The Team
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Dr Brijesh AnantharamMBBS MRCP
Professional Profile
Dr Anantharam trained in Cardiology in Leicester and moved to Portsmouth in 2017 to take up his Consultant post in Cardiology. He undertook the prestigious Interventional fellowship in Ottawa, Canada developing skills in advance coronary intervention. He has a special interest in percutaneous coronary intervention (angioplasty) especially in the treatment of chronically occluded arteries. He is interested in new technology as used in cardiology.
Qualifications
Bachelor of Medicine & Surgery
Member of the Royal College of Physicians (London)
Hobbies/Other
Dr Anatharam is a keen follower of cricket and politics, sometimes both at the same time.
Dr Ali DanaBSc (Hons), MBBS, PhD, FRCP
Professional Profile
I am a general cardiologist with special interests in angina, breathlessness, hypertension, palpitations and syncope, and in coronary angioplasty/stenting, particularly complex coronary intervention and treatment of chronically occluded coronary arteries, and also coronary risk factor management.
I qualified from The Middlesex and University College Hospitals Medical School, London in 1992. My cardiology training was in the South East Thames region, primarily at St Thomas’ and King’s College Hospitals, London and I spent a one-year fellowship in Quebec, Canada, training in complex coronary angioplasty via the trans-radial (wrist) approach. I completed my research PhD in Ischaemic Preconditioning and Myocardial Protection at University College Hospital, London (with a British Heart Foundation Research Fellowship) and have published widely in this area. I have continued with my research interest in protection of the ischaemic heart into clinical practice and have recently co-authored a multinational research study in this field in the Lancet. I am a member of the European Society of Cardiology Working Group on the Cellular Biology of the Heart.
I am the lead for the regional Wessex Cardiovascular Strategic Network PCI (angioplasty) subgroup and also a member of the National MINAP Domain Expert group.
Qualifications
Bachelor of Medical Sciences (Hons) / Middlesex Hospital School of Medicine / 1988
Bachelor of Medicine & Surgery / University College and Middlesex School of Medicine / 1992
Member of the Royal College of Physicians of London / 1995
Doctorate of Philosophy (PhD) / University of London / 2001
Member of the European Society of Cardiology Working Group on the Cellular Biology of the Heart / 2001
Member of British Cardiovascular Intervention Society / 2007
Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of London / 2013
Hobbies/Other
I spend most of my time, when not at work, with my family and two teenage children.
I am a keen tennis player and dabble in kite boarding. I have an active interest in photography.
Dr Tom FarrellMBCh.B FRCP
Professional Profile
Dr Farrell qualified from Leicester University in 1981. Cardiology training was completed at St George’s Hospital and the Royal Free. He was a Senior registrar at the Royal Free and Harefield Hospitals.
Dr Farrell undertook extensive research in risk stratification after heart attacks and abnormal autonomic function, including first author publications in Circulation, European Heart Journal and other peer reviewed journals.
He has trained extensively in electrophysiology, pacing and angioplasty. At present he is senior physician at the Queen Alexandra hospital and has played a major role in the development and growth in cardiology services in Portsmouth over the last twenty years. Present interests are in streamlining cardiology care as an outpatient and in the acute corridor.
Qualifications
Bachelor of Medicine & Surgery / Leicester University / 1981
Member of the Royal College of Physicians / 1984
Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians / 1997
Hobbies/Other
Although not born in Portsmouth, Dr Farrell has brought his son up to be a Pompey Fan and attends Fratton Park regularly. He was a keen cricketer until injuries caught up with him. Father to Betsy the cockapoo (particularly spoilt)
Dr Huw GriffithsBSc MB BS (Hons) MRCP MD
Professional Profile
Dr Huw Griffiths qualified in medicine from St Thomas’ Hospital in 1992 where he was awarded a BSc in Physiology and MB BS with double honours. He trained in cardiology at London at St Mary’s Hospital, Hillingdon Hospital and the Royal Brompton. This afforded him opportunities to work in the Peart-Rose hypertension clinic at St Mary’s, the Jane Somerville grown-up congenital heart disease unit and the Derek Gibson echo unit at the Brompton. As a consequence, he has wide experience in the management of all aspects of cardiology including angina, hypertension, heart failure, assessment of murmurs, arrhythmias, pacemakers and syncope.
