Claire Hopkins

Claire Hopkins FRCS is a British Ear, Nose & Throat (ENT) surgeon at Guy's Hospital and Professor of Rhinology at King's College London. She is the President of the British Rhinological Society. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Hopkins successfully campaigned to have anosmia recognised as a symptom of coronavirus disease in the United Kingdom.[1]

Claire Hopkins

FRCS
Alma materUniversity of Oxford (DM)
Scientific career
FieldsOtorhinolaryngology
InstitutionsGuy's Hospital
King's College, London
ThesisUnderstanding outcome variation in sinonasal surgery (2004)
Websitewww.londonbridgehospital.com/LBH/consultant-det/miss-claire-hopkins

Early life and education

Hopkins studied physiology and medicine at the University of Oxford and gained her Doctor of Medicine (DM) degree in 2004.[2] Whilst at Oxford, Hopkins was awarded the Martin Wronker Prize for Medicine.[3] She trained in otorhinolaryngology at Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust, where she was appointed a fellow in rhinology. At the start of her career endoscopic sinus surgery was becoming more commonplace. Early in her clinical training Hopkins worked on the National Audit of Sinonasal surgery, with whom she conducted one of the first multi-centre outcome studies in sinus surgery. The study, Sino-Nasal Outcome Test (SNOT) 22, is a patient-reported measure of outcome outcome measure, and it is now used both nationally and internationally.[4]

Research and career

Hopkins was later appointed a consultant Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) surgeon at the Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust. Her focus is rhinology, the 'N' of ENT. Speaking about the considerable underrepresentation of women in medicine, Hopkins said, "if I had a pound for every time a patient had asked me (after I examined the patient... and went through the consent process for surgery), 'so will I ever get to meet the Professor Hopkins, is he here?' I would have retired a long time ago,".[5] Hopkins helped to construct international guidelines for the management of nasal polyps.[6][7] In an interview with Student and Foundation Doctors in Otolaryngology (SFOUK), Hopkins explained that "..the downside of being so specialised is that after a day in outpatients, I sometimes feel as if I am drowning in snot".[8]

Hopkins was made a Professor of Rhinology in 2016. In 2017 Hopkins she gave her inaugural lecture at King's College London, where she discussed her efforts to improve the effectiveness of sinus surgery interventions.[4] In 2019 Hopkins was elected President of the British Rhinological Society.[9]

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Hopkins argued that anosmia (i.e. the loss of sense of smell) should be included in the list of symptoms of coronavirus disease,[10][11][12] and that people who suffer from anosmia should self-isolate.[13] Speaking to the BBC, Hopkins explained that anosmia is a common symptom of coronavirus disease in young people,[14] and that it can have a rapid onset without any accompanying blocked nose. In particular, she did not notice significant nasal congestion or rhinorrhea in coronavirus disease patients in her own clinical practise.[15] Data from a coronavirus tracking app developed by King's College London indicated that almost 60% of people who test positive for coronavirus disease had lost their sense of smell or taste, which was more than those who had experienced fever. Hopkins said that most people regain their sense of smell within a fortnight. She worked with a group of physicians from across Europe to better understand the sense of smell of coronavirus disease positive patients.[11] Together the team were able to show that there is 95 % chance that people who experience a sudden loss of smell without any other symptoms would test positive for coronavirus disease.[11] Working with ENT UK, the United Kingdom's professional body that represents ENT surgeons, and the charity Fifth Sense, Hopkins provided patient advice for people who experience anosmia due to coronavirus disease.[16][17][18]

In April 2020 Hopkins worked with Nirmal Kumar to create a citizen science project (#CovidSmellTest) which asked people to smell household objects and resort their results.[19] In a survey of over 4,000 coronavirus disease patients Hopkins and the Global Consortium for Chemosensory Research found that COVID-19 patients experienced an 80% drop in their sense of smell, and almost a 70% drop in their sense of taste. Hopkins was particularly concerned that key workers who continued to work when suffering from anosmia could have been inadvertently spreading coronavirus disease.[20][21] In mid May 2020 Hopkins claimed that it was "clinical negligence" for NHS 111 not to recognise anosmia as being a likely symptom of coronavirus disease.[11] She also emphasised that losing a sense of smell can be so isolating that it causes depression.[22]

On May 18 2020 the Government of the United Kingdom acknowledged that anosmia was a recognised symptom of coronavirus disease.[23] Hopkins worked with the British Rhinological Society to create a series of online courses for patients and general practitioners.[22]

