Interstitial Lung Diseases Interdisciplinary Network
About Us
Mission Statement
Act
To act as a professional body that can influence and practice in ILD care throughout the UK
Support
To provide a supportive network for ILD network members to encourage information sharing, best practice and research collaboration
Influence
To influence improvement and developments in ILD care
Collaborate
To encourage collaboration with all interdisciplinary ILD specialists
Provide Opinion
To provide expert opinion to raise the standard and provision of ILD care
Promote
To support and promote equality in service provision for patients with ILD and their carers through the UK
Act
To act as a professional body that can influence and practice in ILD care throughout the UK
Support
To provide a supportive network for ILD network members to encourage information sharing, best practice and research collaboration
Influence
To influence improvement and developments in ILD care
Collaborate
To encourage collaboration with all interdisciplinary ILD specialists
Provide Opinion
To provide expert opinion to raise the standard and provision of ILD care
Promote
To support and promote equality in service provision for patients with ILD and their carers through the UK
Who we are
The Interstitial Lung Disease Interdisciplinary Network (ILD-IN) is a supportive and collaborative network for health professionals of all disciplines caring for people with interstitial lung disease (ILD).
Meet The ILD-IN committee
The committee oversees delivery of the objectives of the ILD-IN and acts on behalf of the membership. The committee consists of 13 members encompassing a broad professional spectrum incorporating specialist nurses, pharmacists, allied health professionals, doctors and researchers. Alongside interdisciplinary diversity, the committee has national and international representation.
The emeritus board are honorary members who advocate for the ILD-IN, provide strategic advice, identify and address risks and opportunities, share best practices and provide mentorship.
Click on each member to find out about their roles, interests and contact details.
Executive Board
Rosie Boorsma
Organisation
East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust
Role
Co-Chair
Marium Naqvi
Organisation
King's Health Partners Centre for Translational Medicine
Role
Co-Chair
Sarah Mulholland
Organisation
North Bristol NHS Trust
Role
Secretariat
Joshua Burrough
Organisation
Wythenshawe Hospital
Role
Treasurer
Rosie Boorsma
Specialism: Senior Respiratory Specialist Nurse (ILD Lead)
Rosie is a community respiratory specialist nurse. She has worked for the last 6 years prescribing oxygen and assessing patients with a variety of respiratory diseases. As the daughter of someone with ILD, Rosie was very passionate about filling the gap in support for patients with ILD. She established two support groups in East Sussex and is now part of establishing a new ILD service for the area along the Sussex coast between Seaford and Rye. She has created a Pulmonary Fibrosis handbook for patients and joined the ILD-IN to continue the development of care for this group of patients.
Role:
Co-Chair
Organisation:
King's Health Partners Centre for Translational Medicine
Email:
mnaqvi@nhs.net
Marium Naqvi
Specialism: Pre-doctoral clinical research fellow
In addition to her role as co-chair of the ILD-IN, Marium is a pharmacist with a specialist interest in interstitial lung disease. She is a King's Health Partners Centre for Translational Medicine pre-doctoral clinical research fellow exploring the use of artificial intelligence to enhance home monitoring of interstitial lung disease. Research interests include the psychological impact of disease, adherence to therapy and the use of digital technology to improve patient outcomes and access to specialist care. To improve patient accessibility to specialist care, Marium is working on care pathways, guidelines and provision of education and training. Marium is an independent prescriber who manages a complex cohort of patients, including medication review, optimisation of therapies and managing the monitoring and supply of high risk and/or cost medicines.
Sarah Mulholland
Specialism: Lead respiratory pharmacist
Sarah joined the Trust in 2012 and the Bristol ILD (BILD) team in 2015. Sarah supports a team of nurses, pharmacists and pharmacy technicians to provide initiation, monitoring and supply of antifibrotics and, more recently, immunosuppressive medications. Sarah is committed to delivering compassionate care, ensuring patient safety and optimising treatment outcomes for patients with ILD. Sarah welcomes collaboration, questions and opportunities to make a positive impact in the management of ILD.
