Andrew Kirby

Profile

I trained in medicine at the University of Liverpool, completing training in 2001. I then undertook an MSc in Medical and Molecular Microbiology at the University of Manchester.

After medical posts in the UK, Australia and New Zealand I undertook training in medical and molecular microbiology whilst a Clinical Lecturer at the University of Liverpool. During this time i completed an MD into the diagnosis and epidemiology of norovirus infection and completed professional exams in medical microbiology, before moving to Leeds.

In Leeds, I work as an Associate Clinical Professor in Microbiology and as an honorary consultant microbiologist. I was employed by the Clinical Research Network as a speciality lead in Infection, and am a member of the grants review committee at the Healthcare Infection Society.

In addition, I am the consultant chair of the National Infection Trainee Collaborative for Audit and Research which can be accessed here.

Responsibilities

• Microbiology lead for medical student education

Research interests

Research_The EXTEND trial

We will be leading a multicentre NIHR funded trial into the antibiotic managmenet of complicated intra-abdominal infection (cIAI), in collaboration with the University of York. The trial is titled:

The EXTEND trial: Fixed-extended-duration antibiotics (28 days) compared to standard care antibiotic durations in adult patients with complicated intra-abdominal infection and their impact on treatment failure-a phase III multicentre, open label, two-arm, parallel group, pragmatic, randomised controlled trial with internal pilot

Education_The GermBugs

This is a medical education resource to teach medical students core clinical microbiology concepts. The website for the resource is available here.

Collaboration_ The National Infection Teams Collaborative for Audit and Research

The National Infection Teams Collaborative for audit and research is a UK wide organisation which faciitates national projects in the field of infection. We have undertaken a range of projects on topics such as Hospital Onset Diarrhoea, Meningitis, Encephalitis, Intra-abdominal infection, Gentamicin prescribing, Necrotising otitis externa and vertebral osteomyelitis. Adopted studies are carreid out at up to 80 UK hospitals and have gone onto receive competitive national funding. I started NITCAR in 2014 and continue to be its consultant chair. More information is available here.

Other research projects:

• IntAct: Intraoperative Fluorescence Angiography to Prevent Colorectal Anastomotic Leak: I am a Co-investigator on a trial investigating the cause of anastomotic leak after colorectal surgery. Specifically, we are investigating if collagenase producing bacteria are detected in those patients who have anastomotic leaks.
• Antibiotic prophylaxis for colorectal surgery: We have performed a pilot trial comparing bolus-continuous infusion of antibiotic prophylaxis in colorectal surgery.
  We hypothesise that antibiotic prophylaxis for colorectal surgery will be optimised with a bolus-continuous infusion targeting high serum concentrations of antibiotic throughout surgery.
  We intend to use our pilot data to apply for funding to complete a national trial of bolus-continuous infusion of antibiotic prophylaxis.
• Antibiotic management of appendicitis: We have performed a meta-analysis related to the antibiotic management of acute appendicitis. We seek to collaborate on trials into the antibiotic management of appendicitis.
• Antibiotic pharmacology 
• Oral antibiotics for pyelonephritis: We have evaluated the literature and determined oral antibiotics not recommended for treatment for pyelonephritis in current guidelines have data to support their use.
  We have completed a pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic analysis of a number of oral antibiotics for the treatment of pyelonephritis.
  We intend to use these data to support funding applications into the pharmacokinetics of oral antibiotics for pyelonephritis, and treatment of pyelonephritis with oral antibiotics.
• OVID-CDI trial is investigating if vancomcyin for the treatment of Clostrifium difficile can be more effective using alternative dosing strategies. 
• Diagnostics research: Accelerating Development of Infection Diagnostics for Patient Management and Reduction of Antibiotic Misuse. We collaborate on this Medical Research Council funded research project.

Qualifications

• MBChB
• MSc Medical and Molecular Microbiology
• MD Medical Microbiology
• FRCPath

Professional memberships

• British Infection Association
• British Society of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy
• European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases
• Healthcare Infection Society
• National Infection Trainee Collaborative for Audit and Research

Student education

I am the lead for the microbiology curriculum in the undergraduate medical school. I supervise medical students on ESREP (Extended Student Research projects) and MRes projects.

Additionally i have worked collaboratively with staff across the University of Leeds to develop online story based resources for microbiology education. See below for more information:

• GermBugs-Part 1: A microbiology education resource
• GermBugs-Part 2: Microbiology revision

Research groups and institutes

• Leeds Institute of Medical Research at St James's
• Healthcare Associated Infection Research Group