Dr Omar S Usmani

Omar Usmani MB BS, PhD, FHEA, FRCP, is Clinical Senior Lecturer and Consultant Physician at the National Heart and Lung Institute (NHLI), Imperial College London & Royal Brompton Hospital (RBH).

His Clinical Specialist Interests are Asthma, COPD and Chronic Cough and his Research Themes are Inhaled Drug Delivery, Lung Imaging, Small Airways Physiology, Respiratory Pharmacology and Airway Molecular Biology.

He is Group Leader of the Clinical Research Group within the Airway Disease Section at NHLI and a Principal Investigator. He is Clinical Lead for the RBH specialist Chronic Cough Service.

Dr Usmani qualified in Medicine at King's College London and has dual Specialist Certification in Respiratory and General Internal Medicine. He underwent his Speciality Training at the London Teaching Hospitals of St Thomas', Guy's and, King's College.

During his clinical training he undertook a PhD at Imperial College London, through which his research into Medical Inhalers and Aerosol Science achieved wide publicity; BBCNewsOnline, together with his research into the Treatment and Pharmacology of Cough; BBCNewsOnline. He received the 2005 NHLI PhD Prize for the Best Thesis submitted and an Alavi-Mandell Award from the American Society of Nuclear Medicine.

Dr Usmani is a recipient of a UK - National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Career Development Fellowship, awarded to investigate the relationship between the lung deposition behaviour of inhaled bronchodilator aerosols of different particle size within the airways of patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). This is the first time this award has been given to Respiratory Science/Thoracic Medicine research in the UK.

Dr Usmani holds the following international positions;

• Vice-Chair of Drug Delivery to the Lungs (DDL), Europe's premier scientific conference dedicated to pulmonary and nasal drug delivery 
• Board Member of the International Society of Aerosols in Medicine (ISAM)
• Steering Committee Member of the Small Airways Working Group of the World Allergy Organization (WAO)
• Member of the Long Range Planning Committee Airway Disease Section 5 of the European Respiratory Society (ERS)
• Lead of the Section on Regional Lung Analysis of Planar Imaging, part of the Committee to Standardize Lung Imaging Techniques - a key projects of the ISAM Regulatory Affairs Assembly.

• Associate Editor to the journals Respiration and Cough.

Dr Usmani is the Clinical Lead for NHLI’s Clinical Research Fellow's Initiative (CRFI) that he established, which aims to attract, encourage and support clinical trainees interested in undertaking postgraduate research. He is also the Academic Advisor to the North-West London Respiratory Specialist Training Committee (STC). 

Dr Usmani completed CASLAT (Certificate of Advanced Study in Learning and Teaching) awarded by Imperial College London in 2010 and is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA).