Royal College of Physicians Linacre Lecture 2025

19 January 2026 - King’s consultant shines a light on research to improve pregnancy care.

Dr Antonio de Marvao, Consultant Cardiologist and Obstetric Physician at King’s College Hospital, has delivered the 2025 Royal College of Physicians (RCP) Linacre Lecture, one of the College’s longstanding awards recognising exceptional early-career clinicians and researchers.

The Linacre lecture was established in 1990 and named after the RCP’s first president, Dr Thomas Linacre. It is awarded competitively each year to a member of the college.

Dr de Marvao’s lecture, titled “Personalised cardiovascular care in pregnancy, in the postpartum and beyond: harnessing genomics, AI and clinical trials in hypertensive disorders of pregnancy”, brought together several strands of work led at King’s and through national and international collaborations. The research focuses on improving how clinicians detect, monitor and manage cardiovascular risk in women affected by hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, a group of conditions that remain a major cause of morbidity worldwide.

Dr de Marvao explained: “Hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, which include pre-eclampsia, gestational hypertension and chronic hypertension, affect around one in ten pregnancies. These conditions increase the risk of serious pregnancy complications and have important long-term implications: we know that women who have experienced hypertensive disorders of pregnancy are significantly more likely to develop chronic hypertension, heart failure, ischaemic heart disease, stroke and kidney disease later in life. In many cases, pregnancy can act as an early cardiovascular stress test, revealing vulnerabilities that may not otherwise manifest until many years later.

“I feel extremely proud to be awarded this honour, and to have the opportunity to highlight vital research I and colleagues have undertaken to advance maternity and post-natal care for women and families.”

Dr Omar Mustafa, RCP registrar and consultant physician at King’s College Hospital, added: “It was a privilege to attend the Linacre Lecture 2025 as the RCP registrar and current colleague at King’s, and hear Dr de Marvao’s inspiring presentation. His work addresses an unmet need in maternal medicine. The research and future plans he outlined will help reduce inequalities in this field and build the evidence base needed to improve management of hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, maternal metabolic health, and ultimately outcomes.”