Meet the faculty

Dr Noel Baxter

Dr Noel Baxter is a practising GP in the UK. He has been a respiratory champion for the last 10 years, working with both primary and secondary care colleagues within a population-based integrated respiratory service. Having served his term as Executive Chair of the UK-based Primary Care Respiratory Society (PCRS), he is board member of the IPCRG and is a clinical advisor to the British Lung Foundation. He has a strong interest in improving quality in primary care, and, until recently, was the Clinical Director for Quality and Service Improvement at NHS Southwark Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG). Passionate about tobacco harm, Dr Baxter is a member of the board of trustees for Action on Smoking in Health (ASH) and recent co-lead of the London Respiratory Strategic Clinical Network from 2010 to 2016 and the London Clinical Senate ‘Helping Smokers Quit’ delivery team.

Darush Attar-Zadeh

Darush Attar-Zadeh is a practising pharmacist in the UK, specialising in helping people change harmful behaviours. He is a Primary Care Respiratory Society (PCRS) Executive Committee member and part of the IPCRG teaching faculty for treating Tobacco Dependence and Asthma Right Care.

He is the respiratory lead pharmacist for NHS Barnet Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG). Darush has specialised in the field of smoking cessation for 25 years and runs group consultations in GP practices where he is able to prescribe support and treatment. He was asked to help review the UK National Training Standards for smoking cessation and was a member of the London Clinical Senate Helping Smokers Quit programme. Darush has published more than 20 clinical papers and writes teaching modules on various medical platforms. He has been recognised by his healthcare peers at the 2019 PCPA GP Pharmacist awards for excellence and was awarded a PCRS best practice award in 2018 for work he and his community pharmacy colleagues carried out for people living with COPD.

Dr Anders Østrem

Dr Østrem undertook his medical training at the Royal College of Surgeons in Dublin, Ireland, qualifying in 1986. On return to Norway, he finished his specialist training in general practice in 1997. Since 1989 he has been working as a partner at Gransdalen Health Centre in Oslo and he has been a member of the Norwegian College of General Practitioners reference group for asthma and COPD since 1998.

In 2000, Dr Østrem became a founding member of “Lunger i Praksis” – a Norwegian network of general practitioners with interest in lung disease. Dr Østrem is previous board member and past president of the International Primary Care Respiratory Group (www.theipcrg.org) and was the Chair of the Organising Committee for the 3rd IPCRG World Conference in June 2006.  He has been involved in several national guidelines; the first Norwegian guideline for smoking cessation in primary care in addition to asthma and COPD guidelines for primary care.  He is also part of IPCRG`s smoking cessation group.

Dr Vidal Barchilon

Dr Vidal Barchilon specialises in Family and Community Medicine and works as a family physician at the Health Center "Rodríguez Arias" San Fernando Cádiz (Andalusia, Spain) and has a Master’s degree in Public Health from the University of Puerto Rico.

Dr Barchilon is currently associate lecturer for the smoking cessation master’s degree shared by the Sevilla and Cantabria universities, a position he has had since 2010. He has also been responsible for teaching "Intervention in smoking in Primary Care" workshops over the last 20 years, including international conferences and meetings like WONCA Europe and IPCRG.

Having been involved in the development of all the Spanish national guidelines in smoking cessation for the last 15 years, Dr Barchilon is now the director of the comprehensive smoking plan for the government of Andalusia and leads the Smokeless Week in Andalusia, an educational activity getting messages to the media and global population.

Dr Barchilon is currently chairing the working and research group in smoking cessation at the Andalusian Primary Care GP Society (SAMFyC), and GRAP (Primary Care Respiratory Group in Spain), and is also an active member of semFYC working and research group on Tobacco (Primary Care Society in Spain).  He has been joining the IPCRG's research subcommittee for 4 years, leading tobacco papers.

Dr Lucia Gorreto

Dr Gorreto specialises in Family and Community Medicine and works as a family physician in a primary care practice in Mallorca, Spain where, apart from health assistance, she oversees family medicine residents’ education and research. She is also expert in respiratory medicine and tobacco cessation in primary care and has led multiple educational and research activities in these fields, not only in Mallorca but the whole country through emFYC and GRAP.

She has been involved in the Tobacco Cessation national strategy and community campaigns for smoking cessation as a member of GRAP and the National Committee of Prevention and Control of tobacco use (CNPT). Leading the successful Balearic and National Non-smoking week campaign. She is also involved in the development of smoking cessation guidelines in Spain and Balearic Islands. Currently, she is co-chairing the Chronic Respiratory Diseases Primary Care Research Group in Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria de las Islas Baleares (IdISBa), leading multiple research projects and publications.

She is member of IPCRG and has worked with IPCRG members in tobacco cessation strategies for all the different countries inside the IPCRG organisation.

Dr Debbie Robson

Dr Robson is a mental health nurse and Senior Research Fellow with the National Addiction Centre at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King’s College London.

Dr Robson’s work focuses on the development and evaluation of tobacco dependence treatment pathways, staff training pathways, and smoke free policies in mental health and substance use settings. Debbie is part of the NIHR South London Applied Research Care (ARC) where she leads a programme of research about tobacco dependence and treatment across King’s Health Partners.

Dr Robson is also a member of NIHR King’s Health Protection Unit, where she works with Public Health England colleagues on a programme of research about the effect of exposure to e-cigarettes in high risk groups. She is a co-author of Public Health England commissioned annual evidence reviews of e-cigarettes and is a Trustee of Action on Smoking and Health (ASH).

Ema Paulino

Ema Paulino is a practising pharmacist at her own community pharmacy in Portugal. She is General Manager of Ezfy, a company that engages community pharmacies in the implementation of Patient Support Programmes.

She is a member of the National Board of the Portuguese Pharmaceutical Society (PPS), and represents this organisation at various international groups and organisations such as the Pharmaceutical Group of the European Union (PGEU) and the International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP).

Currently Professional Secretary of FIP and a member of its Bureau, Ema has previously been Chairperson and Project Coordinator of the Young Pharmacists' Group, a member of the FIP Programme Committee, and Secretary of the Community Pharmacy Section.

Ema is also President of the Pharmaceutical Care Network Europe (PCNE). As a student, Ema was President of the National Pharmacy Students Association.