As Consultant Pharmacist for CVD Disease, Helen is involved in a wide range of activities across South London to improve the care of patients with or at risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD). Helen chairs the local cardiovascular medicines working group which develops and supports the implementation of consensus evidence-based guidance for use across South London’s 12 clinical commissioning groups and 7 acute trusts, covering a population of 3.6million.

Currently, there is a strong focus on medicines optimisation for long terms conditions such as heart failure, hypertension and atrial fibrillation with the aim of reducing the burden of acute hospital admissions and she has been involved in supporting primary care practitioners through guideline implementation, clinical audit and provision of pharmacist-led virtual clinics. A key focus over recent years has been to increase the proportion of patients with AF who are anticoagulated to reduce the incidence of AF-related stroke and Helen is now focusing on the rollout of mobile ECG devices to improve the detection of AF. Helen is the clinical lead for CVD within two South London CCGs, Clinical Director for AF in the local Health Innovation Network, National Clinical Adviser to the collaborative AF programme of the 15 Academic Health Science Networks across England and also co-chair of the Pan-London stroke prevention in Atrial Fibrillation strategy group. In addition, Helen is an editorial board member for the British Journal of Cardiology and the Journal of Medicines Optimisation, has worked with NICE on the development of a number of cardiovascular guidelines and is a member of the NHS England Primary Care Cardiovascular Leadership Forum and the London Cardiovascular and Stroke Strategic Clinical Leadership Groups.