Professor Mike Kirby

GP, Letchworth, Hertfordshire and Visiting Professor, Faculty of Health and Human Sciences, Centre for Research in Primary and Community Care, University of Hertfordshire

Mike Kirby qualified at St Mary's Hospital, London before working as a cardiology registrar and hospital practitioner at the QEII Hospital, Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire. He has been a GP and vocational trainer in Letchworth, Hertfordshire since 1973 and has been the director of HertNet (The Hertfordshire Primary Care Research Network) since 1998. He is currently visiting professor to the Faculty of Health and Human Sciences at the University of Hertfordshire and attending physician to the Prostate Centre, London. Professor Kirby 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, Trends in Urology and Men’s Health and the International Journal of Clinical Practice. He also holds membership of several NHS advisory boards. He has published more than 300 clinical papers and 30 books. His special interests include cardiology, diabetes, osteoporosis, men's health and urology, and education.

Dr Kathryn Griffith

GP with a Special Interest in Cardiology, York and Member of the Renal Advisory Group, Department of Health

Kathryn Griffith is a GP in York and has been clinical cardiovascular (CVD) lead for York and North Yorkshire Primary Care Trust. She has worked in cardiology at York Teaching Hospital Foundation Trust for over 15 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 a senior course tutor leading the CHD, hypertension and arrhythmia, and diabetes modules. She completed her Masters dissertation on the association between CKD and CVD in primary care and for the past 5 years has been the primary care representative on the Renal Advisory Group at the Department of Health. She is a member of the KDOQI International Guideline Group which is reviewing the CKD guideline published in 2002 and which should be completed in 2012. Dr Griffith continues to work at York Hospital in the rapid access chest pain clinic and as co-investigator for the cardiology research department. She and Professor Ahmet Fuat have set up a support group for GPs with a special interest (GPwSI) in cardiology. She has written and lectured on managing hypertension, chronic kidney disease, ischaemic heart disease and atrial fibrillation.

Dr Maria Barnard

Consultant in Diabetes and Endocrinology, The Whittington Hospital NHS Trust and Honorary Senior Lecturer, University College London

Dr Maria Barnard joined the Whittington Hospital, London, as lead consultant in diabetes in 1998. She wrote guidelines for diabetes management and helped develop local eye-screening services and a community diabetes clinic. Maria has a special interest in diabetes management in renal disease, young adults and thalassaemia. She undertakes service-based research and takes part in studies assessing new technologies and treatments. Maria was Whittington clinical lead in the Health Foundation’s Co-creating Health Initiative to support self-management. She is collaborating on research developing a website to support self-management in type 2 diabetes and is an honorary senior lecturer with UCL.

Professor Ahmet Fuat

GP Specialist in Cardiology, Darlington, Professor of Primary Care Cardiology and Senior Clinical Lecturer, Durham University and Chair, CVGP

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 from the University of Durham. In his role as a senior clinical lecturer and professor of primary care cardiology at the University of Durham, he is involved in several pragmatic research projects in heart failure. He is a peer reviewer for several journals, including the BMJ, the British Journal of General Practice, Heart and the European Heart Failure Journal. His other interests include education in general practice.

Dr Matthew Fay

General Practitioner, Westcliffe Medical Practice

Dr Matthew Fay graduated from Leeds Medical School in 1992 and became a General Practitioner at Westcliffe Medical Practice in 1999. In 2001, he established a GPwSI cardiology service for North Bradford PCT with his friend and colleague Dr Andreas Wolff. They took this under the wing of Westcliffe Medical Practice and expanded the services to local people in 2006 and established a further locality service in Ilkley in 2010 and Queensbury in 2011. He is currently the national clinical lead for atrial fibrillation for NHS Improvement Heart and Stroke and an executive of the Atrial Fibrillation Association, STARS (the Syncope Trust), Arrhythmia Alliance and the West Yorkshire Stroke Research Network. Outside the clinical arena he is an executive of the Bradford Clinical Commissioning Group leading on long term conditions.

Dr Michael Norton

Consultant Community Cardiologist, South Tyneside NHS Foundation Trust

Michael Norton graduated from University College Galway, trained in cardiology in Dublin and Newcastle and later in general practice on the Northumbria vocational training scheme. Dr Norton is a consultant and senior lecturer in community cardiology in Sunderland (employed by South Tyneside NHS Foundation Trust). He is head of department at the Falls and Syncope Service in Newcastle's Royal Victoria Infirmary and sits on the councils of the Primary Care Cardiovascular Society and the UK Stroke Forum. His interests include heart failure, atrial fibrillation, stroke prevention, cardiovascular syncope and erectile dysfunction as a marker of CVD risk.

Professor Nicholas Peters

Professor of Cardiology and Head of Cardiac Electrophysiology, Imperial College London and
Consultant Cardiologist, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust

Professor Nicholas Peters is professor of cardiology and head of cardiac electrophysiology, Imperial College London, adjunct professor, Department of Pharmacology, Columbia University, NY and past co-director EP Research, St Joseph’s Translational Cardiovascular Research Institute, Atlanta GA, USA. He is director of the ElectroCardioMaths Programme and associate director of the BHF Centre of Research Excellence at Imperial College, head of the Clinical Physiology Section of the National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College London and theme co-leader for cardiovascular disease of the Biomedical Research Centre, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust. Professor Peters has an interest in remote monitoring by implanted and wearable technologies, and a research programme funded principally by the British Heart Foundation, Wellcome Trust, MRC and NIH (USA). With more than 120 peer-reviewed papers and patents in the field, he has a number of international research collaborations, is on the Scientific and Medical Advisory Boards and is consultant to a number of academic, publishing, commercial and governmental entities in Europe and U.S.A. He is also on the board of trustees of the Heart Rhythm Society, co-founder of the European Cardiac Arrhythmia Society, Symphony Medical, Inc and CardioPolymers, Inc.

Dr Andrew Frankel (symposium speaker)

Consultant Physician and Nephrologist, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust

Dr Andrew Frankel was appointed consultant physician and nephrologist at Charing Cross Hospital in November 1995 and subsequently with the merger of the Hammersmith Hospital and St Mary’s Hospital renal units has been a consultant at the Imperial College Kidney and Transplant Institute. He has an interest in the pathogenesis and management of diabetic renal disease and leads the Diabetic Renal Clinical Research Group at the Imperial College Kidney and Transplant Institute. He has undertaken work to understand why patients with diabetic nephropathy progress or remain stable, as well as to understand the factors associated with the increased cardiovascular risk present in diabetic patients with CKD. By working closely with diabetic colleagues, Dr Frankel has led on work to better understand how patients with both diabetes and CKD stages 3 to 5 should be managed in the modern environment, where the nature of the risks of glycaemic control are better understood and the treatment options for these patients has expanded.