Respiratory and Allergy
The Respiratory and Allergy Clinical Academic Group, launched in April 2022, brings together clinical and academic experts across respiratory and allergy specialties, focusing on education and training, research and clinical services.
The Clinical Academic Group (CAG) Co-Leaders - biographies below - have been working together with colleagues and patients across the partnership for some time to realise the exciting opportunities this expanded partnership affords.
This has included supporting innovations to directly benefit patient care, for example developing a one team approach in interstitial lung disease, where more than 800 patients have contributed to developing shared clinical pathways, and engaging more than 1,500 colleagues in innovative education and training events including through the King's Health Partners (KHP) Learning Hub.
The new Co-Leaders, with a CAG Executive, will further drive partnership opportunities to achieve the goals of the tripartite mission of a clinical, research and education strategy. Their appointments will be for a fixed term of three years in the first instance.
The CAG Executive, led by the CAG Co-Leaders, will produce and implement a CAG strategy and work plan, building on the KHP five-year plan. Building on partnership work to date, they will develop work streams and leads for all three areas of the tripartite mission and work closely with the KHP Education Academy to advance education and learning technology. They will also develop an “integrated team” model for CAG leadership and develop and publish outcome measures.
Learn more about the Respiratory and Allergy CAG Co-Leaders
Dr Irem Patel PhD FRCP
Irem Patel is an integrated Consultant Respiratory Physician at King’s College Hospital, Joint Director of Clinical Strategy at King’s Health Partners and Senior Lecturer at the Centre for Human and Applied Physiological Sciences, King’s College London. She is Joint Clinical Director at NHSE/I for the London region Respiratory Clinical Network and chair of the SE London Integrated Care System respiratory network.
Her specialist and research interests include COPD, respiratory infection, respiratory failure and the development and delivery of pathways of care for patients with chronic respiratory disease. She leads a multidisciplinary specialist team spanning hospital and community delivering integrated respiratory care in South East London. She is co-Head of the Respiratory Department at King’s College Hospital as well as Clinical Lead for COPD, Asthma, Oxygen and Treating Tobacco Dependence. She works closely with local Clinical Commissioning Groups and local care networks to inform local respiratory strategy. Dr Patel is actively involved in teaching and training both within King’s Health Partners and in supporting respiratory skills and competencies amongst colleagues in primary care.
Dr Patel says:
Thank you for this amazing opportunity; I look forward to working with colleagues and the public across our KHP partnerships to champion and deliver the best respiratory outcomes, teaching and research for all.
Prof Mona Bafadhel, MBChB, FRCP, PhD
Prof Mona Bafadhel, completed medical training at the University of Birmingham, followed by training at Birmingham Heartlands Hospital, The Royal Brompton Hospital and specialist registrar training in hospitals within the Oxford Deanery, including the Churchill Hospital. Prof Bafadhel completed her PhD in biomarkers of exacerbations of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) at the University of Leicester. Prof Bafadhel is a clinical academic researcher and was awarded an NIHR postdoctoral fellowship between 2014-2018, which she held at the University of Oxford.
Prof Bafadhel has been working in the Nuffield Department of Medicine as the Professor in Respiratory Medicine at the University of Oxford and is now joining the Faculty of Life Sciences and Medicine and the School of Immunology and Microbial Sciences at KCL as the Professorial Chair in Respiratory Medicine. In 2019, Prof Bafadhel was awarded the prestigious Gaulstonian Lectureship from the Royal College of Physicians, London.
She is the 4th woman and 1st woman from an ethnic minority in the awards 350-year-old history to have received this for excellence in the Clinical Sciences. Prof Bafadhel will lead a group with research interests in the field of Airways Disease, particularly the investigation of the mechanisms underlying exacerbations of COPD.
This has led to studying the role of the eosinophil in COPD, using statistical approaches to define particular sub-groups and to the delivery of novel therapeutic strategies to patients, working across the translational spectrum.
Her work on the peripheral blood eosinophil in COPD has influenced international guidance and is now routinely used managing patients with COPD. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Prof Bafadhel observed that in the early Wuhan severe hospitalised COVID-19 cohort, asthma and COPD was an infrequent comorbidity and she hypothesised this was related to inhaled corticosteroids having a protective effect.
To test this hypothesis, she undertook the STOIC trial, testing the effect of inhaled budesonide in patients with early COVID-19 infection. The results were highly supportive and her findings have been replicated in the national UK PRINCIPLE platform and are also now part of international guidance.
Prof Bafadhel says:
I’m very excited to be part of the Respiratory and Allergy CAG, as part of KHP and for the journey ahead of us all.
Prof Michael Loebinger
Prof Loebinger has expertise in respiratory infections and is Lead of the Lung Division, Deputy Medical Director and Clinical Director of Laboratory Medicine at Royal Brompton and Harefield hospitals. He is also Professor of Practice (Respiratory Medicine) at Imperial College.
Prof Michael Loebinger says:
I am delighted to have the opportunity to work with an excellent team to help drive forward the clinical, research and education strategy of the partnership.
Prof Nicholas Hart BSc FRCP PhD FFICM FERS
Prof Hart was appointed as Clinical Director for Sleep, Respiratory and Critical Care at Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospital in February 2020 and he directed the critical care response to the COVID-19 pandemic with 1127 patients admitted to the critical care with an overall critical care survival of 76% since March 2nd 2020, including the Prime Minister.
From 2012 to 2020, he was Head of the Lane Fox Respiratory Service, which is an internationally recognised clinical-academic weaning, rehabilitation and home mechanical ventilation service, which currently houses the largest weaning and rehabilitation unit in the UK and supports over 2700 patients with chronic respiratory failure.
He was appointed in 2015 as Joint Editor-in-Chief of Thorax (impact factor rising to 9.1) and in 2016 he was appointed as King’s College London Professor of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.
Prof Hart is R&D Director of Delivery at Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospital and he established the Lane Fox Clinical Respiratory Physiology Research Centre in 2007 with his own research group focused on reducing hospital admission in COPD, muscle wasting prevention during critical illness and enhancing outcome in chronic respiratory failure and sleep disordered breathing.
Prof Hart says:
This is the next step to deliver a world class clinical-academic respiratory and allergy service across the partnership.