Reducing HCAIs 2011:Maintaining Patient Safety: Breaking the Cycle of Infection

Conference Speakers

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• Sue Saville

  Conference FacilitatorJournalist & Broadcaster

  Sue Saville is a longstanding Medical Correspondent, and has broadcast reports on all of the major UK news channels.

  Sue initially worked as Chief Correspondent for GMTV (where she secured a live interview with Nelson Mandela). She then turned to medical and health issues, and has covered everything from childhood obesity and the ‘postcode lottery’ of unequal healthcare in Britain, to the development of swine flu, and award-winning coverage of MRSA.

  Sue has an MA (Hons) degree in History from Oxford, and a postgraduate diploma in Journalism studies from Cardiff University.

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• Dominique L. Monnet

  Senior Expert & Head, Antimicrobial Resistance and Healthcare-Associated Infections Programme Office of the Chief ScientistEuropean Centre for Disease Prevention and Control

  Dominique L. Monnet, PharmD, PhD is a Senior Expert and Head of the Programme on Antimicrobial Resistance and Healthcare-Associated Infections at the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), a European Union agency based in Stockholm, Sweden.

  He received his degrees in pharmacy and clinical microbiology from the University of Lyon (France), and then obtained further education as a hospital infection control specialist and epidemiologist. He has worked in French hospitals, at the U.S. CDC and at the Danish Statens Serum Institute where he coordinated surveillance of antimicrobial resistance and antimicrobial consumption in humans in Denmark as part of the Danish Integrated Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring and Research Programme (DANMAP) between 1999 and 2007.

  He joined ECDC in October 2007 to coordinate the centre’s programme on antimicrobial resistance and healthcare-associated infections. He is also a member of the Transatlantic Task Force on Antimicrobial Resistance (TATFAR).

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• Professor John Oxford

  Chair, Hygiene Council and Professor of Virology, Retroscreen Virology, Centre for Immunology and Infectious DiseaseBarts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry

  John Oxford is Professor of Virology at St Bartholomew’s and the RoyalLondon Hospital, Queen Mary’s School of Medicine and Dentistry. He ha co-authored two standard texts: ‘Influenza, the Viruses and the Disease with Sir Charles Stuart-Harris and G.C. Schild and most recently ‘Human Virology, a Text for Students of Medicine, Dentistry and Microbiology’ now in its third edition, published by Oxford University Press. Professor Oxford has also published 250 scientific papers. His research interest is the pathogenicity of influenza, in particular the 1918 Spanish Influenza strain, which he combines with conducting clinical trials using new influenza vaccines and antiviral drugs. This research has been featured on Science TV programmes recently in the UK, USA, Germany and Holland. He is Scientific Director of the college research virology company called Retroscreen Virology Ltd (www.retroscreen.com).

  Awarded communicator for the year for the flu pandemic by the Society of Applied Microbiology and top communicator by the Society of Journalists.

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• Professor Barry Cookson

  Director, Laboratory of Healthcare Associated InfectionHealth Protection Agency (HPA)

  Professor Barry Cookson is dentally and medically qualified. He is a Consultant Medical Microbiologist and Director of the Laboratory of Healthcare Associated Infection (HCAI) at the Centre for Infections, Health Protection Agency. This laboratory is a WHO reference and research centre.

  He holds visiting Professorships at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Imperial College, London University and is an advisor to the National Patient Safety Agency and the Healthcare Commission (now the Care Quality Commission), was a member of the Rapid Review Panel and is currently a member of the Department of Health’s HCAI Committee (ARHAI) and VMD’s Veterinary Products Committee.

  He is very active nationally and internationally in HCAI and associated issues of antimicrobial resistance, related research and multi-disciplinary approaches to improving infection control and antimicrobial stewardship. He has over 260 publications and has been awarded grants to the value of over £13 million, including several European grants. Particular expertise includes microbial typing, systematic reviews, designing and evaluating complex interventions.

