Rate My Professor Sean Coffey

Dr. Sean Coffey is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Medicine at the Dunedin School of Medicine, University of Otago. He holds the qualifications MB BS, FRACP, and PhD, with his doctoral thesis on the microRNA profile of aortic stenosis completed at the University of Otago in 2015. Currently, he serves as Acting Head of Department and Deputy Head of Department (Clinical). His career encompasses clinical cardiology and academic research, with positions including Cardiologist/Senior Lecturer at the University of Otago since 2012 and ongoing research affiliations with Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust and the NIHR Oxford Biomedical Research Centre since 2013. Coffey is actively involved in running clinical trials aimed at developing therapies for cardiovascular conditions.

Coffey's research specializations lie in cardiovascular medicine, focusing on valvular heart disease, ischaemic heart disease, cardiomyopathies, and atrial fibrillation. He employs basic science techniques such as molecular biology and genomics, population-based approaches, and advanced phenotyping with echocardiography, cardiac CT, and cardiac MRI. Key publications include 'Global epidemiology of valvular heart disease' in Nature Reviews Cardiology (2021), 'Large-scale community echocardiographic screening reveals a major burden of undiagnosed valvular heart disease in older people: the OxVALVE Population Cohort Study' in European Heart Journal (2016), and 'The prevalence, incidence, progression, and risks of aortic valve sclerosis: a systematic review and meta-analysis' in Journal of the American College of Cardiology (2014). Recent works feature 'Serial measurement of circulating cardiovascular-enriched microRNAs in patients with ischaemic heart disease: a five-year longitudinal study' in Bioscience Reports (2025) and studies on DNA methylation markers for cardiovascular disease prevalence in Nicotine & Tobacco Research (2025). His contributions to global burden analyses and cohort studies have advanced understanding of heart valve disease epidemiology and progression. Current projects include the PressUre reduction in Mild-to-moderate Aortic Stenosis (PUMAS) study.