The Teaching Faculty

Dr Jillian Riley - Course Director

Dr Jillian Riley is at the National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College,  developing the MSc Cardiovascular and Respiratory Healthcare (October  2018). She directed studies in Cardio-respiratory Nursing at the college for ten years before deciding to concentrate on supporting health professionals more widely to deliver high quality patient care.

Dr Riley trained as a nurse in London and gained clinical experience in cardiothoracic intensive care both in the UK and North America. Her PhD was in innovative patient-centred monitoring for patients with heart failure. With a particular interest in supporting the delivery of cardiac care Dr Riley was instrumental in the development of the British Association for Nursing in Cardiac Care (BANCC) and past President of the association. She currently sits on the Executive committee of the board of the European Heart Failure Association of the ESC. Dr Riley also sits on the cardiovascular strategic leadership group for NHS London and co-chairs the heart failure subgroup. She also chairs the Palliative Care in Heart Failure task force for the Heart Failure Association of the ESC.

Dr Riley authors widely on the subject of heart failure. She is an associate editor for the European Journal of Heart Failure and sits on the editorial board of the European Journal of Cardiovascular Nursing and on the British Journal of Cardiac Nursing.  

With a keen interest in supporting the contribution of nurses to the delivery of care Dr Riley successfully led the development of a European Heart Failure Nurse Curriculum. ( Heart Failure Association of the European Society of Cardiology heart failure nurse curriculum, European Journal of Heart Failure, ISSN: 1388-9842)  The explicit aim of this is to support equality of heart failure care across Europe. She is also involved in awarding and supporting Heart Failure Association training fellowships to nurses to further their clinical and academic careers and to inform heart failure nursing and patient care (www.escardio.org/communities/HFA). 

Dr Riley also explores innovative ways of delivering healthcare to patients with chronic heart and lung disease, and that take account of the patient's experience of the healthcare encounter. She lecturers, delivers short courses and provides research support in these areas.

Dr Stuart Rosen
Dr Stuart Rosen is Consultant Cardiologist at the Royal Brompton and Ealing Hospitals and Reader in Cardiology in the National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College, London. He received his medical undergraduate education at Pembroke College, Cambridge and at Charing Cross and Westminster Medical School. His specialist cardiology training was at Charing Cross, Hammersmith and St Mary’s Hospitals. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, American College of Cardiology and the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) and is a member of its Working group on myocardial function and of the Heart Failure Association of the ESC. Dr Rosen is also a member of the British Cardiovascular Society (BCS), the British Society of Heart Failure and the International Cardio-Oncology Society.

Dr Nick Hopkinson

Nick Hopkinson is a Reader in Respiratory Medicine at Imperial College as well as an Honorary Consultant Chest Physician at The Royal Brompton Hospital. He qualified in Medicine at Cambridge and The London Hospital Medical College and went on to train in Respiratory and General Internal Medicine at St George’s and St Thomas’ Hospitals. He is clinical lead for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) at The Royal Brompton Hospital where he runs the Advanced COPD clinic where patients are assessed for novel treatments for their disease including endobronchial emphysema therapies. He has established a smoking cessation clinic within the trust and is responsible for developing pulmonary rehabilitation services. 

Key areas of activity are the effective management and prevention of COPD focussing on novel lung volume reduction techniques, physiological assessment of skeletal muscle, physical activity and lung function, together with the promotion of high value treatment strategies and tobacco control.

Dr Julia Kelly

Julia Kelly is a Clinical Research Physiotherapist at the Clinical and Academic Unit of Sleep and Breathing, NHLI, Royal Brompton Hospital, and Clinical Education Fellow at the Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College London. Julia graduated in 2000 with a Bachelor of Physiotherapy from the University of South Australia. She developed her clinical experience in the field of Cardiorespiratory Critical Care, going on to specialise in sleep, and respiratory support treating patients with sleep disordered breathing, including those with sleep apnoea and also respiratory failure patients requiring non-invasive ventilation.

Julia received her PhD from Imperial College London. Her thesis titled 'Autotitrating Non-invasive Ventilation (NIV) in patients with Hypercapnic Ventilatory Failure' investigated a new autotitrating mode of ventilation in patients with chronic respiratory failure during wakefulness and sleep, but specifically in the detection and treatment of acute exacerbations. Her current role(s) sees her divide her time between clinical work, research and education. Julia is currently project manager and Trial Sleep Therapist for a UK national, multicentre trial investigating the treatment of patients with mild sleep apnoea. The Merge Study

Her educational role is as Education Fellow in Curriculum and Assessment for  Imperial College School of Medicine. She is part of the team developing a modern online assessment management system that is aligned to the medical curriculum and student learning outcomes. Julia is also involved with MSc course development and teaching. MSc in Cardiovascular and Respiratory Healthcare

Dr Catriona Jennings
Catriona is a cardiovascular specialist nurse working the Department of Cardiovascular Medicine at the National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College London since 2002. She has coordinated both randomised controlled trials (RCT) and surveys. These include the EUROACTION cluster RCT of a nurse led multidisciplinary family centred preventive cardiology programme conducted in eight countries and 24 centres in Europe between 2002 and 2006; the third and fourth EUROASPIRE surveys of secondary and primary prevention care in over 20 countries in Europe; the British Cardiovascular Society sponsored Aspire-2-Prevent survey based in the UK; and the EUROACTION plus intensive smoking cessation with varenicline which was implemented in 4 countries including the UK.

General information