Aortic dissection survivor appointed as Head of Research by national patient association
Posted on 23rd September 2021
National patient association Aortic Dissection Awareness UK & Ireland is delighted to announce that we recently appointed Dr. Gordon McManus as Head of Research.
Gordon is a patient who survived a Type A Aortic Dissection and emergency surgery at the Royal Brompton Hospital in 2017. He has a PhD in Chemistry from the University of Cambridge and works as a Director of Research in the oil industry, based in London. This combination of lived patient experience of AD and professional research skills make him ideal for the role.
Last year, Gordon was a member of our patient research team which played a leading role in the Department of Health & Social Care’s priority-setting workshop for UK AD research. This resulted in an expert/patient consensus on the national research priorities for Aortic Dissection, which DHSC documented and sent to the relevant funding bodies, to inform their grant-making decisions. We are delighted that, to date, NIHR and EPSRC have both made significant awards to AD research proposals that align with the agreed priorities in this patient-led national research agenda. We expect more to follow.
Currently, as the national patient association for AD, we are partnered in 16 research projects with 11 different research institutions. Almost 200 of our 700 members have been involved in these research projects in some way. We expect this involvement to grow as the agreed UK AD research priorities turn into more funded projects. As Head of Research, Gordon will oversee this research portfolio, our research partnerships, how we work with researchers and the allocation of our patient resources to existing and new research projects. He will also grow our research team. In this regard, Prof. Rob Sayers, George Davies Chair of Vascular Surgery at the University of Leicester, who joined us as our Medical Advisor (Vascular Surgery) in April, will also join our research team, supporting Gordon and the Association with his clinical and research expertise.
As we grow our research capability as the national patient association for AD, we invite clinicians and researchers to introduce themselves to Gordon and build a relationship with him in his new role. We believe that by partnering in research aligned to the agreed national priorities, we can turn Aortic Dissection from a cardiovascular catastrophe into a preventable disease.
Gordon can be contacted via email at: research@aorticdissectionawareness.org