Conference Faculty

Asst. Prof. Carla Ribeiro

  • Pulmonology Consultant at the Unidade Local de Saúde de Gaia e Espinho (Portugal) with special interest in home mechanical ventilation and patients reported measures.
  • PhD in Palliative Care - Faculty of Medicine (University of Porto)
  • Invited Assistant Professor and Researcher in RISE-Health -  Faculty of Medicine (University of Porto)
  • Coordinator of the Home Mechanical Ventilation Assembly of the Portuguese Respiratory Society between 2022-2024.
  • Patient advisory lead of the ERS Clinical Research Collaboration IMPORTANCE
  • Orcid: 0000-0002-8270-3687

Steven Stirk

Dr Steve Stirk is a Clinical Psychologist within the South Wales Paediatric Cystic Fibrosis Service, based at Noah's Ark Children's Hospital for Wales, UK. He provides specialist psychological input for children, young people, and families affected by cystic fibrosis across South Wales. His work focuses on integrating psychological perspectives within multidisciplinary care to promote holistic, family-centred wellbeing. He has a particular interest in the impact of CFTR modulators on adjustment, identity, and adherence within paediatric populations, and in developing collaborative approaches with the wider multi-disciplinary team to optimise psychological and clinical outcomes.

David Proud

David is the lead CF Dietitian at the All Wales Adult CF Centre (AWACFC), based in the University Hospital Llandough, Wales, UK. After completing 12 years military service David qualified as a Dietitian in 2003. David has worked in a variety of clinical settings, always with a keen interest in respiratory health and has worked exclusively in adult CF care since 2011, completing an MSc in Advanced Clinical practice in 2018. David is the current Co-Chair of the UK CF specialist Dietitians group in addition to working in the UK CF body composition group. David has a particular interest in exploring the potential of assessing body composition and its ability to inform on health markers and has published on this topic.

Jacek Nasiłowski

Pulmonologist with particular expertise in respiratory failure and sleep-related respiratory disorders, Head of the 2nd Department of Pulmonary Diseases in Mazovian Centre of Lung Diseases, coordinator of the regional Home Mechanical Ventilation Centre, former assistant in the Department of Internal Diseases, Pulmonology and Allergy in Medical University in Warsaw, active member of European and Polish Respiratory Society.

Prof. Valdone Miseviciene

Chair of Lithuanian Society of Rare Respiratory Diseases
Head of Pediatric Center for Cystic Fibrosis and Rare Respiratory Diseases
Department of Paediatrics
Hospital of Lithuanian University of Health Sciences (LSMU) Kauno klinikos

Assoc. Prof. emeritus Maire Vasar

I am a pediatrician, allergist, and pulmonologist with long-standing expertise in the care of children with chronic lung diseases, including cystic fibrosis. I have been working at Tartu Children’s Hospital (now Children´s Clinic of Tartu University Hospital) since 1982, currently serving as a senior physician and lecturer.
In 1998, I defended my doctoral thesis “Allergic diseases and bronchial hyperreactivity in Estonian children in relation to environmental influences”. From 2002 to 2022  I was Associate Professor of  Pediatric Allergology and Pulmonology at the University of Tartu, later continuing as an Guest Lecturer (2022–2023). I have  trained generations of medical students and residents, while leading the Allergy Centre of Children´s Clinic at Tartu University Hospital for more than two decades.
My clinical and research interests focus on pediatric allergy, asthma, and chronic lung diseases, with particular dedication to children living with cystic fibrosis.

Assoc. Prof. Tanel Laisaar

Dr. Tanel Laisaar is thoracic surgeon, currently working as the Head of Lung Clinic in Tartu University Hospital and associate professor in University of Tartu in Estonia. His special interest has been minimally invasive thoracic surgery. In 2008 he initiated a lung transplant program and in 2010 performed the first lung transplantation in Estonia.
Currently his main research focus is lung cancer screening implementation. In 2021 he performed the lung cancer screening feasibility study in Estonia and since 2022 he is leading the regional lung cancer screening pilot study.
Dr. Laisaar is a member of several professional and scientific societies. He is an Estonian representative of in European Committee on Organ Transplantation (Council of Europe); UEMS Section of Thoracic Surgery and Council of Scandiatransplant. He is an editor of the Estonian scientific medical journal “Eesti Arst”.

Lena Thia

Dr Lena Thia is a Consultant in Paediatric Respiratory Medicine and Cystic Fibrosis (CF) at the Children’s Hospital for Wales in Cardiff. Lena is the CF centre director for the Paediatric CF service in South, Mid and West Wales and a board member of the European and national CF newborn screening advisory committee and the CF Trust research and scientific oversight board (RSOB). Lena is a researcher whose main interest is in multi-modal detection of lung disease in children. She is the Principal Investigator of multi-centre CF modulator trials taking place at the Children’s Hospital for Wales and has undertaken trials in children with CF involving multiple breath washout, chest CT and exercise.
She did her training in Paediatric Respiratory Medicine at the Royal Brompton, Great Ormond Street and Royal London hospitals and obtained her MD(Res) degree from University College London (UCL). Lena has published in peer reviewed journals and written a commissioned book chapter on Pulmonary radiological investigations in pre-school children in “The Early Cystic Fibrosis Years“.