Cardiology, Diabetes and CKD Speakers

Dr Ahmet Fuat
Chair for the Cardiology sessions. Also presenting Heart Failure: the Essentials of Management
Ahmet Fuat is a GP in Darlington and has been a GP Specialist in Cardiology for several years. He has published numerous articles on managing heart failure in peer reviewed journals and has a PhD on the management of heart failure across primary and secondary care.

He is Deputy Chair of the Primary Care Cardiovascular Society and a peer reviewer for several journals, including the BMJ, the British Journal of General Practice, and the European Heart Failure Journal. His other interests include education in general practice.

Dr Kathryn Griffith
Atrial Fibrillation
Kathryn Griffith is a GP in York and is Clinical Coronary Heart Disease (CHD) Lead for Selby and York Primary Care Trust. She has worked in cardiology at York District hospital for over 12 years and was one of the first intake on the Bradford Course for Practitioners with a Special Interest in Cardiology in 2003. She is now one of the course tutors leading the CHD and hypertension and arrhythmia modules.

Dr Griffith continues to work at York District Hospital in the Rapid Access Chest Pain Clinic and as Co-investigator for the Cardiology Research Department. She is Honorary Secretary of the Primary Care Cardiovascular Society and Lead (with Dr Ahmet Fuat) in the GPs with a Special Interest (GPwSI) in Cardiology Forum, a national support group for GPwSI. She has written and lectured on managing hypertension, chronic kidney disease, ischaemic heart disease, and atrial fibrillation, and regards interpreting ECGs as challenging but fun!

Dr Philip Adams
Secondary Prevention After Myocardial Infarction (Birmingham)
Philip Adams is Consultant Cardiologist at the Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals Foundation Trust, appointed in 1987. He trained in Oxford and Newcastle and as a research fellow at Mount Sinai Medical Centre New York. Dr Adams has been clinical director of the Cardiothoracic Medical Directorate, College Tutor and Chair of the Northern Network of Cardiac Care Clinical Advisory Group. His interests include acute coronary syndromes, risk factors for late failure of coronary artery bypass grafting, guideline development and psychological factors in chest pain and heart failure.

Professor Michael Kirby
Chair for the Diabetes and CKD sessions. Also presenting Therapeutic Challenges in the Management of Type 2 Diabetes
Michael Kirby has been a GP in Letchworth, Hertfordshire since 1973. He was appointed as Director of HertNet (The Hertfordshire Primary Care Research Network) in 1998. His practice provides an open access echocardiography service for patients with heart failure for the North Hertfordshire Primary Care Trust. He is also Visiting Professor to the Faculty of Health and Human Sciences at the University of Hertfordshire.

He qualified at St Mary's Hospital, London before working as a Cardiology Registrar at the QEII Hospital, Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire. He is an Associate Member of the British Association of Urological Surgeons and a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians. His editorial responsibilities include the British Journal of Diabetes and Vascular Disease, the British Journal of Cardiology, Geriatric Medicine, Health & Ageing and the International Journal of Clinical Practice. He also holds membership of several NHS advisory boards. He has published more than 200 clinical papers and 23 books.

His special interests include cardiology, diabetes, osteoporosis, men's health and urology, and education. When away from work he can be found cycling the lanes of Hertfordshire.

Dr Brian Karet
Complications of Diabetes (Leeds)
Brian Karet has been a GP in Bradford, West Yorkshire for over 20 years. He is a GP specialist in diabetes and a lecturer on the Diabetes Masters programme in Bradford for GPs with special interests. He is on the committee of the Primary Care Diabetes Society. Brian’s main interest is in the development of the role of GPs with special interests and the way in which PCTs can effectively use intermediate care diabetes services.

Dr Donal O’Donoghue
Chronic Kidney Disease: When to Refer to the Nephrologist
Donal O’Donoghue was appointed as National Clinical Director for Kidney Care in January 2007. He has been consultant renal physician since 1992 and was the Clinical Director of Renal Services at Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust in Greater Manchester until 2007.

Dr O’Donoghue is an honorary lecturer at the University of Manchester and publishes regularly on the epidemiology of chronic kidney diseases, progression of kidney disease, renal anaemia, models of service delivery and clinical outcomes.

He has been on numerous kidney service advisory groups and has championed the integration of kidney care into general vascular risk reduction strategies and care plans.

Dr Vinod Patel
Complications of Diabetes (Birmingham)
Vinod Patel is associate professor in clinical skills at Warwick Medical School, University of Warwick and also honorary consultant physician in endocrinology and diabetes, acute medicine and medical obstetrics at the George Eliot Hospital NHS Trust in Nuneaton, Warwickshire. 

He trained in endocrinology and diabetes at the Hammersmith and Royal London Hospitals and obtained a doctorate on haemodynamic factors in the pathogenesis of diabetic retinopathy from the University of London; he has written many papers on this work. While his area of research is prevention of diabetic complications, he has a major interest in clinical diabetes care. He qualified in both hospital medicine and general practice and is able to work across the primary care/secondary care interface and improve diabetes care for the local community. His commitment to clinical education is to help develop world-class healthcare professionals who can deal with clinical, managerial and professional challenges.
Dr Patel’s diabetes care team was instrumental in developing the “Alphabet Strategy” for patient-centred, evidence-based, multiprofessional diabetes care. This preventative and treatment-oriented strategy has been taught in numerous courses and seminars in the UK and internationally. His most recent venture is the delivery of two workshops in Bahrain sponsored by the UN Development Programme.

Dr Patel’s work is driven by the belief that a patient-centred, outcome-based, team-working approach can reduce all premature complications of diabetes and, indeed, complications of all long term conditions by at least 50%, thereby significantly improving the quality of life of people in UK.

Dr Jane Skinner
Secondary Prevention After Myocardial Infarction (Leeds)
Jane Skinner trained as a cardiologist, and has also completed training in general practice. She is a Consultant Cardiologist at the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle and has an interest in community cardiology. The community cardiology services include cardiac rehabilitation and heart failure nursing. Dr Skinner works with primary care implementing evidence-based practice and supports the development of services. Specific areas of interest include primary and secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease, cardiac rehabilitation, heart failure and the development and implementation of guidelines.

View past speakers in the Cardiology, Diabetes and CKD series