I work part time as a GP at the Windrush Medical Practice in Witney, West Oxfordshire.

My current areas of research interest are biomarker-guided asthma management and acute respiratory tract infections.

I am a tutor on the mixed methods research module of the MSc in Evidence Based Health Care.  I also have experience of teaching at both undergraduate and postgraduate level on critical appraisal of randomised controlled trials and diagnostic test accuracy studies.

My current programme of research focuses on the utility of fractional exhaled nitric oxide (FeNO) in the management of asthma in primary care.  FeNO is a non-invasive breath test, which is a marker of steroid-responsive airway inflammation.  My research explores how FeNO may be used to help clinicians target and adjust doses of inhaled corticosteroids more accurately in patients with clinically suspected asthma.

I am also Oxford Programme Lead of the ARCHIE programme (early Antibiotic use in 'at Risk' CHildren with InfluEnza), which is funded by a NIHR Programme Grant for Applied Research.  'At risk' children with underlying conditions such as asthma, diabetes, cerebral palsy are more prone than otherwise healthy children to becoming more unwell from influenza-related complications such as chest, ear and throat infections.  The ARCHIE programme will develop a robust evidence base for treating these children with antibiotics early during an influenza-like illness.

Persistent 'postinfectious' cough following an acute respiratory tract infection is also a commonly encountered problem in primary care.  I have led the delivery of two key studies in this area.  Firstly, a multi-centre clinical trial to find out whether montelukast, a medication which is already used to treat asthma, is also an effective treatment for postinfectious cough, and secondly, a study to work out how commonly we find whooping cough (pertussis) and Mycoplasma pneumoniae infections in children with postinfectious cough.  These findings will help inform evidence-based management of postinfectious cough as well as inform whooping cough immunisation policy in the UK.