Prof Raj Thakkar

PCCS President and CKD representative

As President of the Primary Care Cardiovascular Society, Prof Raj Thakkar will serve a two-year term, representing the Society and guiding it in line with its aim and governance.

Working closely with the Board of Directors, Secretariat, and other key officers, the President leads strategic planning, chairs major meetings and conferences, and oversees succession and recruitment processes.

Externally, the President represents PCCS at national events and contributes to key healthcare initiatives, including NICE stakeholder engagement. 

Dr Kieran McCafferty

Consultant Nephrologist, Barts Health; Senior Lecturer QMUL

Kieran McCafferty is a Consultant Nephrologist at Barts Health National Health Service Trust and Senior Lecturer at Queen Mary University London. He is an active trialist in the field of cardio renal metabolic disease having led on over 60 trials in the last 5 years.  

He is the Clinical Director of the NIHR Barts Health CRF, the North Thames CRN renal speciality lead, and co chairs the UKKRC CSG on CKD and DKD.

Prof Derek Connolly

Consultant Cardiologist and Director of R&D at Birmingham City Hospital

Derek is a Consultant Cardiologist at Birmingham City Hospital, Birmingham UK and holds a honorary academic positions at both the University of Birmingham Institute of cardiovascular sciences and at Aston University medical School. Derek trained in Cambridge, London, Edinburgh and San Diego where he was a Carnegie Scholar. Derek has a first class degree in Pharmacology from the University of Edinburgh where he was the Brunton medallist and Keasbey Bursary holder. Derek’s PhD in molecular cardiology is from the University of Cambridge. Derek is the Chief or Primary Investigator of multiple large trials in Cardiovascular medicine. Derek developed one of the UKs first primary angioplasty programmes, and one of the UKs largest cardiac CT programmes. He has been a council member of the PCCS since it's refoundation.

Dr Jim Moore

Past President of the Primary Care Cardiovascular Society, GP, GPSI Cardiology, Gloucestershire

Dr Moore is a GP in Gloucestershire with a special interest in Cardiovascular Medicine and Past President of the Primary Care Cardiovascular Society, spearheading significant changes in this organisation. He lectures extensively across the UK.

He has been heavily involved in National CVD advisory groups, guidelines and working parties. He was a member of the NICE Chronic Heart Failure in Adults Guideline committee (2016-2018) and was a board member of British Society for Heart Failure.

Dr Moore has provided cardiovascular clinical support to local commissioning organisations for over two decades and more recently to Cardiac Networks in the South-West. He is currently Clinical Co-Lead (Primary Care) for the West of England Integrated Cardiac Clinical Network.

Dr Moore is the National Clinical Co- Lead (Primary Care) for the National Cardiac Transformation Programme which has included working closely on NHSE initiatives such as Managing Heart Failure @Home and more recently chaired a group that developed the National (NHSE) guidance for the Virtual Ward care for people with heart failure (in publication).

He has been involved in the establishment and subsequent development of the community-based Gloucestershire Heart Failure service since its inception in 2003 where he continues to work as a GPSI.

Dr Sarah Davies

MBBCh (hons), FRCP, MRCGP, PGDip Diabetes

Sarah is a GP in Cardiff with a special interest in diabetes.  She is the All Wales lead for diabetes in primary care and Clinical Director for Diabetes in primary care for Cardiff and Vale UHB.  She is a Diabetes UK Clinical Champion, Primary Care Diabetes Society committee member and a presenter for NB Medical Hot Topics, leading their diabetes course.

Dr Sundhya Raman

PCCS Lifestyle Medicine Representative, BSc (hons) MBBS DPhil (Oxon) Dipl IBLM/BSLM

Dr Sundhya Raman is a medical doctor (Guys, Kings and St Thomas’s, 2007) with a BSc in Pharmacology & Physiology, a PhD (DPhil) in Genetics/Epigenetics is qualified in Lifestyle Medicine with the International Board of Lifestyle Medicine and the British Society of Lifestyle Medicine.

She began her career as a clinical scientist, and aside from her DPhil at Oxford she worked in labs around the world including at Yale, University of Sydney and at the Wolfson Centre for Age Related Diseases, London.

Dr Raman is the founder and director of a lifestyle medicine health consultancy (My Wellness Doctor) which provides advice and support to educate and empower individuals to prevent illness, reverse disease, and optimise mental and physical wellbeing using evidence-based lifestyle modalities.

She has created a programme using lifestyle change to lower cholesterol in a primary care setting, and is the lead for virtual group consultations for diabetes at Plant Based Health Online.

