Dr Varnava completed her undergraduate medical training at Oxford University and then qualified from St Bartholomew’s Hospital with triple honours. During her training she was awarded several honours and the Weitzman cardiology prize.

Following this she embarked on a cardiology training programme at the UK’s leading cardiac centres, working at the Royal Brompton Hospital, St George’s Hospital, and Barts and the London Chest Hospital.

During her training she completed a 3 year research programme sponsored by the Medical Research Council into the genetic causes of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, an inherited cardiac condition.

She has since gone on to develop a specialist expertise in this field of cardiology and has established the North West London Inherited Cardiac Disease service at St Mary’s hospital, where she sees both patients and their families for risk stratification and management of inherited cardiac disease.

She is a consultant cardiologist at Imperial College Healthcare Trust and the lead for inherited conditions such as hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, ARVC and Brugada syndrome.

She also holds a busy general cardiology post at Watford General Hospital where she manages patients with a wide variety of complaints including chest pain, palpitations and heart failure. She also runs the pregnancy and heart disease service for pregnant women with known or suspected heart disease.

Dr Varnava has published numerous research papers in the leading cardiology journals and lectures both nationally and at international conferences.She has a very active research programme, supervising PhD fellows into the research of sudden death syndromes and the accurate assessment of risk.

Areas of Expertise

Dr Varnava’s practice encompasses all aspects of adult cardiology, in particular the management of ischaemic heart disease (angina and the prevention of heart attacks), heart failure, and the evaluation of palpitations and faints.

She is also expert in the evaluation and management of patients with hypertension and the non-invasive assessment of cardiovascular risk (including use of the latest state of the art CT coronary angiography).

Her area of specialist expertise is the inherited cardiac conditions, which may predispose young people to risk. These include cardiomyopathies (hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy, dilated cardiomyopathy, left ventricular non-compaction), channelopathies (Brugada syndrome, Long QT syndrome, CPVT, short QT syndrome and Idiopathic VF).

She also runs a cardiac sarcoid service seeing patients with the cardiac complications of this inflammatory heart condition.

Dr Varnava is also experienced in the evaluation of sports people and preparticipation screening and is on the advisory panel for the FA.

She is also the cardiologist for several premiership football teams including; West Ham, Fulham, Spurs, Watford and Stoke City Football Clubs.

In view of her well recognised expertise Dr Varnava has been interviewed by all of the national newspapers, Sky news, Channel 4 news, BBC 10 O’clock news and the BBC Radio 4 Today programme (see Useful links).

Qualifications:

MA
MBBS
FRCP
MD

Professional membership:

British Medical Association
Royal College of Physicians (London)
British Cardiovascular Society
Heart Rhythm UK
Association of Inherited Cardiac Conditions (council member)
Football Association (cardiology expert advisor)
Cardiomyopathy UK (expert advisor)

The Physicians Clinic

In early 2012, Dr Varnava was delighted to be invited to join a select group of physicians working at the unique and newly established The Physicians Clinic based in central London.

The founders of this clinic chose their private physicians on the basis of their clinical reputation and achievements. Insisting that all of the private physicians at The Physicians’ Clinic held demanding and busy NHS posts in and around London.

Working in the NHS demands excellence and it provides the wealth of experience that cannot be gained through working only in the private healthcare sector.

This is why they are the best and why they can offer so much to private patients at The Physicians’ Clinic.

To become a consultant at The Physicians’ Clinic, private physicians must meet the following criteria:

• They have held substantive appointments in NHS teaching hospitals.
• They have a distinguished reputation within their chosen field of medicine and are recognised for their clinical expertise.
• They have made a significant contribution to medicine generally.
• They are committed to building The Physicians’ Clinic into a center for clinical excellence and patient service.

What patients say after seeing Dr Varnava

Patients treated by Dr Varnava gave her an overall rating of Extremely effective/excellent [Source: Independent Patient Feedback Report Edgecumbe Doctor 360°]

Many of these patients were treated for medical conditions such as SADS, SCD, Cardiomyopathy.

Symptoms including heart palpitations, blackouts, dizziness, collapse, breathlessness and discomfort were treated.

Dr Varnava scored well in all categories but was rated particularly highly for:

• Treating patients with dignity
• Understanding patients’ needs and worries
• Making sure patients understand
• Ensuring patients got the advice/investigation or treatment they needed
• Checking that patients were happy with planned treatments or tests
• Encouraging patients to ask questions

Each patient was asked ‘would they recommend the doctor to family or friends’? Almost 97% said yes.