13^th World Heart Congress

Damien Byas is the President, North American Scientific Committee on Cardiovascular Health, USA as well as an Epidemiologist and Professor of Public Health, American Public Health Association, International Public Health Delegate, USA.

Cardiology, Cardiovascular Diseases, Epidemiology

Aris Lacis, cardiac surgeon, professor, MD, PhD graduated Riga Medical Institute in 1961. General and thoracic surgeon in P. Stradina University Hospital in Riga (1964–1969). Thoracic and cardiac surgeon in the Latvian Centre for Cardiovascular Surgery (1969–1994). Since 1994 until 2012 – the head of Pediatric Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery Clinic in University Children’s Hospital, Riga; since 2012 – a consulting professor of this Clinic. Vicepresident of Latvian Society for Cardiovascular Surgery. President of Latvian Association for Pediatric Cardiologists. Author of 395 scientific publications, 3 monographs and 13 patents. Investigator in more than 10 clinical trials including cardiosurgical procedures performed under deep hypothermia, hybrid procedures etc. In May 2009 have been used transcutan intramyocardial delivery techniques for treatment (idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathia) the first 3 months aged patient in the world with autologous bone marrow derived progenitor cells. In November 2010 the first patient with end stage pulmonary hypertension received intrapulmonary implantation autologous stem cells.

Pediatric Cardiology, Cardiovascular Surgery

Michiaki Nagai has completed his graduation from the Jichi Medical University School of Medicine and has been engaged in the Cardiovascular Medicine. Using volumetric analysis in MR SPGR imaging, he has been investigating the fields for target hypertensive organ damages including the relationships among hypertension, blood pressure variability, brain atrophy, cognitive impairment and central autonomic nervous system including the insular cortex. He was engaged in the Interventional Cardiology at Hiroshima City Asa Hospital as the Vice Director. He won the Japanese Society of Hypertension Award in the International Society of Hypertension 2006, the Young Investigator’s Award in the 8th Japanese Neurocardiology Workshop 2007 and Young Scientist Award in the second annual scientific forum of clinical hypertension of the Japanese Society of Hypertension 2013.

Hypertension, Interventional Cardiology, Cardiovascular Medicine

Mary Shibuya is an experienced native English medical editor/writer of 32 years living in Japan with a background in chemistry and allergy research at Mayo Clinic (Rochester, MN). For 23 years she was the language editor of the journal Internal Medicine, published by the Japanese Society of Internal Medicine. In addition to editing and preparing research articles for publication in international journals, she attended various medical/scientific congresses as Press (interviews, transcription, summarizing). She also enjoys lecturing on scientific medical writing in English to graduate schools and pharmaceutical companies. She strives to encourage ESL doctors/researchers to publish in English.

Allergy research,chemistry,scientific medical writing

She was born in Zagreb. In 1972, she graduated from the School of Medicine in Zagreb.In 1980 she completed her specialisation in internal medicine at the Department for Heart and Blood Vessel Diseases, Zagreb University Hospital Centre. She continued cardiology training in Stockholm, Uppsala and Pisa. She was the first person in Croatia to introduce and conduct the stress echocardiography method (1992) and has published 56 scientific and academic papers, primarily in the field of cardiology. By 2001, she had been working as an internist cardiologist specialist and chief of the Polyclinic Section at the Department for the Prevention of Cardiovascular Diseases and Rehabilitation in Zagreb. In 2002, she founded the Saint Nicholas Polyclinic for Cardiovascular Diseases and Prevention on Korčula. She is a member of the Croatian Association of Physicians, the Croatian Cardiologic Association, European Cardiologic Association, European Association of Cardiac Decompensation (HFA), European Association for Echocardiography (EAE), and the New York Academy of Sciences. She holds the Homeland Appreciation Memorial.

