British Heart Foundation Data Science Centre appoints Prof Reecha Sofat as new Enhancing Cohorts Thematic Lead and Associate Director
1 February 2022
The British Heart Foundation (BHF) Data Science Centre is pleased to announce the appointment of Professor Reecha Sofat as its new Associate Director and Theme Lead for Enhancing Cohorts.
Reecha is joining the BHF Data Science Centre, led by Health Data Research UK (HDR UK), on a part-time secondment basis to provide strategic leadership on the use of large cohorts in cardiovascular research.
The main focus of this theme is cardiovascular disease-based cohorts and their linkage to other healthcare data, in particular national electronic health records, to better understand the causes and progression of cardiovascular disease, and to more effectively target treatment for different types of patients and different subtypes of disease. Reecha will create and develop partnerships with a breadth of key stakeholders, including the multi-omics, data science, and cardiovascular communities, NHS, industry, patients and public in this work, demonstrating impact at national and international level.
Reecha is the Breckenridge Chair in Clinical Pharmacology and Head of the Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics at the University of Liverpool. Her research interests focus on embedding research into routine clinical care, fully utilising the rich health data that is already collected within the NHS to better understand the causes and consequences of disease and so improve health outcomes. Reecha is already involved in the BHF Data Science Centre’s activities through the centre’s CVD-COVID-UK/COVID-IMPACT consortium, within which she is making crucial contributions to several projects looking at the impact of COVID-19 on cardiovascular diseases and other health conditions.
Professor Reecha Sofat said:
“I am so pleased to be joining the BHF Data Science Centre to lead this important thematic area. The aim is to put in place efficient processes for linking routinely collected healthcare data to research data and biological samples provided by patients with cardiovascular conditions. This should enable data-driven research studies that will inform how we diagnose, prevent and/or manage cardiovascular conditions, through medicines or other interventions. I am looking forward to having a positive impact on patient outcomes through enabling research that is also more accessible for patients to take part in.”
Professor Cathie Sudlow, Director of the BHF Data Science Centre, said:
“We are delighted that Reecha is working with us at the BHF Data Science Centre, bringing her expertise and enthusiasm to lead on the ‘enhancing cohorts’ thematic area. The team and I look forward to working with Reecha to drive real progress in enhancing and using cardiovascular disease-based cohorts to inform the diagnosis, progression, prevention and treatment of cardiovascular diseases.”
Enhancing cohorts is one of six key thematic areas at the BHF Data Science Centre. This thematic area will focus on identifying research priorities and supporting discoveries of cardiovascular disease causes, prediction, early detection and diagnosis, prognostic tools and treatments using population and disease-based cohorts. This work will help the centre to achieve its overall vision – to improve the public’s cardiovascular health through the power of large-scale data and analytics across the UK.