Vascular Research Team
Vascular Surgery Research Team
Our Surgery Research team is a dedicated group of nurses, administrators, and surgeons, conducting studies across specialities including Colorectal, Upper Gastrointestinal (UGI) and Vascular.
Our research is supported by the Department of Health with our research projects encompassing a wide breadth of both laboratory-based and clinical work, to improve patient health, wellbeing and care.
We work on a range of commercial and non-commercial, qualitative and quantitative projects and collaborate with colleagues locally, nationally and internationally in order to improve outcomes for patients suffering from various conditions.
Our work benefits patients not only here in the NHS, but also increases care standards globally.
The team has a wealth of experience conducting research studies and trials, and improving training, guidelines, and patient outcomes.
Our staff work in close collaboration with a number of partners, primarily linked with the University of Bristol and University of the West of England (UWE) as well as a number of other NHS Trusts.
Team Members:
Samantha Loud
Lead Research Nurse
Sam currently works as the Lead Research Nurse for the Surgery Research team overseeing Colorectal, UGI and Vascular Research at Southmead Hospital, managing a team of 6 competent research practitioners. Having qualified in 2000 as a Children’s Nurse, she began her career working in the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit at Bristol Children’s Hospital where she worked for 7 years. She then moved and worked for 4 years on a busy Surgical and Trauma ward.
After seeing an advert for the opportunity of a research nurse post at led jointly with NBT (North Bristol Trust) and UoB (University of Bristol) working with Children and their families researching into the risk of developing Type 1 diabetes she jumped at the chance for a new challenge. She spent 9 years in this post working her way up, initially as a junior nurse band 5 to a senior nurse band 7 role where she then led the team and managed the research project. This came to an end in 2020 when the study funding finished.
Sam was then offered the opportunity of a completely new role and challenge within NBT as the Senior Research Nurse for Surgery. This involved putting together smaller teams within different areas of Surgery research bringing them together as one team. This has been a success; the team has grown and consists of dedicated research nurses and administrators and is still growing! We have opened and reopened many studies across all the areas which are recruiting well.
Sam has lots of plans to extend this over time and build a bigger team to be able to cover more areas of surgery in the future.
Dr Marcus Brooks
Consultant Vascular Surgeon
Dr Marcus Brooks is a Consultant Vascular Surgeon at North Bristol NHS Trust, Honorary Secretary elect for the Vascular Society of Great Britain and Ireland, and clinical member of NHSE Specialised Services Vascular Clinical Reference Group. His main clinical interest is in the management of aortic disease, including complex endovascular repair of aortic aneurysms and aortic dissection.
He is also the Principal Investigator for the EXcel Registry (Gore Conformable aortic stent graft) in the UK and also recruits to the COMPASS trial (Observational study of patients with juxta-renal abdominal aortic aneurysms).
Chris Twine
Vascular Surgeon
Chris is a vascular surgeon in Bristol and is clinical lead for vascular research. He has a research interest in amputation, chronic limb threatening ischaemia and antithrombotic therapy for peripheral arterial disease. He is an associate editor of CVIR endovascular and is on the editorial board of the European Journal of Vascular and Endovascular Surgery. He is a council member of the British Society for Endovascular Therapy where he is research lead, the Vascular Society special interest research group for peripheral arterial disease where he is intervention lead, and the European Society of Vascular Surgery guidelines steering committee where he is chair of the upcoming antithrombotic guideline. He has published over 100 original papers and his scientific work has received several prizes.
More information about Chris and his work can be found on the University of Bristol website.
Helen Cheshire
Vascular Research Nurse
Helen is a senior research nurse specialising in vascular. She has worked for North Bristol NHS Trust since 2015. Prior to this Helen was a key member of the intensive care team at the Bristol Royal Infirmary, where she worked as a senior nurse for sixteen years.
Helen has extensive experience, spanning multiple studies and specialties, delivering ground-breaking research. She ran gastro-hepatology research for two years, before moving to lead the vascular portfolio in 2017. Under Helen’s leadership, the vascular portfolio has grown exponentially.
Helen welcomes the challenges research presents as a continuously growing field. It can enable patients to participate in adjustments that result in a longer, better quality of life. She enjoys working at the forefront of new developments in treatments for our patients.
Seeve Suppiah
Vascular Research Nurse
Seeve is a surgical research nurse specializing in Vascular research and two colorectal research as well as helping with the AHEAD study - Preclinical Alzheimer's Disease with Elevated Amyloid. Prior to this, Seeve was an ITU nurse, a Renal dialysis nurse, a Research nurse for AVONCAP-COVID-19, pneumococcus, and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), and a Haematology Research Nurse.
Gosia Slowinska
Surgery Research Nurse
Gosia is a research nurse in vascular surgery team. She has worked for North Bristol Trust since 2020 in Intensive Care Unit and in HIV and Immunology Research team.
Prior to this Gosia worked as a nurse in Intensive Care Units in Royal Papworth Hospital, Yeovil District Hospital and Specialised District Hospital in Wroclaw, Poland.