Jacky Smith

Overview

Jacky Smith is a Professor of Respiratory Medicine at the University of Manchester and an Honorary Consultant at the University Hospital of South Manchester NHS Foundation Trust. She runs a multi-disciplinary research team whose focus is on understanding mechanisms underlying pathological cough and a regional clinical service seeing patients with refractory chronic cough. She is also the Director of the NIHR South Manchester Respiratory and Allergy Clinical Research Facility and Specialty Lead for Respiratory in the Greater Manchester Clinical Research Network.

Biography

Jacky graduated in Medicine from Manchester University in 1992 and continued her training around the North West region in General and Respiratory Medicine. She only undertook research in her final year of specialist registrar training, taking time out to study for a PhD in the ''Measurement of Cough'', awarded in 2004. This involved close collaboration with computer scientists and fuelled an interest in acoustics and signal processing. After completing specialist training she returned to research and was funded by a Stepping Stones Award from Manchester University and  an MRC Clinician Scientists Fellowship Award until 2012.

In collaboration with Mr Kevin McGuinness (Clinical engineer) she has developed a novel method for automated cough detection. She is an inventor on a patent owned by the University Hospital of South Manchester, covering novel concepts for automated detection of cough from sound signals. This patent is the subject of a license agreement with a medical device company (Vitalograph) with whom she collaborates.

Whilst she continues to work on developing other endpoints in cough monitoring, her main research interests are in the translation of mechanisms of underlying cough reflex hypersensitivity and the testing of novel anti-tussive therapies.

Information about the cough clinic and clinical research can be found at www.combatmycough.com