About the Speakers
Dr. Mark Scott
Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Barts Health NHS Trust
Dr Mark Scott, PhD, is Director and one of the founders of the internationally-renowned GI Physiology Unit (Colorectal service) at Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry / Barts Health NHS Trust. Approximately 1000 patients undergo diagnostic investigations within the Unit each year, which provides the resources for allied research. He is also a Principal Investigator within the Blizard Institute at Queen Mary University of London, and has supervised numerous postgraduate students (both clinical and scientific) to successful completion of their higher degrees.
Mark has over 30 years’ experience, both clinical and academic, related to the physiological assessment of functional colorectal disorders (primarily constipation and faecal incontinence). Research interests are focussed on pathophysiology and treatment, including: (1) pioneering work on visceral hyposensitivity; (2) assessment of colonic motor function; (3) development of novel investigative technologies; and (4) evaluation of novel therapies for both constipation and incontinence.
Mark is the most widely published colorectal GI Physiologist in the UK, having authored more than 165 original articles and 12 book chapters. He has been Guest Editor of 2 journal supplements devoted to the subject of chronic constipation, and was recently one of the European Society of Neurogastroenterology and Motility Working Team members setting guidelines for the management of constipation. Mark is also one of the Leads of the International Anorectal Physiology Working Group into standardisation of diagnostic testing.
Karyn Grimmer
Ashford and St Peters NHS Trust
Having completed her Bachelor of Nursing in New Zealand in 1997, Karyn moved to London, in 2000. Whilst working at the Royal London Hospital, she developed a keen interest in functional bowel conditions and joined their renowned Academic Department of Surgery as a Research Nurse in 2003. She moved into a specialist nursing role in 2006, managing a case load of functional conservative bowel and pelvic floor patients, and regularly performing anorectal physiological investigations. During this time, she also set up the U.K’s first P.T.N.S service for patients with bowel problems and established the SNS nursing service.
In 2011, she moved to Houston, USA, helping set up the multidisciplinary Pelvic Floor Health Center at Memorial Hermann, one of Texas’s largest not-for-profit health care providers.
On returning to the UK in 2018, she returned to the Royal London, undertaking a similar role and managing the ‘one-stop clinic’, assessing new tertiary referrals and performing the appropriate anorectal physiology investigations on the same day. In 2021 she joined Ashford and St Peter’s Trust, as the senior pelvic floor specialist nurse, and has been busy setting up a nursing service within the well-established Pelvic Floor Unit.