Cardiovascular Diseases and Prevention

Galya Naydenova Atanasova completed her Ph.D. training in Cardiology from Department of Cardiology, Pulmonology and Endocrinology at Pleven Medical University, Bulgaria. She is a Cardiologist, Assistant Professor at the Department of Internal Medicine, Medical University, Pleven. She is a General Practitioner in Pleven. She specialized in Cardiology from Pleven Medical University during 2015, and General Medicine from Pleven Medical University, Bulgaria during 1993. She has attended to many International Events and presented her research work. She did many researches on metabolic syndrome and myocardial infarction of heart.

metabolic syndrome and myocardial infarction of heart

Dr Berman provides the full range of cardiac surgical procedures in adult patients, including off pump coronary surgery. He is also a member of the heart and lung transplant team at Papworth Hospital, and has extensive experience in the use of mechanical circulatory and respiratory support. In particular, he has used a large number of different artificial pumps to support the heart, both in the short and long term. He is the clinical lead for organ retrieval, recently involved in the world’s largest program of heart donation and resuscitation after circulatory death. Dr Berman is the lead for patient safety in surgery and transplantation; he is involved in numerous programs developed to enhance patient safety and their experience of cardiac surgery. Recently he has been leading the workforce regarding frailty and cardiac surgery, looking into pathways to optimise care.

His research focuses on pulmonary hypertension and endarterectomy, improvement of outcomes for transplantation and organ donation and improving patient safety.

Dr. Ovidio A. Garcia-Villarreal is a cardiac surgeon dedicated to the private practice, retired from the social medicine. He is the past president of the Mexican society of cardiac surgery, and the Current President of the Mexican college of cardiovascular and thoracic surgery. He has been working on the mitral, aortic and tricuspid reconstruction for more than 25 years. He has been pioneer in the field of cardiac arrhythmia surgery, especially in atrial fibrillation surgery (Cox-maze procedure) as well as in aortic valve sparing operations in Mexico. He has implemented national surgical models for valvular heart reconstruction and maze procedure. He has been also dedicated to clinical research, with more than 50 international publications in PubMed. Editor-in -chief of the journal Cirugia Cardiaca en Mexico, and reviewer in more than 15 international journals. He is active member of the Mexican Society of cardiac Surgery, Society of Thoracic Surgeons, European Association of Cardiothoracic Surgery, amongst others.

Aortic Arch surgery, Aortic valve surgery, Mini-invasive surgery, Aortic valve-sparing operations, Left atrial reduction CAB, surgery ,Surgery for atrial fibrillation (Cox-Maze III , Cox-Maze IV), Mitral valve reconstruction, Mitral valve surgery

Dr. Janardhanan is an Associate Professor of Medicine and Medical Imaging at the Banner-University Medical Centre in Tucson, Arizona. He is the Director of Echocardiography as well as the Medical Director, Non-Invasive Cardiac Imaging. He is a also a member of the Sarver Heart Centre.After undergraduate medical training in India, he had extensive clinical and research training in the United Kingdom in Non-Invasive Cardiology with Dr. Roxy Senior and Avijit Lahiri. After completion of the Membership of the Royal College of Physicians (MRCP) diploma, he chose to move to the U.S. in 2004 when he was offered the position of Clinical Project Director of the Echocore lab at the Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard University to work with the renowned Dr. Marc Pfeffer and Scott Solomon. He completed a clinical cardiology fellowship at the University of Virginia, followed by training in advanced multi-modality non-invasive imaging working with Dr. Christopher Kramer, George Beller and John Dent.

valvular/structural heart disease, cardiomyopathies, heart failure, chest pain syndromes and cardiac risk screening in athletes

Dr. M Reza Movahed received his MD from Medizinische Hochschule Hannover, Germany. He completed his medical residency at the University of Rochester, New York and his cardiology training at the University of South Caroline, Columbia. His final training in interventional cardiology was completed at Yale University Hospital, New Haven, Connecticut in 2000. After his training, he joined University of California Irvine as Assistant Clinical Professor and later joined University of Arizona College of Medicine in 2006 as Associate Professor of Medicine, Division of Cardiology.

Coronary intervention, non-invasive cardiology and cardiovascular epidemiology

Salah A. Mohamed, Laboratory and Group Leader in Department of Cardiac and Thoracic Vascular Surgery, University Clinic of Schleswig-Holstein, Campus Luebeck in Germany, the group dedicated research interests to aortic and aortic valve diseases, Atrial fibrillation, aging, and biomarker. He has published more than 25 papers in reputed journals and has been serving as an editorial board member of repute.

