Dr William McKenna is Professor of Cardiology at University College London (UCL) and one of the world’s leading experts in inherited heart diseases such as the cardiomyopathies (heart muscle diseases) and the channelopathies (ion channel diseases). He became Professor of Cardiac Medicine at St George’s Hospital in London in 1993 and moved to his current role in July 2003. He is also cardiovascular programme director for UCL Partners and led the development of the specialist inherited cardiac disease clinic at the Heart Hospital. His main interests have been in the clinical treatment and research of the cardiomyopathies. His recent work has contributed to the identification of disease-causing genes in hypertrophic, dilated and arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy, to the establishment of new diagnostic criteria in familial disease, and to establishing calculations to identify patients at high risk of sudden death.

He is also president of the Cardiomyopathy Association, a charity that provides information and support to affected families.