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. 

Prof Ahmet Fuat

Honorary Professor of Primary Care Cardiology, Durham University, GP Appraiser and GPSI Cardiology, County Durham

Professor Ahmet Fuat has recently retired as a GP in Darlington, Co.Durham after 37 years in the same practice and 41 years as a qualified doctor. He will continue to work as a GPSI Cardiology running a genetic lipid service for County Durham and Darlington Foundation Trust, and take up a role as Medical Director for OBEROI Consulting.

He has been a GPSI Cardiology for 26 years having undertaken a Postgraduate Diploma in Cardiology at Bradford University graduating with distinction. He started the first one stop diagnostic and integrated heart failure clinic in the UK in 2002 with local colleagues.

He has a PhD in research in heart failure diagnosis and management, which includes work on natriuretic peptides and has generated several publications that influenced guidelines and led to his recognition as an Honorary Professor at Durham University.

He holds various roles in CVD and research including the past President and past Education & Research lead for the Primary Care Cardiovascular Society (PCCS) which he was instrumental in reforming and GP Research Engagement lead for NENC CRN.

He has a passion for medical education and remains an active lecturer, tutor and researcher. He is a peer reviewer for most high impact Cardiovascular journals, BMJ, BJGP and research bodies. His work in community cardiology has been recognised with Fellowships from the RCGP, RCP London and RCP Edinburgh and the PCCS.

Beverley Bostock

PCCS President Elect, 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 and the president elect 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.

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.

Helen Williams

National Clinical Director for CVD Prevention, NHSE and Consultant Pharmacist for CVD, SE London ICB and UCL Partners

Helen is the National Clinical Director for CVD Prevention at NHS England and is working on delivery of the national CVD ambitions for AF, Blood Pressure and Cholesterol in the NHS Long Term Plan. Helen has worked as a CVD specialist for more than 25 years across all care settings. She was clinical adviser to the national AF programme and developed the pharmacist-led virtual clinic model to optimise uptake of anticoagulation in AF, which has now been spread nationally. Helen has recently been appointed as one of the long term conditions lead for South East London Integrated Care System and is also working at UCLPartners on the implementation of proactive care frameworks for long-term conditions to support primary care in the post COVID-19 environment.

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 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.

Prof Julia Newton

Medical Director, Health Innovation North East North Cumbria

Julia became Medical Director of the Health Innovation Network North East North Cumbria in 2017. She graduated from Newcastle University Medical School in 1990 and since then has worked in a range of roles in the North East of England. She became a Consultant Physician with an interest in Geriatric Medicine in 2000, and Clinical Professor of Ageing & Medicine at Newcastle University in 2008.  

In 2023, the Health Innovation Networks in collaboration with the AAC launched the Innovation for Healthcare Inequalities Programme (InHIP).  Each ICB in England had the opportunity to bid for funds to support programmes of work that aimed at harnessing evidence based innovations to address health inequity.  In NENC, the focus was on Cardiovascular Disease and working with Communities in Middlesbrough a programme of work was developed which aims to understand using behavioural insights the challenges faced by Afro-caribbean, South Asian and white disadvantaged communities engaging with annual CVD checks.  Using this data, potential solutions were co-designed and co-delivered with the communities.   

Dr Ramesh Nadarajah

NIHR Academic Clinical Lecturer in Cardiology and Health Data Research UK Fellow

My clinical interests are in prevention, early detection and screening for cardio-renal-metabolic disease. My research incorporates the use of primary care datasets to answer clinical questions and develop prediction models, particularly in the area of atrial fibrillation, heart failure, and cardio-renal-metabolic disease. I am also now translating interventions based on risk prediction into clinical trials.

I was awarded the Young Investigator Award at the British Society of Heart Failure Annual Meeting in 2024, and was a finalist for the Young Investigator Award at the European Heart Rhythm Association Congress and for the President’s Prize in Cardiology at the Royal Society of Medicine in 2023. I was also a finalist for the Young Investigator Award at the ESC Preventative Cardiology Congress 2024 and won the Best of the Best award in Prevention at the British Society of Cardiology Annual Meeting 2024.