In 1998, the British Heart Foundation awarded Dr Griffiths a major research grant to work in the heart failure research unit of the National Heart and Lung Institute at Imperial College. This led to a number of research publications and an MD degree in 2002.
It was at the Brompton that he developed his interest in angioplasty, training under Professor Ulrich Sigwart who developed coronary stents and Professor Carlo DiMario.
During his time as an interventional fellow at the Brompton, he performed research into the then emerging technology of drug eluting stents. He was awarded a certificate of completion of specialist training in 2002.
He has been a consultant cardiologist at Queen Alexandra Hospital, Portsmouth, since 2004 and holds a level 8 clinical excellence award.
His main sub-specialist interest is angioplasty and stenting and he the most senior of the interventional cardiologists at Portsmouth. Dr Griffiths treats patients with every kind of heart and cardiovascular disease as well as patients with angina who require angioplasty.
Qualifications
Batchelor of Science / St Thomas’ Hospital / 1989
Bachelor of Medicine & Surgery with Honours in Medicine & Pathology / St Thomas’ Hospital / 1992
Member of the Royal College of Physicians of London / 1995
Doctor of Medicine / Imperial College 2002
Certificate of Completion of Specialist Training / 2002
Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of London / 2012
Hobbies/Other
Dr Griffiths is married with 2 daughters and 2 Labradors. He lives in Hampshire and enjoy skiing, rugby, running and dog walks. He has sailed the Atlantic and participated in yacht racing in many parts of the world.
Dr Kaushik GuhaBSc (Hons) MB BS MD FRCP
Professional Profile
Dr Guha joined Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust in August 2016. He has expertise in all aspects of general cardiology. Dr Guha has specialist expertise within heart failure and complex cardiac devices. Following graduation from St George’s Hospital Medical School, University of London in 2004, he trained within the South Thames and North-West Thames deaneries, completing his fellowship at the Brompton and Harefield Hospitals.
During training, he was awarded a MD by Imperial college, London for a thesis on ‘ Cardiac Resynchronisation Therapy and its effects on systolic Heart Failure’. He maintains an academic interest and has published over 50 peer reviewed articles. He is the current primary investigator locally for the CardioMems study and is a collaborator in many other randomised controlled studies taking place within cardiology currently.
Qualifications
Bachelor of Science / St George’s Hospital University of London / 2001
Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery / St George’s Hospital University of London / 2004
Member of the Royal College of Physicians / 2007
Doctorate of Medicine / Imperial College London / 2014
Hobbies/Other
Dr Guha is married with 2 daughters. He is an avid football fan although he admits to supporting Coventry city. In his spare time he enjoys going to the gym and watching cricket.
Dr Peter HaworthBSc (Hons) MB BS FRCP
Professional Profile
My practice includes all aspects of adult general cardiology with specific interest and expertise in interventional cardiology (inserting of stents). I also have a strong interest in management of hypertension and run an NHS hypertension clinic at the Queen Alexandra Hospital.
I qualified from Guy’s and St. Thomas’ Hospital, London with a BSc. (hons) degree in cardiovascular imaging in 1997 and MB BS in 2000. I trained in cardiology in the south east of England including research undertaken at the Royal County Hospital in Brighton. My interventional training was completed in Brighton and St. Thomas’ Hospital in London. I was awarded the Auckland Interventional fellowship in 2012 and spent a year in New Zealand working in the world renowned heart unit there developing skills in complex coronary intervention.
I was appointed as a consultant at the Queen Alexandra hospital in Portsmouth in 2014, joining a busy interventional unit. I perform diagnostic angiography and coronary artery intervention to treat angina (stents and balloons).
I am strongly interested in research and have been a principal investigator in several international trials as well as developing research interests in cardiac imaging and interventional cardiology.
