Michael Steiner

Michael Steiner is a Consultant Respiratory Physician at Glenfield Hospital, Leicester and was appointed Honorary Clinical Professor at Loughborough in 2013. Professor Steiner graduated in Medicine from the University College & Middlesex School of Medicine in 1990. He undertook his specialist training in Respiratory Medicine in North Trent and was appointed as consultant at Glenfield in 2002.

He provides acute and outpatient specialist care for patients with a wide range of respiratory conditions in Leicestershire. His sub-speciality interests include COPD, pulmonary rehabilitation, lung volume reduction therapies, and disorders requiring home mechanical ventilation.

Mike's research interests focus on chronic respiratory disease management, pulmonary rehabilitation, skeletal muscle dysfunction, exercise and training physiology, and nutritional support in COPD and other chronic respiratory diseases.

Mike leads the Pulmonary Rehabilitation workstream of the HQIP commissioned National COPD Audit and is a member of the steering committee of the secondary care workstream. He is a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and member of the British and American Thoracic Societies and the European Respiratory Society.

When ageing joints allow, Mike tries to keep running, cycling and playing football.

Michael Steiner is a leading member of the Centre for Exercise and Rehabilitation Science at Glenfield Hospital. His research interests are in the fields of chronic respiratory disease management, pulmonary rehabilitation, skeletal muscle dysfunction, exercise and training physiology and nutritional support in COPD and other chronic respiratory diseases.

His doctoral thesis (awarded 2003) investigated the effect of a dietary carbohydrate rich nutritional supplement on the outcome of pulmonary rehabilitation in patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease.

Mike is a key member of the Leicester Respiratory BRU, leading projects focusing on the pathophysiology of skeletal muscle dysfunction in COPD and the response to treatment within all three research areas (translational molecular discovery, Phenotyping and Biomarkers, and Clinical Interventions). With the support of the BRU, he has led the development of an innovative Advanced COPD service and clinical cohort.

He has a longstanding collaboration with Professor Paul Greenhaff at Nottingham University which resulted in the award of a MRC experimental medicine grant in 2006 (value £700k). This led to participation in the UK MRC/ABPI national COPD consortium (COPD MAP). He is deputy lead for workpackage 4 (Reducing the burden of COPD by targeting skeletal muscle mass and function) which aims to generate new clinically relevant knowledge and by working closely with Pharma partners, facilitate and accelerate the development of new therapeutic approaches in COPD.

Mike was lead for the Rehabilitation Theme of the NIHR CLAHRC for LNR (2008-13) which delivered a portfolio of applied research and implementation projects, extending the scope of Pulmonary Rehabilitation and exercise therapy to other healthcare settings (including primary and acute care) and long term conditions (such as cardiac failure). Examples are an innovative web-based self-management approach to cardiac and pulmonary rehabilitation, the REACH trial, a large (> 350 patients) two-centre trial of rehabilitation during hospitalisation for acute exacerbation of COPD, and a clinical trial of supported self-management for patients with COPD managed in primary care. The theme incorporates a programme of implementation which will assist partner trusts in making use of research evidence from applied research conducted by the theme. The theme employed around 18 members of staff over its five-year term, including three PhD students.

Selected Research Grants

• M. C. Steiner (principal applicant). MRC Experimental Medicine Grant 2006 – 2010. Molecular approaches to reversing muscle wasting in COPD. The role of resistance training and protein supplementation. Value £600,000
• M. C. Steiner. Rehabilitation Theme Lead for the Leicestershire, Northamptonshire and Rutland CLAHRC (Collaboration For Leadership In Health Research And Care). This NIHR institutional award (Director: Professor R Baker, University of Leicester) was made in 2008. The rehabilitation theme will include research conducted in both acute and primary care settings across the region. Total value of CLAHRC: £20M (£10M from NIHR, £10 from local health organisations). Approx value of rehabilitation theme: £2M from NIHR, £2M from local health organisations.
• M.C. Steiner (Co-applicant, Principal Applicant Professor S. Singh). NIHR Research For Patient Benefit Grant 2010 – 2013. A Self-management Programme of Activity Coping and Education (SPACE) for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease: is it effective in primary care? Value: £250,000
• M.C. Steiner (Deputy lead for Workpackage 4: Reducing the burden of COPD by targeting skeletal muscle mass and function, Lead applicant Professor Mike Polkey, Royal Brompton Hospital). MRC/ABPI COPD consortium. Total value £6M, WP4 Budget approx £1.6M. 4 Year Programme 2011 – 2015.

