Jm Walker

I qualified in Medicine from the University of Birmingham with honours in pre-clinical medicine and obtained my MD from that institution in 1984. My clinical training in cardiology began at St Thomas’ Hospital London and completed in Oxford before being appointed as Consultant Cardiologist and Physician at University College Hospital London (UCLH) in 1987. I have maintained a comprehensive clinical cardiology practice at UCLH, the Middlesex and the Heart Hospitals, encompassing all aspects of adult cardiology and intervention, with periods as the Clinical Director and latterly, the Clinical Lead for Cardiology Services. In 1990 I co-founded with my non-clinical scientist colleague, Dr Derek Yellon, the Hatter Cardiovascular Institute (HCI), utilising a generous donation from a patient. HCI moved into a bespoke building in 2006, where clinical service and laboratory cardiovascular research are housed in close physical proximity. The HCI has an international reputation in laboratory and translational research focusing on myocardial protection, producing >600 publications and over 70 MD and PhDs since its inception. I established the first and still probably the only dedicated cardiology clinic for patients with disorders of haemoglobin, such as thalassaemia and sickle cell disease (now named the “Red Cell Cardiology Service”). Out of this clinical service arose the interest in iron overload. A collaboration with the Brompton Hospital led to the development of the MRI T2* parameter for non-invasive tissue iron measurement. Clinical use of T2* has been associated with a >70% reduction in cardiovascular mortality in Thalassaemia patients and is now the globally accepted gold standard for non-invasive assessment of tissue iron loading. I have written the chapters on cardiac management of thalassaemia for the UK National Standards Framework and for the International Guideline published by TIF. I was an expert contributor to the AHA consensus statement on the management of cardiovascular complications of thalassaemia, published in Circulation 2013 and still the standard reference article for the cardiovascular care of TM patients. In recent years I have ceased cardiology interventional practice at UCLH, to focus on research, particularly the cardiovascular complications of thalassaemia and the application of novel cardiac MRI sequences. Trials of rapid cMRI protocols have been completed in Thailand, India and Peru with planned further studies in Indonesia and elsewhere. In 2016 I helped establish the Cardio-oncology service at UCLH. This is an expanding clinical service and research programme, serving cancer patients with cardiovascular complications.