Consultant Clinical Scientist
BSc, MSc, PhD, FRCPath
Overview
Areas of expertise
Medico-Legal experience
Clinical Practice & Experience
Dr Lawson first qualified from the University of Birmingham in 2006, after which he undertook a PhD in protein engineering and steroid hormone metabolism. Since 2010, Dr Lawson has been working in the NHS as a Clinical Biochemist and Toxicologist. Dr Lawson completed his Fellowship Examination of the Royal College of Pathologists (FRCPath) in 2016 and was appointed as a Consultant Clinical Scientist in 2018. In addition to this, Dr Lawson is currently the clinical service lead for clinical biochemistry, immunology and toxicology at University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust (UHB). He is also Pathology Lead for Research and Development. Dr Lawson is also a UK and EU registered toxicologist (ERT) and a Member of the Chartered Society for Forensic Sciences.
Dr Lawson was one of the co-founders of the Toxicology laboratory at UHB and has developed, implemented and accredited over 100 tests for drug screening and measurement. As part of this role, Dr Lawson and his team ensure that all results issued are of the highest quality and accuracy. These tests are used for both clinical management of patients (e.g. therapeutic drug monitoring), diagnosis of acute poisoning (e.g. unknown urine screening) and for coronial investigations. Dr Lawson has reported on over 14,000 postmortem toxicology cases and attends court regularly to give expert evidence on the analysis and interpretation performed by his laboratory. In his role as a clinical biochemist, Dr Lawson gives expert advice to physicians and other healthcare professionals on the interpretation of complex biochemical analysis to aid patient treatment. This will include routine investigations such as markers of kidney and liver disease, to more complex investigations such as in endocrine cancer, resistant hypertension and hypoglycaemia (inc. interpretation of insulin).
Clinical Interests
Dr Lawson has extensive experience in the development of new analytical services using chromatography and mass spectrometry techniques (LC-MS/MS, ICP-MS, LC-PDA, GC-MS and LC-Q-Tof MS). Using these techniques, Dr Lawson has developed a keen interest in the detection, measurement and clinical relevance of novel psychoactive drugs such as synthetic cannabinoids (‘spice’), synthetic opioids (inc. nitazenes and fentanyls) and stimulants. As mentioned above, Dr Lawson has reported a large number of coronial toxicology cases and has significant knowledge in interpreting both ante mortem and post mortem toxicology results in relation to clinical effect. This includes drug-drug interactions, common side effects, drug tolerance and significance of postmortem changes (e.g. redistribution).
Dr Lawson has developed clinical pathways and guidance for many clinical areas including the assessment of resistant hypertension including drug adherence, appropriate use of laboratory services for management of poisoned patients and how to communicate abnormal results to clinical teams.
Research Interests
Management Experience
Summary of Publications
Teaching & Training
Memberships of Professional Bodies & Learned Societies
Member of the Chartered Society of Forensic Sciences (MCSFS)
Registered toxicologist with the European Register of Toxicologists (ERT)
Member of the Association for Laboratory Medicine (ALM)
Member of LTG
European Specialist in Laboratory Medicine (EuSpLM)
Past Chair of Clinical Toxicology Network UK
Contact Alexander
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