Dermot Neely trained in Belfast, Northern Ireland and Sydney, Australia before being appointed as a Consultant Chemical Pathologist and Lipidologist in Durham in 1993. He moved to Newcastle upon Tyne to the Department of Clinical Biochemistry and Metabolic Medicine in 2002. He is presently Head of Department of Clinical Biochemistry, Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Trust and Lead Consultant at the Lipid and Metabolic Clinic, Royal Victoria Infirmary. As an Honorary Lecturer at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne he also teaches on cholesterol, lipids and related aspects of metabolic medicine in the undergraduate medical curriculum and is actively involved in research in the field.

Dr Neely is also a Trustee of HEART UK and Co-Chairman of the HEART UK Familial Hypercholesterolaemia Guideline Implementation Team.