Arvind Veiraiah
MB BS MRCP
Arvind completed his medical training at the University of Pune in India in 1991 and then worked for a few years in India in the fields of General Medicine, Anaesthesia and Intensive care. He started working in the UK in 1999, and took up a specialist training number in clinical pharmacology, clinical toxicology and general medicine based at University Hospital of Llandough in Cardiff in 2004. He completed Diplomas in Therapeutics and Toxicology with Cardiff University, and in 2010, he became a Consultant Physician at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh. In 2024 he became Director of the National Poisons Information Service - Edinburgh unit.
Arvind is closely involved in patient safety and quality improvement, having led the Toxicology clinical governance team at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh for 5 years. He completed the Scottish Patient Safety Fellowship in 2015, and is currently the Medical Lead for the Safe Use of Medicines Programme in Scotland, which is run by Healthcare Improvement Scotland. He leads Toxicology Quality Improvement projects aimed at standardising the management of drug-related agitation and at improving clinical risk assessment and monitoring in the toxicology ward.
Contact Arvind Veiraiah
Euan Sandilands
MD FRCPEdin PGCertMedEd
Euan completed his medical training at the University of Edinburgh in 2003, during which time he also attained a BSc (Hons) in Immunology. After developing an early interest in pharmacology, he took up a specialist training number in clinical pharmacology, clinical toxicology and general medicine based at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh. Euan developed a research interest in the pharmacology of NAC and specifically adverse effects associated with its use. In 2012, he became a Consultant Physician/Honorary Senior Clinical Lecturer at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh/University of Edinburgh.
Euan is passionate about medical education and improving the educational experience for the doctors of tomorrow. He is currently the Undergraduate Educational Lead for the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh and is actively involved in teaching Edinburgh University year 5 medical students. He is the CPD lead for the National Poisons Information Service and also facilitates the TOXBASE e-learning programme.
Contact Euan Sandilands
Michael Eddleston
ScD FRCPEdin FEAPCCT
Michael is Professor of Clinical Toxicology and Lister Research Prize Fellow in the Pharmacology, Toxicology and Therapeutics Unit of the University/BHF Centre for Cardiovascular Science, University of Edinburgh.
Michael trained in medicine at Cambridge and Oxford, with an intercalated PhD at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla. While a medical student he became fascinated by self-poisoning in rural Sri Lanka and took a year off to work in 2 Sri Lankan hospitals and write the Oxford Handbook of Tropical Medicine. Following basic medical training, he returned to Sri Lanka for four years as a Wellcome Trust intermediate fellow before moving to Edinburgh to complete specialist medical training.
Michael's major aim in research is to reduce deaths from pesticide and plant self-poisoning in rural Asia, a cause of over 350,000 premature deaths each year and the number one global means of suicide. To do this, he performs clinical trials in South Asian district hospitals to better understand the pharmacology and effectiveness of antidotes and community-based controlled trials to identify effective public health interventions. This work is complemented by translational studies of antidotes in minipig models of poisoning in Edinburgh, work with sociologists and anthropologists to understand better the meaning of self-harm, and work with the World Health Organisation to aid implementation.
For Michael's university profile click here
Contact Michael Eddleston
James Dear
PhD FRCPEdin
James began his medical training at University College London and completed a PhD in Pharmacology before finishing my clinical training at Brasenose College, Oxford University. After junior medical jobs at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford and a variety of London teaching hospitals, he spent 2 years at a research fellow at the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, USA. This time was spent learning proteomic and imaging techniques as applied to acute kidney injury. Since 2005, he has been a Clinical Lecturer then Consultant/Honorary Senior Clinical Lecturer in Clinical Pharmacology at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh/Edinburgh University. In 2012, he was awarded an NHS Research Scotland (NRS) Career Research Fellowship.
For James's university profile click here
Contact James Dear
Emma Morrison
MBChB PhD FRCPEdin
Emma trained in medicine at the University of Glasgow, with an intercalated BSc in Physiology. After graduating in 2008, she undertook junior medical training in various hospitals across the West of Scotland. Emma moved to Edinburgh in 2010 to complete specialist medical training in Clinical Pharmacology. While in Edinburgh, she has completed a PhD investigating to role of short RNAs as biomarkers and mediators in toxic injury. In 2020, Emma become a Consultant Physician at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh.
Emma’s NHS work continues to support her passion of ensuring transparent and equitable decision making in prescribing, supporting the central tenets of value-based medicine. Her roles within medicines governance include Chairing Lothian’s Area Drug and Therapeutics Committee and is a committee member of the SMC.
Contact Emma Morrison