan School of Public Health. She belongs to numerous professional societies including the American Thoracic Society and the European Respiratory Society. She is also an associate editor for the journal American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine and serves on the editorial boards for several journals including Thorax and Lancet Respiratory Medicine. She also serves as a Scientific Advisory Committee member to the COPD Foundation and the American Lung Association.
Dr. Han's research interests include defining disease phenotypes in COPD in particular through radiologic characterization of disease. She is also the Principal Investigator at the University of Michigan for the COPDGene study as well as SPIROMICS, two large National Heart Lung and Blood Institute funded COPD cohort studies as well as the American Lung Association Airways Clinical Research Centers (ACRC) Network. She also serves on the Global Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) science committee that develops internationally recognized management strategies for COPD.
In addition to the primary areas of expertise listed above, Dr. Han also has expertise in the health effects of air pollution, harms of tobacco use, e-cigarettes, youth smoking rates, secondhand smoke exposure, older Americans and lung health, bronchiectasis, vaccination, influenza and pneumonia.
Prof. Nicola A. Hanania, MD, MS, FCCP, FACP, FRCP(C), FERS
Associate Professor of MedicineSection of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine
Director
Airways Clinical Research Center
Baylor College of Medicine
Houston, Texas
Nicola A. Hanania, MD, MS, is associate professor of medicine in the Section of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine and director of the Airways Clinical Research Center at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. He completed his medical training at the University of Jordan in Amman, Jordan, followed by a residency in internal medicine and a fellowship in pulmonary medicine at the University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada. He subsequently completed a fellowship in critical care medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, where he later earned a master’s degree in clinical investigation.As a fellow of the American College of Chest Physicians (ACCP), Dr Hanania has served on the Board of Regents and as chair of the Clinical Pulmonary Medicine, Airways Disorders Networks and Council of NetWorks for this organization. He has been on the Board of Trustees of the Chest Foundation since 2012. In addition, he served as a member of the Health Policy Committee of the American Thoracic Society (ATS). He is a fellow of the European Respiratory Society (ERS), and the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. He has served on several guideline and workshop panels, including the ACP (American College of Physicians)/ATS/ACCP/ERS clinical practice guidelines on chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and the CTS (Canadian Thoracic Society)/ACCP COPD exacerbations guidelines.
Dr Hanania has received multiple awards, including the ACCP’s Distinguished Scholar in Respiratory Health, ACCP distinguished CHEST educator (DCE), ACCP Humanitarian Award, Career Investigator Award (K23) from the National Institutes of Health, Fulbright and Jaworski’s Faculty Excellence Award for Teaching and Evaluation, and the Award for Excellence in Teaching from the Department of Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine. Baylor also named him to the Academy of Distinguished Educators for 2003 to 2010. He is a deputy editor of Respiratory Medicine and is associate editor of the journals Therapeutic Advances in Respiratory Disease, Current Opinion in Pulmonary Medicine (Asthma Section), and Pulmonary Pharmacology and Therapeutics.
Dr Hanania’s research interests focus on the pharmacology and management of asthma and COPD. He has published more than 200 peer-reviewed papers, book chapters, editorials, and reviews on these topics. He is actively involved in clinical trials investigating novel treatments. He is principal investigator for the American Lung Association Airways Clinical Research Center at Baylor College of Medicine, as well as principal investigator or co-investigator in several clinical trials in asthma and COPD. Dr Hanania has been invited and has lectured widely at local, regional, national, and international meetings.