• Associate editor of Thorax (from July 2010).
• Member of the European Respiratory Society nutrition task force which is preparing a statement on nutritional assessment and intervention in Respiratory Disease
• Member of the ATS/ERS skeletal muscle statement group and and have co-authored the statement with other members of the group which will be published shortly.
• Member of the British Thoracic Society science and research committee (2010-13).
• Deputy lead for workpackage 4 of the national MRC/ABPI COPD consortium, an industrial/academic collaboration aiming to assist drug development aimed at improving skeletal muscle function in COPD.
• Lead for the National Pulmonary Rehabilitation Workstream of the HQIP commissioned National COPD audit. He sits on the national audit steering committee and management board and is a member of the secondary care audit steering committee.
• Co-chair the BTS Pulmonary Rehabilitation Quality Standards Group.

Original Research

• M. C. Steiner, R. L. Barton, S. J. Singh and M. D. L. Morgan. A Comparison of Bedside Methods with Dual Energy X-ray Absorptiometry for the Measurement of Body Composition in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease. European Respiratory Journal 2002;19:626-631
• M. C. Steiner, R. L. Barton, S. J. Singh and M. D. L. Morgan. The Nutritional Enhancement of Exercise Performance in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease. A Randomised Controlled Trial. Thorax 2003;58: 745-751.
• M.C. Steiner, Evans R, Deacon SJ, Singh SJ, Patel P, Fox J, Greenhaff PL, and Morgan, MD. Adenine nucleotide loss in the skeletal muscles during exercise in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Thorax 2005; 60(11):932-936.
• Calvert LD, Singh SJ, Greenhaff PL, Morgan MD, Steiner M.C. The plasma ammonia response to cycle exercise in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. European resp Journal. 2008; 31:751-758
• Calvert LD, Shelley S,Singh SJ, Greenhaff PL, Bankart J, Morgan MD, Steiner M.C. Dichloroacetate enhances performance and reduces blood lactate during maximal cycle exercise in COPD. Am J Resp Crit Care Med. 2008;177(10):1090-4.
• Deacon SJ, Vincent EE, Greenhaff PL, Fox J, Steiner M.C., Singh SJ, Morgan MD. Randomised controlled trial of dietary creatine as an adjunct therapy to physical training in COPD. Am J Resp Crit Care Med 2008;178(3):233-9.
• Mercken EM, Calvert LD, Singh SJ, Hageman GJ, Schols AM, Steiner M.C. Dichloroacetate Modulates the Oxidative Stress and Inflammatory Response to Exercise in COPD. Chest 2009;136:744-751.
• Evans RA, Singh SJ, Collier R, Loke I, Steiner M.C., Morgan MD. Generic, symptom based, exercise rehabilitation; integrating patients with COPD and heart failure. Respir Med. 2010;104:1473-1481.
• Williams JE, Green RH, Warrington V, Steiner M.C., Morgan MD, Singh SJ.Development of the i-BODE: Validation of the incremental shuttle walking test within the BODE index. Respir Med; 2012:106(3) 390-396
• Harrison SL, Greening NJ, Williams JE, Morgan MD, Steiner M.C, Singh SJ. Have we underestimated the efficacy of pulmonary rehabilitation in improving mood?Respir Med. 2012 Jun;106(6):838-44
• Greening NJ, Evans RA, Williams JE, Green RH, Singh SJ, Steiner M.C. Does body mass index influence the outcomes of a Waking-based pulmonary rehabilitation programme in COPD? Chron Respir Dis 2012; 9(2):99-106.
• Menon MK, Houchen L, Harrison S, Singh SJ, Morgan MD, Steiner M.C. Ultrasound assessment of lower limb muscle mass in response to resistance training in COPD. Respir Res 2012; 13:119.
• Menon MK, Houchen L, Singh SJ, Morgan MD, Bradding P, Steiner M.C. Inflammatory and satellite cells in the quadriceps of patients with COPD and response to resistance training. Chest 2012; 142(5):1134-1142.
• Constantin D, Menon MK, Houchen-Wolloff L, Morgan MD, Singh SJ, Greenhaff PL,Steiner M.C. Skeletal muscle molecular responses to resistance training and dietary supplementation in COPD. Thorax 2013;68 (7):625-633.
• Johnson-Warrington V, Williams J, Bankart J, Steiner M.C., Morgan M, Singh S. Pulmonary rehabilitation and interstitial lung disease: aiding the referral decision. J Cardiopulm Rehabil Prev.2013 - Volume 33 - Issue 3 - p 189–195.
• Harrison SL, Apps L, Singh SJ, Steiner M.C., Morgan MDL, Robertson N. ‘Consumed by breathing’ – a critical interpretive meta-synthesis of the qualitative literature. Chronic Illness 2013; 10(1):31-49.
• Harrison SL, Robertson N, Graham CD, Williams J, Steiner M.C., Morgan MD, Singh SJ. Can we identify patients with different illness schema following an acute exacerbation of COPD: A cluster analysis. Respir Med. 2013;108(2):319-328.
• Harrison SL, Horton EJ, Smith R, Sandland CJ, Steiner M.C., Morgan MD, Singh SJ. Physical activity monitoring: addressing the difficulties of accurately detecting slow walking speeds. Heart Lung. 2013;42(5):361-364.
• Johnson-Warrington V, Harrison S, Mitchell K, Steiner M.C., Morgan M, Singh S. Exercise capacity and physical activity in patients with COPD and healthy subjects classified as Medical Research Council dyspnea scale grade 2. J Cardiopulm Rehabil Prev. 2014 Mar-Apr;34(2):150-4.  

