Professor Clark was educated at Pembroke College, Cambridge, and trained in medicine at the Westminster Medical School. He trained in cardiology at Manchester Royal Infirmary, the National Heart and Lung Institute (London) and the Western Infirmary, Glasgow. He became a Senior Lecturer in cardiology in the University of Hull in 1999 and was promoted to Reader in 2004 and then Professor in 2009. He is responsible for running the echocardiography service in Hull, and he plays an active role in the day-to-day provision of cardiology services to the population of Hull and the East Riding of Yorkshire. He is Chair of the British Society for Heart Failure, and is a member of the working groups for Heart Failure and Cardiac Rehabilitation and Exercise Physiology in the European Society of Cardiology. Professor Roy Gardner is a Consultant Cardiologist, Scottish National Advanced Heart Failure Service, Golden Jubilee National Hospital, Clydebank, Glasgow. He is also a Honorary Professor University of Glasgow. His research interests include Heart failure, complex devices and biomarkers. Professor Gardner serves on several ESC groups including HF curriculum and HFA examination committees as well as being a scientific advisor/clinical expert to NICE Theresa McDonagh is a Consultant Cardiologist at King's College London. Her research interests are in clinical heart failure; in particular the epidemiology of heart failure and left ventricular dysfunction and the role of biomarkers.