List of pages

  • Dr Cannon graduated from the Royal Free and University College Medical School in 2002 with distinctions in his final medical examinations. He undertook his basic postgraduate medical training in London at St Thomas’ and the Royal Brompton Hospitals before moving to the Eastern Deanery for his higher medical training in Respiratory and General Internal Medicine. During this he was awarded a PhD from University of Cambridge for research into the role of bone morphogenetic signalling in zebrafish vascular development and a Masters Degree in pulmonary vascular diseases from the University of Bologna. He was appointed as a Consultant at Royal Papworth Hospital in 2013 and since 2019 has been the Director of National Pulmonary Hypertension Service - Cambridge.

    Dr Cannon has broad experience managing patients with general respiratory conditions including asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), recurrent chest infections, cough and unexplained breathlessness. He also reviews patients who have had blood clots (pulmonary emboli, PE) and those with or suspected to have pulmonary hypertension (raised blood pressure on the lungs). He is a recognised provider by major insurance companies but also see patients who self pay.

    Contact details:

    Telephone: 01223 638000

    Secretary

    Carolyn Daniels
    Tel: 01223 638257
    Email: carolyn.daniels1@nhs.net

    Specialties:

    Respiratory Medicine

    Dr Cannon graduated from the Royal Free and University College Medical School in 2002 with distinctions in his final medical examinations.

  • Mr Jenkins graduated in 1989 and trained in surgery in London. He completed a period of research into myocardial protection at the Hatter Institute at UCL and was awarded the degree of Master of Surgery from The University of London.

    Mr Jenkins trained in cardiac surgery on the west London rotation and was appointed as consultant at Royal Papworth Hospital in 2001. He has experience in all aspects of adult cardiac surgery. Specialist experience includes heart and lung transplantation, mechanical circulatory support including ventricular assist devices and ECMO (artificial hearts and lungs).

    Mr Jenkins is the lead surgeon for the national pulmonary endarterectomy programme. His research interests are related to pulmonary hypertension and pulmonary endarterectomy surgery.
     

    Contact details:

    Telephone: 01223 638000

    Secretary

    Grace Meads
    Tel: 01223 639860
    Email: grace.meads1@nhs.net

    Specialties:

    Cardiothoracic surgery

  • Mr Ng graduated in 1993 from Trinity College, Dublin. He completed his basic surgical training in East Yorkshire. His cardiothoracic surgery training began in 2000 and was based entirely at Royal Papworth Hospital with short stints in Norwich and Oxford. He undertook a two-year period of research in transplantation tolerance at the Transplantation Biology Research Centre of Harvard University from 2005 to 2007.

    He was appointed as a locum consultant surgeon at Royal Papworth Hospital in 2009 before becoming a substantive appointment in Feb 2011. He has experience in all aspects of adult cardiac surgery. Specialist interest includes high-risk surgery in the sick elderly population, aortic surgery specifically acute aortic dissection emergencies and pulmonary endarterectomy surgery.

    He is one of four surgeons in the national pulmonary endarterectomy programme at Royal Papworth Hospital.

    Contact details:

    Telephone: 01223 638000

    Secretary

    Sally Lephard
    Tel: 01223 638522
    Email: sallylephard@nhs.net

    Specialties:

    Cardiothoracic Surgery

  • Joanna Pepke-Zaba, PhD, FRCP, graduated from Warsaw University School of Medicine in Poland before undertaking a fellowship in respiratory physiology at Royal Papworth and Addenbrooke’s Hospitals, University of Cambridge, which resulted in a PhD. She is the lead physician and Director of the National Pulmonary Vascular Diseases Unit at Royal Papworth Hospital. She is member of Pulmonary Hypertension Clinical Reference Group and  previously chaired the National Pulmonary Hypertension (PH) Centres Committee for the UK and Ireland.  Her main research has concentrated on the translational programmes  in the field of pulmonary hypertension with specific interest into Chronic Thromboembolic Pulmonary Hypertension and Idiopathic Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension.

    Has published over 100 papers in the field of PH and serves on various educational and scientific international committees. She is committed to training in respiratory medicine and was reappointed as Recognised Teacher by the Clinical School of the University of Cambridge. She has been Honorary Senior Visiting Fellow of the University of Cambridge School of Clinical Medicine since 2011.
     

    Contact details:

    Telephone: 01223 638000

    Secretary

    Carolyn Daniels
    Tel: 01223 638257
    Email: carolyn.daniels1@nhs.net

    Specialties:

    Respiratory Medicine.
    Specialist Clinical Interests: Pulmonary Hypertension and Pulmonary Vascular Diseases.

  • Dr Karen Sheares obtained her BA (Hons) in Physiological Sciences in 1990 and continued at Oxford University Medical School graduating with the degree of BM BCh in 1993. She commenced postgraduate training and obtained her MA in 1995 and MRCP in 1996. Subsequently she started an innovative and unique specialist registrar training programme in Respiratory Medicine, Clinical Pharmacology and General Medicine in Addenbrooke’s Hospital and Papworth Hospital. During this time, she was awarded a British Heart Foundation research fellowship to investigate how low oxygen levels regulate the growth of pulmonary artery smooth muscle cells resulting in pulmonary hypertension. This culminated in a PhD from the University of Cambridge in 2005.
      
