Infectious Disease and Antimicrobial Stewardship

Sekina Bakare

Intensive Care Trainee,

Dr Bakare is currently an Advanced Trainee in Intensive Care Medicine and Anaesthesia in Northwest London. She graduated with Honours from the University of Bristol and commenced her career in the West Country before pursuing Specialty Training in Northwest London. As an elected member of the Trainee Advisory Group of the Intensive Care Society and leverages her expertise to contribute actively to the society's Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) Working Group. She also holds the additional responsibility of serving as the EDI lead on the Editorial Board for GPCISv3.

Dr Bakare is deeply passionate about advancing Equity in Healthcare and Medical Education, with clinical interests spanning Major General Surgery and Transfer Medicine.

Assuming the role of chairing this study day, Dr Bakare seamlessly integrates her passion for medical education with a steadfast dedication to fostering safe and equitable healthcare practices through multidisciplinary collaboration.

: @sekina_bakare

Richard Bellamy

Infectious diseases consultant,

Richard Bellamy is an infectious diseases consultant at South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and the Deputy Dean/ Director for Specialty Training at Health Education England North East. He has worked in several countries including Singapore, Ghana, The Gambia and South Africa. He has a strong interest in medical education, equality and diversity and differential attainment.

Andrew Conway-Morris

Consultant Intensivist,

Dr Conway Morris is a critical care consultant and MRC Clinician Scientist based at the University of Cambridge.  He trained at the Universities of Glasgow and Edinburgh, undertaking a PhD in Edinburgh focused on immune failure in critical illness and nosocomial infection.  His research interests include neutrophil function and dysfunction in critical illness, where he identified complement component C5a as a key driver of dysfunction in patients.  He has also developed and tested a number of diagnostics for pneumonia, using both host and pathogen-focussed techniques.  His animating force is a desire to improve the management of infection in intensive care, and combat the rising tide of antimicrobial resistance.  He was recently awarded the Royal College of Anaesthetists 2023 Mackintosh Professorship.   He is the director of the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine’s research and antimicrobial stewardship learning pathways.

: @andymoz78

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Thomas Hellyer

Clinician scientist in critical care medicine,

Senior clinical fellow / honorary consultant critical care medicine.

I am a clinician scientist in critical care medicine at Newcastle University and my clinical practice is based in the Royal Victoria Infirmary intensive care department. My research focuses on improving antibiotic stewardship in critically ill patients. Striking the right balance of effectively treating patients with severe infections while avoiding harms associated with antibiotic overuse, is challenging for critically ill patients.

My current research focuses on optimising antibiotic durations in patients with sepsis. RISC-sepsis is an NIHR EME funded project that is an embedded mechanistic trial within a large pragmatic RCT. We immune phenotype patients to determine whether sepsis-induced immune dysfunction impacts antibiotic stewardship interventions. SHORTER is an NIHR HTA funded pragmatic RCT that aims to determine whether short, fixed-course antibiotics (5 days) are safe and effective in critically ill patients with sepsis.

Alice Wort

Consultant Microbiologist,

Dr Alice Wort works as a Consultant Microbiologist at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Gateshead. She is the Joint Clinical Lead for Microbiology for South of Tyne and Wear Clinical Pathology Services. Dr Wort is a Fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists. Her specialist interests are in paediatric microbiology and molecular pathology in infection. She has a PhD in paediatric pneumonia. As a Clinical Lead, she is involved in laboratory innovation to develop cutting edge rapid diagnostics that improve patient care and outcomes. She is passionate about infection prevention and control; antibiotic stewardship; and delivering high quality safe care for patients.