Dr. Alan Kaplan
Family Physician practicing in York Region, Ontario, CanadaMedical Director LHIN Pulmonary Rehabilitation Clinics
Chairperson of the Family Physician Airways Group of Canada (www.fpagc.com)
Past- Chairperson of the Respiratory Section of the College of Family Physicians of Canada
Senate member of the International Primary Care Respiratory Group
President of the IPCRG 5th biennual world scientific meeting, “Making Every Breath Count” Toronto June 2-5, 2010
Chair of the Council of Organizing Members of the Canadian Network for Respiratory Care
Member of Past Canadian Consensus Guidelines for H pylori, Asthma, COPD and Sinusitis
Representative of the College of Family Physicians of Canada to the SARS clinical working group
Member of Chronic Respiratory Disease Surveillance Advisory Committee (Public Health Agency of Canada)
Member of the Health Canada Section on Allergy and Respiratory Therapies
Co-Chair, Health Quality Ontario COPD Community Management standards committee
Board member, Thrombosis Canada
Vice President, Respiratory Effectiveness Group
Dr. Marc Miravitlles
Marc Miravitlles is a Pulmonologist at the Hospital Universitari Vall d’Hebron in Barcelona, Spain. He obtained his MD at the Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain and then specialised in Respiratory Medicine at Hospital Vall d'Hebron. His primary research interests include chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), alpha-1-antitrypsin deficiency (AAT), lung defence mechanisms and respiratory infections. He serves on various medical committees and is a member of numerous professional societies, including the Spanish Society of Pneumology and Thoracic Surgery (SEPAR), where he served as Secretary from 1999 until 2003 and responsible for International Relationships from 2006 until 2012. Dr Miravitlles was Chair of the Respiratory Infections Group of the European Respiratory Society (ERS) from 2008 to 2011 and was the Guidelines Director of the ERS from 2015 to 2018. He has acted as a consultant for the development of different international guidelines of COPD, including the American Thoracic Society (ATS)/ERS task force on outcomes in COPD, the ERS/ATS guidelines on exacerbations of COPD and the ERS statement on management of alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency. He is also a consultant of the Spanish Ministry of Health for the development of the National Strategy Against COPD (2009 to present). He is the coordinator of the Spanish National Guidelines for COPD (GesEPOC from 2012).
Prof. Nikos Papadopoulos
Prof. Papadopoulos is Professor of Allergy and Paediatric Allergy at the University of Manchester, UK, and the Chair of Allergy and Pediatric Allergy at the University of Athens (NKUA), Greece.He has extensive clinical and educational experience in paediatric allergy, having headed for many years a unit caring for more than 7,000 children with allergic diseases yearly, implementing state-of-the-art interventions and training medical students, resident paediatricians and allergists. His research focus is the interface between infection and allergic disease, with an emphasis on asthma exacerbations and food allergy. He is the Coordinator of the EU-funded CURE project. He has extensive collaborations in the context of EU projects, such as PreDicta, GA2LEN, EUROPREVALL, iFAAM and FAST. Prof. Papadopoulos has published over 300 papers (h-index: 70), has received several international awards and is invited to speak at international scientific meetings some 30 times a year. Moreover, he has served or is serving on the boards of EAACI, GA2LEN, WAO, EFA and ARIA. He was the 2013–2015 President of EAACI and is currently the President of the Respiratory Effectiveness Group (REG).
Prof. Alberto Papi
Alberto Papi is Professor of Respiratory Medicine at the University of Ferrara, Italy, and Director of the Respiratory Unit of the Department of Emergency Medicine, S. Anna University Hospital, Ferrara, Italy. He trained in Respiratory Medicine at the University of Parma, before spending 4 years in the UK as a Clinical Research Fellow at the University of Southampton, where he is an Honorary Clinical Lecturer.
He has coordinated several pivotal studies in asthma and COPD, and has authored more than 350 articles in peer-reviewed journals.
Prof. Chin Kook Rhee
Prof. Rhee currently serves as the Professor in the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine at Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital of The Catholic University of Korea.Prof. Rhee is an Associate Editor of BMC Pulmonary Medicine. He is a member of Editorial Board of American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, Journal of COPD, Journal of Thoracic Disease, Journal of Korean Medical Science, and Life. He is also a Deputy Editor of Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases.
Prof. Rhee is a Head Elect of APSR COPD assembly and APSR Bulletin Coordinator. He is also a member of APSR council and APSR Education Committee. He is APSR 2022 Congress Vice Secretary. He is a member of steering committee of International Severe Asthma Registry. He is also a member of many committee of Korean Academy of Tuberculosis and Respiratory Disease.
Prof. Rhee has published 184 SCI(E) articles (75 publications as first/corresponding author). The focus of his research is COPD and asthma with primary interests in topics related to cohort study, big data analysis, clinical trial, ACO, and severe asthma.
Dr. Dermot Ryan
Dermot was a GP for over 30 years in the UK. He has championed respiratory and allergy care in the primary care environment over that time. He established the chair of Primary Care Respiratory Medicine at the University of Aberdeen to research "primary care solutions for primary care problems", He is active in research and is a collaborator at the Asthma UK Centre for Applied Research and is also very active in EAACI.
