I studied at both Cambridge and King’s College Hospital, London, gaining my MD in 1975. Since the beginning of the AIDS epidemic in 1981, I have been responsible for the organization of services at St Stephen’s and Westminster Hospitals (now Chelsea & Westminster Hospital), which is the largest AIDS unit in the country – currently caring for more than 3,000 HIV seropositive individuals. From 1989 up until 1996 I was Clinical Director of the unit.
My present administrative function is to organize the research effort within our own unit and co-ordinate relations with other academic staffs within and outside the Medical School. I am Chairman of the Trustees of the St Stephen’s AIDS Research Trust which finances the research endeavour of our unit. This charity has raised £4 million to develop research facilities within Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, and currently has a turnover of approximately £1.5 million per annum which is used to support research within the Immunology and HIV/GUM Units of this hospital.
In addition, I started the British HIV Association and was its first Chairman. I remain chair of the influential HIV guidelines committee, which ever since 1996 has produced annual updates to guide physicians in best HIV care.
I am also one of the Trustees of the British Medical Association AIDS Foundation. I am currently on the London Consortium which co-ordinates care and has budgetary control of HIV treatment and care across London, and a chair of the Drugs Sub-Committee of the London Consortium. I advise on current drug regimes and co-ordinate a unified approach to treatment based upon the BHIVA guidelines. I have been a Trustee of the FACTS Charity, and am currently on the board of the National AIDS Manual. I am a member of the CPCRA Scientific Advisory Board (National American Research Board)
I am Chairman of the British HIV Guidelines Writing Committee and also a member of the IAS USA Guidelines Committee which are used as a bench mark for much of the developed world. I am a member of the HIV Advisory Committee for the Medical Research Council. I am principal investigator of three international trials (SMART, ESPRIT, OPTIMA) and am an independent member of the Steering Committee of the International DART trial, and am on the DCSMB of a number of other international studies.