Guest Speaker Biographies

Professor Cornaglia’s research projects include the EARSS project (European Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance System), obtaining public health data on antimicrobial resistance from all EU Member States; the ESAC project (European Surveillance of Antibiotic Consumption); e-Bug, the development and dissemination of a school antibiotic and hygiene education pack and website across Europe; ABS International, implementing Antibiotic Strategies for appropriate use of antibiotics in hospitals in member states of the European Union; and TROCAR (Translational Research on Combating Antimicrobial Resistance).

Professor Cornaglia has co-ordinated the activities of the Italian Surveillance Group for Antimicrobial Resistance (ISGAR). He has also organised several international meetings raising awareness of antibiotic resistance.

Professor Cornaglia is the Immediate Past President and Communication Officer for ESCMID, Leader (Italian chapter) of the Alliance for the Prudent Use of Antibiotics (APUA), Chairman and co-founder of the European Study Group for Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance (ESGARS), co-founder of the European Group A Streptococci (GAS) Study Group and Level II Director of the Complex Operative Unit of Microbiology and Virology in Verona. In 2011, he received the Alliance for the Prudent Use of Antibiotics (APUA) Leadership Award for ‘tireless promotion of antibiotic resistance education and action to improve antibiotic access and use’.

Professor Michie leads the Health Psychology Research Group at UCL studying behavioural change in relation to health; how to understand it theoretically and how to develop more effective interventions. Her work develops methods to advance the study of behaviour change, e.g. for specifying the content and theoretical underpinning of interventions and for synthesising evidence. This is conducted in the domains of risky and preventive behaviours amongst the general population (e.g. smoking), and professional practice and implementation (e.g. hand hygiene). She holds over 25 research grants and has published more than 200 peer-reviewed journal articles.

Professor Michie is a chartered clinical and health psychologist, a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences, the European Health Psychology Society and the British Psychological Society, and Senior Investigator with the National Institute for Health Research. She is chair of the Behaviour and Communications Group of the cross-Government Scientific Pandemic Influenza Advisory Committee and of the Society of Behavioural Medicine’s Special Interest Group in Theories and Techniques of Behaviour Change Interventions. She is on the NICE guidance committee for Behaviour Change and a member of its Implementation Strategy Group. She is Editor of Implementation Science and Associate Editor of Annals of Behavioural Medicine.

Dr Keith Ridge has been Chief Pharmaceutical Officer at the Department of Health since March 2006. He has led major changes to pharmacy including the establishment of a new pharmacy professional regulator, the General Pharmaceutical Council, and was lead for the well-regarded Pharmacy in England; Building on Strengths, Delivering the Future, a landmark White Paper published by the previous government, setting out a vision for pharmacy to provide clinical and public health services. Under the auspices of Medical Education England, he established and led the Modernising Pharmacy Careers programme, which is shaping the future of undergraduate and postgraduate education, training and workforce planning in pharmacy. He plays a senior role in the UK’s Antimicrobial Resistance and Influenza programmes, and has represented the Government nationally and internationally.

From April 2013, the Chief Pharmaceutical Officer function operates across the new health and social care system. Keith was appointed Chief Pharmaceutical Officer at NHS England whilst still supporting the Department of Health, and is also Chief Pharmaceutical Officer for Health Education England. Previously, he was Chief Pharmacist at University Hospitals Birmingham and North Glasgow University Hospitals, and has worked in community pharmacy and the pharmaceutical industry.

In 2010, Dr Ridge became a Fellow of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain and was awarded an honorary DSc from the University of Wolverhampton for services to pharmacy. In 2011, he was awarded an Outstanding Alumni Award from the University of Manchester, and was made a Fellow of the School of Pharmacy, University of London.

Dr Schachtel has over 30 years’ experience in analgesic research. He has authored over 300 original scientific presentations, peer-reviewed publications and chapters in clinical pharmacology, and written textbooks on different pain models, clinical trial methodology and other issues of drug development. Dr Schachtel has developed several new methods and models for studying symptoms associated with a variety of medical conditions, ranging from upper respiratory tract symptoms (in particular, sore throat), cough, acute pain, headache, heartburn and allergic symptoms. He has also worked in the pharmaceutical industry and is currently President of Schachtel Research Company (SRC), providing consultation to pharmaceutical companies.

Throughout his career Dr Schachtel has held academic appointments at McGill University, University of Pittsburgh, and Yale University where he is Lecturer in Epidemiology and Public Health at the School of Medicine. He is a former member of the Board of Directors of the American Society of Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics. Dr Schachtel has also served as Consultant to the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research at the US Food and Drug Administration and is a member of the American Medical Association, the International Association for the Study of Pain and the American Pain Society.