Clinical Medicine editorial board

Editor-in-chief

Ponnusamy Saravanan

Professor Saravanan is a professor and honorary consultant physician in diabetes, endocrinology and metabolism at Warwick Medical School, University of Warwick and George Eliot Hospital, Nuneaton. He is the lead for diabetes division for the NIHR Clinical Research Network, West Midlands. He is the founder-director of international Doctoral Training Programme, which focuses on research capacity building activities in low- and middle-income countries.

He splits his time equally between clinical and research activity. For the past 17 years, Prof Saravanan’s main research focus is understanding the mechanisms and ethnic variations in ‘programming of obesity and cardiometabolic disorders’ as well as ‘precision medicine’. He has published >130 peer reviewed articles and won several national and international awards. He passionately believes in 'primordial prevention' of metabolic disorders and approaches this by focusing on the health of young women and gestational diabetes (GDM). To address this, he has set up early pregnancy cohorts across the world.

His team won the prestigious NHS Innovation award in 2015 for individualised diabetes management for South Asians in the UK. He is instrumental in fast-track adoption of newer therapies and technologies in diabetes locally, regionally, and nationally. During the COVID-19 pandemic he was instrumental in writing the new RCOG UK screening guidelines for GDM based on his work, which was adopted widely in the UK. He co-led the BABYSTEPS trial – an innovative, combined face-to-face and remote intervention in post-GDM women to improve their physical activity, in collaboration with University of Leicester. He served as an associate editor for many journals and reviews grants and board member for funding bodies nationally and internationally.

Immediate past editor-in-chief

Anton Emmanuel

Prof Anton Emmanuel obtained his medical degree from London University. He is a professor of neuro-gastroenterology at University College London and consultant gastroenterologist at University College Hospital at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery (Queen Square). His current clinical work encompasses being director of the gastrointestinal physiology unit at University College Hospital as well as providing a specialist gastroenterology service for patients with neurological illness.

His research includes gut neurophysiology and the study of the aetiology and management of functional gastrointestinal disorders of the upper and lower gut. He was appointed as editor-in-chief of Clinical Medicine and Commentary, having served a similar role for 8 years at Frontline Gastroenterology.

Since stepping down as editor-in-chief, Anton remains in post as the RCP's medical director of publishing.

On a personal note, Anton is a Londoner, failing guitarist and enthusiastic home brewer.

 

Associate editors

Uazman Alam

Dr Uazman Alam is a senior clinical lecturer and honorary consultant physician in diabetes and endocrinology at the University of Liverpool. He is recognised as an expert in the field of diabetic complications, primarily diabetic neuropathy and has worked extensively the field of corneal confocal microscopy (CCM) as a surrogate endpoint. Uazman has published over 100 manuscripts in high-impact journals over the last 12 years. His achievements were acknowledged with the Clinical Research Award in 2019 by the NeuroDiab, the international diabetic neuropathy satellite organisation of the European Foundation for the Study of Diabetes (EFSD). He has a programme of work in the surrogacy of corneal nerves in non-diabetic pain conditions (fibromyalgia, idiopathic small fibre neuropathy, chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy) funded by Versus Arthritis and the Pain Relief Foundation and interventional studies of painful diabetic neuropathy funded by the NIHR HTA. Along with collaborators at the University of Liverpool, he has developed an AI-based deep learning algorithm to detect and classify diabetic neuropathy with future developmental work in other nervous system disorders.

Uazman is the honorary secretary for the Vascular Medicine & Lipids section of the Royal Society of Medicine and is an active grant reviewer for a number of scientific committees including the National Institute of Health and Care Research.

 

Ian Chan

Dr Ian Chan is a geriatrician in Hong Kong SAR, China. He has been appointed as (honorary) clinical associate professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and honorary clinical assistant professor at The University of Hong Kong.

He initially specialised in critical care medicine, before subsequently developing his role in geriatric medicine and patient safety. He received training at Addenbrooke's Hospital, focusing on MDT and POPS.

Ian has a particular interest in medical education and has been awarded Exemplary Teachers’ Awards twice. He actively participates in teaching in Crew Resources Management and simulation training.

He is currently one of the international advisers of the RCP. 

Tim Chevassut

Dr Timothy Chevassut is a clinical haematologist and basic scientist. He studied medicine and molecular biology at Oxford and gained his MRCP at Bristol before spending a research fellowship at Harvard where he conducted work on embryonic stem cells and DNA methylation. He subsequently completed a PhD at Edinburgh working on RNA interference before returning to medicine and completing specialist training in clinical haematology, culminating in the FRCPath. In 2007 he joined Brighton and Sussex Medical School (BSMS) where he is currently reader in haematology and also honorary consultant at the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton.

