Dr Vishal Sharma

Dr Vishal Sharma is a consultant cardiologist specialising in obstetric cardiology. He has extensive expertise in cardiac problems during pregnancy, cardiac imaging (echocardiography), palpitations, valvular heart diseases, chest pain, hypertension, preconception counselling, and dizziness.

Dr Sharma qualified from the University of Edinburgh in 2000 and became a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in 2014. Since 2013, he has been co-leading the Cardiac Maternity service across Cheshire and Mersey, partaking in developing improvements to the service, like shared care pathways across Liverpool hospitals. He was the clinical director of cardiology for the Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospital from 2013 to 2016, and in that same year, he completed an MD research degree at the University of Edinburgh. He is a core member of the North West Maternal Medicine Network, and has led the development of a specialist regional congenital heart disease service for patients in that region and additionally North Wales and the Isle of Man – now the largest congenital heart disease service in the UK.

Dr Sharma is particularly involved in echocardiography and education. He spearheaded the establishment of an international journal dedicated to echocardiography, Echo Research and Practice, of which he was appointed co-editor-in-chief in 2015. He also was the co-editor-in-chief of another journal, Echo Research and Practice, until 2019. He has several publications including 13 national UK guidelines, for the majority of which he was credited as either the senior author or the guideline chair. He was the Chair of Education for the British Society of Echocardiography (BSE) from 2017 to 2019, where he led educational activities such as three annual conferences. He was a member of the National Education Committee of the BSE, and even served a 2-year term as Chair. Dr Shamra has served as a director of the British Medical Association and the British Medical Journal, the British Society of Echocardiography, the NHS Pension Board, and the NHS Pension Scheme Advisory Board.