    She was appointed as Respiratory Consultant at Royal Papworth Hospital and Honorary Respiratory Consultant in Cambridge University Hospital in 2006 and obtained FRCP in 2011. She is the Respiratory expert on the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s Venous Thromboembolic Diseases Guidelines Group. She sat on the British Thoracic Society’s Pulmonary Circulation Specialist Advisory Group and Pulmonary Embolism Guidelines Group. Her research interest is the pathogenesis of pulmonary vascular remodelling in pulmonary hypertension particularly in the thromboembolic group.

    Contact details:

    Telephone: 01223 638000

    Secretary

    Saskia Nightingale
    Tel: 01223 638462
    Email: saskia.nightingale@nhs.net

    Specialties:

    Respiratory Medicine
    Pulmonary Vascular Diseases
    Clinical Pharmacology and TherapeuticsRespiratory Medicine
    Pulmonary Vascular Diseases
    Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics

  • Dr Dolores Taboada graduated with honours at Universidad Nacional del Nordeste in Corrientes, Argentina in 1999 and completed her Internal Medicine specialty training in Buenos Aires in 2002. She qualified as a Cardiologist in 2009 after completing her cardiology specialty training in Madrid, Spain. She undertook a fellowship in Pulmonary Vascular Diseases at Papworth Hospital in September 2010 and has been working as a Consultant since July 2012.  

    Dr Taboada is experienced in the management of patients with all types of pulmonary hypertension and performs right heart catheterisation in complex pulmonary hypertension patients. Her research interests include chronic thromboembolic disease and the role of platelets in pulmonary arterial hypertension. With her work on platelet phenotype in pulmonary arterial hypertension, she has obtained an MPhil in Medical Science degree from the University of Cambridge in 2016.

    Dr Taboada is a member of the Royal College of Physicians in England, British Cardiovascular Society, European Society of Cardiology, ESC Heart Failure Association and International CTEPH Association.
     

    Contact details:

    Telephone: 01223 638000

    Secretary

    Louise Bannister
    Tel: 01223 638918
    Email: louisebannister@nhs.net

    Specialties:

    Cardiology

  • Dr Toshner is a chest physician specialising in pulmonary vascular disorders. He holds an honorary contract at Addenbrooke’s Hospital and is a Visiting Scientist at the University of Cambridge where he works closely with Professor Nicholas Morrell. Prior to taking up his consultant post he held a Clinical Lecturer’s post in Translational Medicine at the University of Cambridge and is interested in taking basic science and applying it to the clinical arena for patient benefit.

    He is an active member of the British Thoracic Society formerly sitting on the General Council as the specialist trainee representative, the Education and Training Committee and currently the Specialist Advisory Group for Pulmonary Vascular Diseases. He retains an interest in teaching and has in the past acted as the Collector of Cases for the University, contributed to the East Anglian Specialist Advisory Committee, the Eastern Deanery Specialist Training Committee and  organised the programme for Eastern Deanery specialist registrar training. He is an associate editor for BMC Cardiovascular Disorders.
     

    Contact details:

    Telephone: 01223 638000

    Secretary

    Saskia Nightingale
    Tel: 01223 638462
    Email: saskia.nightingale@nhs.net

  • Mr Tsui is the Clinical Lead for the Mechanical Circulatory Support Device Programme at Royal Papworth Hospital. He is also the Regional Training Programme Director and Chairman of the Specialty Training Committee for Cardiothoracic Surgery at the East of England Deanery.

    His national duties include:

    1) Chairman of the Cardiothoracic Advisory Group (CTAG), at NHS Blood & Transplant
    2) Member of the Ventricular Assist Device (VAD) forum, National Commissioning Group (NCG)
    3) Examiner on the Intercollegiate Board for the FCRS (C-Th) exam
    4) Specialist Advisor to the NICE Interventional Procedures Advisory Committee 2010-13
     

    Contact details:

    Telephone: 01223 638000

    Secretary

    Katie Lawrence
    Tel: 01223 639741
    Email: katie.lawrence4@nhs.net

    Specialties:

    Cardiothoracic Surgery and Transplantation.

Nicola Speed, Pulmonary Hypertension Nurse

DSC_2445-BG-Lift.jpgNicola started her nursing career in 1990 as nursing auxiliary. She took the NVQ route to nurse training, qualifying in 2004. Since then she has worked through the bandings from Band 5 to Band 6 roles on our Chest Medical Unit (CMU) and moved to a Pulomonary Hypertension (PH) specialist nurse role in 2011. We asked her about her role here at Royal Papworth...

What attracted you to the job?

I gravitated to looking after the PH patients while working on CMU as a staff nurse and accumulated many skills that relate to PH patient care. The complexity of the condition never ceases to interest me. 

What’s your favourite part of the job?

Seeing a patient who has been very restricted by their disease improve with the therapies, improving their quality and longevity of life.