Joshua Burrough
Specialism: Respiratory Physiologist
Joshua is a Highly Specialised Clinical Scientist with a special interest in Interstitial Lung Disease. At Wythenshawe Hospital’s North West Lung Centre he works closely with one of the country’s biggest specialised ILD teams, performing diagnostic and disease monitoring assessments with our patients. He is a keen patient advocate as well as having a longstanding passion for clinical research both in the respiratory field and other areas of medicine. Alongside his clinical role and ILD-IN commitments, he has a particular interest in education and training development. He is an honorary lecturer and teaching lead for the national Practitioner and Scientist Training Programmes and as part of his commitment to clinical excellence, he has recently completed the Mary Seacole Leadership Programme with the NHS Academy. He joined the ILD-IN with the hope of providing scientific input to the network as we help to shape and influence the direction of ILD care within the UK. The role of clinical scientists is often greatly under recognised and he hopes to raise awareness of the key part we play in the ILD patient pathway. He is originally from Newcastle and the Geordie accent seems to be his most widely recognised trait (aside from the mighty Newcastle United Football Club).
Committee Members
Michelle Westlake
Organisation
North Bristol NHS Trust
Role
ILD Nurse Specialist
Dr Ahmed Fahim
Organisation
New Cross Hospital
Role
Lead ILD Specialist
Maria Koulopoulou
Organisation
King’s College Hospital
Role
Specialist Respiratory Physiotherapist
Cátia Paixão
Role
Physiotherapist & Researcher
Doria Barbonchielli
Role
Lead ILD Specialist Nurse
Katie Zakis
Organisation
Manchester Foundation Trust
Laura Fabbri
Organisation
Margaret Turner Warwick Centre for Fibrosing Lung Disease
Role:
ILD Nurse Specialist
Organisation:
North Bristol NHS Trust
Michelle Westlake
Michelle Westlake serves as the lead Interstitial Lung Disease Nurse Specialist at North Bristol NHS Trust.She completed her Bachelor of Science in Nursing in the Philippines. She was a ward sister in the Respiratory ward before joining the Bristol Interstitial Lung Disease Service. She is passionate about ILD and committed to supporting patients and colleagues by working collaboratively. She provides education to respiratory colleagues across primary and secondary care.She is a Non-Medical Independent Prescriber providing initiation, monitoring and supply of antifibrotics. She runs a well led nurse clinic and her daily role is generally clinically focussed, seeing new and follow up patients. She is passionate in managing ILD patients and finding ways to manage their End Of Life (EOL) care better. She help introduce the Integrated Palliative Care, Palliative ILD Psychology MDT, Dedicated ReSPECT clinics, Working with St Peters Hospice and Palliative Care teams. She help published the Specialist Palliative Care, Psychology, Interstitial Lung Disease (ILD) multidisciplinary team meeting: a novel model to address palliative care needs and did a poster presentation in the American Thoracic Society Conference in San Diego in 2018. She also enjoys running the Bristol Pulmonary Fibrosis Support Group.
Role:
Lead ILD Specialist
Organisation:
New Cross Hospital
Dr Ahmed Fahim
Specialism: Lead ILD Specialist
Dr Ahmed Fahim is a consultant in Respirtory Medicine and lead for specialist ILD services at New Cross Hospital in Wolverhampton. He completed his Respiratory training in Yorkshire with a doctorate (MD) from University of Hull evaluating the pathogenesis of Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF). He is a senior clinical lecturer at the University of Wolverhampton and has been involved in a number of clinical trials in ILD as Principal Investigator and is a joint Chief Investigator for research on “Mechanism of Fibrosis” in collaboration with the University of Wolverhampton. He is currently a member of ILD specialist advisory group (SAG) for the British Thoracic Society (BTS). He has previously served as steering group member for BTS ILD registry and National ILD pathway development committee in collaboration with One Voice ILD and Action for Pulmonary Fibrosis.
He has a number of Editorial roles including Pulmonology Review Editor for “Frontiers in Medicine Journal” and is a member of Editorial Board for “Therapeutic Advances in Respirtory Disease”. He is also a member of the Guideline Development Group for first ever UK specific guidelines for diagnosis and management of Systemic Autoimmune Rheumatic Disease (SARD-ILD) with the British Society of Rheumatology.
