Personal details

NIHR Research Professor (Experimental Medicine)

Professor of Cardiac Imaging, Honorary Consultant Cardiologist, University of Leicester

+44 (0)116 258 3038

gpm12@le.ac.uk

Sally Utton (Imaging Research Manager)

+44 (0) 116 204 4786



su47@le.ac.uk

Alison Watson (PA & Research Coordinator)

+44 (0)116 258 3038



aw380@le.ac.uk

Professor McCann has established a national and growing international reputation as an expert in Cardiac MRI (CMR) and clinical trials. His research interests include the use of novel CMR sequences in the study of cardiovascular diseases, with a particular focus on coronary disease, diabetic cardiomyopathy and aortic stenosis. He has multiple collaborators locally, nationally and internationally.

Professor McCann is the Cardiovascular Imaging theme lead and heads a growing and dynamic multidisciplinary research group. He is also NIHR Cardiovascular lead for the East Midlands, sits on the NIHR doctoral panel and was on the BHF Fellowships Committee (2015-18). He leads the imaging biomarker discovery research and evaluations of novel cardiovascular interventions and is on the executive of the NIHR Leicester Biomedical Research Centre (BRC). He also leads the mentorship programme for the department and BHF Accelerator Award.

Qualifications

University of Glasgow, MB ChB Medicine July 1992, 1985-1992

BSc (Hons 2:1) Physiology/Sports Science 1989

MRCP (UK), February 1995

Dip Sp Med Scottish Royal Colleges, April 1997

MD University of Glasgow, April 2002

Teaching

Professor McCann’s main teaching contribution is through the supervision of undergraduate and postgraduate students. He has an excellent track record in all domains and a major focus is the development of individuals within the Cardiovascular Imaging Research group.

In addition Gerry delivers occasional lectures to undergraduate medical students, post-graduate trainees and hands-on clinical training in CMR. He lectures widely on CMR, aortic stenosis and diabetic heart disease and is a regular speaker at national and international conferences.

Research

Prof McCann’s research is focused on clinical imaging and conducting randomized controlled trials. His work has been quoted in multiple International guidelines and the CvLPRIt trial helped change the guidelines on patients presenting with STEMI and multivessel disease. The recently published CEMARC-2 and MR-INFORM trials will influence future guidance on the assessment of patients with chest pain of suspected cardiac origin.

Publications

Professor McCann has published over 140 peer-reviewed articles, 90 of which have been in the last 5 years. Current H-Index (Oct 2019) is 23 and his work has been cited over 2000 times.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=mccann+gp

Top ten Papers in last 5 years

1 Nagel E, Greenwood JP, McCann GP, et al. Magnetic Resonance Perfusion or Fractional Flow Reserve in Coronary Disease. New England Journal of Medicine 2019; 380(25): 2418-28.

2. Gulsin GS, Swarbrick DJ, Hunt WH, Levelt E, Graham-Brown MPM, Parke KS, Wormleighton JV, Lai FY, Yates T, Wilmot EG, Webb DR, Davies MJ McCann GP. Relation of Aortic Stiffness to Left Ventricular Remodelling in Younger Adults with Type 2 Diabetes. Diabetes. 2018; 67: 1395-1400

3. Musa, T.A., Treibel TA, Vassiliou VS, Captur G, Singh A, Chin C, Dobson LE, Pica S, Loudon M, Malley T, Rigolli M, Foley JRJ, Bijsterveld P, Law GR, Dweck MR, Myerson SG, McCann GP, Prasad SK, Moon JC and Greenwood JP, Myocardial Scar and Mortality in Severe Aortic Stenosis: Data from the BSCMR Valve Consortium. Circulation, 2018; 138:1935-47

4. Kanagala P, Cheng ASH, Singh A, McAdam J, Marsh AM, Arnold JR, Squire IB, Ng LL and McCann GP. Diagnostic and prognostic utility of cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging in heart failure with preserved ejection fraction - implications for clinical trials. Journal of cardiovascular magnetic resonance. 2018;20:4

