Dr Venugopalan Poothirikovil (Dr Venu) is a Consultant Paediatrician with Expertise in Paediatric Cardiology, at the Royal Alexandra Children’s Hospital, University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust, Brighton. He holds an Honorary Senior Clinical Lecturer post at the Brighton & Sussex Medical School and is the Deputy Lead for MSc Paediatrics and MSc Cardiology at the BSMS. He has a track record of clinical, teaching, research and management experience over a period of over 30 years.
Dr Venu has established and updated the paediatric cardiology services in the NHS Trust and has full accreditation from the European Association of Cardiovascular Imaging (EACVI). He holds a Honorary Consultant Post at the Evelina London Children’s Hospital. He has a special interest and expertise in Cardiology and is an Executive member and immediate past Chair of the PECSIG, the cardiology specialty group of the Royal College of Paediatrics & Child Health. He has published on nutritional impact of heart diseases and has authored a chapter in a textbook related to nutrition and heart disease.
Besides his cardiology experience, Dr Venu has gained over the years, experience in general paediatrics as well as allergies and respiratory conditions. He looks after children with not only heart diseases, but also allergies, chest symptoms and other general paediatric symptoms.
Dr Venu is the Chair of DCH Clinical Examinations in the UK and overseas, also a Senior Examiner and Examiner Trainer for the DCH and MRCPCH Clinical Examinations. He has participated in over a dozen clinical research projects, and authored around 100 Medline indexed publications, and several chapters in the online Medscape Text book of Pediatrics. He is the co-author to the textbook ‘Clinical Cases in Paediatrics: DCH Clinical Examination.
Dr Venu organises and participates in several course and conferences and is widely respected for his contributions in this field. He is the Course director for online and face to face ECG and Echocardiography courses run yearly and receives uniformly good feedback for his contribution to teaching and research.