Alcohol-related Liver Disease

Dr Allison undertook undergraduate training at St Mary’s Hospital Medical School (Imperial College), London including research into Alcohol-related liver disease. He completed postgraduate training at Oxford, Imperial and Cambridge, followed by a PhD in the field of Immunology in Cambridge.

Simran Arora has specialised in liver services at Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust since 2008. She provides nutrition support for patients with alcoholic liver disease and assesses and supports patients on the liver transplant waiting list. Her research interests include nutrition screening patients with liver disease for which she has published and presented at national and international conferences. She has supported the British Liver Trust writing literature for ‘diet and liver disease’.

Aisling Considine is a Senior Liver Pharmacist at King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. She qualified from Brighton University in 2004 and went on to complete her pre-registration and postgraduate clinical qualifications at King’s College Hospital. She qualified as an independent prescriber in 2010 and currently works as a prescriber within the Viral Hepatitis Team at King’s. She is a current committee member for the UK Clinical Pharmacy Association Gastroenterology and Hepatology group.

Jane Collier

Ranjita Dhital is a pharmacist and PhD researcher at King's College, London. She is interested in enhancing service users’ engagement with their health and the health service. In particular in utilising the untapped potential of community pharmacists and their staff to prevent and reduce harm caused by alcohol. Ranjita has practised in various pharmacy roles, including community pharmacy, a specialist role in the management of substance misuse for a mental health trust and a position at a public health directorate. She has presented her work at national and international conferences and published in peer reviewed journals.

Diane’s Public Relations career was abruptly ended by her becoming totally alcohol dependent. Over time, however, and with a good deal of NHS treatment and support, she detoxed and then entered recovery. Since then she has been deeply involved in a number of groups and committees in the Royal College of Psychiatrists. She also assists on a regular basis in lecturing to 4th year students at St. George’s Medical School in South London when they are studying addictions.

Diane is a member of the College’s Parliamentary Liaison Committee which aims to raise the profile of the Royal College of Psychiatrist’s work amongst parliamentarians and other stakeholders. She is also a member of the Addictions Faculty Patients and Carers Liaison Group and has until recently been a member of the Service Users Recovery Forum.  Diane is a service-user who attends an alcohol treatment centre now as an after-care patient.

At the time of the PSP Andrew Langford was the CEO of the British Liver Trust. The primary objectives of the Trust are:

- support for people with, and affected by, liver disease
- advocacy at all levels including local and national government for the improvement of holistic health services
- the development of a national prevention and liver health campaign – Love Your Liver – which raises awareness of liver disease and provides a national screening roadshow.

Beccy Maeso is a Senior Research Manager at the National Institute for Health and Care Research. She leads the small team that coordinates the James Lind Alliance and oversees the coordination of the JLA Priority Setting Partnerships, with responsibility for handling enquiries, determining the readiness of PSPs to commence the priority setting process, managing communications and coordinating the work, training and development of the JLA Advisers. She has been part of the NIHR since 2010 with responsibility for a range of projects including work on adding value in research, stakeholder engagement and identification of research topics.

Dr Zul Mirza is a Consultant in Emergency Medicine and the Royal College of Emergency Medicine co-lead on alcohol. He is past President of Emergency Medicine at the Royal Society of Medicine. He has lectured both nationally and internationally on alcohol. He sits on the Medical Council on Alcohol and a member of the Alcohol Health Alliance.

Dr Lynn Owens is a Nurse Consultant, a role comprising clinical practice and education, research and strategic development.

Lynn provides nursing leadership for an alcohol service across primary and secondary care provision in Liverpool. Her academic studies at The University of Liverpool focus on the effects of alcohol treatments and interventions within differing health care contexts.

Since June 1994 Dr Stephen Ryder has been a consultant Physician in Hepatology and Gastroenterology at the Nottingham Digestive Diseases Centre and Biomedical Research Unit. He is also Clinical Director for the East Midlands Cancer Network.

One of his major clinical and research interests is hepatitis C infection including the natural history of liver fibrosis in chronic hepatitis C infection.

Dr Ryder is Vice President of the British Society of Gastroenterology.

Professor Sheron is an academic hepatologist at the University of Southampton. He has a particular interest in the potential for evidence-based alcohol policies to reduce alcohol-related harm. Professor Sheron has worked with the Alcohol Health Alliance, Royal College of Physicians, EU Commission, the British and European Societies for the Study of Liver Disease and the British Society of Gastroenterology to advocate for strategies to address the rising tide of liver and alcohol-related deaths.

Dr Sinclair is Associate Professor in Psychiatry at the University of Southampton. She leads the alcohol care team at University Hospital Southampton and the alcohol priority work stream at the Wessex Academic Health Science Network (AHSN). Her research is clinically focussed examining factors which have an impact on clinical outcomes in terms of prevention, engagement and response to treatment.

Amy Street is providing administrative support for the Alcohol Related Liver Disease PSP.

Sheela Upadhyaya is an experienced expert facilitator and mentor with over 15 years of experience of the NHS. She supports James Lind Alliance PSPs as Chair and has a history of working in situations where she brings together patients, clinicians and other stakeholders to establish common goals and objectives. Her passion is developing and empowering people and the JLA prioritisation process is a constructive process in which to do just that.

Lynda has experienced the death of three family members, including her partner, from alcohol-related and genetic liver disease. She was appointed Trustee of the British Liver Trust in 2009. Her working career began in medical research, followed by senior board positions in the marketing/social research and advertising industries. She currently runs a marketing research consultancy.