Tim’s clinical area of interest is blood cancers with a particular focus on acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) and the myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS). These are related diseases of the blood for which we now have a remarkable understanding of the genetic mutations and molecular biology.

His recent work has focused on one particular gene mutation, namely the DNA methyltransferase gene DNMT3A, which occurs in around 25% of patients with AML. His laboratory has shown that mutations in DNMT3A often initiate leukaemia and can be detected rapidly using PCR to improve diagnosis and prognosis. More importantly, they have shown that leukaemias carrying DNMT3A mutations can be effectively targeted using novel strategies that disrupt the epigenetic machinery of the cell’s genome including histone modifications and DNA methylation.

Tim also works closely with colleagues on other types of blood cancer, notably chronic lymphocytic leukaemia and multiple myeloma, and has established a tissue bank of bone marrow samples. He has acted as principal investigator for a number of early phase clinical studies and is a key member of the National Cancer Research Institute MDS trial subgroup. The overarching goal of his translational research programme is to develop better treatments for patients through improved understanding of disease biology and to bring these to the clinic over the next few years.

Richard Corbett

Dr Richard Corbett is a consultant nephrologist based at Hammersmith Hospital, London. Having spent some time as a medical officer in the Antarctic, he trained in both renal and general medicine. His clinical work relates to the care of the person with established renal failure, including the delivery of peritoneal dialysis and transplantation. Research interests lie in the application of circulatory fluid mechanics to problems in nephrology and, in particular, arteriovenous fistula failure.

 

 

 

Andrew Davies

Prof Andrew Davies is professor of palliative medicine at Trinity College Dublin, University College Dublin, and Our Lady's Hospice in Dublin. He is a UK medical graduate, and worked for over 20 years as a consultant in palliative medicine in the UK.

His interests are evidence-based palliative care, and supportive care for cancer patients. 

 

 

 

Jane Democratis

Dr Jane Democratis graduated from Liverpool University in 1998 and began her higher specialist training in Infectious Diseases and General Medicine in the East Midlands and later Oxford. She has worked in Australia’s tropical Northern Territory. She undertook a clinical fellowship in the Respiratory Virus Unit at the now UKHSA where she completed an MD researching antiviral resistance in influenza. She continues her work in clinical trials in influenza and COVID-19. She now works as a consultant in infectious diseases and microbiology in Wexham Park Hospital, Berkshire, where she has had a key role in the set up and delivery of a viral hepatitis spoke service feeding into Surrey Operational Delivery Network. She is the clinical lead for the complex infection and OPAT services. 

 

 

Arosha Dissanayake (international editor)

Dr Arosha Dissanayake is the RCP regional international adviser for Sri Lanka and president elect of the Ceylon College of Physicians. He is a consultant physician at Karapitiya Teaching Hospital and teaches at University of Ruhuna.

 

 

 

Bill Gibson

Dr Bill Gibson graduated from the University of Sheffield Medical School in 2001 and carried out his higher specialist training in general internal medicine and geriatrics in South Yorkshire. He undertook a research fellowship in urinary incontinence at the University of Alberta in Canada and completed his PhD there, examining the links between falls and LUTS in older people, which is the basis of his ongoing research programme. He is a consultant geriatrician at the University of Alberta hospital in Edmonton, Alberta and his clinical practice concentrates on continence and other bladder and bowel issues in older people, dementia and frailty.

 

 

Tevfik Ismail

Tevfik Ismail is a consultant cardiologist at Guy’s and St Thomas’ and a senior clinical lecturer at King’s College London. He has specialist interests in cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging, heart failure, and inherited and inflammatory heart muscle disease. In addition to weekly inherited cardiac conditions, heart failure and general cardiology clinics, he runs a monthly joint cardiology–rheumatology clinic. He is part of the heart failure service at Guy’s and St Thomas’ hospital and also works closely with the Bexley community heart failure service, running a monthly clinic at Queen Mary’s Hospital, Sidcup.

Tevfik graduated from Imperial College School of Medicine in 2002 with numerous prizes and distinctions, as well as a BSc in cardiovascular medicine. He undertook junior doctor training in the north Thames region obtaining membership of the Royal College of Physicians in 2005. He undertook higher specialist training in cardiology and general internal medicine at several leading London units including the Royal Brompton Hospital, Hammersmith Hospital and the transplant / advanced heart failure unit at Harefield Hospital. He completed his PhD at the Royal Brompton Hospital (National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College) on the role of cardiovascular magnetic resonance in the diagnostic and prognostic assessment of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (2012). He also obtained SCMR Level III accreditation in cardiovascular magnetic resonance, SCCT Level III accreditation in cardiovascular computed tomography and completed British Society of Echocardiography transthoracic accreditation. He is passionate about medical education and is a fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

He has authored/co-authored numerous original papers in high impact international journals including Journal of the American College of Cardiologists, Circulation, Journal of the American Medical Association, Heart and the Journal of Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance among others. He undertakes teaching and research within the School of Biomedical Engineering and Imaging Sciences (part of the faculty of life sciences, King’s College London).