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• Dr Thomas Nifong

  Vice President, Clinical OperationsMetamark Genetics, Inc

  Dr. Nifong joined Metamark Genetics with extensive experience in molecular pathology, clinical laboratory medicine, and laboratory validation and management. Prior to Metamark, Dr. Nifong was Associate Professor of Clinical Pathology at the Penn State Hershey Medical Centre, where he served as Medical Director of the Molecular Diagnostics Laboratory, Medical Director of the Hematology and Thrombosis Laboratory, and Staff Physician in Clinical Pathology and Apheresis.

  He provided direct patient care through blood exchange therapies and through laboratory testing and interpretation. Previously he worked for Unilever as a Process Engineer implementing new technologies into the polymer industry.

  Dr. Nifong received a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Purdue University. He then received an M.D. from the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry and completed his residency training in Clinical Pathology at the Penn State Hershey Medical Centre.

  Dr. Nifong is a Diplomat of the American Board of Pathology and a Fellow of the American Society for Clinical Pathology and the College of American Pathologists. His past research experience includes mathematical modelling of blood flow-related systems and collaboration with bioengineers and cardiothoracic surgeons at the Penn State artificial heart program, profiling the thrombotic complications of artificial organs in animal models.

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• Dr Susan Hopkins

  Healthcare Epidemiologist, Health Protection Agency, Honorary Senior Lecturer, UCL, Consultant in Infectious Diseases and MicrobiologyRoyal Free Hampstead NHS Trust

  Dr Susan Hopkins completed her undergraduate studies in Medicine at Trinity College Dublin . Her subsequent postgraduate training was in Ireland and abroad with a laboratory research fellowship in Seattle in 2003 and subsequently an Infectious Diseases fellowship in Hopital Pitie Salpitriere in Paris. Her last year of clinical training was in London, where she subsequently did additional microbiology and infection control training while completing an MSc in Epidemiology in the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

  She was appointed as a Consultant in Infectious Diseases and Microbiology with a special interest in Hospital Epidemiology in the Royal Free Hospital in 2007, which she continues to do in conjunction her HPA role. Since then she has developed hospital epidemiology in association with the infection control department. Her main research interests and publications are on outbreak investigation and surveillance, healthcare associated infections,and Staphylococcus aureus. She is increasingly interested in using routinely collected hospital data for the surveillance of healthcare associated infections.

  In 2009, she was appointed as a healthcare epidemiologist in the Health Protection Agency with the remit of strengthening healthcare epidemiology within the agency and improving intra-organisational working in the area of healthcare epidemiology.

  She is currently a member of many national expert groups and is the chair elect of the Royal College of Physicians HCAI working group.

  She is very excited to be the Programme Director for the UCL, HIS and HPA collaboration to develop the new Diploma and MSc in Healthcare Infection Control which will commence in September 2011.

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• Rose Gallagher

  Advisor in Infection ControlRoyal College Of Nursing

  Rose is full time Nurse Advisor for Infection Prevention and Control to the Royal College of Nursing (RCN). Based in the Nursing Dept at RCN Headquarters, together with other Nurse Advisors she provides specialist professional and clinical advice to the Royal College, its members and key stakeholders across the UK on Infection Prevention and the implications for Nurses and Nursing. She represents the Royal College at local, regional, national and international level on both infection prevention and professional nursing issues. In addition to her Infection Prevention role Rose supports a number of specialist nursing practice forums including Cancer and Breast Care, Nephrology, Gastroenterology, IV and Haematology and Immunology and Allergy.

  Rose commenced her infection control career in 1998 as a surveillance nurse, undertaking surgical site infection surveillance for large bowel surgery. Her interest in Infection Prevention and Control grew and in 2000 she commenced her first Infection Control Nurse position and completed the BSC (Hons) in Infection Control at the University of Hertfordshire. Rose subsequently undertook the Political Leadership course at the Royal College of Nursing which led to her joining the College in 1999 as the first substantive permanent Nurse Advisor for infection prevention.