Cardiovascular disease (e.g. genetic etiology and molecular), Epidemiology of aortic and aortic valve disease, Evaluation and validation of drugs and biomarkers, Aging of the heart.

Osama A Tolba El Razaky had completed MD Pediatrics from Tanta University. He has obtained Post-doctoral studies in cardiac deformation. He is a Head of Egyptian Pediatric Cardiology Association and a member of Egyptian Universities promotion committee (Professor of Pediatrics). He is currently a Professor of Pediatric (Cardiology Unit) in Tanta University. He has published 20 papers in international journals and has been serving as a Reviewer for Acta Pediatric. He was a supervisor of 100 MS and 25 MD theses in Pediatrics. He is working as echographer in Pediatrics since 25 years.

His main interest is TDI, STI and 3D Strain.

Born and raised in the Southern Caribbean.Graduating high school top honors.Attended the University of the West Indies Medical school class of 1978.Residency in Pediatrics at UMMC 1989,and Pediatric cardiology at MUSC,South Carolina 1992.On faculty at UMC 1992 to present. Outstanding resident 1989 and outstanding pediatric faculty 1995.Currently professor of Pediatrics.Former Division chief of pediatric cardiology.

pediatric cardiology.

Issam Mikati graduated from the American University of Beirut Medical School. He did Cardiology fellowship at Baylor College of Medicine. He complaeted imaging fellowship at the same institution. He is the associate director of the Echocardiography lab at NorthwesternMemorial hospital in Chicago Illinois. He has published numerous papers in reputed journals and has served as a reviewer of premier journals.

Cardiovascular Disease

Part time at Nelson R Mandela School of Medicine, Professor in Cardiology-teach both under and post graduate students 3] Fellow of the European Society of Cardiology and European Society of Heart Failure.Secretary of the South African Heart Failure Society and a member of the steering committee of the South African Hypertension Society. 5] On numerous advisory boards and editorial boards of many international journals and a member of various international cardiac societies.

Cardiovascular Diseases

Xiao-Hua Wang has completed her PhD majored in immunology from Soochow University. She is the director of research center, school of nursing, Soochow university. She has focused on exploring the management of cardiovascular and other chronic diseases and published more than 30 papers in impact journals and has been serving as a reviewer of some journals.

Cardiovascular and other Chronic Diseases

Professor Buszman is a specialist in cardiology and internal medicine. He got his PhD degree with honors in 1991, and in 2002 at the Medical University of Silesia he obtained Postdoctoral Degree in Medicine (habilitation). In 2009 he was awarded the title of Professor by the President of the Republic of Poland.

Cardiovascular diseases

Liutsiia Feiskhanova is an Associate Professor of department of hospital therapy of Kazan State Medical University, Russia. She has published more than 25 articles in reputed journals. Her interests: cardiology, arrhythmology, rheumatology.

Cardiology, Arrhythmology, Rheumatology.

Dr. Lerakis is a Professor of Medicine in the Division of Cardiology at Emory University School of Medicine. He is also a Professor of Radiology and Imaging Sciences at Emory University. He is an Adjunct Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University. Dr. Lerakis is the Director of Interventional Echo and Cardiac MRI at Emory University Hospital and Emory Clinic. He received his M.D. degree from the Medical School of Athens (Greece) in 1988. He continued on doing clinical research in Nuclear Cardiology atMount Sinai Medical Center in New York City. Subsequently, he did his Internal Medicine training at the Presbyterian Medical Center, University of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia from 1991 to 1994 and completed his Fellowship in Critical Care Medicine at Brown University from 1994 to 1995. He went on to complete his Cardiology Fellowship at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, Texas from 1995 to 1998 and then did one year of Echocardiography Fellowship at Emory University from 1998 to 1999. After his Echocardiography Fellowship, he has stayed on as Faculty in the Division of Cardiology practicing clinical and non-invasive cardiology.

Correlation of different non-invasive modalities in the diagnosis of Coronary Artery Disease,use of Echocardiography for guiding interventional procedures, device deployment and Transcatheter Valvular therapies for Structural and Valvular Heart Diseases.

