Clinical expertise
Dr Robert Smith is the lead for the structural heart programme at Royal Brompton and Harefield hospitals, as well as the chair of both the mitral valve care groups.
His areas of expertise include:
- coronary angioplasty
- mitral valve disease, including intervention
- implantation of permanent pacemakers
- heart failure
He performs many procedures, including:
- MitraClip
- transcatheter mitral intervention
- coronary angioplasty and stenting
- permanent pacemakers
- coronary angiography
- right heart catheterisation
- alcohol septal ablation
The transcatheter mitral programme at Royal Brompton and Harefield Hospitals is led by Dr Smith, and it is one of the most established and innovative in the world. Dr Smith runs the most experienced MitraClip team in the UK, and he has performed in excess of 200 cases.
Dr Smith regularly undertakes both simple and complex coronary angioplasty, including rotational atherectomy and chronic total occlusion disobliteration. He has developed considerable expertise in acute coronary angioplasty for ST- and non-ST elevation myocardial infarction. He has experience in treating left ventricular outflow obstruction, including alcohol septal ablation (ASA).
Locations
Our specialist provides care at these locations:
Biography
Dr Robert Smith is a consultant interventional cardiologist who treats private and NHS patients at Royal Brompton and Harefield hospitals.
He studied at St Bartholomew’s Hospital Medical School (now part of Queen Mary, University of London), qualifying in 1999. He then continued with specialist cardiology training at:
- Harefield Hospital (2003-2005)
- Ealing and Queen Elizabeth II hospitals (2005-2007)
- Hammersmith Hospital (2007-2008)
- Harefield Hospital (2008-present)
- Royal Brompton Hospital (2017-present)
In 2009, he gained his MD at the University of London with his thesis: ‘Myocardial Protection: The Contributions of Ischaemic and Pharmacological Preconditioning, the Warm-up Phenomenon and the Coronary Collateral Circulation.’
Research
Dr Smith is involved in several research areas. Current research interests include:
- UK principle investigator of the CorCinch trial – study investigating the use of the AccuCinch Left Ventricular device (Ancora Heart, US) in heart failure and secondary mitral regurgitation
- investigator of the LANDMARK study (Myval, Meril)
- investigator of the APOLLO trial – a randomised study of the Intrepid (Medtronic, US) transapical TMVR versus conventional surgery.
- peri-procedural haemodynamics during percutaneous mitral valve repair with MitraClip – multiple abstracts accepted and presented to international conferences
Teaching
Dr Robert Smith is responsible for teaching Imperial College London undergraduate students on placements at Harefield and Hillingdon hospitals. He teaches the practical assessment of clinical examination skills (PACES) courses at these hospitals as well. He runs a 2 week programme of teaching throughout the year.
He co-directs the Harefield primary angioplasty meeting with Dr Miles Dalby. This is an annual meeting where live cases are discussed with staff involved in primary angioplasty.
He has taught others how to perform transcatheter procedures, such as MitraClip, across the world.
Recent national and international speaker events include:
- Advanced Coronary Intervention, London (2018, 19)
- Heart Live, keynote lecture, Manchester (2019)
- Future of Heart Failure, The Royal College of Physicians, London (2018)
- Complications in PCI, Vapi, India (2017)
- Mitral Intervention, Kuwait City (2018)
