About

“The Vascular and Endovascular Research Network (VERN) is a multidisciplinary collaborative for those involved or interested in the care of individuals with vascular conditions.

VERN welcomes vascular surgical trainees, interventional radiologists, vascular scientists, vascular nurses, students and researchers. VERN aims to help facilitate multi-centre cross-specialty research and audit.”

Nikesh Dattani, Consultant

Executive Committee

I am a Consultant Vascular and Endovascular Surgeon at Unviersity Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust. I completed my MD investigating the molecular relationship between diabetes and abdominal aortic aneurysms at the University of Leicester. I have experience in gaining research funding and am interested in both arterial and venous research, although my primary focus continues to be on aortic diseases. I have been a part of VERN from the beginning and believe that collaborative research is the future

David Bosanquet, Consultant

Executive Committee

I am a Consultant Vascular Surgeon and Honorary Senior Lecturer working in the South East Wales Vascular Network. I undertook my surgical training in Wales, followed by a year long externally funded fellowship in Southmead, Bristol. I joined VERN in 2014, and have been involved in all VERN projects since then, including leading on GIVE and PERCEIVE. My main academic interests are in amputation surgery, wound healing, and CLTI. I have been awarded competitive funding from the National Institute for Health and Care Research and Health and Care Research Wales for both randomised and non-randomised studies.

Ruth Benson, Academic Clinical Lecturer

Past President

I am an Edinburgh graduate and West Midlands vascular trainee. I obtained my PhD as a Vascular Research Fellow at St Georges Healthcare NHS Trust under a Royal College of Surgeons research fellowship. I was a Certificate of Merit winner in the CX 2015 and 2017 Abstract Programmes. I am a VERN past president with an interest in international research collaboration, clinical trials and operative pathways. I am also an associate Surgical Speciality Lead in Vascular Surgery Research for the Royal College of Surgeons of England.

Athanasios Saratzis, Associate Professor

Past President (2017-2019)

I completed my vascular surgical training in 2018 as an NIHR Clinical Lecturer and I am now appointed as Associate Professor and Honorary Consultant Surgeon at the NIHR Leicester Biomedical Research Centre & Leivcester Vascular Institute (supported by an NIHR Advanced Fellowship). My academic interest is translational and clinical cardiovascular research. I have experience in designing and implementing randomised trials and leading national as well as international clinical studies. I led VERN from late 2017 until mid-2019 and I was succeeded by my colleague Miss Ruth Benson.

Feel free to contact me via email: as875@le.ac.uk

Sandip Nandhra, Consultant

Past President

I am a recently appointed Senior Clinical Lecturer at Newcastle University and Honorary Consultant Vascular Surgeon at the Freeman Hospital Newcastle. I have an interest in optimising patient outcomes following vascular intervention in line with patient-led priorities through clinical studies; my interests include anaemia, frailty and multimorbidity. VERN is an integral part of my research activity to date, and I enjoy supporting VERN activity across the UK and the globe. Clinically I have an interest in the treatment of deep venous disease as well as superficial venous interventions. @SandipNandhra

Joseph Shalhoub, Consultant

Executive Committee

I am a Consultant Vascular Surgeon appointed at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust and an Honorary Clinical Senior Lecturer in the Department of Surgery and Cancer, Imperial College London. My key research interests include clinical trials, analysis of large epidemiological datasets, and metabolic profiling in vascular conditions. I am currently co-investigator for three NIHR-funded randomised clinical trials.

Matthew Machin, NIHR ACF

Executive Committee

I am an NIHR Academic Clinical Fellow in Vascular Surgery at Imperial College London. I am interested in clinical trials with a focus on health technology assessments alongside utility of patient-reported outcome measures. I am leading the development of the core outcome set for studies investigating abdominal aortic aneurysms in addition to being a research co-investigator for the BHF-funded BEST trial and NIHR-funded PETS trial.

Brenig Gwilym, Registrar

Vice-President

I am vascular surgery registrar in Wales and joined VERN in 2020. My interests include groin wound surgical site infections, amputation surgery, and risk prediction. I was the junior lead for the GIVE study and am the study coordinator for the PERCEIVE quantitative study. I was a co-applicant on successful competitive funding applications for randomised and non-randomised studies on amputation surgery.