Dr Wala Mattar

Dr Wala Mattar is a consultant cardiologist, appointed at Watford General and Harefield Hospital in 2018.

Prior to this, Dr Mattar qualified from the Arabian Gulf University in the Kingdom of Bahrain in 2004, then specialised in internal medicine and cardiology. In 2011, she came to the UK to train in cardiology at Harefield Hospital. Her subspecialty interest is coronary and structural intervention and permanent pacemakers’ insertion.

Dr Wala Mattar has expertise in general cardiology, which include:

• Angina (chest pain)
• Valvular heart disease
• Heart failure
• Syncope (collapse or loss of consciousness)
• Palpitations
• Hypertension (high blood pressure)

Dr Wala Mattar has specialist experience in:

• Diagnosis and treatment of coronary artery disease including acute heart attacks
• Coronary artery intervention (coronary angiography and stenting)
• The use of fractional flow reserve (FFR), intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) and optical coherence tomography (OCT)
• Permanent pacemaker insertion
• Percutaneous patent foramen ovale (PFO) closure
• Balloon aortic valvuloplasty

Dr Mattar is the lead cardiologist for PFO closure programme at Watford General Hospital. She chairs weekly joint cardiology and cardiothoracic and monthly structural multidisciplinary team meetings. She is the lead for British Cardiovascular Intervention Society (BCIS) audit at the West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust.

Dr Wala Mattar has published numerous papers and articles in journals, including:

• American Journal of Cardiology
• British Journal of Cardiology
• Catheterization Cardiovascular Intervention

In addition, she has been a speaker in international cardiology meetings like Euro PCR and TCT.

Dr Wala Mattar has an interest in medical education and regularly trains undergraduate medical students and post-graduate trainees. She started bi-monthly cardiology journal club and teaching sessions at Watford General Hospital.

She has been teaching the Harefield Hospital PACES courses since 2015.