5. Singh A, Chan DCS, Greenwood JP, Dawson DK, Sonecki P, Hogrefe K, Kelly DJ, Dhakshinamurthy V, Lang CC, Khoo JP, Sprigings D, Steeds RP, Zhang R, Ford I, Jerosch-Herold M, Yang J, Li Z, Ng LL, McCann GP. Symptom Onset in Aortic Stenosis: Relation to Sex Differences in Left Ventricular Remodeling. JACC Cardiovascular imaging. 2019 Jan;12(1):96-105. doi: 10.1016/j.jcmg.2017.09.019. Epub 2017 Dec 13. PMID: 29248646.

6. Singh A, Greenwood JP, Berry C, Dawson DK, Hogrefe K, Kelly DJ, Dhakshinamurthy V, Lang CC, Khoo JP, Sprigings D, Steeds RP, Jerosch-Herold M, Neubauer S, Prendergast B, Williams B, Zhang R, Hudson I, Squire IB, Ford I, Samani NJ and McCann GP. Comparison of exercise testing and CMR measured myocardial perfusion reserve for predicting outcome in asymptomatic aortic stenosis: the PRognostic Importance of Microvascular Dysfunction in Aortic Stenosis (PRIMID AS) Study. European heart journal. 2017;38:1222-1229.

7. Greenwood JP, Ripley DP, Berry C, McCann GP et al. Effect of Care Guided by Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance, Myocardial Perfusion Scintigraphy, or NICE Guidelines on Subsequent Unnecessary Angiography Rates: The CE-MARC 2 Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA 2016; 316(10): 1051-60.

8. Nazir SA, McCann GP, Greenwood JP, Kunadian V, Khan JN, Mahmoud IZ, Blackman DJ, Been M, Abrams KR, Shipley L, Wilcox R, Adgey AA, Gershlick AH. Strategies to attenuate micro-vascular obstruction during P-PCI: the randomized reperfusion facilitated by local adjunctive therapy in ST-elevation myocardial infarction trial. European heart journal. 2016;37:1910-9.

9. McCann GP, Khan JN, Greenwood JP, Nazir S, Dalby M4, Curzen N, Hetherington S, Kelly DJ, Blackman DJ, Ring A, Peebles C, Wong J, Sasikaran T, Flather M, Swanton H, Gershlick AH. Complete Versus Lesion-Only Primary PCI: The Randomized Cardiovascular MR CvLPRIT Substudy. Journal of the American College of Cardiology. 2015;66:2713-24.

10. Gershlick AH, Khan JN, Kelly DJ, Greenwood JP, Sasikaran T, Curzen N, Blackman DJ, Dalby M, Fairbrother KL, Banya W, Wang D, Flather M, Hetherington SL, Kelion AD, Talwar S, Gunning M, Hall R, Swanton H, McCann GP. Randomized trial of complete versus lesion-only revascularization in patients undergoing primary percutaneous coronary intervention for STEMI and multivessel disease: the CvLPRIT trial. Journal of the American College of Cardiology. 2015;65:963-72.

Current Grants

Professor McCann has secured over £25M in grants (over £9M as PI).

Medical Futures Research Fund (Australia). The Early surgery trial in ASYmptomatic Aortic Stenosis. $Aus 1,827,442. July 2019-June 2025. Co-I

BHF Infrastructure grant. Research MRI scanner/build. £1,000,000. April 2019. PI

BHF Clinical Studies Grant - The Early surgery trial in ASYmptomatic Aortic Stenosis. £2,722,054. July 2019-June 2025. Chief Investigator

BHF Accelerator Award: £1M. April 2019-March 2024. Co-applicant.

