Our Clinical Advisors

The Addison's Clinical Advisory Panel (CAP) is a group of endocrinologists with an interest in adrenal medicine. They advise the ADSHG on its clinical guidelines, write medical commentaries and review our publications for us. They are led by Professor John Wass of the Churchill Hospital, Oxford.

The members of our Clinical Advisory Panel include our below panellists along with our medic trustees.

Professor John Wass MA MD FRCP

John Wass is the Professor of Endocrinology at Oxford University and was Head of the Department of Endocrinology at the Oxford Centre for Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism, Churchill Hospital Oxford, UK until 2012. His research interests include all pituitary tumours, especially acromegaly, adrenal disease, angiogenesis in endocrinology, and the genetics of osteoporosis and thyroid disease. 

Since 1975 he has published over 400 articles in scientific journals and as well as written many reviews and chapters in textbooks including the Oxford Textbook of Medicine and DeGroot’s Textbook of Endocrinology.  He has also edited a number of different textbooks including the Oxford Textbook of Endocrinology, Clinical Endocrine Oncology and the Oxford Handbook of Endocrinology (3 editions).  He was President of the European Federation of Endocrine Societies from 2001-2003 and was Chairman of the Society for Endocrinology (2006-2009.  He has also served as President of the Pituitary Society.

He has won a number of prizes and given named lectures including the Jubilee Prize of the Society for Endocrinology.  He was recently in June 2015 awarded the Distinguished Physician of the Year Award by the American Endocrine Society; the first non American to ever receive this award. He was Academic Vice President of the Royal College of Physicians in London, from  August 2012 until August 2015. Recently he presented the acclaimed documentary "The Fantastical World of Hormones" on BBC4.  

John is chair of the Endocrine CRG (Clinical Reference Group) for NHS England and Clinical Lead for Endocrinology for Get It Right First Time (GIRFT) NHS England 2018. John received the Lifetime Achievement Award, Pituitary Society (America) 2017. 

Professor Wiebke Arlt DSc CCST MD

Wiebke Arlt is the William Withering Chair of Medicine and founding Director of the Institute of Metabolism and Systems Research at the University of Birmingham, where she leads a large research group working on adrenal disorders and the role of steroids in health and disease. She is Honorary Consultant Endocrinologist at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham, specialising on patients with adrenal and gonadal disorders, including Addison’s disease and congenital adrenal hyperplasia. Wiebke has written many original research and review articles on the management of adrenal insufficiency and has contributed to several guidelines, including the 2016 Endocrine Society USA clinical practice guideline on diagnosis and treatment of primary adrenal insufficiency and the 2016 Society for Endocrinology Endocrine Emergency Guidance on Adrenal Crisis. As Chair of the Society for Endocrinology Clinical Committee she has spearheaded the development of a new steroid emergency card to be released by the Department of Health and Social Care UK. She joined the ADSHG's clinical advisory panel in 2004.

Professor Simon Pearce, MD FRCP
Simon Pearce is a Professor of Endocrinology at Newcastle University and an Honorary Consultant Physician at the Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle. He joined the Addison's Clinical Advisory Panel in 2005 and has collaborated with the ADSHG on several research projects. He trained in endocrinology at Hammersmith, London; in Boston, USA and latterly in Newcastle. Since 1993, he has being doing research into the molecular and genetic causes of endocrine conditions, with a particular interest in autoimmune disorders. You can view his professional NHS profile here.

Dr Francesca Swords
Dr Swords trained at Oxford and Barts before being appointed consultant physician and endocrinologist at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Honorary Senior Lecturer at Norwich Medical School, University of East Anglia in 2008. She was appointed Clinical Director for diabetes and endocrinology in Norwich in 2011. In 2015 she was appointed Associate Medical Director and in 2016 became Chief of Medicine and Emergency Services for this hospital. Her main research interests are in adrenal pathology and radiotherapy and her major clinical interests are in endocrine neoplasia: pituitary, adrenal and thyroid tumours. In 2009 Dr Swords developed the online resource Endobible. More recently, she has played a key role in clinical safety, working with the East of England ambulance service to introduce address alerts for patients with Addison’s disease, and on the specialist endocrinology clinical reference group for NHS England. She joined the ADSHG's clinical advisory panel in 2016.

Professor Will Drake
Professor Drake trained at the University of Oxford and the Royal London Hospital Medical College. After junior medical jobs in London and in Cape Town, South Africa, he returned to UK to specialise in Endocrinology at St Bartholomew's Hospital. Following a 12 month medicine and endocrinology fellowship in Vancouver, Canada, he returned to the UK and is now Consultant Physician/Professor of Clinical Endocrinology at St Bartholomew's Hospital. You can view Prof Drake's NHS profile here.