Professional Qualifications and Professional Memberships 

BMedSci (Hons) – University of Nottingham 1974

BMBS - University of Nottingham 1976

Doctor of Medicine - University of Nottingham 1989

Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians - 1992

Fellow of the Association of Physicians - 2019

Fellow of the International Society of Hypertension - 2020

Research interests 

• Cerebrovascular Disease
• Hypertension and Cardiovascular Risk
• Cardiovascular Physiology / Physiological Changes with Ageing
• Cardiovascular Causes of Syncope (Falls)

Career summary 

Following various general medical training posts I was appointed British Heart Foundation Research Fellow at the University of Birmingham where the research for my MD thesis was undertaken into aspects of the relationship between alcohol consumption and blood pressure. In 1985 I was appointed Lecturer in Medicine at the University of Newcastle Upon Tyne, moving in 1989 to the University of Leicester as Senior Lecturer in Medicine for the Elderly. In 1993 I was appointed Chair in Medicine for the Elderly at the University of Leicester, moving to the University of East Anglia in October 2006 as the Foundation Chair in Ageing & Stroke Medicine.

STROKE 

• Principle Investigator in two large multi-centre UK based trials of the management of blood pressure in acute stroke, the Control of Hypertension and Hypotension Immediately Post Stroke (CHIPPS) trial, pilot data published in Lancet Neurology (2009). The Continue Or Stop post Stroke Anti-hypertensive Collaborative Study (COSSACS), run in conjunction with CHHIPS is on going and has been adopted by the Stroke Research Network.
• Acute Stroke studies has centred on assessing the mechanisms underlying the changes in blood pressure and cerebral blood flow haemodynamics during the acute stroke period. 
• I Chair the International Trial Steering Committees’ of the Asymptomatic Carotid Surgery Trial-1 and 2.
• I am member of the Royal College of Physicians UK Audit Committee on Carotid Endartectomy and was a member of the NICE Guidelines Committee for Acute Stroke that reported in 2008.

HYPERTENSION

• Member of the British Hypertension Society (BHS) and Joint British Society’s Cardiovascular Risk Guidelines Committee responsible for assessing and developing guidelines particularly with regard to the management of Hypertension and Cardiovascular Risk Factors in older age and in relation to stroke.
• I have a long standing interest in blood pressure measurement and Chair the BHS Blood Pressure Measurement Committee. Current research interests revolve around the effects of diet on cardiovascular risk factors and self measurement of blood pressure.
• CARDIOVASCULAR PHYSIOLOGY OF AGEING. 
• With other collaborators from the University’s of Leicester and Southampton we have developed various non-invasive methods of assessing cerebral blood flow and its control mechanisms using Transcranial Doppler, currently funded by the EPSRC. 
• I also have a particular interest in the measurement of other physiological variables such as dynamic cerebral autoregulation, cardiac baroreceptor sensitivity and pulse wave velocity and these are currently being employed in various on going studies.

CARDIOVASCULAR PHYSIOLOGY OF AGEING;

• With other collaborators from the University’s of Leicester and Southampton we have developed various non-invasive methods of assessing cerebral blood flow and its control mechanisms using Transcranial Doppler, currently funded by the EPSRC. 
• I also have a particular interest in the measurement of other physiological variables such as dynamic cerebral autoregulation, cardiac baroreceptor sensitivity and pulse wave velocity and these are currently being employed in various on going studies.

CARDIOVASCULAR SYNCOPE.

Our group has been studying the under lying hemodynamic changes with various types of syncope associated with ageing. These research interests are complimentary to my clinical commitments as I run a cardiovascular syncope clinic at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital.

Selected publications

Potter JF, Robinson TG, Ford GA, Mistri A, James M, Chernova J, Jagger C. Controlling hypertension and hypotension immediately post-stroke (CHHIPS): a randomised, placebo-controlled, double-blind pilot trial. Lancet Neurology 2009;8:48-56.

Halliday A, Lees T, Kamugasha D, Grant R, Hoffman A, Rothwell P, Potter JF, Horrocks M, Naylor R, Rudd T. Long waiting times for Carotid Endartectomy in the UK. BMJ 2009 (in press).

MacManus R, Glasziou P, Bray E, Hayen A, Mant J, Mant D, Padfield P, Potter JF. Blood Pressure Self Monitoring. BMJ 2009; 338:38-42.

Smith, SM. 1; Potter JF. 2; Samani NJ. 1; Sammons EL; Rathbone WE, Bentley S, Panerai RB. Influence of non-invasive measurements of arterial blood pressure in frequency and time-domain estimates of cardiac baroreflex sensitivity. Journal of Hypertension. 2008; 26:76-82.

Eveson D, Robinson TG, Potter JF. Lisinopril for the treatment of hypertension within the first 24 hours of acute ischaemic stroke and follow-up. American Journal of Hypertension 2007; 20:270-277.

Sammons E, Smith SM, Bentley S, Samani N, Potter JF, Panerai RB. Influence of non-invasive peripheral arterial blood pressure measurements on assessment of dynamic cerebral autoregulation. Journal of Applied Physiology 2007; 103:369-375.

Brittain K, Perry S, Shaw C, Matthew R, Jagger C, Potter JF. Isolated urinary, faecal and double incontinence: Prevalence and degree of soiling in Stroke Survivors. Journal of the American Geriatric Society 2006; 54:1915-1919.

Panerai RB. Eames PJ. Potter JF. Multiple coherence of cerebral blood flow velocity in humans. American Journal of Physiology - Heart & Circulatory Physiology 2006 291(1):H251-9.

Eveson D, Robinson TG, Shah NS, Paul SK, Panerai RB, Potter JF. Abnormalities in cardiac baroreceptor sensitivity in acute stroke patients are related to aortic stiffness. Clinical Science 2005; 108:441-447.

Williams B, Poulter NR, Brown MJ, Davis M, McInnes GT, Potter JF, Sever PS, Thom SM. British Hypertension Society guidelines for hypertension management 2004 (BHS-IV): summary. BMJ 2004; 328:634-640.

Undergraduate – I am lead for Second Year undergraduate teaching and lecture on numerous undergraduate courses.

Postgraduate – I am Lead for the Stroke & Rehabilitation Group of the Health and Social Sciences research Institute and principal supervisor for both MD and PhD students at UEA and other universities. I lecture on the UEA MSc course in Stroke Medicine. I am also on the Examination Board for a Diploma of Geriatric Medicine and act as external examiner at undergraduate level for several universities including University of Nottingham and University of Newcastle Upon Tyne.