Prof. Sejal Saglani
Professor of Paediatric Respiratory Medicine, Imperial College LondonHonorary Consultant, Royal Brompton Hospital, London
My research and clinical experience focusses on the investigation of mechanisms underlying the inception of severe asthma and preschool wheeze in children, finding novel therapies to improve control, reduce exacerbations and to achieve disease modification. I have developed a programme of research that is translational, involving an integrated approach to answering questions using both bronchoscopic airway samples from carefully clinically phenotyped children, coupled with an age appropriate neonatal mouse model. I am currently leading a national clinical trial, funded by NIHR, comparing the efficacy of two biologics, omalizumab and mepolizumab in children with severe asthma.My research programme enables the investigation of mechanisms underlying the onset of severe preschool wheeze, factors that determine progression to childhood asthma with the ultimate aim of identifying disease modifying therapies for preschool wheeze and childhood severe asthma.
Prof. Joan B. Soriano
Associate Professor of Medicine, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Cátedra UAM-Linde, and Senior Investigator at the Instituto de Investigación Hospital Universitario de la Princesa-IISP, Madrid, Spain
Joan B Soriano graduated in medicine in 1993 and received his PhD in epidemiology and methodology of biomedical research in 1996, both from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. He completed his education in epidemiology with a Master of Science at the Erasmus University, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, and a post-doctoral stay at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, in Baltimore, USA. He worked in the pharmaceutical industry in the UK from 1998, and later in the USA from 2003. Then, in 2005 he moved back to CIMERA in Mallorca, Spain. He serves in the GesEPOC COPD guidelines, directed the SEPAR’s Foreign Affairs, participates in several committees of the Ministry of Health of Spain, and collaborates extensively with both the ERS and CHEST. He spends most of his time dedicated to research on COPD and other respiratory conditions, aging and tobacco, the design of new clinical trials and translational medicine. Since 2007 he is an Associate Editor of the European Respiratory Journal and since 2012 of the Lancet Respiratory Medicine. He has published over 270 papers and over 20 book chapters. In May 2011, he received the Josep Trueta Award for scientific and medical achievements, and in 2014 was appointed FCCP of Chest and Foundational Fellow of the ERS.
Prof. Steve Turner
Prof. Steve Turner qualified in medicine at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1992 and trained in paediatrics in centres around the North East of England with extended spells in New Zealand and Australia. He has been a consultant paediatrician in Aberdeen since 2003, working as a general paediatrician and a respiratory paediatrician. His research interest are early origins of disease, monitoring asthma and analysing routinely acquired health care data. He was given a personal chair by the University of Aberdeen in 2017. He becomes registrar of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health in April this year. He is currently chief investigator on two research projects, has published more than 100 peer-reviewed papers, but is first and foremost a jobbing clinician.
Prof. Omar Usmani
Omar Usmani is a Reader and Consultant Physician in Respiratory Medicine at the National Heart and Lung Institute (NHLI), Imperial College London and Royal Brompton Hospital. He qualified in Medicine at King’s College London and completed his PhD at Imperial College London for which he received the 2005 NHLI Imperial College PhD Prize for the best thesis. His clinical research themes are Inhaled Drug Delivery, Airways Physiology, Lung Imaging, Respiratory Pharmacology and Tele-monitoring / E-health. He is Secretary of Assembly 5 (Asthma and COPD) at the ERS, Chair of UKIG (UK Inhaler Group), Vice-Chair of Drug Delivery to the Lungs, and Europe Liaison of International Society of Aerosols in Research (ISAM).
In 2012, he was awarded a UK National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Career Development Fellowship, the first time this award category was given to Respiratory Science research in the UK. In 2015, received one of the highest accolades in aerosol science, the Thomas T Mercer Award from the American Association of Aerosol Research (AAAR) and ISAM, recognizing his international research excellence in pharmaceutical aerosols and inhalable materials. He is currently clinical lead on an EU Horizon 2020 consortium project ‘myaircoach’ focusing on the tele-monitoring of patients with asthma and is PI of an FDA awarded project on understanding patient perceptions in breathing from a DPI.
Prof. Job van Boven
A/Prof. dr. Job FM van Boven is a health economics & real-world drug outcomes expert specialised in lung diseases. He is the founding director of the Medication Adherence Expertise Center Of the northern Netherlands (MAECON) and Chair of the European Network to Advance Best Practices & Technology on Medication Adherence (ENABLE) COST Action 19132. He is Principal Investigator at the Groningen Research Institute for Asthma and COPD (GRIAC) and leads the research group on Cost-effective Respiratory Drug Use at the University Medical Center Groningen.He obtained his PharmD and PhD at the University of Groningen (The Netherlands), where his thesis focused on the cost-effectiveness of adherence enhancing interventions in patients with COPD. After his PhD research, he completed fellowships at the University of Colorado (USA), Monash University (Australia) and the Hospital Universitario Son Espases (Spain).
