Brian Kidd

Biography

Brian Kidd qualified from the University of Edinburgh Medical School in 1985, training in Psychiatry in South Glasgow and the South West Region of England before returning to Scotland as a Consultant Psychiatrist in Addictions in 1996 – the first specialist addictions Consultant Psychiatrist in NHS Forth Valley. In 2003 he was appointed Clinical Senior Lecturer in Addiction Psychiatry at the University of Dundee with Clinical responsibilities in NHS Tayside. Dr Kidd is a front line clinician, now delivering care to patients in Dundee City, and is Lead Clinician for NHS Tayside Substance Misuse Services (TSMS). He has led extensive redesign exercises in these services over 10 years increasing service capacity 3-fold and improving service performance – these services now consistently meet the national performance targets set by the Scottish Government (HEAT A11). In 2007, reflecting his leadership of these services, he was awarded the Doctor Award at the Scottish NHS awards. In 2009 he was elected Fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists. Dr Kidd has been an active researcher throughout his medical career, publishing in diverse areas of clinical experience, including mental illness, ophthalmology and the management of violence and aggression. He has edited two academic text books. As a Clinical Academic, since 2003, he has been successful with collaborators in securing substantial research funding for a range of studies – including the high profile National Investigation into Drug Related Deaths in Scotland (Zador et al 2005). Recognising the potential of using routine clinical data for research purposes, he secured funding support from local NHS/ADP partners for SUMIT – an ambitious project to develop and deliver a system of information management to support clinical services, commissioners and research in Tayside. This project was funded for 3 years and – as a pilot project - has developed techniques which formed the basis of a portfolio of investigations into long term outcomes in substance misuse and mental illness. He successfully submitted his MD thesis in 2013 and is currently joint-PI on a range of informatics projects developing predictive models for suicide (SIFT project – funded by Scottish Government), drug deaths (TENOVUS-funded pilot project) and Opioid Analgesic Dependence (3xPharma Industry-funded projects). This approach is now being further developed in association with academic colleagues from across Scotland and the UK, the Farr Institute and ISD to develop a national programme of addictions research – the Scottish addictions research Collaborative. Dr Kidd also Chaired a national working group which brought together a wide range of Scottish stakeholders to develop a Scottish National Research Framework for Problem Drug Use and Recovery . As well as his academic and clinical roles, Dr Kidd has extensive national strategic experience – advising the Scottish & UK Governments for over 15 years. He was a SACDM member from 1998-2009 and in 2007/8 Chaired two national working groups advising the Scottish Government on care and treatment for substance misusers in Scotland. These groups published the documents “Reducing Harm. Promoting Recovery”  and Essential Care which were the basis of the revised Scottish drug strategy “The Road to recovery”. From 2005-9 he was Chair of the Dundee City Drug and Alcohol Action Team – the only active clinician to Chair such a commissioning body in the UK – and became deputy Chairman of the Scottish Association of Alcohol and Drug Action Teams. In 2007 he represented the Scottish CMO as a member of the specialist group updating the UK national Treatment Guideline. In 2008 he was invited by UKDPC to participate in the consensus group producing a definition of recovery in substance misuse. In 2009 he was invited to become independent Chair the Scottish Drug Strategy Delivery Commissionand in that year was also invited to become Speciality Advisor to the Scottish Chief Medical Officer. In 2010 he was invited by the National Treatment Agency in England to join their Recovery Orientated Drug treatment specialist advisory group, which published the document “Medications in Recovery”. In 2012/3 he led the task group publishing the final DSDC report Independent Expert Review of Opioid Replacement Therapies in Scotland . In 2014 Dr Kidd was again invited to join the working group updating the UK national treatment guidance which will be published in 2016. On this occasion he is Chair of the sub-group addressing opioid substitution therapies.

Research Interest

Dr Kidd has been an active researcher throughout his career – publishing in the areas of violence in mental health care and areas of liaison psychiatry prior to entering substance misuse. Since joining the University of Dundee he has focussed his research activities into the areas of drug deaths, co-morbidity (mental health) and outcome measurement in methadone-treated patients. As lead for the SUMIT project, Dr Kidd ptrogressed a series of  projects exploring the impact of co-morbidities on clinical outcomes. This pilot project challenged barriers to the use of clinical data for research purposes and was the basis of his MD, entitled Long term outcomes of methadone substitution therapy (OST-M) for opiate dependency: effects of patient characteristics and comorbidities. His MD, undertaken under the supervision of Professor Keith Matthews, was awarded in 2013. Dr Kidd is now joint-PI on a range of informatics projects developing predictive models for suicide (SIFT project – funded by Scottish Government), drug deaths (TENOVUS-funded pilot project) and Opioid Analgesic Dependence (3xPharma Industry-funded projects). This informatics approach is now being further developed in association with academic colleagues from across Scotland and the UK, the Farr Institute and ISD to develop a national programme of addictions research – the Scottish Addictions Research Collaborative. Dr Kidd also Chaired a national working group which brought together a wide range of Scottish stakeholders  to develop a Scottish National Research Framework for Problem Drug Use and Recovery.