Ilfita Sahbudin

Photo of Ilfita Sahbudin  Dr Ilfita Sahbudin trained in medicine at University of Southampton (2007) and undertook her medical and rheumatology training within the West Midlands Deanery. Following her PhD completion, she was appointed as a clinical lecturer in rheumatology at the University of Birmingham and her obtained her CCT in rheumatology in 2023. She is a post-CCT Fellow at the University of Birmingham, and honorary rheumatology consultant at University Hospitals Birmingham. Her research focuses on optimising the patient outcomes in RA using personalised imaging tools.

 

 

Sushma Saksena

Dr Sushma Saksena is a consultant hepatologist at the Royal London Hospital. She trained in the north-east of England and her research focus has been on hepatic encephalopathy and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. She has over 50 publications and has presented at national and international liver meetings.

Sushma’s main areas of interest as a clinician are viral hepatitis, hepatic encephalopathy and palliative/best supportive care for patients with advanced-stage liver disease. She has a keen interest in service improvement: she has been a fellow at the North East Leadership Academy and has worked closely with CCGs, palliative care teams and hospice in the to set up care pathways for patients with decompensated liver cirrhosis.

She is very committed to supporting medical education, and holds a Masters in clinical education. She has held leadership positions at Health Education North East and is now an honorary senior clinical lecturer at Queen Mary University London and associate dean (joint) for undergraduate medicine and Year 3 Module lead at the Royal London Hospital.

Marina Soltan

Dr Marina Soltan is the national clinical lead for data and research in the Healthcare Inequalities Improvement Team at NHS England, undertaking an academic research fellowship with a PhD exploring the development of novel digital clinical risk scoring using machine learning accounting for health inequalities lenses. Dr Soltan has demonstrated a proven track record in driving national system digital leadership, ensuring a data-driven, scientific approach for delivering evidence based digital clinical and educational interventions. 

Marina has led the scientific evidence base and benefits hypothesis behind the flagship NHS England and NHS Improvement Core20PLUS5 approach which has been rolled out nationally across Integrated Care Systems in England to narrow the gaps in healthy life expectancy across England. She founded and leads the national #CPRinSchools and #HealthinSchools programme; CPR education is now mandatory for all school children within the curriculum nationally.

She has spoken at numerous events and in the media and prizes include the BMJ Clegg Scholarship Prize (2016), National Foundation Doctors Prize (2018), Royal College of Physicians Turner Warwick Prize (2019).

Cameron Swift

Prof Cameron Swift is a general physician, geriatrician and clinical pharmacologist, emeritus professor of health care of the elderly at King’s College School of Medicine, London, and a former president of the British Geriatric Society. His earlier research training included an Medical Research Council clinical pharmacology research fellowship investigating the influence of ageing on drug handling and response. His departmental and personal research output has continued to reflect this field, alongside a broader interest in clinical, multidisciplinary healthcare and service delivery for an ageing population. Prior to his appointment at King’s he held NHS consultant appointments in North Humberside (director of postgraduate medical education) and in Cardiff (as senior lecturer), with a major commitment to clinical service development in each setting.

He has previously served for 6 years on the Committee on Safety of Medicines, as a member of the UK Medicines Commission, and as chair of the editorial board of the journal Age and Ageing, together with overseas assignments, including visiting chairs at the Christchurch Clinical School, New Zealand and the UN International Institute on Ageing, Malta. He also currently serves in a variety of capacities in research grants committees and research programme/project steering committees.

Over the past decade and a half he has been involved as chair or member of several National Institute of Care and Health Excellence guideline development groups, update reviews and quality standard committees, notably in the areas of osteoporosis, falls prevention in later life and the management of hip fracture. The place of robust evidence as the basis for progress in both clinical practice, service development and national guidance remains a paramount commitment.

Advisory board

Cono (Con) Ariti

Con Ariti is the statistical adviser for Clinical Medicine and also advises on statistical issues for the Future Healthcare Journal when required.

Con is currently a lecturer in public health in the Cardiff University Medical School where he teaches postgraduate and undergraduate medical students.

