Rachel Clough

Rachel Clough, PhD FRCS, is a Consultant Vascular Surgeon and Reader in the School of Biomedical Engineering & Imaging Sciences at King’s College London. Her research focuses on the evaluation, safe adoption, and real-world performance of medical devices, integrating clinical practice with engineering, data science, and regulatory science. Her work is informed by her time at the Department of Health and Social Care, where she contributed to the development of NHS–academia–industry frameworks to strengthen the UK MedTech landscape. She leads major national interdisciplinary programmes, serving as a Director of the NIHR HealthTech Research Centre in Cardiovascular & Respiratory Medicine, and previously as Deputy Director of the NIHR Cardiovascular MedTech Co-operative. She has secured over £8.7 million in external research funding as Principal Investigator and Co-Investigator (PI: £4,816,137), and has led and contributed to national and international collaborations with regulators, professional societies, guideline committees, and industry partners. Her portfolio includes leading multicentre NIHR trials (ARIA, THRIVE), developing national evaluation methodologies, contributing to NICE Medical Technologies Guidance, and advancing frameworks in device safety and regulatory science. Her work has been recognised through national and international awards and featured in the King’s REF Impact Case Study portfolio. She is also the inventor of patented technology that has progressed to licensing and clinical deployment. She is committed to capacity building and mentorship of doctoral and clinical fellows, has developed MSc and MRes curricula, leads innovation training programmes, and champions an inclusive research culture.