Speaker Biographies

Professor Amit Bharkhada is a General Practitioner, educator, and author with a respected career in clinical practice, medical education and healthcare leadership. As a GP principal he is committed to delivering quality patient care while driving innovation in healthcare services and workforce development.

Amit has a passion for research and knowledge sharing presenting at international conferences in Japan, Netherlands, Scotland and several national events. Amit is also the Clinical Director of Strategy at the LLR Training Hub and holds a Professorship of Primary Care at De Montfort University. He has a Postgraduate Certificate in Medical Education (PGCME) and holds professional memberships with the Royal College of General Practitioners (MRCGP) and the Academy of Medical Educators (FAcadME).

Through his diverse roles, Amit is dedicated to excellence, both in patient care and in the development of healthcare professionals, aspiring to have a lasting impact on the healthcare sector.

Dr Steven Lyttle is the Deputy Dean for the Faculty of Health Life Sciences at De Montfort University in Leicester.  Steven, a Chartered Psychologist, undertook his PhD at Queen’s University, Belfast and Belfast’s Royal Victoria Hospital where he studied the development of preterm infants over the first 18 months of life.  Since then, he has held teaching and research positions in the higher education sector before moving into leadership and management.  He led two academic schools at De Montfort University, Applied Social Sciences and Nursing and Midwifery, before his appointment as Deputy Dean in March 2025. 

Anna Murphy is Professor of Pharmacy Practice at DeMontfort University, Consultant Respiratory Pharmacist for University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust and Respiratory Integrated lead pharmacist for Leicestershire Partnership Trust. She has over 25 years’ experience working in the field of Respiratory Medicine. She has contributed to national guidelines and training programmes, and sits on several national committees, most notably on the BTS council and workforce committee, co-chair of the medicine optimisation working group of the Taskforce for Lung Health and a member of the UKCPA-Respiratory Group.

The clinical aspect of her post include optimising care for people with asthma, allergy, COPD and ILD. Working across Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland the post includes the development of services for respiratory patients and education and training for health care professionals, patients and carers.

Anna has published widely in peer reviewed journals, is author of Asthma-in-Focus and produced the “7-Steps to Success” inhaler education materials.

Emma Chaplin is the clinical lead for Pulmonary & Covid Rehabilitation who has worked within the Pulmonary Rehabilitation department at Glenfield hospital for over 10 years in both the research and clinical services. She qualified as a physiotherapist from Coventry University in1998 and started work at Birmingham Heartlands Hospital before moving to the Glenfield Hospital, Leicester in 2000 where she specialised in the cardiorespiratory field. Emma initially worked in the physiotherapy department leading the respiratory medicine and General ITU service for 10 years. In 2010, she joined the Pulmonary Rehabilitation research department (Centre of Exercise and Rehabilitation) providing the opportunity to work on studies and publish and disseminate the findings before moving to manage the clinical service in 2014. Emma is also the lead for SPACE for COPD  (i-IMPACT) web based rehabilitation programme as well as being involved in setting up and delivering breathlessness and Covid rehabilitation services and pathways.
Emma has previously been a member of the ACPRC committee and has previously represented the ACPRC on the PRSAS standards and programme development group, the BTS Clinical statement on Pulmonary Rehabilitation as well as the Clinical Policy Steering group for NHSE PR 5-year plan. More widely, Emma has also taken up a position on the BTS Council and QI committee and also the BTS PR workforce group.

Tanzeem Adam is the Breathlessness Rehabilitation Team Lead at Leicester Partnership Trust (LPT). She completed her physiotherapy training at Coventry University and began her career at University Hospitals of Leicester, where she developed her foundational skills and discovered her passion for respiratory care.

Building on her acute care expertise, Tanzeem transitioned into community services with Central London Community Healthcare, where she managed patients with respiratory conditions and designed individualised pulmonary rehabilitation programs. She later advanced her career at Leicester Partnership Trust as a Specialist Respiratory Practitioner before moving into her current leadership role.

