My dedication to vascular disease management, my love for my specialty and my willingness to keep ahead of the Posse has resulted in a first class state of the art vascular treatment centre for the people of the west of Ireland, which is highly respected internationally.

The population of the West of Ireland is the oldest in the country and this population is among those with the highest cardiovascular risk factors in all of Europe. These people were completely underserved and deprived of the best in vascular disease therapies prior to my arrival in Galway. Today, this population enjoys the luxury of a world-class vascular service which can treat them with minimally invasive techniques on their own doorstep. There is no comparison to the current service with the haphazard non-specialist service which was available prior to this. Patients were once subjected to archaic high-risk open surgeries and often transferred for treatment outside their own catchment areas; a totally unacceptable scenario for old and frail patients.

In 2011, as a reflection of my high volume workload, massive clinical success and high-profile international reputation, Galway was the first centre in the world to get a State of the Art Endovascular Hybrid Suite at a cost of €4.5 million, which I helped to design. This suite provides the Irish population with the best imaging capabilities in the world and the perfect environment to expand on minimally invasive vascular therapies. This suite is one of only a handful built throughout the world and has paved the way for the provision of highly specialist cardiovascular therapies. Furthermore, following my recommendation, a viewing station has been integrated into the build, which allows medical students and MedTech partners to see vascular endovascular therapies in action and lets them learn and engage in the process of clinical device development.

By keeping a keen eye to the future I am continuing to pioneer new therapies which not only provide effective treatment but also provide for cardiovascular disease prevention and promote cellular repair.

My dedication to research and training and the infrastructure I have founded, mean that the changes I have instigated will continue to be developed and positive change will persist well into future generations. “

– Prof. Sherif Sultan