About Dr Sam Dawkins
Dr Sam Dawkins is a consultant cardiologist with a special interest in interventional and structural heart disease. He sees private patients at Cleveland Clinic London and at the Nuffield Manor Hospital in Oxford. His NHS practice is at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, where he is Clinical Lead for Structural Intervention.
Training
Dr Dawkins read medicine at King’s College London, then completed a DPhil in cardiovascular medicine at the University of Oxford (Trinity College), supported by a British Heart Foundation Clinical Research Fellowship. He went on to spend two years at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles — one of the highest-volume valve centres in the world — training in complex structural intervention, including TAVI, mitral and tricuspid edge-to-edge repair, and complex coronary intervention. While there he was awarded the Will Rogers Foundation Research Fellowship for research into the early diagnosis of aortic stenosis, and was voted Teaching Fellow of the Year at Cedars-Sinai by the Internal Medicine residents.
Clinical practice
Dr Dawkins’s clinical work covers four overlapping areas, which is unusual in private cardiology:
- General cardiology — chest pain, palpitations, breathlessness, blood pressure, valve disease assessment, and follow-up of complex cardiac conditions.
- Interventional cardiology — coronary angiography and angioplasty (PCI), with imaging and physiology guidance where relevant.
- Structural intervention — TAVI; mitral and tricuspid edge-to-edge repair (Pascal, MitraClip, TriClip); transcatheter tricuspid valve replacement (EVOQUE, TricValve); left atrial appendage occlusion; PFO and ASD closure; and paravalvular leak closure.
- Cardiac imaging — echocardiography (TTE and TOE) and cardiac CT.
This breadth means most patients can be assessed, imaged, and treated under one consultant rather than being passed between several.
Volumes and pioneer work
Dr Dawkins is a high-volume operator with a busy TAVI and transcatheter edge-to-edge repair practice. He chairs the Oxford TAVI multidisciplinary meeting and personally reviews every TAVI planning CT. He started the mitral edge-to-edge repair programme in Oxford. During his fellowship at Cedars-Sinai he was responsible for the largest single-centre MitraClip database in the United States, and was one of the operators for the first mitral edge-to-edge repair with the Pascal device performed in the United States.
He has introduced several new technologies to the UK, including:
- The first Watchman Flx procedure in the UK (having been one of the operators for the first Watchman Flx case in the United States).
- The first UK tricuspid edge-to-edge repair with the Pascal device.
- The first UK tricuspid edge-to-edge repair with the TriClip device.
- The first UK combined mitral and tricuspid edge-to-edge repair with the Pascal device.
- The first UK EVOQUE transcatheter tricuspid valve replacement.
Specialist expertise
Dr Dawkins is an international expert in the management of complex mitral and tricuspid valve disease, and frequently looks after patients who have been turned down by other centres. He is one of very few clinicians in the world able to offer the full range of transcatheter tricuspid options — tricuspid edge-to-edge repair, tricuspid valve replacement with EVOQUE, and caval valve implantation with TricValve.
He treats patients with a wide range of complex aortic valve anatomy, including second-time procedures such as TAVI in previous surgical valves and TAVI-in-TAVI. He also has specific expertise in treating patients with severe aortic regurgitation with TAVI, and is an implanter for both the JenaValve and the J-Valve — dedicated devices for aortic regurgitation.
He has further expertise in TAVI in patients with complex vascular access — patients in whom the standard femoral approach is difficult or unsafe. He teaches these techniques internationally, including the use of peripheral angioplasty and intravascular lithotripsy to enable a transfemoral approach where it would not otherwise be possible.
The team
Dr Dawkins is proud to work with an exceptionally talented group of colleagues. From the specialist cardiology nurses and ward team through to the highly skilled intensive care staff, every patient is looked after by people whose work directly shapes the outcome.
Structural intervention is heavily imaging-dependent, and Dr Dawkins counts himself fortunate to work with — and to have been trained by — some of the very best cardiac imaging specialists in the world. Every structural procedure is guided in real time by a TOE imaging cardiologist throughout the case.
He also works closely with cardiac surgeons specialising in complex valve disease and minimally invasive surgery, so when you come to discuss your condition, every option — transcatheter, surgical, or medical — is on the table, and the right path can be chosen together.
Teaching and Research
Teaching is a major part of Dr Dawkins’s practice. He teaches structural intervention internationally — including in China, Australia, Japan, India, Brazil, and the United States — and clinicians visit Oxford from around the world to learn Pascal, EVOQUE, MitraClip, and TriClip procedures with him. He has also proctored these procedures in hospitals internationally.
He is:
- Programme Director for the PCR-JAPAC fellowship programme and the PCR-ANZ fellowship programme.
- Live case course director for CRF conferences, including TCT and New York Valves.
- Track lead for EuroPCR and PCR London Valves.
- Director of the structural intervention fellowship programme at the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, where he trains international fellows in structural intervention. Many of his former fellows have gone on to leading roles in large teaching hospitals around the world.
Dr Dawkins also runs a biannual TAVI CT analysis course, teaching delegates from around the world how to carry out TAVI CT analysis.
He has been Oxford University teacher of the month on several occasions, and was awarded the Eleanor Peel Trust Travelling Fellowship to support his fellowship at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles.
Dr Dawkins is also actively involved in new device development, taking part as an operator in very early-in-human studies for new structural devices, and enrols patients into commercial research at both Oxford and Cleveland Clinic London for aortic, mitral, and tricuspid devices.
Current research interests include:
- Early discharge after transcatheter edge-to-edge repair
- Edge-to-edge repair in patients with cardiogenic shock
- Edge-to-edge repair after failed surgical mitral repair
Consultation style
Good cardiology decisions — particularly around procedures and the timing of intervention — come from a real conversation, not a one-way explanation. Patients are very welcome to challenge recommendations, ask about alternatives, or take time to think a decision through. Second opinions are welcomed, and many patients come specifically for that reason.
Memberships and registration
- General Medical Council (Specialist Register, Cardiology) — GMC 6143008
- British Cardiovascular Intervention Society (BCIS)
- PHIN profile — Private Healthcare Information Network
Patient reviews
Patient reviews of Dr Dawkins are independently collected and verified by Doctify.