Agenda

DAY 1

5TH SEPTEMBER 

Dr Annie Joseph

Consultant Microbiologist, Nottingham University Hospitals

Dr Annie Joseph is a Consultant Microbiologist at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust UK, where she is the clinical laboratory lead and the lead for Antimicrobial Stewardship. She has sub-specialty experience in urological infections, obstetric infections and laboratory diagnostics. She led the Nottingham microbiology laboratory through a 24/7 transformation in 2020 and in the implementation of new diagnostic tests to improve infection pathways. She currently leads the multi-disciplinary Blood Culture Improvement group in the hospital, leading to measurable improvements in the diagnostic pathway. Dr Joseph has been a standing member on the NICE Managing Common Infections committee, and is a current council member of the British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy. She has worked on national committees with UKHSA, UKNSC and NHS England. As a former Health Education England Innovation fellow, she has continued to strive for integration of the appropriate use of diagnostics and antimicrobials across Primary and Secondary Care.

Melissa Mead

UK Sepsis Trust Ambassador and Spokesperson 

Melissa Mead campaigns for better recognition, treatment and awareness of sepsis.

Melissa’s passion for raising awareness of sepsis stems from personal tragedy after her one-year old son William succumbed to sepsis at home in December 2014. Sadly, William’s underlying pneumonia had been miss diagnosed as a viral infection and doctors failed to notice the signs of sepsis.

Rather than get angry, Melissa got active. Campaigning quite significantly over the last few years. With the UK Sepsis Trust, she has seen significant movements in the public’s knowledge of sepsis in addition to healthcare workers treating sepsis in a timelier fashion. Melissa urges everyone, the public and healthcare professionals alike to ‘Just ask: Could it be Sepsis?’

In 2018 Melissa was awarded an MBE for her work in raising awareness of sepsis.

Dr Brigitte Lamy

Associate Professor in Clinical Microbiology

Dr Brigitte Lamy is Associate Professor in Clinical Microbiology in Centre Hospitalier Universitaire of Nice in France, and was a visiting researcher at Imperial College London for the past 2 years. She is currently chairing the Sepsis ESCMID Study Group for Bloodstream Infections.

Dr Jane Freeman

Associate Professor / Clinical Scientist, University of Leeds / Leeds Teaching Hospitals 

Dr Jane Freeman is an Associate Professor at the University of Leeds and clinical scientist at Leeds Teaching Hospitals. She is National Clinical Lead for AMR Diagnostics at NHS England. Jane’s particular interests lie in antimicrobial resistance (AMR), infection diagnostics and C. difficile infection (CDI). She established the highly successful human gut models of CDI within the Healthcare Associated Infections research group at Leeds, studying the role of antibiotics and the gut microbiota in the disease. She has led a number of UK and European studies of AMR in C. difficile. She was awarded an NIHR/HEE ICA Clinical Lectureship in 2019 and is an Emerging Lead in the Leeds Biomedical Research Centre’s Antimicrobial Resistance and Infection Theme.

Dr Ron Daniels BEM

Founder and Joint CEO: UK Sepsis Trust ; Vice President: Global Sepsis Alliance; Senior Lecturer in Intensive Care Medicine: Queen Mary's, London

Ron Daniels is an NHS Consultant in Intensive Care, based at University Hospitals Birmingham, U.K. He’s also Chief Executive of the UK Sepsis Trust and Vice-President of the Global Sepsis Alliance. In 2016 he was awarded the British Empire Medal for services to patients.

Ron’s expertise lies in translational medicine and leadership. He leads the team driving dissemination of the Sepsis 6 treatment pathway and is part of the team responsible for much of the policy and media engagement around sepsis in the U.K. and elsewhere, including as a core member of the team securing the adoption of the 2017 Resolution on Sepsis by the WHO.

At home, Ron’s worked with the NHS over the last 7 years to ensure that, in England, more than 80% of patients presenting with suspected sepsis now receive appropriate antimicrobials rapidly. He’s ever mindful of the perceived conflict, and the synergies and need for collaboration, with the antimicrobial stewardship agenda.

Dr Andrew Conway Morris

MRC Clinician Scientist / Honorary Consultant in Intensive Care Medicine, University of Cambridge/ Addenbrooke's Hospital 

Dr Conway Morris trained in Glasgow and Edinburgh. He undertook his PhD in critical care immunology and nosocomial infection in Edinburgh before moving to Cambridge to complete his training in Anaesthesia and ICM. He has developed a number of diagnostics for infection, including the host response test recently evaluated in the VAP-RAPID trial, and several pathogen-focussed molecular diagnostic platforms. He is currently an MRC Clinician Scientist at the University of Cambridge and Consultant in Intensive Care Medicine in the John V Farman Intensive Care Unit, Addenbrooke’s Hospital. He is the Chair of the ESICM’s Infection section.

DAY 2 

6TH SEPTEMBER 

Susan Bowler

Antimicrobial Stewardship (AMS) nurse, Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust