Speakers

Richard Horton was born in London, went to school in Bristol, and qualified in medicine from the University of Birmingham in 1986. He completed his general medical training in Birmingham before moving to the liver unit at the Royal Free Hospital. In 1990, he joined The Lancet as an assistant editor and moved to New York as North American editor in 1993. Two years later he returned to the UK to become Editor-in-Chief.  He was the first President of the World Association of Medical Editors and is a Past-President of the US Council of Science Editors.  He is an honorary professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, University College London, and the University of Edinburgh. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and a Founder Fellow of the UK’s Academy of Medical Sciences.  In 2005 he was a member of the working party and subsequently wrote the report for the Royal College of Physicians’ inquiry into the future of medical professionalism – Doctors in Society. He currently chairs the Royal College of Physicians’ Working Party on Physicians and the Pharmaceutical Industry; co-chairs a WHO Scientific Advisory Group on Clinical Trials Registration; is a Council Member of the Global Forum for Health Research; is a Board Member of the Health Metrics Network; sits on the External Reference Group for WHO’s Research Strategy; and is an External Advisory Board Member for the WHO European Region. In 2004, The Lancet won the UK’s Medical Publication of the Year and, in 2007, he received the Edinburgh Medal for professional achievements judged to have made a significant contribution to the understanding of human health and wellbeing.  In 2008, he was appointed a Senior Associate of The Nuffield Trust, a think tank for research and policy studies in health services.  He has a strong interest in issues of global health. He has been a medical columnist for The Observer and writes regularly for the Times Literary Supplement and New York Review of Books. A book about controversies in modern medicine, Second Opinion, was published in 2003. He enjoys cooking and arguing, and he lives in London with his wife, Ingrid, a paediatrician, and their seven-year old daughter, Isobel.

Cardiologist James M. Galloway, MD, FACP, FACC, FAHA was recently appointed as Assistant Surgeon General of the U.S. Public Health Service (USPHS) in ceremonies in Chicago in 2007. Prior to this assignment, Dr. Galloway was based at the University of Arizona where he founded and directed the innovative Native American Cardiology Program for many years, providing direct cardiac care to Native Americans in Arizona,
Nevada, Utah, California and New Mexico. He was the senior cardiologist nationally for the Indian Health Service and for this work he was awarded the national Outstanding Clinician for the Indian Health Service award in 1997. In 2005 he was named the USPHS Clinical Physician of the Year for his dedication and innovation in improving the delivery of cardiovascular care to Native Americans. He has also received distinguished awards from the Hopi and White Mountain Apache Tribes for his contributions to the health of Indian People.

Dr. Galloway is board-certified in both internal medicine and cardiology. He is a fellow of the American College of Physicians, the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association. He is currently an adjunct Professor at Northwestern University and has developed over 170 articles, abstracts and book chapters and one book, "Primary Care of Native American Patients: Diagnosis, Therapy and Epidemiology."

He is also involved in a number of Tribally requested research initiatives, including the Strong Heart Study and SANDS (Stop Atherosclerosis in Native Diabetics Study). In addition, he is a founder and active leader in the 'Pathways Into Health' tribal, academic, federal collaboration for the development and education of American Indian and Alaska Native health care professionals utilizing the strengths of distance learning, cultural integration and interprofessional education.

As Director of Menzies School of Health Research in Darwin, Professor Jonathan Carapetis is promoting new directions in research and training to tackle big problems in Indigenous health, including education, housing and poverty.  He is a paediatrician, infectious diseases and public health physician, with particular expertise in group A streptococcal diseases, vaccines and vaccine preventable diseases, and health of children in Indigenous communities and developing countries.

His work on controlling rheumatic heart disease and in developing new vaccine strategies is known internationally.  His research into rheumatic fever in the Aboriginal population translated into the establishment of Australia’s first rheumatic heart disease control program in the Top End.  He continues to run a program of research and public health interventions in rheumatic fever in both Australia and globally, and has been involved in the development of a national RHD strategy in Australia.  Professor Carapetis is Chairman of the World Heart Federation Scientific Council on Rheumatic Fever and Rheumatic Heart Disease and has written the rheumatic fever chapters for a number of textbooks including Harrison’s Textbook of Internal Medicine, the Oxford Textbook of Medicine, Hurst’s The Heart, and Infectious Diseases (ed Cohen and Powderly).  He also chaired the writing group for the National Heart Foundation of Australia and Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand guidelines for management and control of rheumatic heart disease.

Professor Carapetis was named as 2008 Northern Territory Australian of the year and selected as one of Australia’s 100 smartest people and one of the top ten in Medicine and Health in the Bulletin Magazine’s “Smart 100” list in 2007.