Dr Veighey aims to identify and promote research training opportunities for current and future research fellows at UoS and UHS, and expand capacity within research delivery teams.

As part of her role, Kristin aims to build capacity within research delivery teams and enhance research networks, support research fellows, and support clinicians in setting up and performing clinical research within their individual areas.

Kidney transplantation research

Dr Veighey’s main personal research interests are in simple interventions that improve patient care.

She was a key part of a team which completed a multicentre multinational study funded by the NIHR’s Efficiency and Mechanism Evaluation (EME) programme, REnal Protection Against Ischaemia Reperfusion in transplantation (REPAIR). 

This study demonstrated that remote ischaemic preconditioning (RIPC), a simple, safe and virtually cost-free intervention can improve kidney function after transplantation, and that this protection is sustained - patients who had been preconditioned in the study had 13% better kidney function at 5 years than those who had not.

She supervises a PhD student in renal genetics, and a CRN Fellow with an interest in data science.

Collaborations

Dr Veighey remains involved with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine Clinical Trials Unit and University College London in the follow up of the REPAIR patients and developing further studies in this area. She is the CRN Wessex Renal Research Champion, a capacity in which she attends the National CRN Renal Meetings, collaborating with colleagues across the UK, in particular to champion the interests of Early Career Researchers.

Career

Dr Veighey started her training in Nephrology in London prior to completing a PhD in Nephrology and Clinical Pharmacology at UCL. She then transferred back to Wessex, and was appointed as a Consultant Nephrologist at the Wessex Kidney Unit in September 2016.  From August 2021 she will be taking up a post as an NIHR Academic Clinical Fellow in General Practice, based at University Hospital Southampton and the University of Southampton.