NASS have a team of medical advisors who help inform all our work.

Colin Beevor RN

Colin is Senior Clinical Nurse Specialist for Rheumatology Services and Matron/ Service Manager for Musculoskeletal Services (Rheumatology, Spinal Services and Chronic Pain Clinic) at Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust. He has 17 years experience in rheumatology nursing and a wide range of nursing management at ward, outpatient, and clinical nurse specialist levels. In 2009 Colin joined the RCN Rheumatology Forum as committee member and also sits on the medical and health care professional advisory boards for Arthritis Care and Fibromyalgia

Dr Andrei Calin

Following a distinguished career in rheumatology, Dr Calin retired on medical grounds from the RNHRD in 2002 and now consults privately. During his career he won 12 prizes, scholarships and awards; held honorary and scholastic memberships of 9 national and international medical boards; has served on over 20 committees and editorial boards; has produced chapters in many books; has been editor of two important textbooks on AS; and has written over 300 original and review articles and abstracts on AS.

Dr Karl Gaffney

Karl Gaffney has been a Consultant Rheumatologist in Norwich for 15 years where he has established a large multidisciplinary spondyloarthropathy clinic and has worked closely with the local NASS Norwich group which was founded in 1988. He is also Honorary Senior Lecturer at the University of East Anglia; founder member of the UK Spondyloarthropathy Research Group; medical advisor to NASS; co-author of the recently published NASS report "Looking Ahead: Best practice for the care of people with Ankylosing Spondylitis"; co-author of the BSR Guidelines on anti-TNF therapy for AS; and has represented the British Society of Rheumatology at the NICE appraisal of anti-TNF for AS.  He has published widely in the field and been an invited speaker at many national and international meetings.

Claire Harris

Claire qualified as a Chartered Physiotherapist in 1984 at St Mary's Hospital, London. She worked as a junior physiotherapist before moving to Northwick Park Hospital, West London in 1987 initially as a Senior II in Orthopaedics, and then moving to a Senior I position in Rheumatology where she developed her interest in AS patients whilst running the local NASS group. Following a career break, Claire returned to Northwick Park Hospital in 1996 where she is a part-time Senior Physiotherapist in the AS clinic and runs the local NASS group. Her current responsibilities include the assessment of AS patients being treated with anti-TNF and AS education groups. Claire is also Chair of AStretch, a group of UK physiotherapists that steer the management and improve the understanding of AS.

Dr Andrew Keat

Dr Keat is Consultant Physician and Rheumatologist at Northwick Park and St Mark's Hospitals NHS Trust; Honorary Consultant Physician at Hammersmith Hospitals Trust and Honorary Consultant in Rheumatology at St Mary's Hospital NHS Trust. He has received many prestigious awards throughout his career; is a member of various learned societies and economic bodies; and has lectured extensively and written widely on AS. He was co-author of the NASS report "Looking Ahead: Best practice for the care of people with ankylosing spondylitis (AS)".

Dr Helena Marzo-Ortega

Dr Marzo-Ortega is a Consultant Rheumatologist for the Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust and an Honorary Senior Lecture at the University of Leeds. She is the Clinical Lead of the Spondyloarthropathy service at the Section of Musculoskeletal Disease and the Clinical Lead for the MSK Specialty Group of the West Yorkshire UKCRN CLRN.

Her main areas of interest are within the field of early arthritis, undifferentiated arthritis and spondyloarthritis including Psoriatic arthritis, with a special focus on the role of imaging biomarkers and biologic therapies. She currently combines her clinical activity with an active membership of different working groups within the ASAS/OMERACT MRI group, EULAR and BSR.

Dr. Athimalaipet Ramanan

Dr Ramanan did his initial paediatric rheumatology training in Manchester including a MSc in Clinical Rheumatology at the University of Manchester and his Fellowship in Paed. Rheumatology at the Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Canada.

He is a consultant paediatric rheumatologist at the Bristol Royal Hospital for Children and at the Royal National Hospital for Rheumatic Disease's in Bath. His Unit currently provides a service for the entire South West of England and parts of South Wales. They do outreach clinics in Exeter, Taunton, Torbay, Salisbury and Swansea. He has published more than 25 papers in peer reviewed international journals.

His current research focus is on immunogenetics of systemic onset juvenile arthritis, macrophage activation syndrome and juvenile dermatomyositis. he is the Associate Editor for the musculoskeletal section of the National Library of Health.

Dr Raj Sengupta

Dr Raj Sengupta is a Consultant Rheumatologist at The Royal National Hospital for Rheumatic Diseases, Bath (RNRHD) and The BMI Bath Clinic in Bath. Dr Sengupta completed his specialty training in Bath and Bristol. His specialist and research interests are in ankylosing spondylitis (AS) and he has published on the subject in peer reviewed international journals.

Dr Sengupta is the Lead Consultant for AS at the RNHRD. He is Co Chair of the BSR Spondyloarthritis Special Interest Group, member of the ARUK Spondyloarthropathies Clinical Studies Group and has memberships with the Royal College of Physicians, British Society for Rheumatology, Medical Protection Society, National Osteoporosis Society and the Royal Society of Medicine.

Professor Paul Wordsworth

Paul Wordsworth qualified in medicine in 1975 and trained in general internal medicine in London prior to specialist training in rheumatology in 1981. He completed training in the Oxford Region where he was appointed to a Senior Research Fellowship and Honorary Consultant position in 1987. Subsequently, he was appointed Clinical Reader in Rheumatology in 1992 and elected to a Personal Chair in 1998. He has been a Fellow of Green Templeton College since 1992. His main research interests are in the genetic basis of disorders of the musculoskeletal system, ranging from rare monogenic developmental disorders through to common polygenic diseases such as ankylosing spondylitis and rheumatoid arthritis. He has authored or co-authored more than 250 original papers. He has run the clinical trials unit at the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre in Oxford for the past 10 years, including several studies of biologic agents in AS. He is a founder member of two major research consortia for AS, the International Genetics of AS (IGAS) and the Australo-Anglo-American (Triple A) Spondylitis Consortium (TASC).