Finlay, I., Gilmore, I. Covid-19 and alcohol-a dangerous cocktail. Brit Med Journal 369, doi: 10.1136 2020.

An early leader drawing attention to the serious problems to follow as a result of lockdown. Baroness Finlay has been a wonderful chair of the Alcohol Health Alliance Harms Commission.

de Coninck P, Gilmore I.  Long overdue: a fresh start for EU policy on alcohol and health. The Lancet. 395(10217):10-13, 2020.

This reminds me of the wasted decade sitting on the European Alcohol and Health Forum where I learnt that working with the drinks industry does not work.

Reith G,  Wardle H, Gilmore I.  Gambling harm: a global problem requiring global solutions. The Lancet. 394(10205):1212-1214, 2019 10 05.

I sat for six years on the Advisory Board for Safer Gambling (previously the Responsible Gambling Strategy Board) that reported to Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport through the Gambling Commission. The parallels with industry behaviour on alcohol and gambling were remarkable.

Hydes T, Gilmore W, Sheron N, Gilmore I. Treating alcohol-related liver disease from a public health perspective. J Hepatol. 2019 Feb;70(2):223-236. doi: 10.1016/j.jhep.2018.10.036.

It has been good to see the hepatology clinical community become more interested in prevention.

Gilmore I, Williams R.  Alcohol policy in the UK: where next? The Lancet. 2019 Jun 15;393(10189):2377-2378. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(19)31396-0. Epub 2019 Jun 11.

Roger Williams was the driving force behind UK hepatology for 30+ years and single-handedly persuaded The Lancet to publish an annual review – The Lancet Liver Commission. I am a Trustee on the Foundation for Liver Research, which he established and directed until his death two years ago.

Gilmore I, Bauld L, Britton J. Public Health England’s capture by the alcohol industry. BMJ. 2018 Sep 19;362:k3928. doi: 10.1136/bmj.k3928.

This reminds me of resigning rather publicly from the Public Health England committee dealing with alcohol, which I co-chaired. It resulted in Public Health England having an excellent policy about working with industry partners, which we now need to see replicated by its successor, the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities within the Department of Health and Social Care.

Owens L, Thompson A, Rose A, Gilmore I, Pirmohamed M, Richardson P. A prospective cohort study examining the effectiveness of baclofen in the maintenance of abstinence in alcohol use disorder patients attending a joint liver and alcohol treatment clinic.  Alcohol. 2017 Aug;62:11-15. doi: 10.1016/j.alcohol.2016.12.005. Epub 2017 May 15.

I have included this as work coming out of the Liverpool Centre for Alcohol Research that we set up about eight years ago and which I directed for the first five+ years.

Gilmore W, Chikritzhs T, Stockwell T, Jernigan D, Naimi T, Gilmore I. Alcohol: taking a population perspective. Nature Reviews Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2016 Jul;13(7):426-34.

This is an essential publication for my list, not just because of the journal, but because the first author is my son, working at the National Drug Research Institute in Western Australia. We have written several book chapters together.

Owens L, Kolamunnage-Dona R, Owens A, Perkins L, Butcher G, Wilson K, Beale S, Mahon J, Williamson P, Gilmore I, Pirmohamed M. A randomised controlled trial of extended brief interventions for alcohol-dependent patients in an acute hospital setting. Alcohol & Alcoholism. 2016 Sep;51(5):584-92.

This was a challenging study from the Liverpool Centre for Alcohol Research but demonstrated the power of getting different disciplines working together.

Owens L. Gilmore IT. Pirmohamed M. How do NHS general hospitals in England deal with patients with alcohol-related problems? A questionnaire survey. Alcohol & Alcoholism. 40(5):409-12, 2005.

This is important to me as it was the groundwork for an Alcohol Care Team at the Royal Liverpool Hospital – one of the first if not the first in the UK, and for Lynn Owens’ PhD.