Dr Larissa Kerecuk

Birmingham Children’s Hospital, UK

Larissa is the Rare Disease Lead at Birmingham Children’s Hospital (BCH) where she led the development of the World’s First Children’s Rare Disease Centre involving Children, Young People, Families and Patient Groups throughout the process. Larissa led the 100,000 Genomes Project at BCH ensuring that over 4000 participants were recruited. Larissa now runs the Rare Disease Clinical Service for Children and Young People with complex rare and undiagnosed genetic diseases for which there are no dedicated clinics or specialists together with the Roald Dahl Rare Disease Nurses at BCH.

Larissa’s main role is being a Consultant Paediatric Nephrologist leading the Transition Service between Paediatrics and Adult Care at University Hospital Birmingham.

In the Covid-19 Pandemic, Larissa has been leading the Shielding Programme for thousands of patients at Birmingham Women’s and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust.

As the Clinical Research Lead for NIHR West Midlands, she champions research for all patients and ensured that her Hospital became a Centre of Excellence in the IQVIA Paediatric and Rare Disease Network. Larissa is the Chief Investigator for the NIHR  Stars Together Rare Disease Registry and the Rare Disease Theme of the NIHR Children Medical Technology Project.

Larissa co-chairs the Genomics Rare Diseases Test Evaluation Working Group evaluating new genetic tests to be available for clinical care and is a member of the NHS England Genomics Clinical Reference Group.

Larissa also has voluntary roles as Chief Medical Advisor to ‘Make a Wish Foundation UK’ and “Dreams Come True”.

Larissa was in the top 25 Women Leaders in UK Healthcare 2019 (Pharmaceutical Market Europe) and was awarded the ITV’s Lorraine Kelly’s Hero Award in 2016 having been nominated by her patients for always going above and beyond for them.