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Professor Kirkham is a Consultant Rheumatologist at Guy’s & St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, London, and Professor of Translational Rheumatology, King's College London.

Professor Kirkham qualified as a doctor in New Zealand, then undertook his postgraduate rheumatology training at Guy’s Hospital, London. After working at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research in Melbourne, Australia, in 1991 he became a Consultant Rheumatologist in Adelaide and Sydney. His work focussed on clinical trials of new treatments and investigation of immune mechanisms, in particular IL-17 pathways, in inflammatory arthritis.

He was appointed to Guy’s & St. Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust in 2000. In 2001 he was co-CI of the first study of infliximab in psoriatic arthritis. He set up a dedicated service to optimise care of patients with rheumatoid and psoriatic arthritis which received the British Society of Rheumatology inaugural Outstanding Best Practice Award in 2013. A close working relationship with the St John’s Institute of Dermatology, the largest centre for psoriasis in southern England is integral to this service, with a large patient group. In 2016, his team was named by GRAPPA as one of seven international best practice centres. His translational research is focussed on IL-17/23 immunology and best practice in inflammatory arthritis.

Philip Helliwell is currently Associate Professor in Rheumatology at the University of Leeds, UK, and Honorary Consultant Rheumatologist for the Leeds Teaching Hospitals and Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust.

Dr Helliwell qualified in Oxford in 1972 and worked initially in London before returning to work in his native Yorkshire in medical physics. After a period working in Australia and New Zealand he returned in 1985 to Leeds to join Prof Verna Wright and to work on psoriatic arthritis and biomechanics.

Dr Helliwell is a member of ASAS (Assessment of Spondyloarthropathy Society) and co-founder and President of the Group for Research and Assessment of Psoriasis and Psoriatic arthritis (GRAPPA). He established and led the CASPAR study for classification of psoriatic arthritis. He has worked with GRAPPA in developing single and composite outcome measures in psoriatic arthritis and completed the first treat to target strategy study (TICOPA) in early psoriatic arthritis.

He is co-founder and co-lead for the Bradford (University) Diploma in Rheumatology and Musculoskeletal Medicine and is an active member of the Bradford and Airedale Musculoskeletal Alliance, a tier 2 service provided to GPs in the designated geographical area.

Dr Helliwell is co-founder of the Leeds foot and ankle studies group and has published widely on foot and ankle problems in inflammatory arthritis including rheumatoid arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis and psoriatic arthritis. He has contributed to several guidelines on management of foot and ankle problems in the UK.

Dr Helliwell has published over 300 peer reviewed papers. Current and past research in psoriatic arthritis includes treatment paradigms, clinical features and classification of psoriatic arthritis and community based studies of psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis. He has also published on biomechanics of joints, gait assessment and foot disorders in inflammatory and non-inflammatory arthritis, and epidemiology of rheumatic diseases.