Professor Derek Connolly BSc[Hons] MBChB[Edin] PhD[Cantab] FRCP

Professor Derek Connolly

Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences
Honorary Senior Clinical Lecturer
Consultant Cardiologist and Director of R&D at Sandwell & West Birmingham Hospitals
Honorary Professor at Aston University

Contact details

Telephone
+44(0)7801067953
Email
d.l.connolly@bham.ac.uk
Twitter
@drderekconnolly

Qualifications

  • BSc (First Class Honours) in Pharmacology, University of Edinburgh, 1986
  • MB ChB, [Brunton Medalist] University of Edinburgh Medical School, 1988
  • Membership of the Royal Colleges of Physicians (UK) 1991
  • PhD, Gonville and Caius College, University of Cambridge, 1999
  • Certificate of completion of Specialist Training in Cardiology 1999
  • Fellowship of the Royal College of Physicians 2004

Biography

Dr Derek Connolly is a Consultant Cardiologist and the Director of Research and Development at Birmingham City Hospital and Sandwell Hospital. He was on the original design and naming team of the forthcoming super hospital, the Midland Metropolitan University Hospital which will open 2024.

He trained in Edinburgh, Cambridge, London and San Diego where he was a Carnegie Scholar. He has a first class degree in Pharmacology from the University of Edinburgh where he was the Brunton medallist and Keasbey Bursary holder. His BHF funded PhD in molecular cardiology is from the University of Cambridge. He has been the Chief or Primary Investigator of multiple large trials in Cardiovascular medicine. He developed one of the UKs first primary angioplasty programmes, and one of the UKs largest cardiac CT programmes. His primary research interest is in the detection and treatment of cardiovascular disease.

Research

Dr Connolly has participated in over 40 large, multicentre randomised clinical trials either as Chief or Principal Investigator. He was UK Chief Investigator for the landmark Fourier, Ebbinghaus and Santorini trials in cholesterol reduction but has also been involved in trials in imaging, blood thinning and atrial fibrillation.

Research Groups and Centres

Director of Research and Development, Clinical Research Facility, Birmingham City & Sandwell Hospitals

Other activities

He is a council member of the British Primary Care Cardiovascular Society and has given over 300 invited lectures worldwide.

Publications

Contemporary treatment gaps in cholesterol control among high- and very high-risk patients in Europe between 2020–2021 – the multinational SANTORINI study. Kausik K. Ray, Inaam Haq, Aikaterini Bilitou, Marius Constantin Manu, Annie Burden, Carlos Aguiar, Marcello Arca, Derek L. Connolly, Mats Eriksson, Jean Ferrières, Per Hildebrandt, Ulrich Laufs, Jose M. Mostaza, David Nanchen, Ernst Rietzschel, Timo Strandberg, Hermann Toplak, Frank L. J. Visseren, Alberico L. Catapano. Submitted to Lancet Regional Health – Europe October 2022.

A.Hlatky, Sam Wilding, BethStuart, Zoe Nicholas, James Shambrook, ZinaEminton, Kim Fox, Derek Connolly, PeterO’Kane, Alex Hobson, Anoop Chauhan, Neal Uren, Gerry P.Mccann, Colin Berry, Justin Carter, Carl Roobottom, Mamas Mamas, Ronak Rajan, NickCurzen. Randomized comparison of chest pain evaluation with FFRCT or standard care: Factors determining US costs. Journal of Cardiovascular CT September 24, 2022 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcct.2022.09.005

May Khei Hu, Mengshi Yuan, Sunil James, Hui Ping Lee, Fairoz Abdul, Abdel Yousif, Ahmed Hassan, Jawad Khan, Derek Connolly, Vinoda Sharma. Positive remodelling of coronary arteries on computed tomography coronary angiogram: an observational study. AsiaIntervention 2022;8:110-115

Larissa Fabritz, D. Connolly, E. Czarnecki, D. Dudek, A. Zlahoda-Huzior, E. Guasch, D. Haase, T. Huebner, K. Jolly, P. Kirchhof2, Ulrich Schotten, Antonia Zapf and Renate B. Schnabel on behalf of the Smart in OAC – AFNET 9 Investigators. Remote Design of a Smartphone and Wearable Detected Atrial Arrhythmia in Older Adults Case Finding Study: Smart in OAC AFNET9. Frontiers in Cardiovascular Medicine, 21 March 2022. https://doi.org/10.3389/fcvm.2022.839202

Kausik K Ray, Laurens F Reeskamp, Ulrich Laufs, Maciej Banach, François Mach, Lale S Tokgözoğlu, Derek L Connolly, Anja J Gerrits, Erik S G Stroes, Luis Masana, John J P Kastelein. Combination lipid-lowering therapy as first-line strategy in very high-risk patients. European Heart Journal, Volume 43, Issue 8, 21 February 2022, Pages 830–833, https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehab718

Paul F. Brady, Winnie Chua, Frantisek Nehaj, Derek L. Connolly, Alya Khashaba, Yanish J. V. Purmah, Muhammad J. Ul‐Qamar, Mark R. Thomas, Chetan Varma, Renate B. Schnabel, Tanja Zeller, Larissa Fabritz, and Paulus F. Kirchhof. Interactions Between Atrial Fibrillation and Natriuretic Peptide in Predicting Heart Failure Hospitalization or Cardiovascular Death. Journal of the American Heart Association. Volume 11, Issue 4, 15 February 2022 doi.org/10.1161/JAHA.121.022833

