Biography

After graduating from University College London and Westminster Medical School (University of London), Dr Balfour-Lynn trained in general paediatrics at Westminster Children’s Hospital, Queen Mary’s Hospital Roehampton, Northwick Park Hospital and St Bartholomew’s Hospital. 

The majority of his specialist respiratory training was carried out at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, where he worked in a number of departments including respiratory medicine, intensive care, infection and immunology and heart-lung transplantation.

Dr Balfour-Lynn also spent two years in full-time research for his MD thesis, Host Defence Factors in Wheezy Infants with Respiratory Infections,

University of London 1994. He is on the NHS specialist register for paediatrics and is fully accredited in paediatrics with a special interest in respiratory disease.

At the Trust, Dr Balfour-Lynn is a paediatric respiratory medicine consultant and is also co-director of children's services. 

Research interests

Current research projects include the detection of pulmonary hypertension in children with cystic fibrosis, early lung disease in newborn screened infants with cystic fibrosis, fitness to fly testing in children with congenital heart disease, and audit of CF newborn screening in Pan Thames area.

Teaching

Dr Balfour-Lynn runs paediatric bronchoscopy courses at Royal Brompton Hospital every two years. He also taught sessions on flexible bronchoscopy and how to lavage and biopsy as part of the Royal Brompton Hospital’s bronchoscopy course held at the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2009 and Ain Shams University, Cairo in 2004. He organises National Grid Training of paediatric respiratory medicine in London.

Other posts

Dr Balfour-Lynn has had a number of other posts, including: 

• Chair of NHS England's cystic fibrosis clinical reference group
• Co-director of children's services at Royal Brompton & Harefield NHS Foundation Trust
• Director of paediatric cystic fibrosis at Royal Brompton Hospital
• Honorary senior lecturer at Imperial College School of Medicine
• Consultant in paediatric respiratory medicine at Chelsea & Westminster Hospital 
• Visiting consultant in paediatric respiratory medicine at the Mater Dei Hospital in Malta 
• The UK representative on American Thoracic Society Pediatric International Relations Committee 
• Secretary Cystic Fibrosis Group, European Respiratory Society
• Member of Cystic Fibrosis Clinical Reference Group
• Member RCPCH Council
• North Thames regional adviser for paediatric respiratory medicine 
• Past president of the British Paediatric Respiratory Society (BPRS)  
• Past President of Paediatric & Child Health Section, Royal Society of Medicine 

International reputation

Dr Balfour-Lynn is a regular expert speaker at medical conferences in the UK and overseas. 

Recent lectures include: 

• 6th Ege University Paediatric Conference jointly with Royal Society of Medicine, Izmir, Turkey, May 2012. “Management of complicated pneumonia”
• European Respiratory Society – online course on oxygen therapy, May 2012. “Long term oxygen therapy in children”
• 2nd Welsh National CF Meeting, Cardiff, September 2012. “Raising the bar – improving standards in CF care”
• Royal Society of Medicine, Paediatric Infectious Diseases conference, October 2012. “Management of complicated pneumonia”
• 18th International Paediatric Conference, Muscat, Oman November 2012. “Management of complicated pneumonia”, “Management of recurrent wheeze in pre-school children”
• 6th Europaediatrics joint meeting with Royal College Paediatrics & Child Health Annual Meeting Glasgow, June 2013. “Home oxygen – practicalities.”
• 15th BPRS Summer meeting, Nottingham, June 2013. “Fitness to fly testing in paediatric lung disease: an update”
• 36th European CF Conference June 2013, Lisbon, Portugal. “The first four years of newborn screening for CF in London and the South-East of England.”
• 36th European CF Conference June 2013, Lisbon, Portugal. “Personalised medicine is unaffordable (debate)”.
• Royal Society of Medicine, 33rd GP update forum, September 2013. “Cough and wheeze in the under 3s”.
• 27th Royal Society of Medicine Annual CF Symposium, Nov 2013. “Personalised medicine is unaffordable (debate)”. 

Publications

Dr Balfour-Lynn is associate editor responsible for respiratory papers at Archives of Disease in Childhood (ADC), the journal of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health. 

He is on the editorial board for Paediatric Pulmonology, a specialist journal published in the USA and an associate editor of the quarterly journal, Paediatric Respiratory Reviews.

Dr Balfour-Lynn has written numerous papers, book chapters, national guidelines and reviews on his specialist subjects.

Details of his experience, lectures, conferences and publications are available on Dr Ian Balfour-Lynn's website.

Private patient referral

If you would like to make an appointment with this specialist for private care, contact the RB&HH Specialist care team.