Selected publications
  • Hopkins, Claire; Browne, John P.; Slack, Rob; Lund, Valerie; Brown, Peter (2007). "The Lund-Mackay staging system for chronic rhinosinusitis: How is it used and what does it predict?". Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery. 137 (4): 555–561. doi:10.1016/j.otohns.2007.02.004. ISSN 0194-5998. PMID 17903570. S2CID 23417829.
  • Hopkins, Claire; Slack, Robert; Lund, Valerie; Brown, Peter; Copley, Lynn; Browne, John (2009). "Long-term outcomes from the English national comparative audit of surgery for nasal polyposis and chronic rhinosinusitis". The Laryngoscope. 119 (12): 2459–2465. doi:10.1002/lary.20653. ISSN 1531-4995. PMID 19780032. S2CID 32083401.
  • Hopkins, Claire; Browne, John P.; Slack, Rob; Lund, Valerie J.; Topham, John; Reeves, Barnaby C.; Copley, Lynn P.; Brown, Peter; Meulen, Jan H. P. van der (2006). "Complications of Surgery for Nasal Polyposis and Chronic Rhinosinusitis: The Results of a National Audit in England and Wales". The Laryngoscope. 116 (8): 1494–1499. doi:10.1097/01.mlg.0000230399.24306.50. ISSN 1531-4995. PMID 16885760. S2CID 40635879.

Awards and honours

Hopkins is a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons (FRCS).

Personal life

Hopkins is married with two children.[8]

References
  1. "World-class private hospital". London Bridge Hospital.
  2. Hopkins, Claire (2004). Understanding outcome variation in sinonasal surgery. bodleian.ox.ac.uk (DM thesis). University of Oxford. OCLC 863482555. EThOS uk.bl.ethos.420444.
  3. Trust, Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation. "Hopkins, Claire - ENT consultant". guysandstthomas.nhs.uk. Retrieved 2020-05-28.
  4. "King's College London - Inaugural Lecture - Professor Claire Hopkins". kcl.ac.uk. Retrieved 2020-05-28.
  5. Irene, Bellini, Maria; E, Papalois, Vassilios (2019-08-16). Gender Equity in the Medical Profession. IGI Global. ISBN 978-1-5225-9600-4.
  6. "Professor Claire Hopkins". hcahealthcare.co.uk. Retrieved 2020-05-28.
  7. Hopkins, Claire; Loh, Chris; Roberts, David (2008), Hopkins, Claire (ed.), "Surgical interventions for nasal polyps", Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, doi:10.1002/14651858.cd006990
  8. "Miss Claire Hopkins DM FRCS (ORL-HNS) | SFO UK". sfo.entuk.org. Retrieved 2020-05-28.
  9. "British Rhinological Society". britishrhinologicalsociety.org.uk. Retrieved 2020-05-28.
  10. "HuffPost is now a part of Verizon Media". consent.yahoo.com. Retrieved 2020-05-28.
  11. Brewer, Kirstie (2020-05-14). "Why hasn't the UK listed smell loss as a Covid-19 symptom?". bbc.com. BBC News. Retrieved 2020-05-28.
  12. "New symptom of coronavirus could be loss of taste and smell, top UK doctor says". The Independent. 2020-03-21. Retrieved 2020-05-28.
  13. Stone, Judy (2020). "Should You Self-Isolate For COVID-19 Coronavirus If You Can't Smell?". Forbes. Retrieved 2020-05-28.
  14. "New COVID-19 tip-off may be loss of smell - Clinical Daily News". mcknights.com. McKnight's Long Term Care News. 2020-03-23. Retrieved 2020-05-28.
  15. Xydakis, Michael S.; Dehgani-Mobaraki, Puya; Holbrook, Eric H.; Geisthoff, Urban W.; Bauer, Christian; Hautefort, Charlotte; Herman, Philippe; Manley, Geoffrey T.; Lyon, Dina M.; Hopkins, Claire (2020). "Smell and taste dysfunction in patients with COVID-19". The Lancet Infectious Diseases. 0 (9): 1015–1016. doi:10.1016/S1473-3099(20)30293-0. ISSN 1473-3099. PMC 7159875. PMID 32304629.
  16. "Patient advice for anosmia or loss of smell caused by COVID-19". entuk.org. Retrieved 2020-05-28.
  17. "Loss of sense of smell as marker of COVID-19 infection" (PDF). entuk.org. Retrieved 2020-05-28.
  18. "Information for rhinologists on COVID-19". europeanrhinologicsociety.org. European Rhinologic Society. Retrieved 2020-05-28.
  19. "'Smell test' campaign could help experts track coronavirus spread". thenorthernecho.co.uk. The Northern Echo. Retrieved 2020-05-28.
  20. Lawrence-Jones, Charlie (2020-03-24). "How people like me could infect thousands of Londoners with coronavirus". getwestlondon. Retrieved 2020-05-28.
  21. Rabin, Roni Caryn (2020). "Lost Sense of Smell May Be Peculiar Clue to Coronavirus Infection". nytimes.com. The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-05-28.
  22. Rimmer, Abi (2020-05-26). "Anosmia: Five minutes with ENT consultant Claire Hopkins". BMJ. 369: m2095. doi:10.1136/bmj.m2095. ISSN 1756-1833. PMID 32457085.
  23. "COVID-19 (Coronavirus) and Smell Loss Latest News". fifthsense.org.uk. Fifth Sense. Retrieved 2020-05-28.
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