Medical Advisory Board

Mr Alex Munnoch
Department of Plastic Surgery
Dundee, Scotland
Mr Alex Munnoch FRCSEd (Plast)
Mr Alex Munnoch trained in Plastic Surgery in Dundee, Swansea & Liverpool. Spent time with Dr.Milton Waner in Arkansas in 2003, learning his philosophy on the management of Haemangiomas & Vascular Malformations.

Mr Munoch’s main interest is in the surgical management of Haemangiomas. Within Ninewells Hospital, have developed a joint Vascular Malformation Clinic with a Dermatologist & Genetisist. They are planning several epidemiological studies and genetics studies on the patients presenting in Tayside. Mr Munnoch offers medical & surgical treatment of Haemangiomas and advice (& occasional treatment) for vascular malformations.

Dr Miikka Vikkula MD PhD
Professor
Laboratory of Human Molecular Genetics, Christian de Duve Institute of Cellular Pathology (ICP), University of Louvain Medical School (UCL), Brussels, BELGIUM.

In 1997 Dr Vikkula started to develop his own laboratory as a guest investigator at the ICP between 1997 and 2000. He has been a reviewer of a number of prestigious biomedical journals and he is a member of numerous European and International scientific and professional societies. Prof Vikkula is well known internationally as a major contributor to the understanding of molecular basis of vascular anomalies with high impact publications.

Professor Dr D Loose F.I.C.S,. F.I.C.A.
Hamburg

May 1970, Professor Loose was confirmed by the Government as medical doctor. In this year he started the education at Düsseldorf University which was completed in 1975 as surgeon and 1977 as vascular surgeon. In July 1982 he got the accreditation as Fulltime Professor.

Since October 1983, Prof. Loose has been the head of the Department for Angiology and Vascular Surgery of the Surgical Hospital Dr. Guth in Hamburg. Here in 1989, he established the Centre for Circulatory Disturbances and Vascular Defects. In 1990 the Centre for Vascular Medicine was founded, which includes all interdisciplinary departments dealing with vascular diseases.

He is a member of many societies, he has been given honours and awards and has more than 310 publications in scientific journals, publications of books and scientific periodicals.

Dr Sean W Lanigan MD FRCP DCH

Dr Sean Lanigan moved to the City Hospital, Birmingham in May 2001 as a Consultant Dermatologist and Medical Director of the Lasercare Clinics from his previous position as Consultant Dermatologist in Bridgend, South Wales. He was appointed Lead Clinician for the Skin Centre at City Hospital in January 2003.

Dr Lanigan has extensive experience in the use of lasers for skin disorders and is a recognised national leader in cutaneous laser therapy. He sits on the Executive Committees of the British Medical Laser Association (BMLA), the British Society for Dermatological Surgeons (BSDS) and the American Society for Laser Medicine and Surgery (ASLMS).
He has extensive research experience in laser treatments having authored over 100 medical publications including the only European textbook in this field and is Editor in Chief of Lasers in Medical Science, the leading biomedical laser journal in Europe. He is a founder member and former chairman of the British Skin Laser Research Group.

Dr (Mrs) Samira Batul Syed
Associate Specialist in Paediatrics (Dermatology) @
Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Trust.
Contact Dr. Syed here
I trained at University College Hospital Medical School in London and qualified in July 1982. Having done my house jobs and one year in general medicine, I embarked on 10 years of neonatal/paediatric work while training and gaining experience in various fields. I joined Great Ormond Street Hospital in 1994 to help run the new laser/birthmark unit which was established to treat neonates and children with vascular birthmarks. Over the last 10 years my work has intensified to care for patients with complex vascular anomalies necessitating a multi disciplinary approach and coordinating specialist care. A major part of my work involves treating children with pulsed dye lasers for conditions like port wine stains, haemangiomas, telangiectasias and a wide range of other skin disorders which respond to laser therapy.

My work addresses the medical, psychological and physical needs of our children and their families. We achieve this by delivering the support the families need with problems associated with the children’s birthmarks and their complications such as disfigurement issues (visual difference).

I have travelled widely gaining medical knowledge and experience in countries like Saudi Arabia, India, Pakistan, Tanzania, Uganda and Finland. I regularly attend national and international meetings and deliver lectures and presentations with reference to my work.
I am a full time paediatrician with special interest in vascular anomalies and their management.

Hilary Kennedy
Nurse Specialist
Birthmark Unit
London

I started my nurse training in Portsmouth in 1980. On qualifying as a general nurse I worked on a number of adult wards before moving to London to commence my children’s nursing training.

I have worked at Great Ormond Street on and off for 14 years, caring for children with arthritis and associated conditions, as well as those requiring ear nose and throat and plastic surgery.

In 1999 I became the sister of the outpatients department at Great Ormond Street, where I remained for just over 3 years. The management experience was extremely beneficial, but I felt that I was not carrying out much nursing care. When the hospital hierarchy decided to make my job even more managerial and less clinical, I decided it was time to get back to a nursing role. I was therefore extremely glad to be given the job as clinical nurse specialist in the birthmark unit at the hospital.

I have now been a nurse specialist in the birthmark unit at Great Ormond Street since September 2002. I have learnt a great deal over the years, about the different birthmarks and how best to treat them, so that I can pass on this specialist knowledge and help to support parents and other health professionals to care for these children.

I have now, just completed my child health degree, which I have been working on over the past two years as distance learning modules. This has also helped me to realise the frustrations that many parents feel, relating to finding the correct advice and treatment for their children, and to try to find ways to improve this situation.

I am extremely happy to be a nurse advisor for this group and welcome any queries relating to birthmarks from children, family members and other health professionals, to which I will endeavour to answer and help as much as possible.

Catherine Gorst
Laser Nurse Specialist Practitioner
L1 Laser Suite
Royal Liverpool Childrens NHS Trust
Eaton Road
Liverpool

I run the laser and vascular service at the Royal Liverpool Children's Hospital, along with my consultant colleague Mr Sehwang Liew.

We hold a regular monthly vascular anomalies meeting here at the hospital which is a multidisciplinary team.

I presented this information to the American Laser Meeting in 2005 and was given an award for my work. I have also spent some time in with Dr Milton Waner in 2000 learning his philosophy for the treatment of these lesions and in fact Dr Waner is coming to talk as our guest speaker at a study day in November.

We advocate a philosophy of early interventional treatment for difficult or problematic Haemangiomas. We also have a quick referral policy which means patients with rapidly proliferating Haemangiomas are
seen immediately Mr Liew also spent six months working with Dr John
Mulliken in Boston.

We offer a modality of possible treatments for patients with vascular malformations including some of the newer laser treatments as being discussed at meetings at present.

Briefly I have worked in the field of vascular anomalies/Haemangiomas for ten years and they are my passion.

I have presented both nationally and internationally on the subject including the international vascular meeting held in Holland 2002, and twice at the ALMS meetings in USA. I feel that as a unit we would be able to offer both help and support to the parents and children who use
your website.