Professor Thanos Athanasiou is a Consultant Cardiothoracic Surgeon at Hammersmith and St Mary's Hospitals and a Professor of Cardiovascular Sciences & Cardiac Surgery in the Division of Surgery at Imperial College London. He specializes in Complex Aortic Surgery, Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting (CABG), Minimally Invasive Cardiac Surgery and Robotic Assisted Cardiothoracic Surgery. His institutional responsibility is to lead academic cardiac surgery.Professor Darzi is Co-Director of the Institute of Global Health Innovation at Imperial College London and holds the Paul Hamlyn Chair of Surgery. He is a Consultant Surgeon at Imperial College NHS Trust and the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust. Professor Darzi is Non-Executive Director of NHS England, Chair of the NHS Accelerated Access Collaborative and Co-Director of the NHS Digital Academy. He is also Chair for the Pre-emptive Medicine and Health Security Initiative at Flagship Pioneering UK plc.Researchled by Professor Darzi is directed towards achieving best surgical practice through innovation in surgery and enhancing patient safety and the quality of healthcare. His contribution within these research fields has been outstanding, publishing over 1400 peer-reviewed research papers to date. In recognition of his achievements in the research and development of surgical technologies, Professor Darzi has been elected a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences, a Fellow of the Royal Society, an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering. He is also is a past president of the British Science Association. In 2002, Professor Darzi was knighted for his services to medicine and surgery, and in 2007 he was introduced as Lord Darzi of Denham to the UK’s House of Lords as the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health. He has been a member of Her Majesty’s Most Honourable Privy Council since 2009 and was awarded the Order of Merit in 2016. Professor Aung Ye Oo is the clinical lead for aortovascular surgery at the St Bartholomew’s Hospital and affiliated to William Harvey Research Institute of Queen Mary University of London as the Honorary Clinical Professor in Cardiovascular Surgery. He has developed the largest and most prolific complex aortic surgery service in the United Kingdom. Professor Oo is an international expert, mentor and one of the key opinion leaders in complex aortic surgery. He has trained and supported many surgeons across the world in development of aortic surgery programmes. The research interest of Professor Oo has been the organ protection in complex aortovascular surgery. He has introduced the cost-effective intraoperative and postoperative Motor Evoked Potential monitoring in management of thoracic and thoracoabdominal aneurysm patients in United Kingdom. He subsequently development research into spinal cord ischaemia during surgery by detecting biomarkers utilising microdialysis catheter, multi-modality monitoring of spinal cord ischaemia and biomarkers in cerebral protection during complex aortic arch procedures. He has also led UK multicentre study on effect of Covid 19 pandemic on patients with thoracic aortic disease and developed a guideline on management of this patient group during pandemic endorsed by the Society for Cardiothoracic Surgery of Great Britain and Ireland. He has published over 170 papers and book chapters on cardiac and aortic surgery.Professor Aung Ye Oo is the founder chair of the United Kingdom Aortic Surgery group which actively promotes education and research into aortic surgery as well as support patient groups like Aortic Dissection Awareness UK and Ireland, The Aortic Dissection Charitable Trust and Marfan Foundation. He is a member of the European Association for Cardiothoracic Surgery Taskforce in Thoracic Aortic Forum, Director of Barts Aortovascular Symposium, and Research Advisory Board of the Aortic Dissection Charitable Trust.
