CRN Greater Manchester appoints new Respiratory Disorders specialty lead
Dr Abdul Ashish has been appointed the NIHR Clinical Research Network Greater Manchester (CRN GM) specialty lead for Respiratory Disorders.
Dr Ashish is a Consultant Respiratory Physician with Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Foundation Trust (WWL), based at the Royal Albert Edward Infirmary in Wigan.
He is also WWL’s lead clinician for respiratory medicine and clinical director for scheduled care.
Dr Ashish, who has special interests in Interstitial Lung Disease (ILD) and Bronchiectasis, has long been passionate about clinical research.
Before he joined WWL in 2011, he spent two years as a research fellow at Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital.
In 2015 he earned an MD from the University of Liverpool for his work on “Transmissible Pseudomonas strains” in adult Cystic Fibrosis patients.
Dr Ashish said: “It is my belief that access to clinical research should be equitable and accessible to all sites for all patients across Greater Manchester.
"I want to support our academic centres by recruiting patients from across GM into clinical trials led by them and promote research across the District General Hospitals. I am really looking forward to working towards this goal across GM.
“I see Greater Manchester as a rich resource for respiratory research. We are already recruiting well with the populations around Salford and Wythenshawe, but we have an excellent opportunity to reach out more widely into the other boroughs.”
Dr Ashish is the latest in a string of WWL consultants to hold a senior research Greater Manchester-wide post, in addition to:
- Professor Nirmal Kumar – Regional Lead for ENT and Deputy Regional Lead for Surgery
- Dr Hitesh Patel – Regional Research Lead for Haematology
- Professor Tim Board – Deputy Regional Lead for MSK
- Professor Adam Watts – Deputy Regional Lead for MSK
- Dr Ayyaz Sultan- Deputy Regional Lead for Cardiology
Dr Ashish said: “For a small trust, we have a very strong research culture at WWL. To have six health professionals who are either leads or deputy leads for Greater Manchester is a fantastic achievement and I would like to work with colleagues in the trust and across the region to foster a culture of research in every organisation. We would support colleagues interested in research to actively participate in it and make it part of their 'routine care'.
“In my new role I will be looking to further promote respiratory research within WWL and other GM trusts and to ensure that we are really getting the message that we are research-active out there to patients and staff.”