Throughout her career, Tanzeem has contributed to research projects and remains committed to delivering high-quality, compassionate care. She continues to champion excellence in breathlessness rehabilitation and patient-centred practice.

Louise Ryan has worked as a GP and GP trainer in Leicestershire for 16 years. Over this time she has developed an interest in respiratory medicine and currently holds respiratory leadership roles at system and regional level. As Clinical Lead for Respiratory for Leicester Leicestershire and Rutland ICB she works with the integrated respiratory team to transform pathways and services, and over recent years has led on ARI hubs. As Primary Care Clinical Lead for the East Midlands Respiratory Network she leads on Early and Accurate Diagnosis by supporting systems to establish high quality spirometry services.

Louise is also Clinical Lead for Children and Young People for LLR ICB and is passionate about improving services and experiences for children.

Darshna Gokal is a senior pharmacist at Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland Integrated Care Board with substantial NHS experience in medicines optimisation across primary and secondary care. She joined the local team in 2017 and since then has developed an expertise in chronic respiratory care, leading projects to improve inhaler technique training and integrated care, whilst supporting local practices with evidence-based frameworks and green prescribing initiatives. She is passionate about and fostering collaborative partnerships across healthcare sectors to drive quality care, innovation, and sustainability in respiratory health within the Integrated Care System.

Dr Sarah Diver is an Honorary Respiratory Consultant and senior research fellow at the Leicester NIHR Respiratory Biomedical Research Centre. She led the experimental medicine mechanistic study of anti-TSLP in asthma and was early career member for the previous joint ERS/ATS guideline group for severe asthma. Her research interests are host-environment interactions in asthma including the airway microbiome. 

Beenal Rajyaguru is a Senior Lecturer in Clinical Pharmacy and Head of Year for Level 5 (year 2) students on the MPharm programme at Leicester School of Pharmacy at De Montfort University. Beenal teachs a variety of clinical topics including paediatrics as she has previously worked as an NHS Specialist Pharmacist at Leicester Children’s Hospital based at UHL NHS Trust.

Beenal completed her specialist independent prescribing training in Children’s Allergy; and has introduced simulation within the MPharm programme to teach year 2 Pharmacy students on recognising anaphylaxis and the correct administration of adrenaline auto injectors. The allergy teaching also involves recognising symptoms of allergic rhinitis and how pharmacists can advise on treatment options available; and introducing pharmacy students to take an allergy focused history including delabelling of penicillin allergies. Her area of research is committed to improving the training of primary school staff to support children with respiratory conditions for emergency medication administration within school settings across Leicestershire. 

Lisa Blake is a Practice Nurse in a busy LLR County practice, she has many resposibilities and has a special interest in respiratory.  Lisa is also a Lead nurse for the LLR Training Hub and since undertaking her ARTP accreditation in spirometry, she supports practices with achieving their spirometry competencies and sign offs.
Recently, Lisa has lectured to a cohort of community pharmacist's around implementing safe and effective asthma reviews within the community. 

Alongside her main role, Lisa is a Practice Tutor and Academic Assesor for the Open Universities nursing programme.

Surinder Birring is Professor of Respiratory Medicine and Consultant Respiratory Physician at King's College Hospital, London. His research focuses on the assessment and treatment of cough and the development of patient reported outcome measures. He lived in Leicester for 6 years to undertake his specialist training and is married to a Pharmacist who studied at De Montfort!

He has published over 300 papers, reviews and book chapters and is author of American, British and European Cough clinical guidelines. He chairs the Scientific Committee of the European NeuroCough registry. He has been the chief investigator of numerous multi-centre clinical trials. His team developed the widely used quality of life questionnaires LCQ, KBILD, KSQ, CHQ and BHQ. Professor Birring is also co-developer of the LCM cough monitor device. He was elected Fellow of the European Respiratory Society in 2023.