John
Deanfield
University College, London,
UK
John Deanfield FRCP FESC is a Professor of Cardiology at University
College London. He is Director of the National Institute of
Cardiovascular Outcomes Research (NICOR) in the UK and was a Senior
Advisor to the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (formally
Public Health England) on cardiovascular disease prevention. In his
role within NICOR, Deanfield has played a leading role in the use of
national data to improve outcomes from heart disease. He has
championed the idea of lifetime benefits of sustained management of
cardiovascular risk factors and comorbidities, introducing the concept
of 'investing in your arteries'.
Deanfield's career has focused on the management of heart
disease across the lifetime of an individual. He completed his
clinical training at the Middlesex Hospital London. He then carried
out his postgraduate training at Great Ormond Street Hospital
(GOSH) in paediatric cardiology and at the Royal Postgraduate Medical
School Hammersmith Hospital, London, in adult cardiology, which
allowed him to understand cardiovascular disease in its different
stages and progression.
Deanfield was appointed a Consultant Cardiologist at GOSH in 1984. A
key contributor to the new speciality of Adult Congenital Heart
Disease, he chaired the National and International Practice
Guidelines, including the European Society of Cardiology Task Force
for Grown Up Congenital Heart Disease (GUCH) (2003). At The National
Heart Hospital, he developed one of the largest programmes for Adult
Congenital Heart Disease (ACHD/GUCH) in the world, which was
transferred to create a new unit at the new Barts Heart Centre in
2015. He chaired the Standards Committee for Adults in the UK National
‘Safe and Sustainable’ Review of Congenital Heart Disease services in
2014 and advised on subsequent implementation.
As Director of NICOR since 2011, Deanfield oversees one of the
largest longitudinal set of cardiovascular electronic health records
in the world, providing UK-wide data for NHS Quality Improvement,
research and public engagement. He has actively worked towards
improvements to cardiology, working on prevention, clinical care and
the evaluation of outcomes.
He has published more than 520 research articles (H-index 140,
citations >139K), ranging across the consequences of congenital
heart disease to the early onset of acquired cardiovascular disease in
adults. Deanfield developed a non-invasive technique to study the
factors responsible for early arterial disease and its response to
treatment. In 2014, he chaired the JBS3 Cardiovascular Prevention
Guidelines, introducing the concept of ‘investing in your arteries’ to
communicate with patients. This in turn led to the development in 2018
of the Heart Age Calculator to extend this messaging to the general
public, in collaboration with PHE and NHS England. He is currently
Chairing the development of the JBS4 guidelines. Deanfield
co-chaired the Expert Scientific and Clinical Advisory Panel
(ESCAP) for the Health Check Programme in PHE as well as the Academic
Group on Healthy Ageing in PHE.
Deanfield was awarded a British Heart Foundation Chair to study
cardiovascular disease prevention (2003-2018). He became adjunct
Professor at Yale University, New Haven USA in 2009 and was given an
Einstein Professorship (2018-2021) at the
Hospital Charite Universitätsmedizin Berlin to study Artificial
Intelligence in large scale cardiovascular data. Deanfield was elected
a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (FMedSci) in 2001, and in
2017 he was awarded the British Cardiovascular Society Mackenzie
medal in recognition of outstanding service to British Cardiology.
In 2021 he was awarded the Commander of the Order of the British
Empire (CBE).
Deanfield sits on the Medical Advisory Committees and Boards of a
number of healthcare companies. He is Chief Medical Advisor to the new
national early disease detection programme, ‘Our Future Health’ (2020)
and Chaired the National Health Check Programme Review that was
published in 2021. His charity positions include membership of the
Medical Advisory Board of the Chain of Hope Charity and Academic
Committee Chair of Heart(UK). For many years, Deanfield was Medical
Advisor to the Somerville Foundation for Adult Congenital Heart
Disease patients.