BTS President and President-elect 2022

BTS President

Our President for 2022 is Rachael Moses OBE. Rachael is a Consultant Respiratory Physiotherapist and the Head of Clinical Leadership Development in NHSE&I’s Leadership & Lifelong Learning, People Directorate.

We are delighted to welcome her as the first BTS President from a non-medical background, and look forward to work with her to continue to make BTS a better reflection of the diverse professional community it represents.

Rachael specialised in respiratory and critical care physiotherapy at the Newcastle Upon Tyne Hospitals Foundation Trust, before moving to St Georges Hospital, London, to take up the role of Principal Respiratory Physiotherapist and Clinical Team Lead. More recently, Rachael worked at the Lancashire Teaching Hospitals with the regional long term ventilation team and at the Royal Brompton and Harefield Trust.

At the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic Rachael assumed the role of Chief Allied Health Professionals at the new NHS Nightingale Hospital of London, built as part of the UK emergency response to COVID-19. She was recognised in the 2021 Queen’s Birthday Honours with an OBE for services to the NHS.

Rachael is a long standing BTS member and had roles within the Society in the past, including being a Council member, and sitting on the Education & Training Committee and several Specialist Advisory Groups.

Taking up the role for 2022 she said:

“I feel incredibly honoured to be taking the presidential role and while it’s a very important moment in time for the society being the first non-medical president, I am hoping this will not define it.

“Over the next 12 months I will make it my priority to really connect with our membership and all of the professionals that make our society so brilliant. I will be continuing to host listening events and working with the BTS team to really understand the make-up of our membership and create a society where everyone truly feels like they belong.”

BTS President Elect

We are pleased to announce that the new BTS President-elect is Professor Onn Min Kon. Professor Kon will join the BTS Board and will take over as President at the BTS Annual General Meeting in November 2022.

Professor Onn Min Kon is a Consultant at St Mary’s Hospital in London, Head of the Tuberculosis service at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, as well as being a Professor of Respiratory Medicine at the National Heart & Lung Institute of Imperial College London. He is recognised as one of the UK’s leading authorities on the management of complex and MDR TB.

Professor Kon has made a number of outstanding contributions to the activities of BTS over many years, for which he has received the BTS Meritorious Service Award in 2019. These include chairing the BTS MDR-TB Clinical Advice Service and the BTS Tuberculosis Specialist Advisory Group.

He has held a number of strategic roles at a national level, including having been a member of the National TB Oversight Group and is the Chair of the UK Joint Tuberculosis Committee.

Professor Onn Min Kon is well known internationally and served on the European Respiratory Society’s Long-Range Planning Committee for Assembly 10, as well as being an Associate Editor for Thorax.

Professor Kon said:

“It is a real honour and humbling to be able to serve the British Thoracic Society in this role and to follow in the footsteps of so many great and distinguished Respiratory clinicians. I look forward to working with all of you to ensure we reflect the strength and central role of the BTS in improving the care of all respiratory patients.”