Professor Stables is a consultant cardiologist at the Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital (LHCH), UK. He graduated in medical sciences from Churchill College Cambridge and read clinical medicine at St Edmund Hall, Oxford. He trained in cardiology at The John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford and at the Royal Brompton Hospital in London, completing specialist training in 1998.
Rod has an established, international reputation for practice and research in interventional cardiology. His clinical interests include coronary intervention including the emergency management of heart attacks, minimally invasive heart valve replacement and non-surgical septal reduction in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. His academic interests are focused on the democratisation of clinical research, seeking to simplify the design, conduct and reporting of clinical trials and other forms of outcomes analysis.
Rod completed a short service commission as an infantry officer before medical school. He then served for 20 years in the reserve forces, involving deployments and training on four continents. He completed specialist courses in mountain and winter warfare, jungle training, parachute skills including high altitude free-fall and basic sub-aqua skills. He was involved in leadership roles in expeditions to Mont Blanc, Mount McKinley and Everest in Winter.
Rod has climbed in the UK, European Alps and the greater ranges. Rod says: “My ambition is now moderated by age but I am still tacking Alpine 4000m peaks and completing my ascent of the Lake District Wainwrights. I am passionate in my support for The Ulysses Trust as it strives to introduce a new generation, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds, to the lifetime of challenge, opportunity and development that can be found in the outdoors.”