Working together to meet future needs in cardiorenal medicine

20th Annual Scientific Meeting of the Cardiorenal Forum

'Working together to meet future needs in cardiorenal medicine'

Friday 10th October 2025 09.25–17.00
The King’s Fund, Deans Mews entrance, 11–13 Cavendish Square, London W1G 0AN


This independent meeting is sponsored by pharmaceutical companies, who have had no influence over, or input into, the meeting agenda or content or selection of speakers, except in the sponsored symposia sessions. Sponsors will not be contributing in any way to any hospitality associated with the meeting. Click here for a list of sponsors.


Join us for our 20th Annual Scientific Meeting where the focus will be on how we can develop multidisciplinary team services in heart and kidney care to meet future needs. This popular one-day meeting will bring together an expert faculty and delegates across the cardiovascular, metabolic and renal teams. State-of-the-art presentations with interactive discussion and case-based learning will be offered, with time to network in the breaks and visit our exhibition.

Is it for me?

Our meetings are aimed at healthcare professionals and are aimed at anyone treating the cardiorenal patient particularly those working in heart failure, cardiology, nephrology, diabetes, lipids, endocrinology, care of the elderly, general medicine, general practice, clinical pharmacy and allied disciplines. Feedback from past delegates has been very positive with 100% of delegates at our last meeting saying the meeting was clinically excellent to good.

Accreditation

The Cardiorenal Forum will award 5 CPD credits for this meeting.

Academic endorsement

Last year’s meeting was endorsed by The British Society for Heart Failure (BSH), the Irish Nephrology Society, Kidney Disease Improving Global Outcomes (KDIGO), and the UK Kidney Association (UKKA), from whom we will be seeking academic endorsement for this year's meeting.

Registration fee

Our registration fees are subsidised. Early bird fees to include lunch and refreshments throughout the day will be:
£115 doctors (SpR and consultant grades), £80 concessions (nurses, trainees, allied HCPs), £300 commercial organisations. All fees are inclusive of VAT.

Travel grants

We will be offering a limited number of travel grants for the 2025 meeting to delegates qualifying for the concessions rate and living outside the M25 area.



Programme

Session 1. Diabetes, obesity, heart and kidney
09:25 Introduction Chairs: Professor Paul Kalra, Consultant Cardiologist, Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust, Portsmouth & Professor Philip Kalra, Consultant Nephrologist, Salford Royal Hospital, Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust; Professor of Renal Medicine, University of Manchester
09.30 Future approaches to obesity and diabetes to reduce heart and kidney disease Dr Julia Kenkre, Consultant in Metabolic Medicine, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, London
09.50 The effects of weight loss on cardiometabolic risk - and how to achieve it Dr Elizabeth Morris, General Practitioner and Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Fellow, Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford
10.10 Discussion
Session 2. The British Society for Heart Failure lectures
  Chair: Dr Lisa Anderson, Heart Failure Consultant, St George’s University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust; Chair, British Society for Heart Failure
10:20 Device therapy for patients with heart failure Dr Andrew Flett, Consultant Cardiologist, University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust
10:40 Sequencing the re-introduction of heart failure treatment pillars after AKI Ms Victoria Ruszala, Specialist Pharmacist in Cardiology and Heart Failure, North Bristol NHS Trust
10.55 Discussion
11:00 COFFEE BREAK / EXHIBITION AND NETWORKING
11:30 SPONSORED SYMPOSIUM
 
Session 3. Health promotion in primary care
  Chair: Professor Gerry McCann, NIHR Research Professor, (Experimental Medicine) and Professor of Cardiac Imaging, University of Leicester
12:05 Activity for longevity – truth and reconciliation Professor Thomas Yates, Professor in Physical Health and Activity, Leicester Lifestyle and Health Research Group, Diabetes Research Centre, University of Leicester
12.25 Discussion
Session 4. Advances in transplantation
  Chair: Dr David Lappin, Consultant Nephrologist, Galway University Hospitals; Honorary Personal Professor of Medicine, University of Galway
12:30 Advances in preventing antibody-mediated graft rejection following organ transplantation Dr Ciara Magee, Consultant Nephrologist, Beaumont Hospital, Dublin
12.55 Discussion
13:00 LUNCH BREAK / EXHIBITION AND NETWORKING
14:00 SPONSORED SYMPOSIUM
 
Session 5. The UKKA lectures: cardio-renal-metabolic service models for best future practice
  Chairs: Professor Smeeta Sinha, Consultant Nephrologist, Salford Royal Hospital, Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust; Professor of Renal Medicine, University of Manchester & Dr Matthew Graham-Brown, Associate Professor of Renal Medicine, University of Leicester; Honorary Consultant Nephrologist, University Hospitals of Leicester
14:40 How a bespoke multi-morbidity clinic can improve management of people with metabolic-renal-cardiac-disease Dr Saif Al-Chalabi, Clinical Research Fellow, Salford Royal Hospital, Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust
14:50 Lessons from the metabolic-renal-cardiac clinic, e-referrals, and the virtual MDT Professor Darren Green, Consultant Nephrologist, Salford Royal Hospital, Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust; Professor of Cardiorenal Sciences, Manchester Metropolitan University; Honorary Professor of Medicine, University of Manchester
15.10 Discussion
15:15 TEA BREAK / EXHIBITION AND NETWORKING
Session 6. Cardiorenal clinical trials update
  Chair: Ms Carys Barton, Heart Failure Nurse Consultant, Imperial NHS Foundation Trust, London; Chair-Elect, British Society for Heart Failure & Dr David Mulcahy, Consultant Cardiologist, Blackrock Health Hermitage Clinic, Dublin
15:40 Cardiac trials Dr Geraint Morton, Consultant Cardiologist, Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust
15:55 Renal trials Dr David Lappin, Consultant Nephrologist, Galway University Hospitals; Honorary Personal Professor of Medicine, University of Galway
16.10 Discussion
Session 7. Interactive cases – current treatment options and future prospects
  Chair: Dr Sarah Birkhoelzer, Cardiology Registrar, University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust
16:15 Case 1: IgA nephropathy (IgAN) Dr Matthew Graham-Brown, Associate Professor of Renal Medicine, University of Leicester; Honorary Consultant Nephrologist, University Hospitals of Leicester
16:30 Case 2: Cardiac amyloid Ms Angelique Smit, Lead Clinical and Research Nurse, National Amyloidosis Centre, Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust
16:45 Case 3: HIF-PHI Professor Philip Kalra, Consultant Nephrologist, Salford Royal Hospital, Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust; Professor of Renal Medicine, University of Manchester
17:00 Meeting close

Our faculty

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 (Cardiology Registrar, University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust) 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
Matthew Graham-Brown (Clinical Associate Professor of Renal Medicine, University of Leicester; Honorary Consultant Nephrologist, University Hospitals of Leicester) has research interests that include identification, characterisation and mitigation of cardiovascular disease in chronic kidney disease, optimisation of lifestyle and cardiovascular pharmacotherapy and implementation science. He is current Co-Chair of the UK CardioRenal Clinical Study Group and has external grant funding from the British Heart Foundation, the Stoneygate Trust and Kidney Research UK.

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 Lead Clinical and Research Nurse, National Amyloidosis Centre, Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust

Professor Thomas Yates Professor in Physical Health and Activity, Leicester Lifestyle and Health Research Group, Diabetes Research Centre, University of Leicester