He is (co)author of >100 scientific publications, supervisor of 9 PhD students and received several research prices & grants (totalling>€6 million). Having interest and wide experience in both medication adherence and health economic methods, his mission is to find novel, cost-effective ways to make better use of our respiratory medications in order to maximize both patients’ and societal benefits. Amongst others, his research aims to provide evidence for optimal implementation of drug-device technologies (digital inhalers, electronic pill bottles and smart spacers) in daily clinical practice.
Prof. Adnan Custovic
Adnan Custovic is Professor of Paediatric Allergy at Imperial College London. His professional training consisted of a Specialist training in Paediatrics (1987-91), and successive appointments as Clinical Research Fellow and Specialist Registrar in Allergy (University Hospital of South Manchester, 1992-98). This period saw him awarded M.Sc. (1991), M.D. with Gold Medal (1996) and Ph.D. (2000). He was promoted to a professorship at the University of Manchester in 2002, and moved to Imperial College in 2015.In 2020, he was elected to the Fellowship of the UK Academy of Medical Sciences. In 2019, he was granted membership of the Academy of Sciences and Arts of Bosnia and Herzegovina (ANUBiH). In 2015 he was awarded a highly prestigious European Respiratory Society Gold Medal for research in asthma. In 2013 he received the BSACI William Frankland Medal for outstanding contributions to clinical allergy in the UK. He delivered numerous prestigious keynote/named lectures. He publisher >350 papers in peer-reviewed journals.
He currently serves as the Associate Editor of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, and on the International Advisory Board of the Lancet Child and Adolescent Health. He serves at the Board of Directors of the World Allergy Organisation, and has served as a Secretary of the BSACI for two terms, and as President of Asthma section of the EAACI.
He has supervised 18 PhD/MD students to completion.
Prof. Todor A. Popov, MD, PhD
Todor (Ted) A. Popov graduated medicine at the Medical University in Sofia, Bulgaria. He acquired specialties in Internal Medicine and Clinical Allergology, defended a PhD thesis on airway responsiveness and cough in 1991. He spent 2 years as visiting professor at McMaster University in Canada. He is presently professor (full) at the University Hospital ‘Sv. Ivan Rilski’ in Sofia. His areas of interest include asthma diagnosis and treatment, allergic rhinitis, non-invasive methods for assessment of airway inflammation, bronchial reactivity and cough reflex measurements, food and drug allergy, chronic urticaria, angioedema, biostatistics, planning and design of research studies. He is holder of over ten national and international patents. He has a rich publishing history and is member of the editorial board and reviewer of international and Bulgarian medical journals. He is ambassador of the Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA), member and co-author of the Allergic Rhinitis and its Impact on Asthma (ARIA) group; former president of the World Asthma Association ‘INTERASMA’, former vice president of the European Academy of Allergology and Clinical Immunology (EAACI), former member of the Board of Directors of the World Allergy Organization (WAO), international distinguished member of European, American and other societies, former president of the Union of the Bulgarian Scientific Societies. He is now active member of committees and task forces of different international organizations in the field of pulmonary diseases, allergology and immunology.
Prof. Giorgio Walter Canonica
Allergist and Pulmonologist
Giorgio Walter Canonica is Professor of Respiratory Medicine at Humanitas University & Director Personalized Medicine Asthma & Allergy Center at Humanitas Research Hospital - Milano, Italy. Professor Canonica first specialised in pulmonary diseases after receiving his medical degree from the University of Genoa, Italy. He then specialised in allergy and clinical immunology at Florence University, Italy. He subsequently conducted clinical immunology and allergology research at several European Universities and Institutes, in addition to two years at the Medical University of South Carolina, USA. Since returning to the University of Genoa in 1995, Professor Canonica has held a number of academic positions, including Director of the Speciality School of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, Director of the Specialty School of Pulmonary Diseases and Chairman of the Department of Medical Specialties (University Hospital San Martino Genoa, Italy). He is a Board Member of ARIA-Allergic Rhinitis and its Impact on Asthma and helped to develop their guidelines.
He has been President of WAO-World Allergy Organization, Interasma-Global Asthma Association, currently VicePresident of REG-Respiratory Effectiveness Group.
He is Steering Committee Member of SANI-Severe Asthma Network Italy.
Dr. James Paton
James Paton is a Reader in Paediatric Respiratory Disease at the University of Glasgow and is one of 6 specialist paediatric respiratory consultants at the Royal Hospital for Children in Glasgow. Currently, he leads the regional difficult asthma service in Glasgow.
