Dr Bernie Croal is the current President of the Royal College of Pathologists. He is a Consultant Chemical Pathologist working in Aberdeen, specialising in intravenous nutritional support. He has spent a long career in various leadership roles within NHS Scotland, including clinical director and regional lead for pathology, NHS Scotland demand optimisation lead and chair of the Scottish Clinical Biochemistry Network. He is also a past President of the Association for Laboratory Medicine (known as LabMed) and is a fellow of the Royal Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow, Physicians of Edinburgh and Ireland, Academy of Healthcare Science and the Institute of Biomedical Science.

Prof Sir Michael McBride was appointed to the post of Chief Medical Officer for the Department of Health, in September 2006.

Prior to joining the department, he had been Medical Director at the Royal Group of Hospitals from August 2002.

Prof Sir Michael McBride graduated with Distinction from Queen’s University Belfast in 1986 and completed his undergraduate and postgraduate training in Northern Ireland.  In 1991 he attained a Research Fellowship at St Mary’s Medical School and Imperial College London, where he carried out research into new drug treatments for HIV.

Prof Sir Michael McBride has been a Consultant in the Health Service since 1994 when he was appointed Consultant Physician in HIV medicine at the Royal Group of Hospitals and has more than 10 years health service management experience.

Dr Claire Hennell graduated from the University of Leicester in 2006 and subsequently trained in pathology in Northern Ireland. She was appointed as a Consultant Pathologist in 2014, working in the Northern Trust. Following a move to the Royal Victoria Hospital in 2022 she has developed specialist interests in dermatopathology and cervical cytology. Last year she took up the role of Clinical Lead within the regional Cervical Cytology laboratory and has worked to establish and implement this service.

Gareth is a consultant in acute medicine and nephrology in the Northern Trust. He is the Trust’s Physician Associate/Assistant lead and is the Clinical Lead for Quality Improvement. Gareth has had a brief foray into the world of laboratory medicine having completed a PhD in the genetics of diabetic nephropathy with Professor Peter Maxwell whilst a medical student. He is a digital pragmatist and is interested in how AI may change, for better and worse, our approach to clinical and laboratory medicine and decision making.

Dr Eamon McCarron is a Consultant in Inherited Metabolic Disorders with the Sheffield Adult Metabolic Service, a nationally commissioned centre for Inherited Metabolic Disorders (IMDs). He cares for patients with a broad range of IMDs, with particular interests in complex molecule, organelle, and energy metabolism disorders. He graduated with Honours in Medicine and Surgery from the University of Liverpool and Linköping University, Sweden, and undertook an MPhil at the Centre for Drug Safety Science, Liverpool. He completed joint clinical academic training through the Academic Foundation Programme and an Academic Clinical Fellowship at Queen’s University, Belfast. He undertook Internal Medicine training, gaining Membership of the Royal College of Physicians (London), and Cardiology training, accrediting in Cardiovascular Computed Tomography and Transthoracic Echocardiography. His specialty training in Chemical Pathology (Metabolic Medicine) was completed in Belfast, including experience in the regional Lysosomal Storage Disorder (LSD) service provided by Genetics, followed by a fellowship at the Metabolic Unit, Salford Royal, with a focus on LSDs. He continues to hold an Honorary Research Contract there and contributes actively to research. Dr McCarron is a Fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists (London), an active member of the Society for the Study of Inborn Errors of Metabolism (SSIEM) and serves on the committee of the British Inherited Metabolic Disease Group (BIMDG).

Dr Gareth McKeeman graduated with a BSc (Hon) in Biomedical Science in 1999 before going on to a complete a PhD in 2003 (both at Queen’s University Belfast). He then worked as a Research Fellow (School of Medicine, QUB) for 4 years before moving to the NHS in 2007 to start the Clinical Scientist Training Programme. During this he completed an MSc (Clinical Biochemistry with Molecular Biology, University of Surrey), and then FRCPath (Clinical Biochemistry) during Senior and Principal Clinical Scientist posts.

He took up his current post as Consultant Clinical Scientist (Dept. Clinical Biochemistry, Belfast Health & Social Care Trust) in 2015, where he has oversight over the Clinical Biochemistry General Automation Labs across 3 hospital sites and is Chair of the Trust POCT committee. He is also currently Chair of the Northern Ireland Regional Council.

Professor Emerita Queen’s University Mary Frances McMullin graduated in medicine from Queen’s University Belfast in 1980 and trained in Haematology in Northern Ireland and The Royal Postgraduate Medical School, Hammersmith Hospital, London.  Her clinical and research interests include myeloproliferative neoplasms, investigation of the rare congenital erythrocytosis, and acute myeloid leukaemia. National roles have included, President and Secretary of the Haematology of Ireland, President of the Ulster Medical society, the British Society for Haematology Guidelines Committee Lead which included development of guidelines for the management of myeloproliferative neoplasms and membership of the European Hematology Association SWG MPN and EToL committees.

Dr Tamara McNamee is a Consultant Forensic Histopathologist based at the University of Dundee undertaking autopsies into sudden and unexpected deaths in the Tayside region on behalf of COPFS. She undertook specialist histopathology training in Northern Ireland before completing specialist Forensic histopathology training in Dundee and Aberdeen.

In addition to the autopsy workload, she enjoys teaching and she engages with education and training of Procurators Fiscal, Police Scotland as well as undergrade and post graduate teaching of medical, dental and law students.

Dr Alison Watt is a Consultant Clinical Scientist in Virology, working at the Regional Virus Laboratory, Belfast. She graduated in Biochemistry from Queen’s University Belfast, where she also completed a PhD and postdoctoral research on infection and immunity in chronic lung disease, including cystic fibrosis and bronchiectasis.

Following her academic research, Dr Watt trained as Clinical Scientist in Microbiology and progressed to her current role as a Consultant in 2017.

Alison currently chairs the national virology-working group for UK Standards for Microbiology Investigations and serves as a Senior examiner in Virology for RCPath.

Regionally, she is currently co-chairing alongside Dr Louise McCorry the Testing and Diagnosis Workstream of the NI DoH Hepatitis C Elimination Programme.