Prof. William John MckennaCEO AND MEDICAL DIRECTOR, HEART HOSPITAL, HMC, QATAR & PROFESSOR OF CARDIOLOGY, UCL, LONDON
Heart Hospital, HMC
Dr William McKenna was born in Canada and completed a BA at Yale University before graduating from McGill University. He completed Internal Medicine Training at the Royal Victoria Hospital, Montreal and in 1976 moved to the Hammersmith Hospital/Royal Postgraduate Medical School in London to train in cardiology. In 1988 he became Sugden Senior Lecturer at St George’s Hospital Medical School, and in 1993 was made Professor of Cardiac Medicine. In October 2000, he was appointed BHF Professor of Molecular Cardiovascular Sciences, and in July 2003 moved to University College London (UCL) as Professor of Cardiology. He was Clinical Director of The Heart Hospital, UCLH from September 2004 to August 2008, and founding Director of the Institute of Cardiovascular Science, UCL from August 2008 to November 2011, and Cardiovascular Program Director for UCL Partners from 2009 to May 2014, and Director of Inherited Cardiac Disease at UCL from July 2003 to 2015. He is also Honorary Professor of Medicine, University of Aberdeen and Adjunct Professor in Cardiovascular Medicine at Yale, where he has contributed to the development of the Inherited Cardiac Disease clinic. Professor McKenna was appointed CEO and Medical Director of the Heart Hospital, Hamad Medical Corporation, Qatar in October 2014.
His main interests have been in clinical and basic 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 within the context of familial disease, and to the establishment of algorithms to identify patients at high risk of sudden death.