Leicester Drug, Device and Discovery. Use of AI to automatically detect and quantify myocardial infarction on CMR. £55k Feb 19-Jan 20. PI

NIHR Research Professorship. “Heart failure in type 2 diabetes: improving diagnosis and management in a multi-ethnic population.” Nov 2018-Oct 2023. £1,943,967. PI

BHF project grant PG/18/42/33746 “Diagnostic accuracy of adenosine versus dobutamine stress perfusion cardiovascular magnetic resonance to detect severe coronary artery disease in patients with reduced ejection fraction” Oct 2018-Sep 2020. £158,469 PI

BHF Infrastructure grant: IG/18/3/33614. Purchase of two liquid chromatography-triple quadruple mass spectrometer (TQ-MS) instruments. £351,251. April 2018. Co-I.

BHF CRTF FS/18/26/33501– Dr Lavanya Athithan. Rest and stress metabolism in Type 2 Diabetes. April 2018-July 2020. £136,122 PI

BHF Special Study Grant. Dec 2018-Nov 2023. Defining the genetics, biomarkers and outcomes for dilated cardiomyopathy: a prospective multi-centre study (GO-DCM). £1.99M Cook, Greenwood, Flett, Prasad, Wright, Samani, Page, McCann, Ware, Peebles. Co-Applicant.

BHF Clinical Research Training Fellowship. Dr Gaurav Gulsin. Prevalence and determinants of subclinical cardiovascular dysfunction in adults with type 2 diabetes mellitus. £275,155 Aug 17- April 2020. PI

BHF CS/17/1/32445 RAPIDNSTEMI - Revascularisation in ACS Patients: Immediate versus Delayed Intervention. A study assessing the impact of very early intervention on outcomes in NSTEMI-ACS patients. £1.5M. Co-I

NIHR Leicester Clinical Research Facility- University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust. £1.5M April 2017-March 2021. Co-applicant (Imaging Lead).

NIHR Leicester Biomedical Research Centre- University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust. £11.6M. April 2017-March 2021. PPI lead and named investigator.

Awards and Nominations

Awards - for student supervision (2015, 2016). BJCA trainer of the year 2016 - runner up.

ACC 2015: Best abstract from the UK (CvLPRIt CMR)

East Midlands CRN Finalist: Exemplary investigator contribution 2017.

Student awards

Society of Cardiovascular MR Early Career Award: Winner A Singh (2016); Finalists C Steadman (2011), P Kanagala (2018)

British/Irish Hypertension Society 2017 Young Investigator Award Winner (W Hunt). Best Presentation Dr Gaurav Gulsin 2019

British Heart Valve Society 2015 – Young Investigator Award Winner (A Singh)

BMA student research award 2017 (Runner-up S Ardenwalla)

Royal College of Physicians NHS Trainee Research 2017 Award Winner (G Gulsin)

External Roles

BSCMR Board member 2008-2014

BSCMR Research Group Chair 2018- present; 2012-present. Co-chair 2012-18

NIHR CRN CV Deputy Lead East Midlands 2014-17

NIHR CLRN CV Deputy Lead Leicester, Northampton and Rutland 2012-2014

Editorial Board and Reviewer Experience

Professor McCann is a reviewer for all the major cardiovascular funders in the UK and has also reviewed for several international funders.

Periodic Reviewer and External Examiner Experience

JACC and CV Imaging; European Heart Journal and Imaging and Heart failure sub journals; Circulation Cardiovascular Imaging; Heart, The Journal of Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance; European Radiology and the BMJ.

Professor McCann has been external examiner for a large number of PhDs including at Oxford, London, Birmingham and Edinburgh.

Research Supervision

Prof McCann has an excellent record in developing junior researchers. He has been the principal supervisor for five doctorates, one of whom has progressed to a NIHR Academic Clinical Lecturer. His post-doctoral fellows and lecturers have been successful in attracting external funding from the Wellcome Trust, BHF, the Academy of Medical Sciences and garnering industry support for their research projects. Most recently his post-doctoral fellow secured his own NIHR Clinician Scientist Award (2019-2024). Two of his PhD students have been appointed as NIHR Academic Clinical Lecturers (ACL) and another NIHR ACL has recently secured a five-year senior lecturer position at the University of Leeds.

Previous and Current Doctoral students