Andrew Shennan is Professor of Obstetrics at King’s College London, based at St. Thomas’ Hospital. He is Director of the Clinical Trials Unit in the Women’s Academic Health Centre, and is also Deputy Director of R and D for Guys and St. Thomas NHS Trust. He sits on the Academic and Research Committees of the Royal College of Obstetrics and Gynaecology (RCOG) and is the National Chair of the NIHR Reproductive Health and Childbirth Specialty Group in the UK.

He specialises in clinical trials in antenatal and intrapartum care. His research interests include interventions to predict and prevent preterm birth, pre-eclampsia, encourage normal birth and the use of blood pressure monitoring. His current research funding is >£10m, in more than 13 grants. He has published more than 50 articles in the last 24 months and over 200 peer reviewed research reports in total.

Background information

He has an active clinical role in managing high risk obstetric patients, including a regular hands-on labour ward commitment, and a specialist preterm birth surveillance clinical (award winning DoH 2013 innovations prize) that accepts national and international referrals.

He was made an honorary member of the Obstetric Anaesthetic Association (OAA) in 2010. He chaired the Department of Health Committee on Blood Pressure Monitoring in clinical practice, and sits on the relevant committees for the International Standardization Organization (ISO), British Standards Institute (BSI) and the British Hypertension Society (BHS). He also advises the World Health Organisation (WHO) on perinatal research, and is a member of the Low Resource Use Blood Pressure device committee for the WHO. He is an expert advisor to the National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE) Hypertension in Pregnancy CDG, the Confidential Enquiry into Maternal and Child Health (CEMACH), Medicines and Health Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). He also advises the EU Commission. He was clinical director of the Maternity Workstream for NHS London 2008-2010, establishing a number of committees to determine long term strategy for Healthcare for London.

His charity work also includes being a medical advisor to Action on pre-eclampsia, Tommys the Baby Charity and Action Medical Research. He is a director of the International charity, Maternity Worldwide.

Pre term birth, pre eclampsia, blood pressure measurement