He has a long-standing interest in asthma audit and started the UK paediatric asthma audit. He was the paediatric member of the writing committee National Review of Asthma Deaths Report “Why Asthma Still Kills”. He was co-chair for the last BTS SIGN asthma guideline in 2019.
Professor Helen Reddel, MBBS PhD FRACP
Dr Reddel is a Research Leader at the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research at the University of Sydney; Clinical Adviser for the Australian Centre for Airways disease Monitoring, and a respiratory physician at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney.
As Chair of the Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA) Science Committee, Dr Reddel has led major evidence-based changes in clinical recommendations for asthma management, with a strong focus on improving patient-health professional communication, and on making guidelines not only evidence-based, but also patient-centred and practical.
Dr Reddel has a long history of collaborative research with pharmacists and family physicians to address practical barriers to care of patients with asthma and COPD. Her current research includes investigating clinical trajectories and underlying mechanisms in a real-world cohort of patients with asthma and/or COPD; strategies for identifying and reducing risk in mild asthma; population monitoring of asthma and COPD; and qualitative research about patient perspectives in mild and severe asthma.
Prof. Anthony D’Urzo MD, MSc, BPHE, CCFP, FCFP
I am an Associate Professor at the University of Toronto (UofT), a UTOPIAN researcher (Department of Family and Community Medicine, UofT) and Director of the Primary Care Lung Clinic, Toronto. I have a very keen interest in promoting respiratory health in primary care and have had the opportunity to do so at the local, national and International levels over the last 30 years. I am very actively involved in clinical and pharmaco-therapeutic research in the areas of asthma and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) management. I enjoyed being a member of the Canadian Asthma Guidelines Committee and the Canadian Thoracic Society COPD Guidelines Committee. Since 1994 I have had the opportunity to work closely with Ontario Lung Association and the Ontario Thoracic Society on many exciting collaborative projects. I have had the opportunity to publish articles relating to respiratory health in leading peer-reviewed journals. I enjoy being an editorial board member of various peer review medical journals and the recently formed UTOPIAN Respiratory Health Working Group, UofT. I have also enjoyed my role as the Associate Director of the Health Science Research Component in the undergraduate medical curriculum at University of Toronto medical school.
Prof. Bartolome Celli
Professor Bartolome Celli graduated from Universidad Central de Venezuela, completed his training in Internal Medicine, and was Chief Medical Resident, at the Boston City Hospital. He then trained in Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at the Boston University School of Medicine. Currently, he is Professor of Medicine at Tufts and Harvard Medical School. Dr. Celli has published over 400 peer reviewed scientific papers, 425 abstracts and edited several books. He has been the Chairman of the Committee that established the American Thoracic Society and European Respiratory Society guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of COPD. In addition, he is in the Scientific Committee of the Global Obstructive Lung Disease initiative and currently serves in the Board of Directors of GOLD. He has also been Chairman of the Clinical Assembly of the ATS and President of the Massachusetts Thoracic Society and New England College of Chest Physicians. Although caring for patients provides unique pleasure, my greatest achievement is to have personally helped mentor many young careers in Medicine. Ten Professors of Medicine, one Dean and two Vice-Deans of medical schools in the United States and in Colombia are among the 65 individuals in whom I have tried to instill a love for the profession, a desire to generate new knowledge, and respect for our fellow humans and for the world at large. My trainees are located in the United States, Europe, the Middle East, Japan and Latin America.
Dr. Pilar Rivera Ortega
Interstitial Lung Disease Unit, Respiratory Medicine DepartmentWythenshawe Hospital
Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust
United Kingdom
Dr Rivera Ortega is a Respiratory Consultant with expertise in interstitial lung diseases (ILD), who has been working in the ILD unit of Wythenshawe Hospital since April 2018, for Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust. She is the lead of the Familial Interstitial Pneumonia clinic and the lead of ILD bronchoscopy list at Wythenshawe Hospital. Dr Rivera Ortega has spent three years as a clinical/research fellow and trained as a specialist in ILD with Dr Maria Molina-Molina at Bellvitge University Hospital, Barcelona-Spain. She is the former coordinator of the Emerging Spanish ILD group (GEEPID-SEPAR) and current member of the executive board of the Spanish ILD group (EPID-SEPAR). Dr Rivera Ortega participates as principal investigator and co-investigator of several clinical trials related to ILD. She has previous experience in the development of a rapid circuit for assessment of ILDs.
Prof. John Blakey
John Blakey is a consultant in Respiratory Medicine at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, Perth. His clinical activities involve the management of airways diseases including severe asthma, and common co-morbidities such as ILO. John’s research interest is in health service delivery, including improving the assessment of future risk in asthma.