Role:
Specialist Respiratory Physiotherapist
Organisation:
King’s College Hospital
Maria Koulopoulou
Specialism: Highly specialist respiratory physiotherapist
Maria is an experienced clinical-academic respiratory physiotherapist with an interest in pulmonary rehabilitation and management of chronic respiratory conditions; she has a particular interest in interstitial lung diseases, and she is keen in promoting and advocating for a tailored-based, patient focused ILD service model pathway, including pulmonary rehabilitation and education for patients with ILD diagnosis.Maria is the clinical lead of the pulmonary rehabilitation service at King’s College Hospital - a role, which inspired her to value a great deal specialist clinical leadership skills, such as service effectiveness, patient-focused care, and quality improvement strategies. Maria is a confident clinical lead with a wealth of knowledge, experience and skills in directing, shaping and developing a service both from a clinical and strategic planning perspective. She is keen is utilising these skills and knowledge to contribute towards service and quality improvement implementations that can benefit the ILD treatment pathway. Having led the King’s PR service during the Covid-19 pandemic, she has appreciated the value of technology in supporting clinical services; a careful assessment and evaluation framework is required to judge the clinical and cost effectiveness value of any technological implementation vs or in addition to traditional service pathways.Maria, has successfully completed Master- level modules at UCL in the field of respiratory and cardiovascular medicine, and in 2015 she completed an MSc by research course at St George’s university of London (an RCT investigating the effects of inspiratory muscle training in ILD). She is an active member of the ERS, ILD-N and BTS; she is a peer reviewer in respiratory journals in her field of expertise, and has presented her work in national and international conferences.
Role:
Physiotherapist & Researcher
Cátia Paixão
Cátia Paixão is a physiotherapist who holds a Ph.D. in Rehabilitation Sciences from the University of Aveiro (Portugal). During her Ph.D., Paixão conducted a home-based physical activity programme for people with interstitial lung diseases (ILD). During this journey, she got passionate about the ILD world. Her clinical and research interests include the study of interstitial lung diseases, non-pharmacological interventions, such as pulmonary rehabilitation, physical activity and self-management as well as outcome measures.Currently, she is working as an Assistant Professor at the School of Health of Piaget of Viseu (Portugal) and at the School of Health of the Polytechnic University of Coimbra (Portugal). Paixão is also a research member of the Lab3R-Respiratory Research and Rehabilitation Laboratory and the Institute of Biomedicine (iBiMED) of the University of Aveiro (Portugal) and a member of the European Respiratory Society, American Thoracic Society and the Portuguese Pulmonology Society.
Role:
Lead ILD Specialist Nurse
Doria Barbonchielli
Specialism: Interstitial Lung Disease (ILD)
Doria serves as the Lead ILD Specialist Nurse for both University Hospital of Llandough and University Hospital of Wales. Additionally, she holds the role of Research Manager.Doria obtained her MSc in Advanced Practice and is a Prescriber. She is an integral part of the ILD MDT that serves all of Wales' NHS.Doria's daily focus revolves around her role as a Nurse Lead in ILD clinic, where she acts as an independent prescriber managing a complex cohort of patients.She also serves as a Research Manager and Sub-investigator, actively contributing to the advancement of knowledge and treatments in the ILD field. Her commitment lies in staying at the forefront of research and innovation to improve outcomes for her patients.Doria's nursing journey began in the dynamic environments of A&E and Intensive Care in both Italy and Cardiff, where she refined her clinical skills and developed a strong passion for respiratory care.Transitioning into the specialised field of ILD, she has dedicated herself to providing compassionate and comprehensive care to patients facing these complex conditions.Outside of her professional endeavors, Doria is multilingual, fluent in Italian and Iranian, enabling her to effectively communicate and connect with patients from diverse backgrounds
Organisation:
Manchester Foundation Trust
Katie Zakis
Specialism: ILD Specialist Nurse
Katie works in the specialist ILD service at Wythenshawe Hospital, part of the Manchester University Foundation Trust, which is among the largest ILD services in the UK, serving Greater Manchester and Cheshire. Her daily role is mostly clinically focussed, seeing new and follow-up patients in clinic, supporting a network of nursing teams and developing and expanding the nursing service which leads on antifibrotic prescribing and palliative care. She also provides education to respiratory colleagues across primary and secondary care.Katie is a non-medical prescriber, and is working towards an MSc in Respiratory Practice. She has presented research nationally and internationally about innovations in ILD nursing. She has a special interest in palliative care, and is a member of the UK Palliative Care ILD Group (UP-ILD).
Organisation:
Margaret Turner Warwick Centre for Fibrosing Lung Disease
Email:
l.fabbri@imperial.ac.uk
Laura Fabbri
Specialism: Clinical research fellow
Laura is a respiratory doctor, she completed her medical training at the University of Perugia (IT) with postgraduate training at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia (IT). She is a PhD student at the Imperial College London and runs ILD clinics at the Royal Brompton Hospital. Through a patient-centred approach, her research focuses on interstitial lung diseases, particularly pulmonary fibrosis. Laura advocates for patient and public involvement in research and aims to increase awareness of pulmonary fibrosis and improve early disease diagnosis.
