Organ Protection

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Meet our Team

Clinicians

Andrew Klein 

Andrew is a cardiac anaesthetist and clinical researcher who has experience in collaborative research through the Association of Cardiothoracic Anaesthesia and Critical Care. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the journal Anaesthesia and sits on the Board of the Association of Anaesthetists and the National Institute of Academic Anaesthesia. Andrew is hoping to meet new colleagues to work with and set up new working groups to conduct collaborative trials looking at how to improve patient outcomes after cardiac surgery.

Gudrun Kunst, MD, PhD (habil.), EDAIC, FRCA, FFICM

Gudrun has been Consultant Anaesthetist at King’s College Hospital since 2004. After qualifying from the Medical School of the University of Heidelberg (Germany) in 1991, she trained at Heidelberg University Hospital and at the Royal Brompton Hospital in London, UK. Her clinical interests include cardiovascular anaesthesia and her research interests perioperative organ protection. She is the anaesthetic and perioperative research lead at King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.

Gudrun is an examiner for the Primary FRCA and is the Pan-London Anaesthetic Academic Training Programme Director. She is the Scientific Officer and the Treasurer of the Association of Cardiothoracic Anaesthetists and Critical Care (ACTACC) and she was awarded the RCoA Macintosh Professorship in 2019.

Internationally, Gudrun is a Board Member of the European Board of Cardiovascular Perfusion (EBCP) and she chairs the Cardiopulmonary Bypass Committee of the European Association of Cardiothoracic Anaesthesiologists (EACTA).

Patient and Public Representatives 

Irene Leeman 

Irene is a retired dentist, mainly working with children and adults with special needs, and she taught Dental Public Health to undergrads and postgraduates. She spent 9 years as a public governor for a mental health and community services NHS Trust and is a member of the Lay Committee at the RCoA. She is passionate about patient centred healthcare and hopes to share information and contribute to improvements in cardiac care from the patient perspective. She has a personal interest in cardiac treatment and care.

Judith Bower

Judith has been a carer and lay member of a number of Clinical Study Groups over a few years. She supports family members who have experienced many cardiac interventions.  As a lay member she has a great interest in research. She has an academic background in engineering, biomechanics and education and has been a dementia advisor and trainer in dementia care for 15 years. She currently works for Empowered Carers, supporting carers of people living with dementia. Empowerd Carers - Empowered Conversations. Her passion is to make scientific language more accessible to lay members and give carers a voice in their supporting roles.

Mark Lewis

Mark has lived with aortic dissections since 2012 and has been an active member of the patient support group Aortic Dissection Awareness (UK and Ireland) following emergency surgery for a Type A dissection in July 2018.  Over the last five years he has had a number of major and minor operations and is a strong believer in the "voice of a patient" in medical interventions and contributing to national health care standards/policy.  He is contributing to a number of research projects within cardiovascular surgery and also aortic dissections.  He has a particular interest in patient decision support tools and the use of digital and data services.  Recently he was appointed as a PPV member of the NHS England Specialist Vascular Clinical Reference Group.