Writing for One Heart Clinic

• By One Heart Clinic
• April 09, 2018

I am a Consultant Cardiologist at the Hammersmith Hospital in London and more importantly a husband and father of three young children. After a day at work or a period of time lecturing or operating abroad my children often ask, ‘Papa what do you do?’

’I fix the heart’ – I say, but I’m not so sure that’s accurate.

My job as an NHS Consultant involves treating all patients with cardiac issues but also leading the Imperial College Central and West London Service for cardiology and working with governing bodies to decide how cardiac patients should be treated in London. My operating time involves treating acutely unwell heart attack patients as well as those with chest pain and severe aortic valve disease (with TAVI) who have no option of surgery. My research involves trying to push the boundaries of what is known about how blood flows to the heart and educating, training and mentoring the current and next generation of Cardiologists both in the UK and around the world.

I will therefore use these articles to describe what I do, why I do it and the challenges, successes and less successful moments that I have. I hope it will be of use to my patients and children (when they are old enough to understand it!) to learn about what I do…