Professional Activities
Recent highlights:
• Appointed as Chairman of the Writing Group of the international American College of Chest Physicians (ACCP Guidelines on Antithrombotic therapy for AF (10th edition, 2016-), the first non-US chairman of these guidelines. Previously served as writing committee member for the 8th and 9th ACCP guideline editions. For the 9th ACCP guideline (2012), I was appointed as ‘content expert’ (ie. ’deputy editor’) for the AF guideline chapter. Writing Committee for ACCP COVID-19 arterial thrombosis guidelines [due 2023].
• European Society of Cardiology (ESC): Chairman (2011-2015; and Executive Steering Committee, as ‘Past Chairman’ 2016-) of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) EuroObservational Research Programme on Atrial Fibrillation (EORP-AF), defining the epidemiology and management of AF in Europe. I have managed and developed international registry collaborations with ESC/non-ESC countries (Asia-Pacific HRS, Japan, China, Serbia, Iran) as part of the INTER-AF collaboration49, an American College of Cardiology-led collaboration of academics developing AF registry dataset harmonisation and inter-regional comparisons.
Since 2016, I have chaired or contributed to multiple ESC/European Heart Rhythm Association (EHRA)/Acute Cardiovascular Care Association (ACCA) consensus guidelines eg. Arrhythmias in AF with Heart failure (2015, 2020); AF with Acute coronary syndrome/Stenting (2014); valvular AF, hypertension (2016-2017); real world observational studies in arrhythmia research (2020); risk assessment in cardiac arrhythmias (2020);
Member, ESC Clinical Practice Guideline Committee (2014-2016); my work included implementation recommendations, self-testing modules & assessment of quality/audit standards. Peer reviewer of ESC/EHRA guidelines since 2012. Review Coordinator, 2015 ESC ventricular arrhythmia guidelines.
2020-2024 ESC Council on Stroke (2020-22; Council secretary, administration/research oversight; Scientific Documents chair, responsible for position papers; Since 2022, Chairman-Elect); Chaired position paper from the Council on “Integrated care for optimizing the management of stroke and associated heart disease” with multidisciplinary writing group (PMID: 35552401).
2020-2024 ESC Working Group on Thrombosis (Nucleus member 2020-) Co-Chaired new consensus guidelines on bleeding risk assessment in atrial fibrillation and venous thromboembolism, 2022: PMID: 35323922); Writing group on WG Thrombosis paper on Acute, periprocedural and long-term antithrombotic therapy in older adults (PMID: 36477865).
2022-2024 Nucleus Member, ESC Cardiovascular Roundtable; think-tank for the ESC which links academia and industry, highlighting innovations, planning workshops and position papers.
• European Heart Rhythm Association (EHRA): EHRA Board member: Chair, Scientific Documents Committee (2015-2017), coordinated new guideline development/reviews & facilitated implementation/education. From 2017-2018, I was appointed to the EHRA Governing Board as ‘Research Pillar’ Chair, responsible for scientific initiatives/innovation and scientific documents. In 2014-2015, Chaired group developing EHRA AF patient education website (afibmatters.org) & translation into multiple languages.
2022-2024 EHRA Board member/Chair, International Affairs Committee, linking with international partner societies (Asia-Pacific Heart Rhythm Society, Heart Rhythm Society, Latin America Heart Rhythm Society)
• National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE): External expert and co-author for the NICE AF Quality Standards (2015): helped defined standards/benchmarking & co-author (2015). I was co-author, NICE Patient Pathways to accompany AF guideline & NICE NOAC/DOAC Implementation Consensus (2014). I am an Expert Adviser for NICE Centre for Clinical Practice (including NICE Medicines & Prescribing Centre; 2016-). Clinical adviser to the UK NICE guidelines on atrial fibrillation (2006) and the subsequent NICE implementation/commissioning committee on anticoagulation for AF (2007). I was the clinical expert to NICE, also representing the British Cardiovascular Society, on its evaluation of dabigatran (2011) and apixaban (2013) for stroke prevention in AF (2011). I was on the Guideline Development Group for UK NICE guidelines on atrial fibrillation (2014), and part of the NICE Guideline surveillence review for AF (2016-2017).
• Appointed to SIGN (Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (2016-) producing healthcare guidelines/service standards for NHS Scotland. Appointed as Vice-Chair of SIGN, from 2020-
• National Institute for Health Research (NIHR): I was independent chairman of trial steering committee for NIHR Research for Patient Benefit-funded randomised trial: Postural modification to the standard Valsalva manoeuvre for emergency treatment of supraventricular tachycardias (REVERT) (PMID:26314489); I am a regular contributor of commentaries to NIHR Dissemination Centre and a regular peer reviewer of NIHR grants and study reports for NIHR Journals Library. Currently member of NIHR College of Senior Investigators (2017-). NIHR Grant panel member for NIHR Efficacy and Mechanism Evaluation (EME) Programme (2019-), NIHR Programme Grants for Applied Research (2021-) and NIHR Research for Patient Benefit (2021-). Data safety management board (DSMB member for a Canadian Institutes for Health Research (CIHR) funded trial – BRUISE/BRUISE2 (2009-2017).
• External expert reviewer, 2016 Taiwan Society of Cardiology and Taiwan Heart Rhythm Society joint guidelines on AF management; 2017 Asia-Pacific Heart Rhythm Society AF guidelines (2017); and 2018 American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association/Heart Rhythm Society Focused Update Guidelines on the Management of AF.
Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh (Member of Council, 2015-2022) and have acted as West Midlands Regional Adviser for the RCPE (2013-2019). Member, RCPE Lay Advisory Committee, 2021-2022.
International Academic Scientific Advisory Boards:
(i) Member of the Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) of Siriraj Center of Research Excellence – Cardiovascular disease (SiCORE-CVD), Faculty of Medicine Siriraj Hospital, Mahidol University, Bangkok Thailand; 2020-2023 (ii) Member of Joint Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) of the Cardiovascular Diseases Translational Research Program (CVD TRP) and Cardiovascular Research Institute (CVRI), School of Medicine (NUSMed) at the National University of Singapore (NUS) 2022-2025.
Editorial leadership:
I am Editor in Chief (Clinical Studies) [2010-] of ‘Thrombosis & Haemostasis’ (2022 Impact factor 6.8). Also regular Guest Editor for ‘Circulation’ (2009-). I am an Associate Editor for ‘Europace’ (the main journal for the European Heart Rhythm Association; 2009-). I am on the editorial boards of many of the main journals in the field, including the following (all with Impact Factor >4.0): Journal of the American College of Cardiology, European Heart Journal, Circulation, Atherosclerosis Thrombosis & Vascular Biology, Heart, American Journal of Cardiology, American Heart Journal, American Journal of Medicine, etc.