Qualifications
Bachelor of Science Cardiovascular Imaging / University of London / 1997
Bachelor of Medicine & Surgery / Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospitals / 2000
Member of the Royal College of Physicians / 2003
Hobbies/Other
Dr Haworth is married with 3 children and lives in Hampshire. He is a keen musician playing the guitar, drums, piano, banjo and ukulele with various degrees of success. He has an unfilled ambition to learn to play the bagpipes. When time allows he enjoys golf and watching rugby and cricket.
Dr Alex HobsonBSc (Hons) MB BS MD FRCP
Professional Profile
Alex Hobson qualified from St Bartholomew’s Hospital, London 1997. He trained in general and interventional cardiology in Wessex and has been a Consultant Cardiologist in Portsmouth since 2010. He is the Lead Medical Examiner at Queen Alexandra Hospital, Chair of the South Coast Interventional Group and the Clinical lead for Portsmouth Cardiac Associates.
He has specialist interests in Coronary disease, including stents, physiological assessment of coronary disease, treatment of calcific coronary artery disease and antiplatelet therapies; Treating high blood pressure and cholesterol; Novel oral anticoagulants and DC cardioversion and Aviation cardiology. He has authored or co-authored over 20 peer reviewed scientific publications, written book chapters in the Oxford Textbook of Interventional Cardiology and in “Management of Cardiovascular Conditions in Adults in Critical Care” and acted as an expert reviewer for NICE and medical student text books.
Qualifications
Bachelor of Science / University of London / 1994
Bachelor of Medicine & Surgery / St Bartholemew’s Hospital, University of London / 1997
Doctorate of Medicine / University of London / 2010
Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians / 2014
Hobbies/Other
He is married with 2 young children. When he gets the time he likes the challenge of endurance sporting events with highlights including “le marathon des sables” a 240km race across the Sahara and the UK ironman triathlon. He also has interests in photography (especially wildlife photography); travel; skiing and sailing.
Dr Richard JonesMB BS MSc FRCP
Professional Profile
Dr Jones studied medicine at St Mary’s Hospital Medical School in London, which proved to be a most enjoyable and stimulating experience. His first house job was for the Professor of Surgery at that hospital, as well as an attachment to the cardiothoracic unit where a deeper interest in cardiology was first stimulated.
Following general medical training in the West Country, he went on to become a research fellow at the University Hospital of Wales in his hometown of Cardiff. He spent two years specialising in heart scanning (echocardiography) with particular reference to disease of the mitral valve. After this he joined the Wessex Specialist Training scheme, including placements in Jersey, Portsmouth and the Wessex Cardiac Unit at Southampton. He was appointed as a Consultant in Cardiology for Portsmouth NHS Trust in January 1999.
Dr Jones deals with all aspects of emergency and elective adult cardiology. His research has included studying human factors in the Royal Navy and he has developed this to provide useful insight into similar factors within the NHS. In addition to his clinical work, Dr Jones is heavily involved in workforce planning and strategic development of cardiology services within the region. He is also interested in improving safety through the acknowledgement and management of human factors in safety critical procedures. He is currently associate medical director at the Queen Alexandra Hospital.
Qualifications
Bachelor of Medicine & Surgery /
Master of Science /
Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians /
Hobbies/Other
Dr Jones is a keen photographer and has had several compositions displayed in public, including the majority of the photos on this website. He has a keen interest in the history of our area and is a gastronome.
Professor Paul KalraMA MB BChir MD FRCP
Professional Profile
Professor Paul Kalra graduated in 1992 from Cambridge University. He undertook cardiology specialist training in Wessex and two years at the National Heart Lung Institute and Royal Brompton Hospitals, London to further clinical and research interest in heart failure. Paul started as Consultant Cardiologist at Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust in April 2004. In 2019 he was appointed as Honorary Professor of Cardiology.