Marco Picichè (MD, Ph.D.) graduated with a degree in medicine from the University of Florence in 1995 and completed his cardiac surgery residency at the Tor Vergata University of Rome in 2000, both summa cum laude. He has worked as an assistant at Saint Luc Hospital, Catholic University of Louvain, Brussels (1999–2001), as a clinic head/hospital assistant at the universities of Clermont-Ferrand (2003–2004) and Montpellier (2004–2007). He held regular teaching appointments at the university of Montpellier school of medicine, obtained certification by the French Board in cardiac surgery (Paris, 2007), earned his research master in surgical science (Paris, 2007). In Canada he authored a research project on ‘‘Noncoronary collateral circulation,’’ which was submitted to the annual research competition at Québec Heart & Lung Institute, Laval University, and received the competition’s highest grant. In September 2011 he received a doctor of philosophy (Ph.D.) in therapeutic innovations from Paris-Sud University. He is the Editor in Chief of the book : « Dawn and evolution of cardiac procedures : research avenues in cardiac surgery and interventional cardiology » (Springer-Verlag publishing house). Currently he is a consultant cardiac surgeon in Italy.

Cardiac Surgery, Interventiontional cardiology

Dr Avanzas graduated in Medicine at Universidad de Navarra, Pamplona, Spain. He completed Senior House Officer posts and registrar training in Cardiology at Gregorio Marañón Hospital in Madrid, Spain. He took up a Spanish Heart Foundation Research Fellowship at Coronary Artery Research Unit, St. George´s Hospital Medical School in London and some months after that he was appointed as Associate Research Investigator of the Cardiovascular Biology Research Centre at St. George´s Hospital in London. He was also appointed as Consultant Cardiologist in Gregorio Marañón Hospital, Madrid, Spain and he also took up an Interventional Cardiology Fellowship in Hospital Universitario Central de Asturias, Oviedo, Spain. He is now Consultant in Invasive Cardiology in this Hospital. His major interests currently are in the field of coronary artery disease and inflammation, markers of myocardial ischemia and interventional cardiology, particularly antiplatelet therapies and percutaneous valve replacement. He is Fellow of the European Society of Cardiology (working groups: Atherosclerosis, European Association of Percutaneous Cardiovascular Interventions and Acute Cardiovascular Care Association) and member of European Society of Atherosclerosis, International Society of Cardiovascular Pharmacotherapy (Spanish Gobernor and WEB editor), Spanish Society of Cardiology and several regional cardiac societies. Dr Avanzas is author of more than 170 peer-reviewed articles and invited contributions (h-index=19) and Associate Editor of Revista Española de Cardiología (IF:3.3), Heart India and Bio Med Research International (IF: 2,7). He belongs to several scientific journal Editorial Boards (American Journal of Cardiology, World Journal of Translational Medicine, ISRN Cardiology, BioMed Research International, World Journal of Meta-Analysis, Advances in Medicine…). He is a frequent reviewer of more than 30 Cardiology journals and is also involved in teaching medical students and postgraduate teaching. Dr Avanzas is a frequent speaker at national and international meetings.

Coronary artery disease and inflammation, Markers of myocardial ischemia and interventional cardiology, Antiplatelet therapies and Percutaneous valve replacement

Jose Antonio F. Ramires, MD, PhD has completed his PhD at the age of 28 years from University of São Paulo Medical School, Brasil and postdoctoral studies from the same University. He was the Scientific Director, Learn Director and General Director of the Instituto do Coração-INCOR (Heart Institute) of the University of São Paulo. Actually, he is Head Professor of Cardiology of the Instituto do Coração-INCOR and coordinator of medical graduate of the INCOR. Dr. Ramires was President of the São Paulo State Cardiology Society, Brazilian Society of Cardiology and Brazilian Heart Foundation (FUNCOR) and Vice-President of the InterAmerican Cardiology Society. During five years (2005-2010) was President of the Professors and Researchers Evaluation Committee of the University of São Paulo. He has published more than 498 papers in reputed journals and has been serving as an editorial board member of repute. (Pubmed: Ramires J)

Cardiology, Hypertension

He completed his under graduation in 1996 from Ashwood Medical University (Texas) and Masters (MD) in internal medicine in 1999 from Belford University (Texas).

