Dr Louisa Malcolme-Lawes
Dr Louisa Malcolme-Lawes is Clinical Research Fellow at the National Heart and Lung Institute with a research interest in Cardiac Electrophysiology.
Dr Malcolme-Lawes studied Medicine as an undergraduate at University of Edinburgh Medical School between 1998 and 2004. She graduated as a Batchelor of Medicine and Surgery in 2004 having achieved a 2:1 in an Intercalated Biomedical Sciences degree in 2001.
She trained as a junior doctor in Edinburgh Royal Infirmary and Falkirk Royal Infirmary before moving to London and undertaking her medical training at the Royal Free Hospital, Eastbourne District General Hospital and West Hertfordshire NHS Trust.
During this time she was awarded her MRCP. She was subsequently appointed as Cardiology Registrar at Hammersmith Hospital for a period of 6 months before commencing her clinical PhD project within the Cardiac Electrophysiology Department of Imperial College and St Mary’s Hospital.
Under the supervision of Dr Prapa Kanagaratnam and Professor Nicholas Peters she is undertaking a project to study the technological and electrophysiological challenges of catheter ablation for atrial fibrillation. The focus of her project is to ascertain how robotic-assistance can benefit the procedure of AF ablation. At the same time she will study the importance and feasibility of autonomic modulation during catheter ablation for AF and a novel method of determining the degree of autonomic modulation by measuring heart rate variability within the electrophysiology catheter laboratory.
A clinical PhD will enable Dr Malcolme-Lawes to develop both skills essential for quality research at the same time as further her knowledge and capabilities in practical electrophysiology procedures. She will have the opportunity to develop an excellent understanding of the many advancing technologies used within the catheter laboratory, as well as their potential for use in research.
Dr Malcolme-Lawes has recently been awarded a British Heart Foundation Research Excellence Award Grant to enable her to realise the wide reaching opportunities available within the National Heart and Lung Institute. She will have the opportunity for collaboration with experts from the imaging department and the biological sciences department of NHLI, to name just a few areas of potential further research opportunity. She has already embarked on a project combining her area of research with the Mathematics and Engineering Departments of Imperial College to study future applications of robotics within the catheter laboratory.
