Professor John Cleland
Foundation Chair of Cardiology
John's main research is in heart failure, extending from its epidemiology and prevention, through the development and implementation of guidelines for the application of current knowledge, to large randomized trials to study interventions for and disease areas in heart failure. Current interests include the role of myocardial hibernation contributing to heart failure and its treatment (including beta-blockers and revascularisation), diastolic heart failure in the elderly, the potential deleterious effect of aspirin in heart failure, ventricular resynchronization, telemonitoring, implantable haemodynamic monitoring devices, atrial fibrillation in heart failure and new interventions for acute decompensated heart failure.
Alyn is head of the Hull Cough Clinic, the world's leading centre for the diagnosis and treatment of intractable cough. The clinic sees patients from the north of Scotland to Cornwall and over 4000 patients have been through the clinic's care pathway. The methods developed in Hull have formed the basis for both the European and British national guidelines on cough and are supported by many publications dealing with the clinical pharmacology of this most troublesome symptom.
Pulmonary fibrosis (scarring of the lungs) is a disease that typically affects older people and causes progressive breathlessness and premature death. The cause is unknown and there are no effective treatments. Simon's research group are investigating the causes of pulmonary fibrosis and related interstitial lung diseases, focusing on genetic risk factors, immunology, and cell biology of fibroblasts (which produce the collagen scar tissue). Simon runs the Interstitial Lung Disease Clinic at Castle Hill Hospital.