DPhil: 2026 Leeson Group: Imaging in Preventive Cardiology Research — Radcliffe Department of Medicine

MSc by Research: Leeson Group: Digital Twins and AI in Preventive Cardiology Research — Radcliffe Department of Medicine

Paul Leeson is Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine at the University of Oxford, Fellow at Wolfson College and the Academic Lead for Innovation within the Medical Sciences Division.

He is also a Consultant Cardiologist at the John Radcliffe Hospital, where he provides expertise in Cardiovascular Imaging, as well as General Cardiology and Cardiovascular Prevention, through the Oxford Specialist Hypertension Clinic. 

He heads the Preventive Cardiology Research Group, based in the Oxford Cardiovascular Clinical Research Facility, which aims to improve how we identify and prevent heart disease in young people. The group works in three areas:

- Novel markers of early disease - Using imaging and laboratory studies to identify early cardiac and vascular changes in young people at risk of cardiovascular disease. In particular, those predisposed to hypertension, such as families with a history of preeclampsia or preterm birth.

- Young adult cardiovascular prevention trials - Running trials to understand how novel approaches to lifestyle and clinical management can modify early risk cardiovascular phenotypes to prevent the development of later disease.

- Artificial intelligence - Pioneering use of artificial intelligence within preventive cardiology and imaging to better identify and manage those at risk; with innovations now having been patented, spun out from the group, and turned into medical devices.

He chairs a NIHR i4i Product Development Awards funding panel, as well as sitting on the UK Biobank Imaging Advisory Board and NIHR Doctoral Fellowship Committee. He has a broad experience within innovation and preventive cardiology having previously been a National Cardiology Lead for the NIHR Clinical Research Network and chair of the European Association of Preventive Cardiology research nucleus, as well as a past member of the NICE Cardiovascular Disease Prevention Guideline committee and several European Society of Cardiology position statement writing groups,