Sheikh AS, Connolly DL, Abdul F, Varma C, Sharma V. Intravascular lithotripsy for severe coronary calcification: a systematic review. Minerva Cardiol Angiol. 2021 Oct 29. doi: 10.23736/S2724-5683

P Brady, W Chua, F Nehaj, D Connolly, A Khashaba, Y Purmah, M Jawad Ul Qamar, M Thomas, C Varma, R Schnabel, T Zeller, L Fabritz, P Kirchhof. Natriuretic peptides predict future heart failure and cardiovascular death in an unselected population of patients presenting to hospital: interactions with atrial fibrillation. European Heart Journal, 42, Issue Supplement1, October 2021, ehab724.0479,

K.K.Ray, I Haq, A.Bilitou C.Aguiar, M.Arca, D.L.Connolly, M.Eriksson, J.Ferrières, P.Hildebrandt, U.Laufs, J.M.Mostaza, D.Nanchen, E.Rietzschel, T.Strandberg, H.Toplak, F.L.J.Visseren, A.L.Catapano. Evaluation of contemporary treatment of high- and very high-risk patients for the prevention of cardiovascular events in Europe – Methodology and rationale for the multinational observational SANTORINI study Atherosclerosis Plus 2021 Sept: 43, 24-30.

Curzen N, Nicholas Z, Stuart B, Wilding S, Hill K, Shambrook J, Eminton Z, Ball D, Barrett C, Johnson L, Nuttall J, Fox K, Connolly D, O'Kane P, Hobson A, Chauhan A, Uren N, Mccann GP, Berry C, Carter J, Roobottom C, Mamas M, Rajani R, Ford I, Douglas P, Hlatky MA; FORECAST Investigators. Fractional flow reserve derived from computed tomography coronary angiography in the assessment and management of stable chest pain: the FORECAST randomized trial. European Heart Journal. 2021 Jul 16:ehab444.

Sheikh AS, Connolly DL, Sharma V. [2021] Acute Coronary Syndrome Associated with Calcified Coronary Lesions. Int J Cardiovasc Dis Diagn.  Mar 23;6(1): 025-033

GW Hunter, Vinoda Sharma , C Varma and Derek Connolly[2021] The EXCEL Trial: The Interventionalists’ Perspective. European Cardiology Review, 2021;16:e01.

N AlShoaibi, M Al Harbi, H Al-Modaimegh, A Al Qubbany, S Al Saif, DL Connolly, S Kharabsheh, M Fathy, Y Hegazy, N Tarcha & A Al Fagih. Use of NOACS in high-risk patients with atrial fibrillation in Saudi Arabia: perspectives on improving patient care.[2021] Expert Review of Cardiovascular Therapy, 2021 Mar;19(3):221-23

SM Zubair Rahim, Derek L Connolly, Arvind B Rajasekaran and Vinoda Sharma 2020]. Covid-19 Treatment: A Narrative Review of the Research and Evidence Thus Far. Scholarly Journal of Emergency Medicine and Critical Care, 2020;4 ;1

Kevin Bainey, Robert Welsh, Stuart Connolly, Tamara Marsden, Jacqueline Bosch, Keith Fox, Ph. Gabriel Steg, Dragos Vinereanu, Derek Connolly, Scott Berkowitz, Joanne Foody, Jeff Probsfield, Kelley Branch, Basil Lewis, Rafael Diaz, Eva Muehlhofer, Petr Widimsky, Salim Yusuf, John Eikelboom, and Deepak Bhatt. Rivaroxaban plus aspirin versus aspirin alone in patients with prior percutaneous coronary intervention (COMPASS-PCI) [2020]. Circulation, 2020;141:1141–1151

Sharma V, Mughal L, Dimitropoulos G, Sheikh A, Griffin M, Moss A, Notghi A, Pandit M, Connolly DL, Varma C, Kirchhof P. The additive prognostic value of coronary calcium score (CCS) to single photon emission computed tomography myocardial perfusion imaging (SPECT-MPI)-real world data from a single center[2019] J Nucl Cardiol. 2019 Dec 3

Sabina A. Murphy, Terje R. Pedersen, Zbigniew A. Gaciong, Richard Ceska, Marat V. Ezhov, Derek Connolly, Oleg Kraydashenko, J. Wouter Jukema, Kalman Toth, Matti J. Tikkanen, Kyungah Im, Stephen D. Wiviott, Christopher Kurtz, Narimon Honarpour, Robert P. Giugliano, Anthony C. Keech, Peter S. Sever, and Marc S. Sabatine, on behalf of the FOURIER Investigators. Reduction in Total Cardiovascular Events with the PCSK9 Inhibitor Evolocumab in Patients with Cardiovascular Disease: A Prespecified Analysis from the Randomized Controlled FOURIER Trial [219] JAMA Cardiology 2019;4(7):613-619

Expertise

Derek has conducted a large number of live interviews on broadcast media both down the line and recorded. He has participated in many press releases and attainted significant press publications .

Media experience

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