Professor Hasan Tahir

Prof. Hasan Tahir is a Consultant Physician and Rheumatologist. His NHS practice is at the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust. He is an honorary clinical professor in the Division of Medicine at University College London. He trained at Kings College London and completed his specialist training in both general medicine and rheumatology in the North Thames region. He has a Masters in Sports & Exercise Medicine. He is actively involved both in undergraduate and postgraduate training, education and clinical research. He provides a specialist service for Inflammatory arthritis which includes a focus on up-to-date care and streamlines the management of complex patients. He developed a novel, weekly QIP MDT virtual biologic clinic, to facilitate patients' access to biologics leading to improved standards of care, reducing treatment delays, integrating research and clinical practice and offering excellent training opportunities to maintain specialist knowledge on safe and effective prescribing.

He was awarded the Barts Health Innovation in Health awards runner-up in 2018. He leads the AS Service which has been recognised in his previous Trust by the BSR as an Emerging Best UK Practice. The current AS service that he leads is part of the NASS Aspiring to Excellence programme. He was recently awarded the Gold Standard NASS Change Maker Award for his Axial SpA work.

He co-designed the MySpA Educational App, available free of charge on both Google Play and Apple Store. The App provides instant access to medical information, exercises and assessments, to help patients manage their arthritis.

He continues to engage and develop new patient education material. Following a successful bid for an education grant, he introduced 5 iPads in the rheumatology waiting area to support patient education. There is a wide range of educational material on rheumatological conditions and drug therapies as well as a library of exercises available to browse.

Following on from his 2 NIHR research recognition awards, he continues to be passionate about Clinical Research and is committed to continuing his involvement, despite his busy clinical job with the aim of capturing research, funding and producing publications, and presenting at International meetings. He was promoted to Honorary Clinical Professor status in the Division of Medicine at the University College of London.

He has promoted and embedded a research culture within his unit. He has participated in a large number of multi-national phase 3/4 national portfolio studies, which included him as a Chief Investigator. He continues to present the outcomes of a number of the studies at a National and International level. He was also extensively involved as a Principal Investigator in COVID research looking at new treatments for COVID. This included the national Recovery study for which he recruited over 350 patients. He has extensively published in peer-reviewed journals and has written chapters in medical textbooks.

He thoroughly enjoys teaching and continues to actively participate in both Undergraduate and Postgraduate teaching. He is the Medical Secretary of the MRCP PACES Clinical Exam Board. He is on the panel of Chairs of International examiners and a board member of the Clinical Exam Board and Scenario Editorial Committee of the MRCP PACES exam.

He has been a TV presenter of a Live Health Show and is actively involved in humanitarian work overseas. He appeared on the BBC Hospital Series in which they highlighted his involvement as a principal investigator with COVID research at the Royal Free London NHS Trust. He is the co-founder of the charity Friends of Charity International.