Whilst he has a broad interest in all aspects of general adult cardiology, his sub-specialty interest is the assessment and management of patients with heart failure. He has championed local heart failure service development spanning primary, secondary and tertiary care. In addition, he co-developed the local complex device service, initiating local implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) and cardiac resynchronisation therapy device (CRT) implantation and follow up. Paul has extensive expertise in assessment of patients for and the implantation of pacemakers and other complex devices (CRT and ICD).
Paul has been on the British Society for Heart Failure Board since 2009 and was elected Chair 2017-2019 (now past chair). This is the national body providing expert advice, support and education to NHS organizations, professionals and patients (working closely with patient groups). During his role as Chair he was instrumental in getting heart failure recognised as a priority and incorporated into the NHS Long Term Plan published in 2019. He is currently helping to drive implementation of change, contributing to NHS England’s NHS Long Term Plan Heart Failure and Heart Valve Disease Expert Advisory Group. He has helped set up and is vice-chair of the committee for the British Heart Foundation (BHF) ‘hope for hearts’ innovation fund (up to £1 million to help support innovation to help deliver better heart failure care). In 2019 the UK’s largest heart failure patient charity, Pumping Marvellous Foundation, presented Paul with the Platinum patient educator award – recognising extraordinary work towards building awareness of heart failure and advocacy of better systems to improve care for patients,
He is committed to medical education and has helped organise regular national meetings (see www.bsh.org.uk and www.cardiorenalforum.com) for hospital doctors, GPs and specialist nurses. He actively contributes to education of cardiology trainees through roles with national (British Cardiovascular Society) and international (European Society for Cardiology) societies. This has included question writing and exam setting for the European Exam in General Cardiology for 10 years and in 2020 was appointed Chair of the UK standard setting group for this exam.
Special interests – research:
Paul has a major interest in and ongoing commitment to research. He has set up and leads the Portsmouth Cardiology research team. The Cardiology research department is very successful and has received national recognition. It was the winner of Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust Research & Development Research Merit Award 2013. Paul has developed a programme of investigator-initiated research with focus on cardio-renal disease and anaemia and heart failure. He is Chief Investigator for a BHF funded study evaluating the role of intravenous iron in patients with heart failure (IRONMAN – 75 UK centres), which has the potential to shape international guidelines and clinical practice. In recognition of his work Paul was awarded ‘Outstanding Chief Investigator’ award in 2017 by Wessex Clinical Research Network.
He has over 100 peer review publications and has edited a textbook ‘Specialist Training in Cardiology’ which was Highly Commended in the BMA Medical Book Competition. Paul has a longstanding clinical and research interest in cardiorenal disease and co-founded the UK Cardiorenal Forum, which held its 14th annual meeting in 2019.
Paul has been Honorary Clinical Senior Lecturer at the University of Glasgow since 2015. In 2019 he was appointed as Honorary Professor of Cardiology in Portsmouth (Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust and University of Portsmouth).
Qualifications
Bachelor of Arts (Hons) / Churchill College, Cambridge University / 1989
Bachelor of Medicine & Surgery / Cambridge University (Clinical at United Medical and Dental Schools of Guy’s & St Thomas’ / 1992
Master of Arts / Cambridge University / 1993
Member of the Royal College of Physicians / London / 1995
Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians / 2007
Doctor of Medcine / Imperial College, University of London / 2009
Hobbies/Other
Paul’s main interests outside medicine are focused around sports and in particular football, cricket, cycling and golf (active participation but increasing amount of time watching children participate). With his wife Sian and three young sons (not forgetting Merlin the dog) he also enjoys spending time walking and reading literature for the under 10s!
Dr Senthil KirubakaranMB ChB (Hons), MD, FRCP, FHRS, CEPS
Professional Profile
My practice includes all aspects of adult general cardiology with specific interest and expertise in the assessment of management of patients with palpitations and abnormal heart rhythms (arrhythmias).
I was appointed as a consultant at the Queen Alexandra hospital in Portsmouth in 2014, where I am the Lead for the complex arrhythmia service, having introduced and developed catheter ablation for atrial and ventricular arrhythmias.