  Rose represented the European Federation of Nurses within her role at the Royal College for the development of the EU recommendation on Infection Prevention and Control and Patient Safety, and now represents the RCN and nursing as a core member of the European Network for Infection Prevention and Control. As a member of the Nursing Dept team Rose works to ensure that infection prevention is integrated across all areas of nursing practice and contributes to professional nursing projects alongside other colleagues such as The Dignity campaign, Dementia project, HCA development, and patient safety programmes.

  Rose is a past regional coordinator of the North London IPS region and a member of the Rapid Review Panel. She is also a Committee member for the Central Sterilising Club (CSC). Her specific interests include Clostridium difficile, HCAI technology programmes and the development of nursing policy issues.

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• Professor Gary French

  Professor of Microbiology & Consultant MicrobiologistKings College London

  Professor GL French BSc MD FRCPath DipHIC qualified in medicine in London. He was the foundation Professor of Microbiology at The Chinese University of Hong Kong 1982-1990 and is now Professor of Medical Microbiology at King’s College and Honorary Consultant Microbiologist at Guy’s and St Thomas’s Hospitals, London.

  He has been Chairman of the Hospital Infection Society, Editor of the Journal of Hospital Infection and a Board Member of the International Federation of Infection Control. He has been a member of several national and international working parties, committees and advisory boards on microbiology, hospital infection, antibiotic therapy and antimicrobial resistance. These include the UK Government advisory committee on Antimicrobial Resistance and Healthcare Associated Infections and the Rapid Review Panel (on innovations in hospital infection control).

  He has lectured extensively at national and international meetings and has published widely in major journals and text books. His areas of specialist interest are clinical microbiology, healthcare-associated infections, rapid diagnostics, antibiotic therapy and antimicrobial resistance.

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• Professor Derrick Crook

  Consultant Microbiologist/Infectious DiseasesUniversity of Oxford

  Professor Derrick Crook specialises in General Internal Medicine, Infectious Disease and Clinical Microbiology. Currently working as a consultant in infectious disease and the lead for infection control in the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust, Oxford. Professor Crook holds a Professorship in Microbiology, Nuffield Department of Medicine, University of Oxford.

  Currently clinically active practicing infectious disease, he also leads a research group with wide interests in epidemiology, surveillance, whole bacterial genomics, evolution, and clinical investigations of microbial diseases with a special emphasis in hospital acquired infection.

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• Professor Didier Pittet CBE MD, MS

  Professor of Medicine and Hospital Epidemiology, Hospital Epidemiologist, and Director of the Infection Control ProgrammeGeneva Faculty of Medicine

  Didier Pittet, MD, MS is the Hospital Epidemiologist and Director of the Infection Control Programme at the University of Geneva Hospitals and Faculty of Medicine, Geneva, Switzerland; Professor of Medicine and Hospital Epidemiology at the University of Geneva; and Attending Physician in Adult and Paediatric Infectious Diseases, University of Geneva Hospitals. He holds Honorary Professorships with the School of Medicine, Imperial College London, UK; the Hong Kong Polytechnic University School of Health Science, Hong Kong, SAR, China; and the 1st Medical School of the Fu, Shanghai, China.

  Professor Pittet is external consultant to the UK National Patient Safety Advisory Committee, and international advisor to the Infection Control Centre of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University School of Health Science and the Gulf Cooperation Council (States) Centre for Infection Control, King Abdulaziz Medical City, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. He is also a member of the Programme Committee of the Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (ICAAC). Since 2004, he has acted as lead of the World Health Organization First Global Patient Safety Challenge "Clean Care is Safer Care".

  Professor Pittet is the recipient of several international honours including a CBE awarded in 2007 by HM Queen Elisabeth II for services to the prevention of healthcare-associated infection in the UK, the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America 2008 Lectureship for his contribution to infection control and healthcare epidemiology, and the 2009 Award of Excellence of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases’. He is co-author of more than 300 publications and several chapters in textbooks, and his research interests include the epidemiology of infectious diseases, the epidemiology and prevention of healthcare-associated infection, and methods for improving compliance with the use of barrier precautions and hand hygiene practices to improve the quality and safety of patient care.

