A clinical masterclass on treatments for painful neuropathies

Dr Hadi Manji is a senior member at the Medical Research Council Centre for Neuromuscular Diseases and the Neuromuscular Clinical Care Centre at the National Hospital. He has a specialist interest in peripheral nerve diseases and neuroinfectious disorders. He is a past President of the Clinical Neurosciences Section at the Royal Society of Medicine (20/21). In May 2022, he was awarded the Association of British Neurologists Medal for services to National and International Neurology and is the Chief author and Editor of the Oxford Handbook of Neurology, which is used by neurologists internationally.

Dr Prashanth Vas (MBBS, FRCP, PhD) currently works as a Consultant in Diabetes and Diabetes Foot Medicine at King's College Hospital - the first dedicated multidisciplinary foot clinic in the world where is leads the painful diabetic neuropathy focussed clinic. He is an honorary senior clinical lecturer at King’s College, London and a visiting professor at the University of Staffordshire.

Dr Vas’s current research is focused on the lower limb complications of diabetes including the aetiopathogenesis and treatment diabetic foot ulcers, diabetic neuropathy (especially small-fibre neuropathy) and in the validation of new techniques designed for the early detection of neuropathy.

Dr Vas is a committee member of the Diabetic Foot Study Group (DFSG) and has served as an expert advisor to the UK’s National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE) and to the International Working Group on the Diabetic Foot (IWGDF). He is the co-founder of the British Diabetic Neuropathy Symposium, which is the only academic meeting in the UK on diabetic neuropathy.

Elliot is a qualified Transcranial and Peripheral Magnetic Stimulation specialist, working to treat patients with chronic, treatment-resistant muscle and joint pain. He works closely with Dr Stephanie Barrett at The London Clinic, and is one of a handful of individuals in the UK to be qualified to provide Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS). 

Mr Julian Winer has been a renowned registered osteopath on Harley Street for the past 30 years, having first trained at the British School of Osteopathy. He runs the Diagnostic and Laser Therapy Clinic, based on Harley street, which offers patients Low Intensity Laser Therapy (L.I.L.T), promoting pain relief without sensation or side effects, for patients with injuries or lesions.

Mr David Hohenschurz-Schmidt is an Associate Researcher at the Pain Group at Imperial College London and Senior Research Fellow at University College of Osteopathy. He completed a PhD to improve methods in clinical trials of complex, non-pharmacological pain treatments. He is now developing a manual therapy-based approach for people with painful diabetic neuropathy, which he will present in this talk.

Ms Jo Josh is a founding member of the Global HIV Pain Task Force, which developed a scientific agenda and identified measurement domains crucial to advancing research in this area, as well as a patient partner in the three-year Partnership for Assessment and Investigation of Neuropathic Pain: Studies Tracking Outcomes, Risks and Mechanisms (PAINSTORM) research project, which unites those who experience neuropathic pain with experts in the field. Jo is a former trustee and co-chair of the Sophia Forum, a charity which promotes and advocates for the rights of women living with HIV. She was a contributor to the 2018 Terrence Higgins Trust/Sophia Forum research project "Women and HIV, Invisible No Longer" and co-author of the 2019 Women and HIV report, conducted by Public Health England, and is a passionate member of the Clinical Advisory Group for the National AIDS Trust.