Our Founders
Two professors. One vision. Between them, Professor Rajesh Varma and Professor Tham Nimal-Raj bring over six decades of NHS clinical practice, academic teaching, examination experience, and institutional leadership to every element of MD Acumen.
MD Acumen was founded as a deliberate partnership between a senior academic clinician with a current NICE Guideline Committee role and a Cambridge research affiliation, and a distinguished healthcare entrepreneur and Chancellor of an international medical school. Each contributes complementary strengths — the credentialled depth of contemporary primary care, cardiometabolic, hormonal and longevity practice on one side; the institutional, examiner, textbook-author and international-academic dimensions on the other.
The result is an educational organisation that engages with both UK and international medical schools, with NHS Integrated Care Boards and Primary Care Training Hubs, with Royal Colleges and accreditation bodies, and with international observership and PG Diploma audiences — anchored throughout by founder-credentialled clinical authority and a real-world NHS evidence base.
Professor Rajesh Varma
Clinical & Academic Director · Professor of Primary Care · Visiting Researcher, University of Cambridge Department of Public Health and Primary Care · NICE Guideline Committee member · GP Partner and GP Trainer in Hertfordshire
Professor Varma is a practising UK General Practitioner and academic clinician whose work converges on the cardiometabolic, hormonal and longevity domains of primary care. His clinical interests sit at the intersection of diabetes-cardiorenal-metabolic medicine (DCRM), menopause and andropause hormone optimisation, and longevity medicine. His academic interests focus on translating multispecialty practice recommendations into UK primary care pathways, real-world cohort outcome reporting, and the responsible integration of agentic AI into postgraduate clinical learning.
Qualifications
MA (Cantab) · PhD · MRCOG · MRCGP · MBBS · PGCert (Oxon)
Clinical & Academic Appointments
- Professor of Primary Care
- Visiting Researcher, University of Cambridge Department of Public Health and Primary Care
- NICE Guideline Committee member (Osteoporosis)
- GP Partner, Hertfordshire NHS general practice
- Approved GP Trainer (current trainees in GP specialty training)
- Member, Royal College of General Practitioners — Hertfordshire & Bedfordshire Faculty
- Member, European Society of Cardiology
- Member, Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists
Doctoral Thesis
"An investigation of basic science and clinical research methodologies to benefit clinical practice." (Varma R.)
Research Interests
Real-world primary care cohort outcomes; translation of DCRM 2.0 multispecialty practice recommendations into UK community service; cardiometabolic-renal protective combination therapy in primary care; precision menopause and andropause optimisation; longevity medicine evidence base; agentic-AI-augmented postgraduate clinical learning.
Publication Metrics
h-index: 18 · ORCID: 0000-0003-4672-4461 · Scopus Author ID: 8932600800
Selected Recent Publications
- Robb P, Ravindran N, Varma R. MASLD: A Practical Diagnostic and Treatment Pathway.
- Varma R, Ravindran N. Stepwise management of chronic kidney disease in primary care.
- Ravindran N, Varma R. Cardiometabolic changes at menopause: Time for precision menopause treatment.
- Varma R. Let's get the basics right before pursuing esoteric longevity mechanisms.
- Varma R. Living Longer, Living Better: The promise and reality of Longevity Medicine. BMJ Rapid Response.
Honours & Memberships
- Visiting Researcher, University of Cambridge
- NICE Guideline Committee membership
- Royal College of General Practitioners — Hertfordshire & Bedfordshire Faculty
- European Society of Cardiology
- Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists
Professor Tham Nimal-Raj
Chancellor, New Vision University — UK Campus · Founder and Chair, Essex Medical Society · senior clinician, academic leader, healthcare entrepreneur
Clinical Excellence & Academic Leadership
Professor Tham Nimal-Raj is a distinguished senior clinician, academic leader, and healthcare entrepreneur with over four decades of experience in the UK National Health Service. He brings to MD Acumen the institutional, examination and international academic dimensions that complement Professor Varma's contemporary clinical and research portfolio.
Clinical Expertise
A prolific educator and author, Professor Nimal-Raj has authored several textbooks on anatomy and ultrasound and is a frequent speaker at international medical conferences. His academic, examination and educational leadership contributions span undergraduate and postgraduate medical education across multiple specialties.
Honours & Memberships
- Chancellor, New Vision University — UK Campus
- Founder and Chair, Essex Medical Society
- Author of several textbooks in anatomy and ultrasound
- Frequent invited speaker at international medical conferences
- Over four decades of NHS clinical and academic service
Two professors. One vision.
Professor Varma's contribution to MD Acumen is the contemporary clinical and academic depth: a current NICE Guideline Committee role, a Cambridge research affiliation, a real community DCRM cohort, an h-index research record, and a practising GP and GP Trainer caseload that grounds every educational artefact in real consulting-room reality.
Professor Nimal-Raj's contribution is the institutional, international and structural depth: the Chancellorship of New Vision University UK Campus (which provides the founding international observership partnership), the leadership of Essex Medical Society, the textbook-author standing across anatomy and ultrasound, and four decades of NHS examination and teaching experience.
Between them, the two co-founders carry the academic, clinical, examination, regulatory, and international relationships that allow MD Acumen to operate as a genuine educational institution rather than a single-clinician brand. The accreditation portfolio in pursuit — Royal College of GPs CPD Provider Scheme, Federation of Royal Colleges of Physicians UK, UEMS-EACCME European recognition, NHSE Primary Care Training Hub partnership, Essex Medical Society endorsement, and international university co-badging — reflects relationships across both founders' networks rather than either alone.
The unifying ambition. To build a UK postgraduate primary care educational programme worthy of every regulator, every Royal College, every university partner, and every clinician who chooses to learn with us — anchored in real-world NHS practice, augmented by agentic AI, and held to a professional standard equal to that of any university faculty in the field.
Connect
For partnership conversations, speaking enquiries, press, accreditation collaboration, or to learn more about Acumen Academy and Acumen Observership, please use the channels below.
Legal & Disclaimer · enquiry@mdacumen.com