The Liverpool Centre for Cardiovascular Science (LCCS) was officially launched on World Heart Day 2018 as a strategic research partnership between the University of Liverpool, Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital Trust, Liverpool John Moores University and Liverpool Health Partners (LHP).

Its aim was and is to tackle the high levels of cardiac disease and helping people in our region to live longer and healthier lives.

I was lucky enough to be offered the opportunity to work as the Cardiovascular (CVD) Programme Manager at LHP which also meant I would be working as an integral part of the LCCS. I attended the launch of LCCS and formally took up my role in the autumn of 2018. 

When I first started there were some small pockets of CVD interest and research across the city region but nothing in the way of a coherent strategy or programme. The LCCS, under the leadership of Professor Gregory Lip, changed the outlook and landscape for our city from the outset. It provided a focus, clarity, purpose and outcomes that would be delivered as part of a strategy, but more than that, it encouraged and created partnerships and collaboration.

In my time working at LHP I have been privileged to have been a small part in the phenomenal growth of LCCS.

There are now more than 150 committed researchers and affiliates, there has been over £10m awarded in grant funding, engagement with the public through our dedicated Community Engagement and Involvement (CEI) team, and there have been more than 1,000 research papers produced. Together with Prof Lip, I have been honoured to co-author two papers that have focussed on Atrial Fibrillation – the growing costs facing the population from this diagnosis, and also how health services could more effectively approach this increasingly costly condition.

As a member of the CEI team we have offered health screenings and lifestyle advice to hundreds of the local population for conditions such as Atrial Fibrillation, a heart condition that causes an irregular and often abnormally fast heart rate. We have recently formed a partnership with Everton in the Community which will soon be offering health screenings to potentially thousands of matchday fans.

Coming to the end of my time being involved with the LCCS, I am proud to say that the CVD research landscape has improved immeasurably since its formation; that the accomplishments of the programme will have long lasting positive outcomes for our population; and that the LCCS will continue to go from strength to strength to achieve its overall aim of reducing levels of cardiac disease and helping people to live longer and healthier lives across all of our communities.