Prof Raj Thakkar

PCCS President and CKD representative, Primary care cardiovascular society, GP Primary care cardiology lead, Oxford HIN Honorary Visiting Professor, Cardiff University Medical School, National EAGs for lipids and HF/HVD, NHSE National primary care workstream co-lead - cardiac transformation programme, NHSE UK Clinical Director, Healthy.io and Board observer, British Society of Heart Failure

Raj trained at University College London where he achieved a bachelor’s degree in neuroscience and completed his medical degree in 1999. He went on to a GP training programme in the Oxford deanery during which time he completed postgraduate membership exams of both the Royal College of General Practitioners and Physicians. Raj went on to win the national GP enterprise award in his division. He also completed an enhanced GP registrar post in cardiology.  

Raj’s varied roles have included working as a GP partner since 2004, Clinical Commissioning Director in planned care, Cardiac Lead for Thames Valley Strategic Clinical Network, primary care cardiology lead for the Oxford Health Innovation Network (HIN) and atrial fibrillation champion for NHSIQ Thames Valley. He is also on the national expert advisory group for heart failure and valve disease and is currently the national primary care workstream co-lead for the cardiac transformation programme (NHSE). Raj sits on the editorial board for the British Journal of Cardiology.  

Raj has worked as a presenter on BBC Radio and is a medical writer, lecturer, speaker, and advisor. He has written and published over 200 articles and several books including the MIMS consultation guide which won the BMA book of the year award in the category of medicine in 2012. He has achieved two atrial fibrillation pioneer awards, was a national finalist for GP of the year in 2017 and a national HSJ finalist, 2019 for his work in atrial fibrillation. 

Alison Warren

Consultant Pharmacist for Cardiology, Sussex Clinical Commissioning Groups and University Hospitals Sussex

Alison is a Consultant Pharmacist in Cardiology working in both primary and secondary care in Sussex. She qualified as a pharmacist from Bath University and has over 20 years of experience in cardiology. She has an MSc in Cardiology (Sussex University) and as an independent prescriber manages patients across a range of cardiac conditions. She is passionate about improving the prevention and care of people living with heart conditions.

She has published on topics in clinical pharmacy and cardiology. She was a member of the NICE Hypertension Guideline Group (2019). She worked as an educational facilitator with CPPE for the first wave of the NHS England pharmacists in GP practices and teaches at Brighton Universities on both undergraduate and postgraduate courses.

Alison is Fellow and a Faculty Fellow of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society.

Beverley Bostock

PCCS Council Member, Advanced Nurse Practitioner, Mann Cottage Surgery and Editor in Chief, Practice Nurse Journal

Beverley is an Advanced Nurse Practitioner in general practice in Gloucestershire. She is also Editor in Chief of Practice Nurse journal. She qualified as an RGN at St George’s Hospital London and gained a BSc in Professional Nursing Studies after completing 2 years of an advanced clinical practice MSc at Wolverhampton University. She is an Independent Nurse Prescriber and holds an MSc in Respiratory Care and an MA in Medical Ethics and Law.

Beverley’s other qualifications include a Post Graduate Award in Diabetes Therapeutics from Warwick University.

Beverley has extensive educational experience developing modules in diabetes and CVD for an Open University-affiliated organisation and is an Expert Witness for a clinical negligence company. She has been a Queen’s Nurse since 2015, a title which is given to nurses who have demonstrated a high level of commitment to patient care and nursing practice.

Beverley is a council member for the Primary Care Cardiovascular Society and has worked on the Implementation Steering Group of Public Health England’s CVDPREVENT project and Oxford AHSN’s ‘Prevention of CVD during the pandemic’ guidance. She has also been a Visiting Lecturer in behaviour change at Imperial College London for the MSc in Preventive Cardiology.

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.

Vicky Ruszala

MRPharmS MFRPSII

Vicky Ruszala is a specialist pharmacist in cardiology and heart failure at North Bristol NHS Trust. She works in a specialist capacity, trying to improve inpatient experience for those with heart failure, diabetes and renal disease and reducing errors in multi-morbidity care.  She is passionate about the role of pharmacists in providing care in long-term conditions.

She has 12 years of experience working in diabetes and has completed multiple secondments in secondary care and primary care across two ICBs. She worked for both as a specialist pharmacist in the integrated diabetes services, contributing to strategic changes in the systemic management of diabetes. In her current cardiology role she is leading on improving holistic CVRM care in primary care and taking part in the redesign of the BNSSG Heart Failure Integrated pathway.

She has held specialist national roles including chair of the UKCPA Diabetes Group committee, pharmacist lead of the endocrinology Clinical Reference Group for NHS England was part of the guideline development group for the original NICE Type 1 diabetes guideline. Currently she works as part of the British Society of Heart Failure education committee and is working on national projects to enhance heart failure education.