Prior to that, Con was a lecturer in medical statistics at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM). While at LSHTM he was involved in a wide range of clinical trials and epidemiological studies and publishing widely including The Lancet, JAMA and New England Journal. Con has experience working in health services research during stints at the healthcare think tanks The Nuffield Trust and The Health Foundation. Con was also involved in NHS service redesign while working as a quantitative specialist in McKinsey & Company’s healthcare practice. Prior to his career change to a medical statistician in 2008, Con worked for 20 years as a statistician in the financial services industry with blue chip companies such as MasterCard and Capital One in the US and UK.

Con has a first class honours degree in mathematics from Murdoch University in Perth, Australia, awarded in 1994. Con also has an MSc in medical statistics with distinction from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine where he was awarded the Andrew Hewitt prize as the outstanding student in his graduation year in 2009.

In his spare time, Con enjoys watching movies, following the cricket (Australia of course!) and playing for the Cardiff Chess club in their lower divisions.

Tahseen Chowdhury

Prof Tahseen Chowdhury is a clinician in the department of diabetes and metabolism at the Royal London Hospital, in the East End of London. He runs a large specialist diabetes and metabolism unit, dealing with diabetes particularly among the Bangladeshi community of Tower Hamlets. He has a research/clinical interest in diabetes in South Asians and diabetic kidney disease, and has authored over 200 publications, including books entitled Diabetes in South Asian people: Explained, Fatty liver and Diabetes management in clinical practice. He also runs the metabolism programme for medical students at Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry, London.

He qualified from the University of Birmingham and trained in Birmingham and Manchester, before becoming a consultant physician in 2000.

 

Vikas Kapil

Dr Vikas Kapil read medicine and anatomy at Queen’s College Cambridge, achieving first class undergraduate honours and then transferred for his undergraduate clinical training to University College London Medical School.

He completed postgraduate training in clinical pharmacology and medicine at St Thomas’ and St Bartholomew’s hospitals and was awarded his PhD under the supervision of Prof Amrita Ahluwalia at the William Harvey Research Institute (WHRI), investigating the effects of inorganic nitrate on the human cardiovascular system.

Since 2015, he has been a senior lecturer at WHRI and consultant in the Barts BP Centre of Excellence at Barts Heart Centre. He continues to lead on a diverse cardiovascular research portfolio from pre-clinical wet lab experiments to clinical trials, focusing on nitric oxide, autonomic cardiovascular control and hypertension more widely.

He is heavily involved in leading therapeutics and prescribing training for the MB BS (Medicine) course at Barts School of Medicine and Dentistry.

 

Yash Mahida

Prof Yash Mahida is professor of medicine and honorary consultant physician and gastroenterologist at the University of Nottingham and Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust. He obtained his medical qualification from Liverpool University and did his higher medical training in London, Oxford and Nottingham. Following Medical Research Council (MRC)-funded research training in Oxford, he has held a number of academic posts in Nottingham. For about 20 months, he was a visiting research fellow at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School (Boston, USA).

Yash’s clinical practice involves sessions in acute medicine and gastroenterology, with an interest in Clostridium difficile infection and inflammatory bowel disease. His research interests are in acute (C difficile infection-induced) and chronic inflammatory diseases of the intestine and have been funded by grants from the MRC, Wellcome Trust and other charities.

He has supervised 25 higher degrees (PhD and MD) and is the Medical School’s academic lead for undergraduate clinical attachments in medicine.

For many years he has coordinated and chaired weekly physicians’ lunchtime meetings in Queen’s Medical Centre and from 2011 to 2018 he was lead appraiser for the Specialty Medical Group in the trust. He has been a member of MRC Boards and, in addition to regular reviews of original manuscripts and grant applications, he has previously served on the editorial board of Clinical Science and Inflammatory Bowel Diseases.

Rhys Thomas

Dr Rhys Thomas joined Newcastle University from Cardiff University in August 2017. He is an honorary consultant in epilepsy at the Royal Victoria Infirmary. His research interests include the causes and consequences of epilepsy – primarily the genetic causes of the epilepsies, including mitochondrial epilepsies and sudden death in epilepsy.

Rhys was the 2017 Royal College of Physicians Linacre lecturer. He spoke about the risks and benefits of sodium valproate for women of childbearing age. He is an associate editor of Practical Neurology, and web editor of Seizure.

 

 

Editorial staff

Director of communications, policy and research        Claire Burroughs

Head of corporate communications and publishing    Natalie Wilder

Journals manager                                                       Christina Kassiteridi


 

For editorial queries, please contact clinicalmedicine@rcp.ac.uk

For reprints, please contact publications@rcp.ac.uk