Rheumatology 2016
 
Keynote speakers


Jewels in the Crown
Tuesday 26 April, 14.15 - 16.15

 

Professor Jane Dacre
President of Royal College of Physicians
Royal College of Physicians


Jane Dacre was elected president of the Royal College of Physicians in April 2014

She is an honorary consultant physician and rheumatologist at the Whittington hospital in North London, Professor of Medical Education and Director of UCL Medical School in London. She was also the medical director of MRCPUK until December 2013 and prior to that academic vice president of the RCP. 

She was a GMC Council member, and chaired the GMC education and training committee (2008-2012) and leads a research programme in medical education focussing on assessment. 

She was the clinical lead for the development of the first Clinical Skills Centre in the UK, and was a co-author of the GALS screen. Professor Dacre has been instrumental in the development, implementation and evaluation of assessment systems in medicine. 

Professor Dacre won the Medicine & Healthcare Category for the 2012 Women in the City Woman of Achievement Award and was named on the Health Service Journal's inaugural list of 50 inspirational women in Healthcare in 2013

Professor Dacre is married with three children. 



Heberden Round
Tuesday 26 April, 16.45 - 17.45



Professor Peter Taylor
Norman Collisson Professor of Musculoskeletal Sciences
Oxford University 

Peter C. Taylor holds the Norman Collison chair of musculoskeletal sciences at the University of Oxford and is a Fellow of St. Peter’s College, Oxford. He is the Director of Clinical Sciences and the Biomedical Research Unit inflammation theme at the Botnar Research Centre and leads the rheumatology clinical trials group and related translational research programme at the Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology within the Nuffield Department of Orthopaedics, Rheumatology and Musculoskeletal Sciences. He was formerly Professor of Experimental Rheumatology at the Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology Division, Imperial College London and Dean of the Charing Cross campus. He studied pre-clinical medical sciences at Gonville and Caius College at the University of Cambridge and his first degree was in Physiology. He subsequently studied clinical medicine at the University of Oxford and was awarded a PhD degree from the University of London for studies on pathogenesis of arthritis. In the summer of 2015 he was appointed medical director of the National Rheumatoid Arthritis Society, an outstanding patient led charity that works tirelessly to support patients with rheumatoid arthritis and juvenile inflammatory arthritis.

Professor Taylor has specialist clinical interests in inflammatory arthritis. He has over 20 years’ experience in clinical trial design and international leadership in studies of biologic and small molecular therapies in rheumatoid arthritis and ankylosing spondylitis including the earliest seminal trails of anti-TNF and anti-IL-6 receptor therapy. His research expertise is in mechanisms sustaining inflammation and clinical trials of new therapies with development of novel outcome measurements for application in assessment of response to therapy including ultrasonographic and high-field magnetic resonance imaging technology. In experimental medicine studies, Professor Taylor employs targeted therapies as probes of pathogenesis to investigate the in vivo biology of the target in the pathobiology of the disease phenotype under investigation. His interest in novel outcome measures also includes new tools for the personalised assessment of well-being which can be used adjunctively to clinical outcome measures in informing management decisions.



Heberden Oration
Wednesday 27 April, 16.30 - 17.30


Professor Iain McInnes
Director of the Institute of Infection, Immunity and Inflammation
University of Glasgow

Iain McInnes is Director of the Institute of Infection, Immunity and Inflammation in the University of Glasgow and serves as the Muirhead Professor of Medicine, and ARUK Professor of Rheumatology. He studied medicine at the University of Glasgow before training in internal medicine and rheumatology in Glasgow and at the NIH, Bethesda. Professor McInnes obtained his PhD in Immunology and thereafter conducted post-doctoral studies in NIH and in Glasgow. 

Professor McInnes has contributed substantial new knowledge to the field of cytokine biology and vascular co-morbidity in both RA and psoriatic arthritis. His work has been recognised in receipt of many prizes and lectureships including the Michael Mason prize 2001 and Droitwich lecture 2011, both from the British Society for Rheumatology, the Albrecht Hasinger Lectureship 2002, Berlin, Nana Swartz Lectureship 2008, Swedish Medical Association, the Feng Pao Hsii Lecture 2011 from the Singapore – Malaysian Society for Rheumatology, the Cochrane Lecturer in Alabama, The Weissman Lecture, New York 2013, the Kroc Lecture at Washington University 2014 and the Sir James Black Medal from the RSE in 2015. He has published more than 200 articles in peer-reviewed journals and has given numerous plenary and invited lectures at EULAR and ACR Scientific Congresses.

Professor McInnes has served as vice-chair of the Medical Research Council Panel for Fellowships and Training and is Director of the Medical Research Council Scottish Clinical Pharmacology and Pathology Training Programme and Deputy Director of the Wellcome Trust Scottish Translational Medicine and Therapeutics Initiative. He is a previous chairman of the EULAR Scientific Committee, member of the ACR scientific committee and Chair of the EULAR Standing Committee for Clinical Affairs and is now an Honorary Member of EULAR, and Treasurer of EULAR on the Steering Committee. He is Director of the ARUK Centre of Excellence for Pathogenesis of Rheumatoid Arthritis (in a collaboration with Universities of Birmingham and Newcastle). He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2008, and a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2012. 



Droitwich Medical Trust Lecture
Thursday 28 April, 11.30 - 12.30



Professor Anthony Redmond
Professor and Head of the Section of Clinical Biomechanics and Physical Medicine
University of Leeds

Anthony Redmond is Professor and Head of the Section of Clinical Biomechanics and Physical Medicine at the Leeds University Institute of Rheumatic and Musculoskeletal Medicine. As a podiatrist, joining Leeds in 2001 he founded the Leeds foot and ankle research group ‘FASTER’, and now contributes to a broader portfolio of work in rheumatology and orthopedics across his own institute, the Leeds NIHR Musculoskeletal Biomedical Research Unit and the Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering.

He is an active clinical researcher with a programme funded by the National Institutes for Health Research, the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, Arthritis Research UK and industry worth in excess of £5million, investigating mechanical and biological interactions in musculoskeletal disease. Studies encompass basic and translational research into joint function in the rheumatic diseases and pre and post joint replacement; clinical trials in a range of musculoskeletal conditions; and translational research including novel applications of imaging, motion analysis and computer modelling.

Prof Redmond is Chair of the EULAR Health Professional’s Standing Committee, the peak body for health professionals in musculoskeletal care in Europe. He is a member of the BHPR Scientific Committee and is past chair of ARMA, the UK umbrella body for the musculoskeletal community.