Professor Diana Bilton, honorary consultant and former director of the adult cystic fibrosis (CF) centre at Royal Brompton Hospital, was awarded a prestigious lifetime achievement award by the European Cystic Fibrosis Society at its annual conference in Basel, Switzerland.
Professor Bilton moved to Royal Brompton Hospital in 2007 to lead the Trust’s adult CF centre and continued in that role for nearly a decade, until she retired from clinical practice in 2015, retaining her honorary consultant status. She is one of the UK’s leading experts on cystic fibrosis and has authored over 150 peer-reviewed papers on the subject. Professor Bilton sits on the editorial board of the Journal of Cystic Fibrosis and is an honorary senior lecturer at Imperial College London.
Throughout her career, Professor Bilton has had a long-standing interest in evaluating new diagnostic and therapeutic approaches to the continued cycle of infection and inflammation in CF. She has been a regular guest lecturer at the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation in the US, as well as the European Cystic Fibrosis Society.
Professor Bilton said:
I am honoured to accept this prestigious award. I have been very lucky to have worked with some true giants at every stage of my career. The advances I have witnessed represent the success of national and international team efforts.
Dr Andrew Menzies Gow said:
I am delighted that Diana has been given this award. She has been an outstanding ambassador for the Trust and a passionate advocate for patients with cystic fibrosis. Her campaigning work with organisations like the Cystic Fibrosis Trust has greatly improved the life of thousands of patients, who I know are extremely grateful to her.
Dr Keith Brownlee, director of impact at the Cystic Fibrosis Trust, expressed his delight at Professor Bilton’s great achievement, saying: “We are thrilled that Professor Bilton has been chosen to receive the ECFS Award.
Her research into cystic fibrosis has been indispensable, and she is as widely admired among the families who rely on the CF centre at Royal Brompton as she is within the scientific and clinical communities.
The CF centre at Royal Brompton Hospital is the largest centre in Europe and cares for around 650 patients with the disease. The centre admits patients to Foulis ward and runs several outpatient clinics a week, as well as a specialist clinic for CF-related diabetes. There are 28 individual rooms at Royal Brompton Hospital for patients with CF, all of which are en-suite.
Find out more about the adult cystic fibrosis centre at Royal Brompton Hospital