Update in medicine - Liverpool 2025

Dr Simon Saunders

Dr Simon Saunders received Mb.ChB.(Hons) at the University of Liverpool 1998 and trained within the Mersey deanery. He has worked as a consultant in diabetes endocrinology since 2008 and was appointed as senior clinical lecturer at Edge Hill University in 2022. Simon’s clinical work mostly focuses on Type 1 diabetes, diabetes technology and hybrid closed loop systems – he was involved in the NHS pilot of this technology in 2021. Simon has been the regional specialty adviser in diabetes and endocrinology for a number of years and was recently appointed as regional adviser for the RCP.

Dr Sahena Haque

Dr Sahena Haque has been a consultant rheumatologist since 2011, with a special interest in vasculitis and respiratory diseases in rheumatological conditions, collaborating in MDT clinics with renal, ENT and respiratory colleagues to deliver comprehensive patient care. Sahena is also a dedicated educator and currently serves as the director of medical education at one the largest NHS Trusts in the UK, overseeing the training and professional development of approximately 2,000 trainee and locally employed resident doctors.  

Dr John McDermott

Dr John McDermott is a clinical geneticist and a National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) doctoral research fellow at the University of Manchester, investigating models for implementing pharmacogenetics within the NHS. He was appointed as the UK’s first academic clinical fellow in genomic medicine in 2016. Working at the Manchester Centre for Genomic Medicine (MCGM), his research focuses on the application of genetic and genomic technologies in the acute and everyday healthcare setting. John was recently awarded funding from the NIHR to undertake the world’s first trial of a genetic test in the acute setting – the Pharmacogenetics to Avoid Loss of Hearing (PALOH) trial and other similar projects require extensive collaboration between industry, academia and clinicians. In 2015, John was a visiting scholar at the MIT and Harvard Broad Institute where he first worked with large ‘multi-omic’ datasets.

Dr Kathryn Mannix

Dr Kathryn Mannix worked in palliative medicine for 30 years, most of which was spent in teaching hospitals, with some time in hospices and with community palliative care teams. She then took early retirement to campaign for better public understanding of dying and published her first book, With the end in mind, in 2027. The book was shortlisted for the Wellcome Book Prize and has become an international best-seller, opening the door for Kathryn to carry out campaigning work around the world. She is focusing on how doctors can improve the handling of conversations and care at the end of life, especially in hospitals.

Dr Shirley Remington

Dr Shirley Remington has a background in anaesthesia and working in the intensive care unit. Her career has included being a director of medical education, a medical director and many other roles including deputy dean in the North West of England. She now works as an educator for Doctors Training.

Dr Michael Bonello

Dr Michael Bonello qualified at the University of Malta and completed post-graduate medical and neurology training at The Walton Centre in Liverpool. He underwent sub-specialist movement disorder training as a fellowship at The Walton Centre and completed a masters in genomic medicine at The University of Manchester. Dr Bonello runs general neurology clinics, movement disorders clinics including neurogenetics, deep brain stimulation and infusion therapies for movement disorders at The Walton Centre NHS Foundation Trust. He also runs an acute neurology clinic and a general neurology clinic at Whiston Hospital with outreach neurology at Whiston.  He is part of the on-call neurology services at the Walton Centre with involvement in acute neurology clinics, thrombectomy and other on call duties.  He is also training programme director for neurology for Cheshire and Merseyside

Dr Amit Kishore

Dr Amit Kishore is a consultant stroke physician and clinical director for stroke services at Salford Royal Hospital, part of the Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust, where he has served for over a decade. He leads clinical services at what is recognised as the largest and busiest stroke unit in the country. With extensive experience in stroke medicine, he combines clinical expertise with a strong research focus on stroke-associated pneumonia (SAP) and atrial fibrillation (AF) detection following stroke. He holds an honorary senior lectureship at the University of Manchester (since 2015) and serves as training programme director for stroke medicine in the North West Deanery. Currently, he also leads research as a neuroscience research fellow through the Manchester Academic Health Science Centre. His research contributions include multiple systematic reviews, diagnostic accuracy studies, and consensus work published in high-impact journals such as Stroke and European Stroke Journal. Dr Kishore has been instrumental in developing the Pneumonia in Stroke Consensus (PISCES) definition of SAP and has conducted significant work on atrial fibrillation detection strategies in stroke patients. He has presented his work at national and international conferences, including the UK Stroke Forum and European Stroke Organisation Conference.

Dr Katherine Bowering

Dr Katherine Bowering was born in Nottingham and graduated from Newcastle Medical School in 1997. She has been based in the North West of England for over 20 years and has been a consultant gastroenterologist in Liverpool since 2012. Her special interest is inflammatory bowel disease, for which she is the lead at Aintree University Hospital. 

Dr Rebecca Farrington

Dr Rebecca Farrington has been a medical educator for over 20 years, focused on undergraduates. She joined the team at Edge Hill University Medical School in September 2024. She works clinically as a GP in South Manchester and has been a GPwER (GP with extended role) in asylum seeker health since 2005, now working for Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust. Rebecca graduated from the University of Dundee in 1990 and completed a Diploma in Tropical Medicine and Hygiene in Liverpool in 1995 before working for Médecins Sans Frontières in four countries. She is a longstanding member of the Royal College of GPs and worked previously as a rural GP in West Wales and as an inner city GP in South London. Her publications mainly centre on medical education and what we can learn from working with people who are seeking asylum and new refugees.

Registered delegates have access to the presentations we have been given permission to share. Please log in and click on the 'attendee info' tab to view them.