Dr Raman regularly presents talks and teaching on lifestyle medicine and healthy ageing to both medical professionals (GP registrars, medical students, MIMs Learning Live, PCN training events) as well as to the lay public, including a focus on specific risks and solutions for BAME groups. She authored the diet section for JBS4 and co-authored the section on physical activity. She contributes to media publications on lifestyle advice to prevent chronic disease.

Prof Janaka Karalliedde

Professor of Diabetes, School of Cardiovascular Medicine and Metabolic Sciences, King's College London, Consultant Physician in Diabetes and Endocrinology and Internal Medicine, Guy’s and St Thomas Hospital London

Janaka graduated with a distinction in medicine from the University of London and was awarded UK Medical Research Council Clinical Research Training Fellowship and PhD by the University of London for research on the pathophysiology and treatment of cardiovascular disease and kidney disease. 

He is an active clinician working with more than 20 years of experience and specialist expertise managing patients with kidney and cardio-vascular complications related to diabetes at Guy’s and St Thomas Hospital. He has established community based clinics in London working with primary care colleagues focussed on early identification and treatment to reduce cardiovascular and kidney complications.

Janaka is a clinician scientist with a research focus on the pathophysiology and treatment of cardio-renal complications in people with diabetes. He speaks frequently at national and international meetings and has published more than 100 articles on cardio-renal disease. He has led on UK Kidney Association (UKKA) and Association of British Clinical Diabetologists (ABCD) diabetic kidney disease guidelines and is the co-chair of this working group.

Janaka has also led an award winning programme of work on risk stratification and clinical prioritisation [Health Service Journal award (2023), Quality in Care diabetes award (2024), Royal College of Physician excellence in patient care awards (top three 2025)] that enables early identification and clinical prioritisation of people with modifiable risk that is now embedded in routine care.

Prof Clare Taylor

Professor of General Practice at the University of Birmingham

Clare Taylor is Professor of General Practice at the University of Birmingham and a GP in the NHS. Her research focuses on earlier diagnosis and improving prognosis for people with heart failure in primary care. She has received grant and fellowship funding from the National Institute for Health and Care Research, Wellcome Trust, and British Heart Foundation. She has published over 100 peer-reviewed papers in high impact journals, including British Medical Journal and European Heart Journal, and her research has informed international heart failure guidelines. She also held senior leadership positions at the Royal College of General Practitioners as Chair of their Associates in Training Committee and Lead of the First5 initiative. Clare was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire for services to General Practice in 2015.

Dr Xenophon Kassianides

General Practitioner with Extended Role in CVRM Medicine at the Yorkshire and Humber Deanery, Honorary Clinical Lecturer, Hull York Medical School, First5 GP Representative and Council Member, Primary Care Cardiovascular Society

Xenophon is a General Practitioner with Extended Role in Cardiovascular-Renal-Metabolic (CVRM) Medicine, working with The Ridings Medical Group and NHS The Humber Health Partnership. He holds an MD from Hull York Medical School and has completed postgraduate studies in Clinical Practice, Management, and Education with the University of Lancashire. He is a Member of both the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh and the Royal College of General Practitioners.

Xenophon's clinical and research focus is on CVRM conditions, with a particular interest in integrated care and prevention. His work in cardiology includes investigating cardiovascular outcomes and patient-reported outcomes in chronic kidney disease, as well as the effects of intravenous iron on cardiovascular health. He has served as Principal Investigator of the NIHR-adopted randomized controlled trial ExplorIRON-CKD and contributed to national research efforts, including the COVID-19 RECOVERY trial.

Passionate about academic medicine, Xenophon  has an extensive publication record and has taught widely, holding lecturer positions with several UK medical schools. He continues to contribute actively to education as an Honorary Lecturer at Hull York Medical School and as a peer reviewer for leading scientific journals.

Beverley Bostock

PCCS President Elect, Advanced Nurse Practitioner, Mann Cottage Surgery and Editor in Chief, Practice Nurse Journal

Bev is an Advanced Nurse Practitioner in long-term conditions.  She is currently President Elect of the Primary Care Cardiovascular Society.  She has a special interest in cardiovascular disease (CVD), diabetes, heart failure, chronic kidney disease and lipid management along with common comorbidities such as metabolic liver disease, asthma and COPD. She is Editor in Chief of Practice Nurse Journal and has been a Queen’s Nurse since 2015.    

In a previous role she developed and delivered accredited modules in cardiovascular disease, heart failure and diabetes in collaboration with the Open University.  As well as holding an MA in Medical Ethics and Law and an MSc in Respiratory Care, Bev has a PgDip in Diabetes from the University of Warwick. Bev has had an extensive range of articles published in various journals on the management of long-term conditions and is a regular speaker at national conferences.