Professor Patrick Doherty is Chair of Cardiovascular Health in the Department of Health Sciences and Director of the National Audit of Cardiac Rehabilitation (NACR). Patrick was former president of the British Association for Cardiovascular Prevention and Rehabilitation (BACPR) and former Chair of the Cardiac Rehabilitation Section of the European Association of Preventive Cardiology (EAPC). He continues to be highly research active in the area of cardiovascular disease prevention and rehabilitation with over 120 peer reviewed journal papers in the last ten years.

Patrick was Head of Research and Head of Department for eight years and in that time he led a successful Research Excellence Framework (REF) submission within Unit of Assessment 2 (Health services and public health research). His inclusive approach led to submitting over 100 staff to REF within UoA 2 which almost doubled that submitted in 2014. The net result was very positive for Health Research at the University of York. His own research has had significant impact and led to change in health service policy and cardiac rehabilitation delivery culminating in a world-leading impact case in REF 2021.

Patrick’s commitment to cardiovascular disease prevention and rehabilitation led to his appointment as NHS Clinical Lead for Cardiac Rehabilitation (2013) where he supported service innovation in the NHS and led the development of an evidence-based clinical pathway (Department of Health Cardiac Rehabilitation Commissioning Pack) which is continues to inform NHS routine practice standards. His research continues to influence clinical practice through improvements in uptake and the quality of cardiovascular prevention and rehabilitation services. Patrick has also developed a chair based exercise programme that forms an integral part of a successful NIHR funded programme grant (REACH-HF) being rolled out across the NHS. He has also led on a substantial update of the Angina Plan (2020) which is a successful self-management approach for patients with cardiac related chest pain.

Patrick's research and academic supervision has supported 17 PhD students (12 international) to success with many continuing into post-doctoral collaborative research. He continues to supervise national and international research students in the area of cardiovascular health, physical activity improvement, exercise prescription and patient self-management interventions.

Prof Doherty's expertise and workload is also embedded into the NHS England Cardiovascular Health Delivery Board where he and colleagues are working to implement the NHS Long Term Plan with a specific emphasis on tackling health inequalities in service provision and patient outcomes.