Our founding partners
What we do
We work with a wide range of partners including patients, researchers, clinicians and the NHS to enable data-led research into the causes, prevention and treatment of diseases of the heart and circulation, including heart attacks, stroke and dementia.
Aim 1
To be the UK centre of expertise for cardiovascular data science
Aim 2
To create strong partnerships to improve health data science infrastructure and reduce barriers for research
Aim 3
To involve patients and the public to build trust and ensure that our work meets people’s needs
Our team
Cathie Sudlow
Director
Professor Cathie Sudlow Director of the British Heart Foundation Data Science Centre and Chief Scientist and Deputy Director of Health Data Research UK.
Steffen Petersen
Deputy Director
Professor Steffen Petersen is Deputy Director of the BHF Data Science Centre which aims to enable data-led research to improve heart and circulatory health.
Lynn Morrice
Director of Operations
Lynn is the Operations Director for the BHF Data Science Centre and leads the implementation of the centre’s strategy to improve the public’s cardiovascular health.
Angela Wood
Associate Director, Whole Population Data
Angela is the BHF Data Science Centre Associate Director and Theme Lead for Whole Population Data.
Tim Chico
Associate Director, Smartphones and Wearables Theme Lead
Tim is the BHF Data Science Centre Associate Director and Theme Lead for Smartphones and Wearables.
Spiros Denaxas
Associate Director, Defining Disease Theme Lead
Spiros is the BHF Data Science Centre Associate Director and Theme Lead for Defining Disease.
Reecha Sofat
Associate Director, Cohorts Theme Lead
Reecha is the BHF Data Science Centre Associate Director and Theme Lead for Cohorts.
Michelle Williams
Associate Director, Imaging Theme Lead
Michelle is the BHF Data Science Centre Associate Director and Theme Lead for Imaging.
Ewan Pearson
Associate Director, Diabetes Data Science Catalyst Theme Lead
Ewan Pearson is the BHF Data Science Centre Associate Director and Theme Lead for the Diabetes Data Science Catalyst.
Matt Sydes
Associate Director, Clinical Trials Theme Lead
Matt is the BHF Data Science Centre Associate Director and Theme Lead for Clinical Trials.
Annette Jackson
Executive Assistant
Annette is Executive Assistant to Professor Cathie Sudlow, HDR UK Chief Scientist, Deputy Director and Director of the BHF Data Science Centre.
Anna Stevenson
Early Career Health Data Scientist
Anna is an Early Career Health Data Scientist, providing data management and curation support within the national Trusted Research Environment.
Fionna Chalmers
Early Career Health Data Scientist
Fionna is an Early Career Health Data Scientist providing data management and curation support within the national Trusted Research Environments.
Jackie MacArthur
Senior Scientific Programme Manager
Jackie MacArthur is the BHF Data Science Centres, Senior Scientific Programme Manager.
Jemma Austin
Communications and Engagement Assistant
Jemma is a Communications and Engagement Assistant, supporting the Centres communications and patient, public and involvement & engagement (PPIE) activities.
James Farrell
Early Career Health Data Scientist
James is an early career health data scientist, providing data management and curation support within Trusted Research Environments (TREs).
John Nolan
Senior Health Data Scientist
John is a Senior Data Scientist, overseeing the provision of essential data management and curation within the national Trusted Research Environments (TREs).
Kate McAllister
Communications and Events Manager
Kate is the BHF Data Science Centres, Communications and Events Manager.
Lars Murdock
Health Data Scientist
Lars is a Health Data Scientist, providing essential data management and curation to support research within the Trusted Research Environments (TREs).
Mehrdad Mizani
Health Data Scientist
Mehrdad is a Health Data Scientist in the BHF Data Science Centre.
Ross Forsyth
Research Project Manager
Ross is a Research Project Manager for the BHF Data Science Centre.
Rouven Priedon
Research Project Manager
Rouven is a Research Project Manager for the BHF Data Science Centre.
Samaira Khan
Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement Manager
Samaira is the Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement Manager for the BHF Data Science Centre.
Sarah Lessels
Research Project Manager
Sarah is a Research Project Manager for the BHF Data Science Centre.
Steven Wambua
PhD student
Steven is a PhD student in the BHF Data Science Centre.
Tom Bolton
Senior Health Data Scientist
Tom Bolton is a Senior Health Data Scientist in the BHF Data Science Centre.
Zach Welshman
Health Data Scientist
Zach is a Health Data Scientist in the BHF Data Science Centre.
Areas of work
Find out more about our data-led research.
CVD-COVID-UK / COVID-IMPACT
One of seven National Flagship Projects approved by the NIHR-BHF Cardiovascular Partnership, linking population healthcare datasets across the UK to understand the relationship between COVID-19 and cardiovascular diseases.
Learn more…
Whole Population Data
Better use of nationally-collated, structured, coded data: accessing, improving and using linked, national, population-wide health data.
Imaging
Better use of unstructured data: addressing the challenges of accessing, improving and using unstructured data, for example from cardiac and brain imaging, medical free text and electrocardiograms.
Smartphones and Wearables
Exploring how data from apps and wearables, linked to other health datasets, can inform trajectories of cardiovascular health and disease.
Cohorts
Facilitating the linkage of large, ‘omics-rich’ cohorts to electronic health records to better understand the causes of cardiovascular diseases.
Diabetes Data Science Catalyst
This exciting partnership between the BHF Data Science Centre, Diabetes UK and HDR UK aims to develop improvements in our understanding of the link between cardiovascular diseases and diabetes.
Clinical Trials
Developing platforms for efficient, cost-effective trials, using routine health data to recruit and follow patients with cardiovascular conditions.
Defining Disease
Developing methods to define cardiovascular health and disease in computable form through a collaborative network of expertise that provides a world-leading, open, cardiovascular phenotype library of tools and protocols.
Stroke Data Science Catalyst
This five-year partnership between the British Heart Foundation (BHF) Data Science Centre, Health Data Research UK (HDR UK), the Stroke Association, and the BHF – will enable approved research teams to use data from real-world settings, including hospitals, GPs and pharmacies, to improve our understanding of stroke risk factors and open the door to better prevention and treatment.
Join the team
BHF Data Science Centre vacancies can be seen on the HDR UK job site.
See our job adverts
Get in touch
Send us a note to find out more about our work, news and events.
What is HDR UK?
Health Data Research UK (HDR UK) is the UK's national institute for health data science. HDR UK is uniting the UK’s health data to enable discoveries that improve people’s lives. Its vision is that large-scale data and advanced analytics will benefit every patient interaction, clinical trial, and biomedical discovery to enhance public health.
Find out more about HDR UK