Recent advances in medicine and surgery

Consultant Colorectal Surgeon. Qualified in South Africa, Consultant Surgeon, The Middlesex and UCLH, then Consultant Surgeon St Mark's. Previously Divisional Clinical Director for Surgery, Theatre, Anaesthesia, ITU & St Mark's at LNWUH (during Covid) then Co Medical Director for St Mark's. Special interests - intestinal failure, proctology and pelvic floor.

Dr Mackillop is a Consultant Obstetric Physician, Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust; Honorary Senior Clinical Lecturer, Nuffield Department of Women’s and Reproductive Health, University of Oxford; Fellow of  The Royal College of Physicians and The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists; President of the UK’s MacDonald Obstetric Medicine Society and Chief Medical Officer – Data & Research at EMIS plc. Dr Mackillop trained in General, Renal and Obstetric Medicine in Oxford, London and Sydney before taking up her consultant post in 2008.

Professor Fausto Palazzo is clinical lead for endocrine & thyroid surgery at The Hammersmith Hospital & Imperial College Healthcare.  His main interests are thyroid, parathyroid and adrenal surgery. He has held executive office positions in the British, European and currently International endocrine surgical societies.   He was an advisor to NICE on primary hyperparathyroidism management guidelines.

Dr Fassihi is a Consultant Dermatologist and Head of the Photodermatology Unit at St John’s Institute of Dermatology, Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospital. She is also Clinical Lead for the UK National Xeroderma Pigmentosum (XP) Service. Nationally, she is the Chair of the British Photodermatology Group, a special interest group of the British Association of Dermatologists. As an Honorary Reader at King's College London, she is involved in translational research in Xeroderma Pigmentosum and other disorders of abnormal DNA repair. She has published widely on different aspects of photodermatology and inherited skin disorders.

Graduated from London University 1990. RCVS Certificate in Zoological Medicine 2000. RCVS Advanced Practitioner in Zoological Medicine 2015. Until recently practice owner (100% avian/ exotics/ small mammal/ zoo caseload) in Hampshire. Currently providing consultancy and advisory services to vets, zoo collections and Local Authorities. Past Board member of AAV and founding chair of AAV International Committee. Past president of Veterinary Invertebrate Society, EAAV and also of the British Small Animal Veterinary Association. Numerous publications on a variety of species including writing/ editing five textbooks (sixth on the way!). Currently Hon Secretary and trustee of Vetlife.

Dudley Pennell is Professor of Cardiology at the National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College, London. He is Director of CMR at Royal Brompton Hospital, the largest CMR Unit in the world. He has been President of the Society for CMR and is a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences. His research interests are in measurement of myocardial iron, cardiomyopathy, and diffusion tensor imaging of myocardial architecture. He has worked in CMR for >30 years and published >650 research papers as well as the 3^rd Edition of the textbook “Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance” as part of the Braunwald cardiology series.

Martin Rossor trained in Neurology at the National Hospital, Queen Square and undertook research into the neurochemistry of degenerative dementia at the MRC Neurochemical Pharmacology Unit, Cambridge.

He is Professor of Clinical Neurology at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, and established a specialist cognitive disorders clinic which acts as a tertiary referral service for young onset and rare dementias.   Clinical research interests are in the degenerative dementias and particularly in familial disease.   He was editor of the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry, and President of the Association of British Neurologists.  Martin was the NIHR National Director for Dementia Research and Director NIHR UCLH Biomedical Research Centre Dementia Theme.

Hiroshi Nishikawa was born in Japan and was educated from an early age in England. He studied medicine at Cambridge University and Kings College Hospital London. He carried out microsurgical transplantation research on the effects of antioxidants and free radicals on warm ischaemia for his MD thesis. He underwent plastic reconstructive, craniofacial and cosmetic surgery training in the UK, Australia, Japan and Taiwan. He has been a consultant plastic reconstructive and Craniofacial Surgeon since 1996. He was appointed  first in Leeds and then to the  Birmingham Children’s Hospital. He was the clinical lead of the Birmingham craniofacial unit from 2010 to 2015 and was on the Intercollegiate exam board for plastic surgery. He has lectured widely on his specialist interests and has worked with the charity Facing Africa in Ethiopia for the treatment of Noma patients with severe facial deformity. He retired from the NHS in 2020.  He is presently a director of the Westbourne Centre and now deals primarily with cosmetic patients and patients with facial deformity.