Guilherme Pessoa-Amorim

I am an NIHR Oxford BRC-funded Clinical Research Fellow, based at the Clinical Trial Service Unit (CTSU). Here, I am working under the joint supervision of Professors Barbara Casadei and Louise Bowman in the AMALFI trial, a study which aims to shed light on the burden of subclinical atrial fibrillation in high-risk patients, besides other clinical trials currently taking place at CTSU.  I am also working at the Oxford Centre for Clinical Magnetic Resonance Research (OCMR), where I am contributing to research projects on left atrial function and flow using advanced cardiovascular magnetic resonance techniques. My research interests range from atrial fibrillation to heart failure and acute cardiac care, cardiovascular imaging and big data approaches to study cardiovascular disease.

I studied Medicine at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Porto, in Portugal, having graduated in 2017. My MD, developed under the supervision of Professor Ricardo Fontes-Carvalho, studied the role of myocardial deformation analysis with echocardiography for early prediction of post-operative atrial fibrillation. This project was awarded the Sanofi Prize 2017 for best research paper in clinical cardiology conducted in Portugal, and a Best Poster award at the European Society of Cardiology Congress 2017.

After that, I completed a one-year clinical internship at Gaia-Espinho Hospital Centre, a tertiary hospital in Northern Portugal, where I gained experience in internal medicine, clinical cardiology and primary care, having worked in inpatient wards, emergency room and outpatient clinic. This intense and rewarding year of clinical work, together with the exciting research experience I had as a medical student, made me want to pursue a career as a clinician-scientist in Cardiology, placing myself at the crossroads between research and clinical practice.