Emeritus Board
Geeta Vekaria
Senior Interstitial Lung Disease Clinical Nurse Specialist, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Foundation TrustILD IN Emeritus Board Member: joined April 2024Ex-Committer member: joined ILD IN Jan 2019 and has successfully completed roles as a Treasurer, Secretary and Co-Chair 2021-2023.Geeta is a highly motivated Interstitial Lung Disease (ILD) Senior Clinical Nurse specialist (CNS) at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, since January 2021. She has passion for all things ILD and supporting patients/colleagues by working collaboratively. She demonstrates a high degree of autonomy, complexity, decision making skills, analysis and synthesis of complex problems and provides innovative solutions. She is a Non-medical Independent prescriber and has accreditation for Advance clinical Practice e-portfolio route.She has previously worked in a dual role; ILD CNS and Clinical Research Nurse (CRN) working at University College London Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. She’s fortunate for career pathway to have clinical experience and research skills intertwined. She undertook an empirical study for her dissertation in IPF for her MSc Advance Practice pathway at Kings College London University. She started her career in Respiratory over 20 years which involved COPD reviews for GP practices across London followed by working with Air products as a Clinic Nurse Advisor for Home Oxygen Service provider. In her Community Respiratory Nurse post with Waltham Forest Respiratory Services she managed COPD, Asthma and Oxygen patients in clinics. She recently also worked at National Service for Health Improvements as Respiratory Nurse Specialist advisor supporting Asthma and COPD patients remotely.
Helen Morris
Wythenshawe hospital, Manchester, UKHelen Morris is Lead Interstitial Lung Disease specialist nurse of the Manchester ILD service at Wythenshawe hospital and has led the ILD Specialist Nursing service from 2013. The nursing service won the Nursing Times respiratory team award in 2018.Her role includes the clinical assessment of new ILD patients in a day-case environment, counselling new patients’ choice of medication and providing appropriate support and monitoring. She provides a satellite ILD nurse-led clinic in the North of Manchester linking secondary and tertiary care. She developed and supports a shared care network of Specialist nurses and Advanced practitioners to provide patients with pulmonary fibrosis care closer to home.She has an extensive respiratory background working as a sister on a respiratory ward, a COPD specialist nurse in the community providing hospital at home, community response and delivering pulmonary rehabilitation. She has worked in a community matron service and was involved in developing this service in Central Manchester.Helen has a degree in Nursing practise and an MSc in Respiratory practise. Former chair of the ILD-IN committee, current ILD lead for the association of respiratory nurses and nurse member of the BTS lung registry steering group. She has spoken at conferences across the UK and in Europe and provided ILD education locally, regionally, nationally and into Europe and presented posters at ERS, ILD IN and ARNS.
Sandra Olive
Consultant Nurse, Respiratory Medicine, in a large NHS teaching hospital, Norfolk & Norwich University Hospital (NNUH), which provides elective and non-elective care for a population of approximately 1,000,000 across a mixed, largely rural region.Subspecialty clinical interests in interstitial lung disease and oxygen management, with leadership roles in the Specialist ILD Service, quality improvement and clinical education. Works with UK ILD charities and other partnership organisations to advocate for patients and carers living with ILD. Interested in collaborative working with related specialties, including palliative care and community, to improve access to the appropriate clinical care and support.Research interests include patient and carer perspectives and supportive care in the context of progressive lung disease.Active member of the British Thoracic Society and currently a member of the BTS Emergency Oxygen Guideline Group. Member of European Respiratory Society, ILD-IN and ARNS.
Professor Anne-Marie Russell
My primary research interests are in patient centred mixed methods focussed on symptom experiences, supported self-management approaches, quality of life and patient reported measures in ILD.I commenced an appointment at the university of Birmingham / UK having on 1st January 2024 as the Jenny Jones chair of nursing science. A clinical academic, I work with the interdisciplinary team at the Birmingham Regional Interstitial Lung Disease Service and am developing links with rheumatologists within the region. I collaborate nationally and internationally with clinical academics in ILD contributing to international guidelines through the American Thoracic and European Respiratory societies and publish predominantly in open access peer review journals working with patient partners in research. I am a scientific advisory board member of the European Pulmonary fibrosis Foundation and Emeritus board member of the ILD Interdisciplinary Network.