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• Dr Peter Moss

  Vice PresidentBritish Infection Association (BIA)

  Dr Moss trained at University of Birmingham Medical School, and subsequently pursued clinical and research training in Infectious Diseases in Sheffield, Liverpool, and Nottingham before taking up his current consultant post in 1999. His main clinical interests are infections in injecting drug users (particularly chronic viral hepatitis), and healthcare associated infection (HCAI). As DIPC for a 1400 bed teaching hospital he is involved in both the day to day management of HCAIs, and strategic planning to reduce the burden of avoidable harm caused by these infections. Rates of both MRSA infection and C difficile diarrhoea have fallen dramatically in the Hull and East Yorkshire NHS Trust over the past 5 years as a result of a multidisciplinary approach including better antibiotic prescribing, improved environment, and safer clinical practice.

  As well as being the current Vice President of the British Infection Association Dr Moss is Vice Chair of the Joint Royal Colleges Committee on Infection and Tropical Medicine, and a member of the Royal College of Physicians Working Group on HCAIs.

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• Edwina Currie

  PatronMRSA Action UK

  Edwina Currie was a Birmingham City Councillor (1975-86) and Chairman of the Central Birmingham Health Authority and served as MP for South Derbyshire from 1983 to 1997.

  From 1985-86, Edwina was PPS (aide) to the Secretary of State for Education and Science, Sir Keith Joseph; from 1986-88 she was a government Minister at the Department of Health and Social Security (later the Department of Health) under Margaret Thatcher. She resigned after warning about food safety in eggs. John Major invited her to rejoin the government in 1992 but she declined. She was the lead proposer of legislation to give equal rights to gay men, calling a debate in February 1994 (the first in the House of Commons in 25 years). On that occasion the House voted to reduce the age of consent for gays in Britain, which had been 21, to 18.

  Other campaigns included support for our military personnel who returned from the first Gulf War in Iraq in 1991 suffering from Gulf War Syndrome. She set up a multi-agency team with the Royal British Legion and successfully pressed Ministers to accept responsibility and compensate the victims and their families.

  During the 1990s she championed the cause of people with learning disabilities who had been abused, following a famous case in her constituency which resulted in the trial and imprisonment of a care worker. To help witnesses and victims she set up a registered charity, VOICE, with funding from the Department of Health and the Home Office.

  Much of her time is devoted to non-partisan community work with the charity The Patients Association and as Patron of MRSA Action (UK). Both groups campaign on behalf of patients for cleaner hospitals and how to avoid epidemics of "superbugs" such as MRSA and clostridium difficile. She is also Patron of her local women`s aid refuge.

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• Lord Howe

  Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for HealthThe Department of Health (DH)

  Earl Howe has been Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in the Department of Health since May 2010.

  Born in 1951, he was educated at Rugby School and Christ Church, Oxford. After leaving University in 1973, he joined Barclays Bank and served in a number of managerial and senior managerial posts both overseas and in London. In 1987 he was appointed London director of Adam Co. plc, the Scottish-based private bank, where he remained until 1990.

  He is married with three daughters and a son.

  In 1991, Lord Howe became a government whip in the House of Lords with responsibilities, successively, for transport, employment, defence and environment. Following the General Election of 1992 he was appointed Parliamentary Secretary (Lords) at the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food; and in 1995 Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Ministry of Defence, a post he relinquished at the 1997 General Election.

  Between 1997 and 2010 he was opposition spokesman for Health and Social Services in the House of Lords. He is an elected hereditary peer under the provisions of the House of Lords Act 1999. Apart from his frontbench responsibilities, Earl Howe has previously been a member of the all-party groups on penal affairs, abuse investigations, pharmaceuticals, adoption, mental health and epilepsy.