Respiratory expertise
Dr Hopkinson is clinical lead for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) at Royal Brompton Hospital and runs a tertiary referral advanced COPD clinic with Professor Mike Polkey and Dr Matthew Hind. In the clinic patients are assessed for novel treatments for their disease including endobronchial emphysema therapies.
He has established a smoking cessation clinic within the Trust and is responsible for developing pulmonary rehabilitation services as well as managing the Trust's Breathe Easy Support Group.
He is also involved in supervising a ward outreach service at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital that reviews all COPD patients admitted acutely.
Clinical background
Dr Hopkinson qualified in medicine at Cambridge University and the London Hospital Medical College and went on to train in respiratory and general internal medicine at St George’s and St Thomas’ Hospitals.
Research
His major research interest is the causes of exercise limitation in patients with COPD. His publications have addressed the influence of genetic polymorphisms, corticosteroid therapy and the role of acute exacerbations in skeletal muscle impairment in this condition.
He has also published work on the impact of bronchoscopic lung volume reduction on dynamic hyperinflation in patients with COPD and on transcranial magnetic stimulation of the diaphragm motor cortex in health and disease. Techniques employed include invasive measurement of respiratory pressures, cardiopulmonary exercise testing and the use of magnetic nerve stimulation to obtain non-volitional measures of muscle function.
Dr Hopkinson’s work has been funded by The Wellcome Trust, The European Union, The British Lung Foundation and The Moulton Foundation.
He works closely with Professor Mike Polkey and together with Professor John Moxham at King’s College Hospital and Dr Nick Hart at St Thomas’ they make up a London Respiratory Muscle Group that has undertaken a considerable body of collaborative research. Other external collaborations are with Professor Hugh Montgomery at UCH.
Dr Hopkinson is also involved in research with Imperial College’s Centre for Pervasive Sensing to develop more sophisticated integrated physiology and activity sensors to monitor patients in their home environment.
International work
He is also working with Iranian physicians to improve the care, in particular through pulmonary rehabilitation, of victims of mustard gas from the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s.
Society memberships
Dr Hopkinson is a member of the European Respiratory Society and The Royal College of Physicians and served on the Science and Research Committee of The British Thoracic Society (BTS) until the end of 2007.
He is the editor of the BTS newsletter and was a medical advisor for ‘The Smoke House’ TV programme produced by BBC.
