Prehabilitation

Meet our team

Clinicians

John Cleland is a Cardiologist and Director of the Robertson Centre for Biostatistics, an internationally accredited Clinical Trials Unit offering a complete service, both to academia and industry, for the conduct of trials and registries in many therapeutic areas. His main interest is heart failure, extending from its epidemiology and prevention, to Phase II-IV trials and the development and implementation of guidelines. Particular current interests include the myocardial substrate, mechanisms of progression (eg. congestion and inflammation), telemonitoring and theranostics.

Ben Gibbison is Associate Professor of Cardiac Anaesthesia and Intensive Care at the Bristol Heart Institute. His research interests surround Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal Axis dysfunction and brain dysfunction after cardiac surgery and in critical illness. He also is Chief Investigator for a number of NIHR funded clinical trials.

Health Services Researchers

Rod Taylor is Professor of Population Health Research at University of Glasgow. He has extensive research experience in cardiac rehabilitation and secondary prevention including leadership of the Cochrane Heart Rehabilitation group a number of UK based randomised trails of home-based rehabilitation for people with heart disease including REACH-HF

Maria Pufulete is an applied health methodologist at the Bristol Health Institute. She designs and conducts randomised controlled trials, non-randomised studies, systematic reviews and mixed methods studies in cardiovascular disease. She is Chief Investigator for multiple NIHR-funded studies.

Patient and Public Representatives

Phil Collis

Phil lives with CVD and is experienced working with patient groups and organisations including British Heart Foundation, European Heart Network, and the National Institute for Health Research. Phil works to ensure people affected by CVD have access to evidence-based information and the opportunity to influence CVD research. Phil also acts as a patient advisor with the Centre for Patient Reported Outcomes Research Centre based at Birmingham University.

Cardiothoracic Interdisciplinary Research Network Representative

Georgia Layton is a Cardiothoracic Surgery trainee based within the East Midlands. She has extensive experience within collaborative research networks. She has previously worked closely with the Birmingham Clinical Trials Unit during the early stages of ROSSINI-2; a national, randomised control trial assessing methods for reducing surgical site infection (SSI). Georgia is keen to build upon her experience of surgical collaborations and social media management to promote national engagement from sites around the UK in future trials targeting SSI.