Professor David O’Brien is Professor of Medical Education and Vice Dean of Clinical Affairs at the University of Nottingham School of Medicine, NHS Honorary Consultant Interventional Cardiologist, and Honorary Dean of Clinical Medicine at the University of Lincoln, Lincoln Medical School. With more than 30 years of experience in clinical practice, medical education, and healthcare leadership, Professor O’Brien has worked across undergraduate and postgraduate medical training while maintaining an active clinical career. Trained in cardiology in both the UK and Canada, he has held a number of senior leadership roles within the NHS and remains committed to the realities and responsibilities of day-to-day patient care.

His academic interests centre on medical school selection, assessment, psychometrics, and standard setting. He has published widely in these fields and contributes to national assessment development through his work with the Medical Schools Council Standard Setting Group for the UK Medical Licensing Assessment (MLA). He is on the editorial board of the International Journal of Medical Education and is also a peer reviewer for the European Heart Journal. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians (London) and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. David has a longstanding interest in educational innovation, particularly in digital learning, simulation, and clinical skills training. He established the Lincolnshire Invasive Cardiology (LINC) programme and continues to support the development of simulation-based learning in healthcare education. A passionate advocate for resuscitation education, he has been involved in Advanced Life Support (ALS) teaching and course direction for more than 25 years, delivering training throughout the UK and internationally. He currently serves on the ALS Subcommittee of Resuscitation Council UK and contributed to the development of the ALS 2026 Guidelines and Handbook. His international educational work includes the design and delivery of a national resuscitation training programme in Sri Lanka in partnership with the Ministry of Health.

In addition to his academic and clinical roles, Professor O’Brien works with the General Medical Council as an Educational Visitor Associate and Specialty Application Associate and serves as Chair of the UK and Ireland Caucus for the International Medical University, Kuala Lumpur. He is also a local Principal Investigator for the ORION-4 clinical trial.

His cardiology practice covers all aspects of general cardiology, with a special interest in the management of coronary artery disease and in particular, percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI/Angioplasty). He also holds SCCT level 2 accreditation in cardiac CT.

• All aspects of general cardiology
• Coronary artery disease and percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI/(coronary angioplasty and stenting))
• Management of out of hospital cardiac arrest
• Percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI/Angioplasty)
• Diagnostic cardiac catheterisation
• Radial approach for invasive coronary angiography and percutaneous coronary procedures
• All aspects of general cardiology
• Adult trans-thoracic echocardiography
• Cardiac CT
  
   

• General Medical Council
• British Medical Association
• Fellow, Royal College of Physicians of London (FRCP)
• British Society of Echocardiography
• British Cardiovascular Intervention Society
• Society of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography (SCCT)
• Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA)
• Member of the European Association of Percutaneous Coronary Intervention (EAPCI)
• Member of the UK Maternal Cardiology Society
• Resuscitation Council UK - Advanced Life Support Sub-Committee Member