Dr Valentina Puntmann is a Cardiovascular Clinical Pharmacologist and Consultant Physician. Her subspecialty interests are cardiovascular risk factor management and discovery of imaging biomarkers of early cardiovascular injury.  She works on standardization and validation of novel imaging methods for clinical use and provides core-lab services for multicenter studies. She is certified in adult cardiac echocardiography (BSE), cardiac MRI (SCMR level III) and cardiac CT (SCCT II). She holds a PhD in Cardiovascular pharmacology and has the expertise in conduct of clinical trials. She leads on several courses providing teaching on cardiovascular imaging and translational medicine on undergraduate and postgraduate level. She is a member of SCMR clinical trials committee and SCMR Newsletter Editor. 

Valentina completed her undergraduate medical studies at University of Ljubljana, Slovenia in 1999, as the top graduate of the year. She was distinguished by Presern awards for student research projects (3 times awardee - 1996, 1997, 1999).  She completed her PhD in Cardiovascular Pharmacology in 2004 (St George’s University of London, University of Ljubjana). She obtained board certifications in specialty training (CCST)  in 2011 (Imperial College NHS Trust, London Deanery, United Kingdom). She trained in cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging at German Heart Institute Berlin, Germany, and subsequently, with Prof Eike Nagel at King’s College London.

In 2011 she was appointed as Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) at Department of Cardiovascular Imaging, Division of Imaging Sciences, King’s College London. Her research interest is in clinical translation of novel imaging markers of early cardiovascular injury by phenotyping cardiovascular pathophysiology in vivo. Current projects include proof-of concept studies of risk stratification strategies and biomarker discovery in cardiovascular inflammation and remodeling, in particular in non-ischaemic cardiomyopathies. She is active in delivery of clinical CMR service. She provides training supervision  in-line with SCMR training curriculum. She is course co-director (Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance level I course) and postgraduate course leader and lecturer in Cardiovascular Imaging and Imaging Sciences.