Reviews and Editorials

• M.C. Steiner. Sarcopaenia in COPD. Thorax 2007;62(2):101-102.
• Hodgson D.B, Saini G, Bolton C.E, Steiner M.C. Thorax in Focus, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease. Thorax. 2012; 67(2): 171-6
• Steiner M.C., Roubenoff R, Tal-Singer R, Polkey MI. Prospects for the development of effective pharmacotherapy targeted at the skeletal muscles in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: a translational review. Thorax 2012; 67(12):1102-1109.
• van de Bool BC, Steiner M.C., Schols AM. Nutritional targets to enhance exercise performance in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Curr Opin Clin Nutr Metab Care 2012; 15(6):553-560.
• Singh S, Steiner M.C. Pulmonary Rehabilitation; What's in a name. Thorax 2013 68;899-901.
• Maltais F, Decramer M, Casaburi R, Barreiro E, Burelle Y, Debigaré R, Dekhuijzen RPN, Franssen F, Gayan-Ramirez G, Gea J, Gosker HR, Gosselink R, Hayot M, Hussain SNA, Janssens W, Polkey MI, Roca J, Saey D, Schols AMWJ, Spruit MA,Steiner M.C., Taivassalo T, Troosters T, Vogiatzis I, Wagner PD. An American Thoracic Society / European Respiratory Society Statement: Update on Limb Muscle Dysfunction in COPD: An Executive Summary. AJRCCM 2014 In Press.
• Steiner M.C., Greening NJ. Treating the Exercise Problem in COPD. Chest 2014. In Press.