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Professor Gary Connett

Professor Connett is a paediatric respiratory consultant.

MBChB, DCH, FRCPCH, MD

Training and education

  • Graduate of University of Bristol (MBChB) - 1984
  • MD (medical degree) ‘The treatment of asthma in pre-school children’ - 1993
  • FRCPCH (fellowship of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health) - 1998
  • Training - Bristol, Great Ormond Street (London), Birmingham Children's Hospital, National University of Singapore and Southampton

Experience

Prof Connett was appointed as a paediatric respiratory consultant at the Trust in July 1995. He was made a senior lecturer at the University of Southampton in 2007. He is visiting professor to University Hospitals of Latvia (2009) and Singapore (2011) and has held a personal chair as professor of paediatrics at the University of Southampton since 2018.

He is regional director for paediatric cystic fibrosis services across Wessex and provides comprehensive secondary and tertiary specialist services for respiratory problems in children and young people.

Prof Connett helped create and lead the PIER Network, a successful multi-professional collaboration across the south of England improving medical care for children and young people through innovation, education and research. Aligned to this project, he is educational lead for Southampton Children’s Hospital and head of school for HEE Wessex (2014-2018) creating the UK’s first School of Paediatrics and Child Health, thus integrating postgraduate education for doctors and nurses across our locality.

In addition to these activities, Prof Connett has been a member of the Wessex Senate (20014-2018), a Commonwealth scholarships assessor and a professional advisor to the parliamentary health services ombudsman. He is involved in numerous charitable activities including the Child Health International Initiative, which supports cystic fibrosis treatment in developing countries.

Research

Prof Connett has an extensive research programme. In 2008, he helped establish Southampton’s Biomedical Research Centre (BRC). He has an ongoing research portfolio within the BRC focusing on nutrition, respiratory health and the development of novel therapies to treat cystic fibrosis lung infection.

He has a particular interest in the psycho-sociological determinants of asthma in westernised societies. 

He has many publications on paediatric respiratory medicine and is the author of a textbook on the management of cystic fibrosis.