Interventional Cardiology

Sergey Suchkov was a Secretary-in-Chief of the Editorial Board, Biomedical Science, an international journal published jointly by the USSR Academy of Sciences and the Royal Society of Chemistry, UK. At present, he is the Director of Center for Personalized Medicine, Sechenov University, Russia; Chair of Dept. for Translational Medicine, Moscow Engineering Physical University and Secretary General of United Cultural Convention, Cambridge, UK.

Personalized medicine, Translational research

Marco Picichè completed his Graduation in Medicine from University of Florence in 1995 and Cardiac Surgery Residency at Tor Vergata University of Rome in 2000, both summa cum laude. He held regular teaching appointments at the University of Montpellier-School of Medicine; obtained certification by the French board in Cardiac Surgery (Paris, 2007); earned his Research Master’s in Surgical Science (Paris, 2007) and; received a University Diploma in Vascular Surgery (Paris, 2007). In Canada, he authored a research project on the occlusion of the internal mammary arteries as an alternative method of myocardial blood supply. In September 2011, he received PhD degree in Therapeutic Innovations from Paris-Sud University. He is the Editor in Chief of the book: “Dawn and Evolution of Cardiac Procedures: Research Avenues in Cardiac Surgery and Interventional Cardiology” (Springer-Verlag publishing house, September 2012). He patented a new surgical instrument. Currently, he is a Cardiac Surgeon in Italy.

Cardiac Surgery, Vascular Surgery

Fabiola B Sozzi works as a Staff Cardiologist at University Hospital Policlinico of Milan, Italy, with high-specialization nomination. She has high skills in multimodality imaging of heart disease using echocardiography integrated with cardiac magnetic resonance imaging, cardiac computed tomography and nuclear. She also works in the acute clinical setting treating acute cardiac syndromes. She gained a high expertise in echocardiography at Thoraxcenter of Rotterdam (NL), where she defended PhD thesis on “Stress cardiac imaging” under the supervision of Professor J Roelandt. She is Visiting Professor at University of Milan where she leads several research projects and teaches at Faculty of Medicine and School of Specialization of Cardiology. She is author of 70 papers published in indexed peer- reviewed international journals and reviewer of several medical international journals.

Echocardiography

Višnja Nesek Adam is an Anesthesiologist, Emergency Medicine Specialist and Sub-specialist in Intensive Care Medicine. She is recognized for her expertise in Emergency Medicine. She served as an Assistant Professor at J J Strossmayer School of Medicine- niversity of Osijek. She is also Head of the University Department of Anesthesiology, Reanimatology and Intensive Care Medicine and Center for Emergency Medicine.

Anesthesiology, Emergency Medicine, Intensive Care Medicine

Arash Gharehbaghi completed his MS in Biomedical Engineering, on screening valvular and septal defects using heart sound signal analysis from Amir Kabir University, Tehran, Iran, in 2000. He has been the Head of two research projects on cardiac signal analysis from 2004 to 2008 that led to the international and domestic patents. He completed his second MS on detecting ejection click from heart sound signal, from the Mon University, Belgium, in 2010 and; PhD degree from Linköping University, Sweden, on severity assessment of valvular aortic stenosis using phonocardiography, in 2014. He is currently a research leader at Mälardalen University with the rise of coronary artery detection using intelligent phonocardiography.

Phonocardiography

Camelia Nicolae is an Assistant Professor in Internal Medicine and Cardiology Department at Carol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Bucharest. She has been working in the Coronary and Intensive Care Unit. In clinical activity, she was interested in diagnosis and treatment of acute coronary syndrome, acute cardiac failure and pulmonary thromboembolism. She had a special pre-occupation about ventricular remodelling post-acute myocardial infarction, which was reflected in her Doctoral thesis.

Coronary ischemic disease

Manuela Stoicescu is the Consultant Internal Medicine, PhD, Assistant professor of University of Oradea, Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy, Medical Disciplines Department, Romania.

Internal Medicine