Wounds Week 6 - Using WHO tools to influence surgical infection prevention // Making an impact on surgical site infection in the post-operative phase

Karen is Professor and Director for the Institute of Skin Integrity and Infection Prevention, University of Huddersfield, Visiting Professor, Queensland University of Technology and the Royal college of Surgeons, Dublin; previous academic editor for Wounds UK. She is elected chair of the International Wound Infection Institute and the International Skin Tears Advisory Panel (Europe). Her clinical background is in orthopaedics and tissue viability. She has over 30 years’ experience in both clinical practice and in academia. She is widely published (in excess of 140 papers) and has edited 2 text books.

Barbara is Head of Pharmacy at the University of Huddersfield. She was appointed as Professor of Pharmaceutics at the University of Huddersfield in 2010. Following her first degree in Pharmacy at Queen’s University, Belfast, she registered as a pharmacist in 1990 and practised full-time in community pharmacy until joining Aston University in Birmingham in 1992 to undertake a Ph.D. Her PhD research project at Aston was in the pharmaceutics and drug delivery field, focusing on microencapsulation for delivery of biopharmaceuticals.

Following completion of her PhD studies in 1995, she was employed in various posts at Aston University, including lecturer and senior lecturer and was Director of the M.Pharm. programme prior to moving to the University of Huddersfield in 2010 as Professor of Pharmaceutics. During this time, she also became a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and supervised projects on the application of e-learning technologies in Pharmacy. She was also a Medici Fellow, specialising in driving forward innovation within the university sector and hold several patents in the pharmaceutical area. She has supervised over 20 Ph.D. students and on-going research programmes focus on chrontherapeutic delivery and delivery of antimicrobials, novel excipients for drug delivery, the mechanical properties of pharmaceuticals and excipients and the development of chewing gum delivery systems.

She has a number of successful collaborations with other universities, NHS and pharmaceutical industry leading to publications and development of new products.

Claire Kilpatrick is a graduate of the University of Glasgow and a director at KSHealthcare. She has worked with the World Health Organization as a consultant at global, regional and country level since 2008, after working at national level in Scotland for many years. She works on infection prevention and water, sanitation and hygiene in health care including; campaigns, the development of guidance and implementation strategies and tools, as well as country support. She was part of the WHO Global guidelines for the prevention of surgical site infection and led on the WHO implementation manual, and other tools, for turning recommendations into practice. She is a founding and board member of the World Surgical Infection Society.

Essity is a leading global hygiene and health company, dedicated to improving well-being through its products and solutions, essentials for everyday life. JOBST is a key Essity brand, that is best known for the range of compression garments and wrap compression systems, for the treatment of lymphatic and venous conditions.

George completed his BSc and medical degree at St George's Hospital in London before beginning his clinical career in posts on the south coast. He undertook his doctorate at the University of Hull where he was first exposed to clinical research and began his academic career. He was then successful in gaining a Yorkshire and Humber higher surgical rotation position and subsequent clinical lecturer post in general surgery with an interest in vascular. George completed this training and gained fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in 2016. He has since then undertaken clinical duties as a consultant at Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust and research as a Senior Lecturer at the Hull York Medical School.