The Faculty of Public Health, in partnership with the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine, launched in March 2026 a two-part online seminar series bringing together senior leaders, clinicians, public health professionals and academics from across both faculties.
This series aims to move beyond abstract discussion and instead, provide a shared, evidence-based understanding of the scale, mechanisms, and real-world consequences of health misinformation—followed by a practical exploration of how different sectors can respond.
The second seminar, Different Approaches to Tackling Health Misinformation, is designed to provide some solutions to the scale of health misinformation and arm practitioners with the tools they need to combat this.
This seminar will take place on Friday 24 April between 11:00am - 12:15pm.
Guest speakers:
Dr Kirsty Wydenbach FFPM
Dr Kirsty Wydenbach FFPM is a regulatory expert and pharmaceutical physician, and since 2022 has been Head of Regulatory Strategy at Weatherden, a global integrated clinical consultancy experienced in de-risking drug development. She also currently chairs the Clinical Trial Science and Regulations Expert Group of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine (FPM), is a visiting senior lecturer for King’s College London, and sits on the Drug Development Advisory Board at Simbec-Orion. Prior to joining Weatherden she has over 13 years’ experience as an Expert Medical Assessor at the MHRA within the Clinical Trials Unit, having a particular interest in ATMPs and first-in-human studies. Other work has included collaboration with industry groups and global regulators regarding adaptive and novel trial designs, including co-authoring several publications. She led the MHRA work on novel trial design for the Life Sciences Industrial Strategy as well as through the MHRA Innovative Licensing and Access Pathway (ILAP).Kirsty also oversaw the clinical trials work for COVID-19 and provided regulatory expertise on vaccines both within MHRA but also as part of the Government Vaccine Taskforce.
Dr Charles Symons
Dr Charles Symons has been working in health protection behavioural science at the Health Protection Agency (HPA), Public Health England (PHE) then UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) since 2012. Between 2012 and 2016 he worked as a Research Assistant on a variety of projects, primarily randomised controlled trials on mass casualty decontamination. Between 2016 and 2019, he completed a PhD at King’s College London on the effect of communication variables on decontamination in a chemical incident, using immersive virtual environment technology, before taking a postdoc position in the PHE air quality team. Since 2020 he has been working in the UKHSA Behavioural Science and Insights Unit, carrying out research to address knowledge gaps pertaining to various health threats, including Chemical Biological Radiological Nuclear (CBRN), infectious diseases, and large-scale power outages.
Emma Harvey
Emma Harvey is a consultant pharmaceutical physician and Vice President of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine. A self-confessed Medical Affairs maven, Emma has worked in Pharma since 1999, across a range of therapeutic areas, from Big Pharma to small Biotech. She has built and led teams for many years, both nationally and globally, leading pre- and peri-launch projects integrating commercial, medical affairs, regulatory, clinical development, pharmacovigilance and market access expertise to develop and implement strategic plans. She established the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Forum at Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine and has championed the cause of women in becoming Fellows of the Faculty. One of her current interests is in how to manage misinformation and the current mismatch between how the public accesses medical/scientific information and what the regulations say pharmaceutical companies they can discuss with the public.
