Dr Sonya Babu-Narayan

Dr Babu-Narayan attained a first-class honours BSc degree in Neurosciences at University College London, before completing her MB BS medical qualification.

Additionally, she was awarded the Merit in Clinical Medicine (1998) and the Archibald Ferguson Prize for Personal Qualities in patient care (1998).

Dr Babu-Narayan was awarded Membership to the Royal College of Physicians, MRCP (UK) in 2001, after continuing her adult medicine training in Oxford.

During 2005 to 2011, she trained in cardiology at Royal Brompton, Chelsea and Westminster, Great Ormond Street and the Heart hospitals, with a focus on adult congenital heart disease.

Dr Babu-Narayan’s ambition is to improve the care of adults born with heart defects and is a fully trained cardiologist.

Her clinical work has included paediatric cardiology, non-invasive imaging, maternal, interventional and structural heart disease and pulmonary hypertension. Dr Babu-Narayan is also fully accredited in cardiovascular magnetic resonance and has specific expertise in congenital heart disease imaging.

Since 2012, Dr Babu-Narayan has implemented three new Trust services in the field of cardiology and has contributed heavily to a variety of departmental and hospital audits and clinical service improvements. In addition, she is chair for the cardiac morphology clinical steering group.

Dr Babu-Narayan has been building on her previous work to ascertain the role of cardiac fibrosis in pathophysiology, and whether biomarkers, including measures of fibrosis, can improve predictions of cardiac outcomes in congenital heart disease patients.

Her work also continues on:

• the intersection between clinical congenital heart disease care and cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging
• the prevention of sudden death in congenital heart disease patients
• using late gadolinium enhancement cardiovascular magnetic resonance to stratify risk
• integrate imaging for transcatheter procedures
• outpatient ACHD clinical care with a one-stop evening clinic
• arrhythmia risk in adult congenital (ARIA) service
• adult and pediatric congenital heart disease MRI
• 3D visualisation and printing.

Dr Babu-Narayan is experienced in teaching in several settings, including:

• lecturing for a cardiovascular BSc module for Imperial College London Adult Congenital Heart Disease
• stream lead for Imperial College MSc Innovations in Clinical Cardiology
• PhD and MDRes supervision
• lecturing at various NHS Trust regional training, patient conferences and nursing symposia
• teaching small hospital-based groups, such as junior doctors, nurses and medical undergraduates
• contributing to patient projects, conferences for primary and secondary school pupils, art projects and the Imperial College Science Festival
• one-to-one practical teaching for medical staff specialising in adult congenital outpatient clinics and CMR technicians Web-based teaching.

Dr Babu-Narayan has published many journal articles, contributed many chapters to medical textbooks in the field of adult congenital heart disease and cardiovascular magnetic resonance, and produced a series of online lectures on these subjects. A list of her publications can be found here.