Damien Cullington (1997 Leaver) – A Career in Cardiology

I was always interested in the sciences and it was natural to choose medicine as my lifelong career.  Despite a love of dance music, and a first ever live DJ gig in the Williams Hall at MTBS in 1996, the DJ career never went global!  After graduating from the University of Liverpool in 2002, I started my medical training as a junior house officer at the Royal Liverpool University Hospital (RLUH). To complete basic training, I rotated through a wide variety of four month rotational jobs in hospitals within Manchester and Liverpool.  After working at Liverpool Cardiothoracic Centre (now Liverpool Heart and Chest) and in the then newly formed chest pain unit in the RLUH, I chose to pursue a career in cardiology.

I completed membership for the Royal College of Physicians in 2005, and accepted a cardiology clinical fellow post at the University Hospital of North Staffordshire.  Spurred on by an interest in heart failure and implantable cardiac devices, I moved to one of the largest international heart failure units at Castle Hull Hospital, Kingston-Upon-Hull.  I worked as a research fellow under the supervision of Professors John Cleland and Andrew Clark, and have recently completed my doctoral thesis (MD).  After starting cardiology speciality training in 2010, based in East Yorkshire, I am now half-way to consultancy.  From 2013 onwards I will be moving for the penultimate time to train in adult congenital heart disease based at Leeds General Infirmary, then to the USA or Canada and beyond!

Damien Cullington