Professor McMurray is a Fellow of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC), American College of Cardiology and American Heart Association as well as the medical Royal Colleges in Edinburgh and Glasgow and the Royal Society of Edinburgh and UK Academy of Medical Sciences. He has lectured widely and won several awards, including the Stokes Medal of the Irish Cardiac Society. In June 2015, Professor John McMurray and Professor Salim Yusuf (McMaster University, Hamilton Ontario, Canada) were jointly awarded the 8th Arrigo Recordati International Prize for Scientific Research (for outstanding contributions in secondary prevention and risk reduction strategies in patients with cardiovascular diseases).Professor McMurray was awarded the Louis and Artur Lucian Award for Research in Circulatory Diseases and also the MacKenzie medal of the British Cardiovascular Society, awarded in recognition of outstanding service to British Cardiology, both in 2018. In May 2019 he was awarded an OBE by Her Majesty The Queen, in recognition of his services to cardiovascular research.
His primary research interests are in heart failure, coronary heart disease, atrial fibrillation and the cardiovascular consequences of diabetes and chronic kidney disease, with a focus on clinical trials and epidemiology.
Professor McMurray’s main research activity is clinical trials and he is, or was, the principal investigator, member of the executive committee or steering committee member in a number of large trials in heart failure, other cardiovascular diseases, renal disease and diabetes. He has also participated in many data monitoring/safety committees. He chairs the event adjudication group at Glasgow University which has served as the endpoint committee for many trials.
He has published approximately 700 original papers, reviews, and book chapters, including several in leading medical (e.g. Goldman Cecil’s) and cardiology textbooks (e.g. the ESC Textbook on Cardiovascular Medicine). He is the primary author or editor of thirteen books.