Our founding partners
What we do
We work with a wide range of partners including patients, researchers, clinicians and the NHS to enable data-led research into the causes, prevention and treatment of diseases of the heart and circulation, including heart attacks, stroke and dementia.
Aim 1
To be the UK centre of expertise for cardiovascular data science
Aim 2
To create strong partnerships to improve health data science infrastructure and reduce barriers for research
Aim 3
To involve patients and the public to build trust and ensure that our work meets people’s needs
Our team

Cathie Sudlow
Director of the British Heart Foundation Data Science Centre and Chief Scientist and Deputy Director of Health Data Research UK.

Steffen Petersen
Deputy Director of the BHF Data Science Centre.

Lynn Morrice
Operations Director of the BHF Data Science Centre.

Angela Wood
BHF Data Science Centre Associate Director and Theme Lead for Whole Population Data.

Tim Chico
BHF Data Science Centre Associate Director and Theme Lead for Smartphones and Wearables.

Spiros Denaxas
BHF Data Science Centre Associate Director and Theme Lead for Defining Disease.

Reecha Sofat
BHF Data Science Centre Associate Director and Theme Lead for Cohorts.

Michelle Williams
BHF Data Science Centre Associate Director and Theme Lead for Imaging.

Ewan Pearson
BHF Data Science Centre Associate Director and Theme Lead for the Diabetes Data Science Catalyst.

Matt Sydes
BHF Data Science Centre Associate Director and Theme Lead for Clinical Trials.

William Whiteley
BHF Data Science Centre Associate Director and Theme Lead for the Stroke Catalyst.

Annette Jackson
Executive Assistant for the BHF Data Science Centre.

Anna Stevenson
Early Career Health Data Scientist for the BHF Data Science Centre.

Fionna Chalmers
Early Career Health Data Scientist for the BHF Data Science Centre.

Jackie MacArthur
Senior Scientific Programme Manager for the BHF Data Science Centre.

Jadene Lewis
Early Career Health Data Scientist for the BHF Data Science Centre.

James Farrell
Early Career Health Data Scientist for the BHF Data Science.

Jemma Austin
Communications and Engagement Assistant for the BHF Data Science Centre.

John Nolan
Senior Data Scientist for the BHF Data Science Centre.

Kate McAllister
Communications and Events Manager for the BHF Data Science Centre.

Lars Murdock
Health Data Scientist for the BHF Data Science Centre.

Mehrdad Mizani
Health Data Scientist for the BHF Data Science Centre.

Melissa Webb
Administrative Assistant for the BHF Data Science Centre.

Ross Forsyth
Research Project Manager for the BHF Data Science Centre.

Rouven Priedon
Research Project Manager for the BHF Data Science Centre.

Samaira Khan
Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement Manager for the BHF Data Science Centre.

Sarah Lessels
Research Project Manager for the BHF Data Science Centre.

Steven Wambua
PhD student at the BHF Data Science Centre.

Tom Bolton
Senior Health Data Scientist for the BHF Data Science Centre.

Zach Welshman
Health Data Scientist for the BHF Data Science Centre.
Areas of work
Find out more about our data-led research.

CVD-COVID-UK / COVID-IMPACT
One of seven National Flagship Projects approved by the NIHR-BHF Cardiovascular Partnership, linking population healthcare datasets across the UK to understand the relationship between COVID-19 and cardiovascular diseases.
Learn more…
Whole Population Data
Better use of nationally-collated, structured, coded data: accessing, improving and using linked, national, population-wide health data.

Imaging
Better use of unstructured data: addressing the challenges of accessing, improving and using unstructured data, for example from cardiac and brain imaging, medical free text and electrocardiograms.

Smartphones and Wearables
Exploring how data from apps and wearables, linked to other health datasets, can inform trajectories of cardiovascular health and disease.

Cohorts
Facilitating the linkage of large, ‘omics-rich’ cohorts to electronic health records to better understand the causes of cardiovascular diseases.

Diabetes Data Science Catalyst
This exciting partnership between the BHF Data Science Centre, Diabetes UK and HDR UK aims to develop improvements in our understanding of the link between cardiovascular diseases and diabetes.

Clinical Trials
Developing platforms for efficient, cost-effective trials, using routine health data to recruit and follow patients with cardiovascular conditions.

Defining Disease
Developing methods to define cardiovascular health and disease in computable form through a collaborative network of expertise that provides a world-leading, open, cardiovascular phenotype library of tools and protocols.

Stroke Data Science Catalyst
This five-year partnership between the British Heart Foundation (BHF) Data Science Centre, Health Data Research UK (HDR UK), the Stroke Association, and the BHF – will enable approved research teams to use data from real-world settings, including hospitals, GPs and pharmacies, to improve our understanding of stroke risk factors and open the door to better prevention and treatment.

Join the team
BHF Data Science Centre vacancies can be seen on the HDR UK job site.
See our job adverts
Get in touch
Send us a note to find out more about our work, news and events.
What is HDR UK?
Health Data Research UK (HDR UK) is the UK's national institute for health data science. HDR UK is uniting the UK’s health data to enable discoveries that improve people’s lives. Its vision is that large-scale data and advanced analytics will benefit every patient interaction, clinical trial, and biomedical discovery to enhance public health.
Find out more about HDR UK