Geraldine Burge
Geraldine Burge retired ILD specialist nurse at University of Birmingham NHS Trust of 43 years’ service: trained at Westminster hospital before starting postgraduate courses in cardio thoracic medicine, Jungian psychology, palliative care and teaching. Geraldine has worked as a Research nurse in interstitial lung disease since 2002 completing studies of Interferon gamma, Pirfenidone and Nintedanib before becoming one of the first NHS ILD clinical nurse specialists. She worked for NICE 2009, scoping exercise for IPF, 2011-2013 NICE IPF Guideline Development Group and again reviewing the guidance 2016. She runs the local ILD patient support group and works as a volunteer for Action for Pulmonary Fibrosis Charity, and British Lung Foundation Health care professional. She has been the Chairman of the nursing group of the European Respiratory Society Assembly 9.03 (1997-1999.), whilst working with the ATS nursing group reviewing abstracts for their congresses. Geraldine also worked as secretary to Assembly 9 (2009-2012) sitting in the European School of Respiratory Medicine; and work on ERS Research Fellowship grant committee. She has sat on numerous Advisory boards for ILD. Geraldine was a founding director and chairman of the Interstitial lung Disease Interdisciplinary network ILD-INN.2015-2018 and currently the West Midlands regional ILD-INN lead.Lastly Geraldine continues to care passionately about improving the lives of those with ILD but supporting nurses and health care professionals as she is no longer patient facing. The essence of nursing is not in the doing, it is about being open to whatever arises and through care and compassion that we afford dignity, respect, and value to all.
Where we began
The ILD-IN developed over several years, starting as an informal group of specialist nurses who provided peer support, ad hoc educational study days and shadowing opportunities for newly appointed nurses working in ILD care. In 2015 the group formally launched the ILD-IN with a committee of interdisciplinary healthcare professional to consolidate the principles of ILD care management.
INTERSTITIAL LUNG DISEASE – INTERDISCIPLINARY NETWORK LIMITED was limited by guarantee in March 2016. This was, in part, thanks to our founding sponsors Action for Pulmonary Fibrosis, Boehringer Ingelheim, Codel Software, and Roche Pharmaceuticals.
Future Evolution
The ILD-IN is committed to supporting the needs of ILD professionals in a landscape of evolving clinical practice. As the demands on ILD services continue to outgrow the resources at our disposal, we offer a collaborative foundation for discussion amongst those on the frontline of ILD care. Through our own initiatives and collaboration with key stake holders we help to shape the narrative around the future of ILD care nationally.
We listen to our members. Join us today to be part of the future of the ILD-IN.
What's Been Happening
Take a look at our social wall to stay up-to-date on the latest events and news in the industry.
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Save the date. Manchester ILD course is back 13th 14th March. Look out for the registration link in the new year. A great line of speakers. @CristinaAvram8 @PilarRiveraOrt1
The Lancet: Respiratory Medicine has recently posted a article advocating the importance of holistic assessment of ability to work in patients with sarcoidosis. We are so pleased to see that there is a push for more comprehensive evaluations. Read here: https://buff.ly/48OTwvR
Welcome to our 2 new committee members. We are delighted to have Dr Ahmed Fahim and Michelle Westlake join us and look forward to working together to deliver on some fantastic initiatives!
We had a great couple of days at the ILD-IN Conference 2024 in Birmingham.
💜Earlier this week, we attended the @ild_inn Annual Conference.
'We had a worthwhile couple of days connecting with healthcare professionals and partners from the UK and beyond and keeping up with the latest news and developments in the world of PF care' - @stefcormack
And that’s a wrap 🎬
Day 2 of @ild_inn annual conference was equally humbling and exhilarating with international superstar speakers 🌟 We heard about the powerful inspiration behind Pete the Puffling’s Brave Adventure and incredible authors and their lived experiences of #PF
Day2 @ild_inn has started strong #OneVoiceILD pathway, digital & moving talk from career+advocate Clare & launching ‘Pete the puffling’ book to support kid convos to make sense of #IPF @PFNI_NIRELAND @ActionPFcharity @RespPharmacist @ILDIPFDoc_NI
And the final session begins with Dr Alex Lawrence, clinical fellow @GSTTnhs giving us insights into #ILD clinical trials - current and future #ILDIN24
Powerful presentation at #ILDIN24 covering the rationale, current situation, challenges, and future of "Digitizing care for patients with ILD" by Prof. Wijsenbeek - lots to unpack for both patients & health care systems as technology improves & demands on health systems increase
