Greater Manchester’s population suffers disproportionately from heart and circulatory disease. Our services include large tertiary cardiac units (Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust) that, together, provide the highest quality specialist care to a population of around 3.5 million people, with additional provision of nationally designated cardiopulmonary transplantation and ventricular assist services to 6.6 million people.

Stroke is a devastating condition affecting people of all ages, causing death and long-term disability. Following changes to GM hospital stroke services in 2015 to ensure patients have access to better quality hospital care and timely specialist treatment, Greater Manchester now has the best scoring hospital stroke pathway in the country, with all stroke patients having access to care rated as ‘A’ (the highest available rating) by The Sentinel Stroke National Audit Programme. Stroke research is an important part of stroke services and a major research strength in Manchester. A wide range of studies involving stroke and the emergency conditions affecting the brain, take place at Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust.

Greater Manchester is one of the largest population catchments for tertiary cardiac services in Europe and offers a unique resource for clinical research. This is also combined with training the next generation of healthcare staff and researchers to the highest standard. Through the strengths and catchment populations of our partners, we will take early discovery and innovation from basic underpinning research into practice, prove effectiveness, and disseminate best practice across our city region.

The Cardiovascular Domain applies discovery and translational science, and excellence in clinical care, to improve life expectancy for patients with cardiovascular disease in Greater Manchester.

The University of Manchester’s Division of Cardiovascular Sciences combines clinical, translational and basic science research with the aim of translating our understanding of the cellular and molecular processes underlying cardiovascular disease into improved clinical treatments and patient care. The domain also has an excellent working relationship with the University of Salford and Manchester Metropolitan University both of whom undertake valuable research in this area.

The CVD domain focuses on three key research areas:

• Hypertension
• Cardiac physiology and heart failure
• Cardiovascular Genomics

Theme and clinical leads:

• Bernard Keavney, MAHSC Cardiovascular and Diabetes Domain Lead, and Consultant Cardiologist, Manchester NHS Foundation Trust
• Farzin Fath-Ordoubadi, Consultant Cardiologist, Manchester NHS Foundation Trust
• Naseer Ahmad, Consultant Vascular Cardiologist, Manchester NHS Foundation Trust
• Hood Thabit, Consultant Diabetologist & Honorary Senior Lecturer, Manchester NHS Foundation Trust

Selected activity ongoing within the CVD domain:

• Non-adherence to antihypertensive treatment in primary care – BiOmarkers in Urine, anTihypeRtensive trEAtment and blood pressure Control in Hypertensive patients (OUTREACH) in GP practices in Greater Manchester
• The Manchester Amputation Reduction Strategy (MARS)
• A GM-wide Collaboration workshop held on 29^th June 2022
• Step-up award funding in 2022/23 to increase the research capacity of clinical colleagues in GM
• A funded PPI/E programme for 2022/23 focusing on engagement with service users via focus groups
• A small-grant funding call awards up to £10,000 for pump-priming of projects within GM. Further information in relation to these calls can be found here or email
  MAHSC@healthinnovationmanchester.com