I perform interventional ablation procedures for most arrhythmias; Supraventricular Tachycardias (SVT), Atrial Tachycardia and Fibrillation and Ventricular arrhythmias.
I have performed more than 800 ablations for cardiac arrhythmias, and implanted more than 700 pacemakers / devices.
I am committed to medical education, and currently I am the lead for the arrhythmia teaching program within the Wessex region.
I graduated with an Honours degree from the University of Manchester. I was awarded a British Heart Foundation Research Grant for research in the field of cardiac electrophysiology and atrial fibrillation and was awarded a Doctor of Medicine (MD). I trained in leading cardiac centres in London and undertook specific training in Milan, Italy to develop expertise in complex arrhythmia management. I am accredited in cardiac electrophysiology from the International Board of Heart Rhythm Examination (IBHRE-CEPS) and have been made a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians (FRCP) and Heart Rhythm Society (FHRS).
Qualifications
MB ChB(Hons) / University of Manchester / 1998
Medicine
MRCP / London / 2001
Member of the Royal College of Physicians
MD (Res) / University of Manchester / 2011
Doctor of Medicine (Research)
CEPS / International Board of Heart Rhythm Examiners (IBHRE) / 2013
Certified Electrophysiology Specialist
FHRS / Heart Rhythm Society / 2018
Fellowship Heart Rhythm Society
FRCP / Royal College of Physicians / 2018
Fellowship of the Royal College of Physicians
Hobbies
I am a keen racquets sports player, church organist and have a private pilots’ license.
Dr Anjana SivaMA MB BChir PhD FRCP
Professional Profile
After graduating from Cambridge University in 1991 Dr Siva completed a PhD in Molecular Genetics at Cambridge University and went on to train as a Cardiologist in South East Thames Hospitals.
Dr Siva was appointed as Consultant Cardiologist and head of Echocardiography at Portsmouth Hospitals Trust in May 2007.
Special interests
Dr Siva has broad experience in general cardiology with special interests in chest pain assessment, valve disease and pulmonary hypertension. She has extensive experience in specialist echo techniques such as dobutamine stress echo, transoesophageal echo, three dimensional echo and dyssynchrony assessment.
Qualifications
MA Bchir / Robinson College Cambridge / 1991
Membership of the Royal College of Physicians / London / 1995
PhD Molecular genetics of Hyperhomcysteinaemia in patients with Ischaemic Heart disease / Gonville and Caius College Cambridge / 2001
British Society Accreditation in Tranthoracic and Transoesophagel Echocardiography
Fellow of the Royal College of physicians / 2010
Hobbies/Other
Dr Siva lives in Southsea with her husband and 4 children. She enjoys yoga, running half marathons and is a keen book club member.
Dr Mike StewartMB ChB MRCP
Professional Profile
Dr Stewart qualified as a consultant cardiologist and general physician in September 2003, having trained at the Wessex Cardiothoracic Centre, Southampton and at the Royal Brompton Hospital, London. After 21 years in the Royal Navy he became an NHS consultant in Portsmouth in 2005. His NHS practice covers all aspects of general cardiology with extensive experience in pacemaker implantation and follow up, echocardiography including transoesophageal echocardiography invasive and non invasive cardiac investigations.
Dr Stewart’s NHS work extends into his private practice where he consults for all aspects of general cardiology including: chest pain, heart murmurs and valvular disease, palpitations, dizziness and blackout, shortness of breath, heart failure and hypertension and stroke prevention in atrial fibrillation.
He has extensive in cardiac pacemaker device implantation and has particular interest in cardiac ultrasound examination by the transthoracic and transoesophageal route. He performs coronary angiography by both femoral and radial route
He is chairman of the Portsmouth Hospitals Formulary and medicines committee and he is an advisor to the British National Formulary on the pharmacological treatment of cardiovascular disease.
Special interests
Cardiac imaging, echocardiography, venous thromboembolic disease.
Cardiac radiology.
Echocardiography.
Cardiology.
Qualifications
Bachelor of Medicine & Surgery / University of Manchester / 1987
Member of the Royal College of Physicians / 1990
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