Biography
Dr Tarun K Mittal completed his medical training and post-graduation at J N Medical College in India followed by three years senior residency in diagnostic and interventional radiology at Apollo Hospitals in Chennai, India. He subsequently came to UK in 1995 and underwent specialist training in clinical radiology with sub-specialisation in cardiovascular and interventional radiology at University Hospital of Wales leading to CCST in 1999. His passion in cardiac imaging led him to do further fellowship training at the Yorkshire Heart Centre in Leeds. He was appointed as a consultant cardiothoracic radiologist at Royal Brompton and Harefield NHS Foundation Trust in 2002 to develop and lead the cardiovascular MRI service at Harefield Hospital. In the same year he was granted an honorary senior clinical lecturer position at the Faculty of Medicine at the National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial Medical College, London.
Dr Mittal has led the development of both cardiac MRI and CT services at Harefield Hospital since 2002. He was the head of imaging from 2006 to 2011 and undertook various responsibilities including chairman of Radiation Protection Committee till 2016. In 2014-15, Dr Mittal undertook a master’s course (MSc) in preventive cardiology at Imperial College, London.
Areas of expertise
Dr Mittal has a particular expertise in CT and MRI of the heart and the vascular system. Having worked for almost 18 years in the UK’s leading tertiary centre, his experience ranges from routine to complex cardiovascular conditions in adults. More recently, Dr Mittal has developed interest in cardiovascular prevention, yoga, and mindfulness.
Research interests
Dr Mittal is involved in various research projects with primary areas involving risk assessment, imaging of coronary heart disease, heart failure, heart and lung transplantation, ventricular assist devices, and aortic valve disease.
He is currently leading a randomised controlled trial exploring the use of mindfulness in patients with chest pain in collaboration with experts at Imperial College and Oxford University. He is also a co-investigator in multi-centre ORFAN (Oxford Risk Factors and Non-Invasive Imaging Study) and UK COVID-19 Cardiovascular CT Risk Assessment Consortium Study. Dr Mittal has recently published his work on cardiac CT in aortic valve stenosis using computational fluid dynamics in collaboration with Brunel University. His complete bibliography can be found here.
Teaching
Dr Mittal teaches and trains both radiologists and cardiologists in cardiac CT and MR from various hospitals within the UK as well as abroad. He supervises trainees from the London deanery and clinical fellows in core and advanced cardiac imaging.
Since 2009, he has organised the combined Level 1 and 2 Harefield cardiac CT course (now called UK Cardiac CT Course), which has trained more than a thousand radiologists and cardiologists from all over the UK and abroad.
International work
He is a founding member of both Society of Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance (SCMR) and Society of Cardiovascular CT (SCCT) and attends various international meetings to present research work as well as an invited lecturer at various international meetings.
Committees
Dr Mittal was in the executive committee of British Society of Cardiovascular Imaging (BSCI) of which he was a founding member in 2001. He was the lead for cardiac imaging guidelines for the Royal College of Radiologists document ‘Making the Best Use of a Department of Clinical Radiology’.
Private patient referral
If you would like to make an appointment with this specialist for private care, contact the RB&HH Specialist care team. If you wish to be referred for cardiac CT or MRI, you should first be seen by your GP/clinician, who can then refer you to Dr Mittal.