Catherine Billings

Catherine is currently managing the Respiratory Function Unit at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital.

Cath obtained a BSc degree from The University of Liverpool. She moved to Sheffield to work as a Clinical Scientist in the Department of Medicine on a project looking at the effect of an asthma inhaler on the heart and gained a PhD from the University of Sheffield from this work.

Cath originally joined the Respiratory Function Unit in 1988 working as a Research Associate before leaving to help set up a private laboratory, testing medico-legal patients and publishing a number of major review articles on occupational and environmental lung disease. At the same time she worked part-time as a Scientific Technical Editor for the European Respiratory Journal.

She became the manager of the Respiratory Function Unit at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital in 2004 overseeing the running of a busy and expanding Unit, which provides a wide range of respiratory diagnostic tests and a sleep and domiciliary non-invasive ventilation service. A major focus of Cath’s work is to ensure the quality and efficiency of the Service, evaluating all aspects of the service from patient satisfaction to the technical performance of equipment and staff. As well as supervising the Respiratory function laboratory she is involved in the provision of respiratory support services for patients with chronic respiratory failure. Her role includes teaching on respiratory physiology and sleep and non-invasive ventilation to patient, medical and other allied health professional groups.

Cath is actively involved in research, especially the application of the shuttle test in the evaluation of physical functioning in different patient groups, presenting her findings at national and international meetings. She collaborates with the Centre for Workplace Health on a variety of projects.

She has been involved with the Association for Respiratory Technology and Physiology (ARTP) acting as Spirometry Registrar for a number of years and is the Technical Editor for their journal.