Tim Felton

Prior to starting his fellowship Dr Tim Felton was undertaking training as a specialist registrar in Respiratory and Intensive Care Medicine in the North West region.

tim-feltonDr Felton worked as a registrar in Intensive Care in Sydney, Australia and as a clinical fellow in lung transplantation at the University Hospital of South Manchester. Dr Felton’s SHO training was undertaken in Manchester after being a medical student and house officer in Nottingham. During his clinical training he developed an ambition to pursue a career in academic medicine with a specific focus on the pharmacology of anti-infective agents especially related to pulmonary infection and critical illness.

PhD: Antimicrobial therapy for ventilator associated pneumonia: improving clinical outcomes using a translational pharmacological approach

Pulmonary infections in critically ill patients are common, frequently lethal and treatment may be complicated by bacterial resistance. Piperacillin-tazobactam (PTZ) is a broad-spectrum β-lactam antibiotic, frequently used for pulmonary infections. Lung antibiotic concentration reflects target site concentrations in patients with pneumonia. Experimental work was conducted in an in vitro hollow fibre infection mode.Experimental data was described by a mathematical model allowing identification of PTZ exposures associated with suppression of the emergence of resistance. The population PK of PTZ in the plasma and lung of 17 critically ill patients was estimated. Monte Carlo simulation was used to explore the proportion of patients that achieve the plasma and lung PTZ exposures associated with bacterial killing and resistance suppression. Finally, the population PK of PTZ in the plasma of 146 critically ill patients was estimated and used to construct computer software that can individualise PTZ dosing. Pulmonary piperacillin and tazobactam concentrations were unpredictable and negatively correlated to pulmonary permeability. Current PTZ regimens are insufficient to treat pneumonia in »14% of critically ill patients. Simulations revealed that EI, compared with bolus dosing, of PTZ is associated with a higher likelihood of bacteria killing. Similar probability of developing resistance was predicted with PTZ administration by EI and by bolus administration. Performance of the dose optimisation software was satisfactory.

Update:

Tim Felton completed his MRC Clinical Research Training Fellowship and was awarded his PhD in anti-infective pharmacology by the University of Manchester in 2014. Since then he has completed his clinical training and has become a Consultant in Intensive Care and Respiratory Medicine at the University Hospital of South Manchester.    Dr Felton is now also a co-investigator on two studies funded in the recent NIHR antimicrobial resistance call. He is the UK Chief Investigator of a phase III, mutli-centre randomised trial of a novel antimicrobial active against multi-resistant Gram negative infections. He has also been awarded a Manchester Academic Health Science Centre Step Up award. Work performed during his MRC Clinical Research Training Fellowship has led to 20 peer reviewed publications.

Back to: North West England MRC Fellowship Scheme in Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics