Dr Saif Al-Chalabi
Saif Al-Chalabi (Nephrology and General Internal Medicine Registrar, Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust) is also a PhD candidate in the Division of Cardiovascular Sciences, University of Manchester. He graduated from medical school in Baghdad, Iraq, in 2010 and obtained an MD from the University of Buckingham in 2017, the same year he was awarded Membership of the Royal College of Physicians (MRCP). His research focuses on the interplay between cardiovascular, renal, and metabolic dysfunction, with a commitment to advancing evidence-based care and improving outcomes in patients with cardiovascular-kidney metabolic syndrome.

Dr Lisa Anderson
Lisa Anderson (Heart Failure Consultant, St George’s University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust) has worked towards improving heart failure services across South West London since 2005. In 2016 she led the project to open the UK’s first Acute Heart Failure inpatient unit. She proposed the NCEPOD inquiry into inpatient heart failure deaths and chaired the writing group for the UK Ambulance Service heart failure guidelines in 2018. She also acted as Clinical Expert for the Evidence Review Group for Ivabradine and the NICE technical appraisal for sacubitril/valsartan.

She subspecialises in cardiac MR and her original paper describing T2* for the detection of cardiac iron is one of the most internationally cited publications in this field. Lisa is the National Coordinating Investigator for the Global Prevalence of ATTR-CM in HFpEF trial and was the National Coordinating Investigator for the ATTR-ACT trial and DISCOVERY clinical trials. She is Chair of the British Society for Heart Failure. She is one of the organisers of the Cardiorenal Forum Annual Scientific Meeting.

Mrs Carys Barton
Carys Barton (Heart Failure Nurse Consultant, Imperial College NHS Foundation Trust, London) is the current Chair elect of the British Society for Heart failure (BSH) and the first nurse in this position. Prior to this, she was deputy Chair of BSH, Chair BSH Nurse Forum 2019–21 and a board observer from 2017–19. Other positions currently held are Honorary Secretary and council member of the British Association for Nurses in Cardiac Care (BANCC), Committee Member of the British Geriatrics Society (BGS) Cardiovascular Special Interest Group, the Heart Failure Policy Network steering committee, Pumping Marvellous clinical committee, and the Cardiorenal Forum scientific committee. She is committed to supporting the education and development of heart failure specialist nurses and allied health professionals, through the BSH and the nurse forum but also as an honorary lecturer of heart failure masters modules at Glasgow Caledonian University and Keele University.

Dr Sarah Birkhoelzer
Sarah Birkhoelzer (Heart Failure and Imaging Fellow, University Hospitals Dorset) specialises in heart failure and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). As part of her PhD at the University of Oxford she examined cardiac and skeletal muscle metabolism in heart failure. She completed a research fellowship at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, USA, under Dr Scott Solomon, Professor of Medicine at Harvard University Medical School. She is the UK Heart Failure Association (HFA) Young Ambassador and serves on the British Cardiovascalar Society Practice & Guidelines and Women in Cardiology Committees, as well as the European Association of Cardiovascular Imaging (EACVI) Web & Communications Committee. A confident public speaker, she presents widely and hosts the patient-facing BEATWISE podcast, aiming to bridge clinical knowledge and patient experience. Her work has received multiple awards and funding from both industry and charities.

Dr Andrew Flett
Andrew Flett (Consultant Cardiologist, University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust) took up this position in 2013. He has a special interest in heart failure and cardiomyopathy having trained at the Heart Hospital (UCLH London). His research focussed on the quantification of myocardial scar using cardiac MRI. He is the chief investigator of the BRITISH study – a British Heart Foundation funded multi-centre trial of defibrillators in non-ischaemic cardiomyopathy. He has published widely in the field of cardiac MRI and cardiomyopathy.

Dr Matthew Graham-Brown
Matt Graham-Brown (Clinical Associate Professor of Renal Medicine, University of Leicester and Honorary Consultant Nephrologist, University Hospitals of Leicester) has research interests which focus on cardiovascular disease in CKD, particularly the use of advanced imaging to identify clinically relevant pathology and testing lifestyle interventions that may improve cardiovascular health. Increasingly his work has focused on the implementation of evidence-based practice, particularly optimisation of lifestyle and pharmacotherapy in early stage CKD and cardiovascular renal metabolic conditions, and the roles of patient education and self-management. He is the clinical lead locally for the advanced kidney care service, is lead nephrologist in the CardioRenalMetabolic MDT in Leicester, and is current co-Chair of the National CardioRenal Clinical Study Group.

Professor Darren Green
Darren Green is a Consultant Nephrologist, Professor of Cardiorenal Sciences at Manchester Metropolitan University, and Honorary Professor of Medicine at the University of Manchester. He has a clinical and academic specialist interest in cardiovascular multiple long term conditions and associated multidisciplinary care. His research and clinical expertise are on the interaction between the heart and kidneys, primarily the management of heart failure in patients with kidney disease, both CKD and AKI.

Professor Paul Kalra
Paul Kalra (Consultant Cardiologist, Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust) is one of the founders of the Cardiorenal Forum and past Chair of the British Society for Heart Failure. His research interests include the role of iron deficiency and its correction in patients with heart failure, cardiorenal disease and the impact of hyperkalaemia on RAAS inhibition use.

Professor Philip Kalra
Philip Kalra (Consultant Nephrologist, Salford Royal Hospital, Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust; Professor of Renal Medicine, University of Manchester) graduated from Cambridge University and St Thomas’s Hospital Medical School. He is Director of Research and Innovation in the Northern Care Alliance, the trust encompassing Salford Royal where he has been Consultant Nephrologist since 1995. He was Academic Vice-President of the UK Renal Association from 2016–19, Chair of the UK Kidney Research Consortium during this time and was Chair of the National Institute for Health Research CRN Renal Disorders group from 2010 until 2018. He is the lead of the Donal O’Donoghue Renal Research Centre, the local research centre named in honour of our late esteemed colleague. He has major research interests in CKD progression, intravenous iron in CKD, renovascular disease and renal epidemiology, and he has been involved in the development of several large UK clinical trials in nephrology and cardiology. These include the ASTRAL, PIVOTAL and IRONMAN trials and the NURTuRE cohort. He has played a role in improving collaboration between nephrology and cardiology in both scientific and educational endeavours.

Dr Julia Kenkre
Julia Kenkre (Consultant in Metabolic Medicine, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust) works clinically within lipid and obesity services. She has just helped to write the national guidance for lipid testing and reporting in the UK. She is also an Honorary Clinical Research Fellow at Imperial College. She graduated from the University of Cambridge and then completed Foundation and Core Medical Training in the Eastern Deanery and Oxford. During her specialist training in North West London in Chemical Pathology/Metabolic Medicine she also completed a Postgraduate Certificate in Genomic Medicine and a PhD investigating the mechanism of diabetes remission in patients with type 2 diabetes undergoing bariatric surgery. She has ongoing research projects investigating obesity and the remission of type 2 diabetes.

Dr David Lappin
David Lappin (Consultant Nephrologist, Galway University Hospitals; Honorary Personal Professor of Medicine, University of Galway) graduated in Dublin in 1991. He trained in nephrology in Dublin and Manchester and obtained a PhD in Medicine in 2002. He is a Consultant Nephrologist/Honorary Personal Professor of Nephrology at Galway University Hospitals/National University of Ireland, Galway. His areas of interest are clinical nephrology, diabetic nephropathy and resistant hypertension. He is the President of the European Union of Medical Specialists (UEMS) Section of Nephrology, the current UEMS lead for the European Specialty Examination in Nephrology, and former member of the European Renal Association CME subcommittee.

Dr Ciara Magee
Ciara Magee (Consultant Nephrologist, Beaumont Hospital, Dublin) has research interests including the immunobiology of transplant rejection, transplant virology and ageing. She completed her postgraduate training in nephrology in Ireland, before undertaking a research fellowship in transplant immunology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA. She was awarded a PhD from the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland in 2015. She's co-editor of the Pocket Companion to Brenner and Rector’s The Kidney.

Professor Gerry McCann
Gerry McCann (Professor of Cardiac Imaging, University of Leicester) is the cardiovascular theme lead for the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Leicester Biomedical Research Centre and an NIHR senior Investigator. Gerry was a full-time NHS Consultant Cardiologist before undertaking successive NIHR research fellowships from 2011-2024. He directs a very active clinical imaging research programme with funding from the British Heart Foundation, the Medical Research Council and the NIHR focusing on to best manage patients with or at risk of cardiovascular disease. Prior to moving to Leicester, Gerry was lecturer in Exercise in cardiovascular disease and likes to keep fit!

Dr Elizabeth Morris
Elizabeth Morris (General Practitioner; Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Fellow, University of Oxford) works clinically as a GP in Oxfordshire and as a Clinical Lecturer in Medical Education at Somerville College, Oxford. Her research interests are in dietary and health behaviour change for people with type 2 diabetes and obesity in primary care, and her current programmes of research (funded by the NIHR, Wellcome Trust and Diabetes UK) at the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences at the University of Oxford, focus on evaluating, and improving access to and uptake of, weight loss interventions aimed at achieving remission from type 2 diabetes.

Dr Geraint Morton
Dr Geraint Morton (Consultant Cardiologist, Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust) is the clinical director for cardiology and cardiac device lead at Portsmouth. His subspecialty interests are heart failure, cardiac devices and cycling. His research interests include cardiac MRI and, more recently, organisation and pathways of care in heart failure.

Dr David Mulcahy
David Mulcahy (Consultant Cardiologist, Blackrock Health Hermitage Clinic, Dublin) qualified from the Royal College of Surgeons, Dublin, and trained in London and Bethesda before returning to Ireland as a Consultant Cardiologist in the Adelaide and Meath Hospital, Dublin. He then moved to Tallaght Hospital in 2000, and founded the clinical CRY Unit in conjunction with the charity Cardiac Risk in the Young in 2007.

Ms Victoria Ruszala
Victoria Ruszala (Specialist Pharmacist in Cardiology and Heart Failure, North Bristol NHS Trust) 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 has 12 years of experience working in diabetes and is currently leading on improving holistic cardiovascular-renal-metabolic (CVRM) care, taking part in the redesign of the Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire (BNSSG) Heart Failure Integrated pathway and a major project to improve post-acute coronary syndrome care. Currently she sits on the education committee of the British Society of Heart Failure and is working on national projects to enhance heart failure, lipid and CVRM care.

Professor Smeeta Sinha
Smeeta Sinha (Consultant Nephrologist, Salford Royal Hospital, Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust; Professor of Renal Medicine, University of Manchester) is currently the NHS England National Clinical Director for Renal Medicine and the NHS England Clinical Lead for the Renal Services Transformation Programme. Her clinical interests are in chronic kidney disease, multimorbidity including diabetic kidney disease and cardiorenal syndrome. She also leads the complex glomerulonephritis service at Salford Royal. Smeeta’s research interests include vascular calcification, multi-morbidity and glomerulonephritis.

Ms Angelique Smit
Angelique Smit (Lead Clinical and Research Nurse, National Amyloidosis Centre, Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust) has over 20 years of dedicated service at the Royal Free and brings a wealth of experience and expertise to her role. Her clinical background is rooted in cardiac care, with a strong foundation in cath lab procedures and patient management. Throughout her career, Angelique has played a key role in advancing both patient care and clinical research, bridging the gap between frontline healthcare delivery and innovative clinical studies. Her leadership, deep clinical knowledge, and commitment to excellence continue to drive high standards in nursing practice and research coordination across multidisciplinary teams.

Professor Thomas Yates
Tom Yates (Professor in Physical Health and Activity, University of Leicester) is based at the Diabetes Research Centre where he is the Director of the Leicester Lifestyle and Health Research Group. His research is aimed at harnessing the power of lifestyle behaviours to empower multi-ethnic populations with or at risk of long-term conditions (LTCs) to live longer and better lives with expertise that spans the 5 S’s (sleep, sedentary behaviour, stepping, sweating and strengthening). He is also the co-theme lead for the Lifestyle theme of the NIHR Leicester Biomedical Research Centre. Tom completed a PhD at Loughborough University in 2008 and moved to the Diabetes Research Centre at Leicester the same year. Since then he has published over 350 articles (Google Scholar H-index = 77) and holds several prestigious research grants, including £14M in new investment from Research England through the Expanding Excellence in England Award.