Magdy Abdelhamid is a Professor of Cardiology at the Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University, Egypt. He is the Immediate Past President of the Egyptian Society of Cardiology (EgSC) (2018-2020). Board member of the EgSC, Dr. Abdelhamid is an interventional cardiologist with over 30 years of experience in the field.

Dr Rajeev Agarwala is a leading Cardiologist in Meerut, with over 20 years’ experience. He practices at Jaswant Rai Speciality Hospital, of which he is one of the Founding Members. The Hospital is a premier Referral Hospital in Meerut providing all-round health care. Dr Agarwala did his MBBS from Chaudhary Charan Singh University, Meerut, where he won the Pfizer Medallion for being the All-round Topper in the MBBS examinations. He was awarded several Gold Medals as well. He later obtained an MD in Medicine from the same University and further added a DM in Cardiology from Delhi University, through G B Pant Hospital, New Delhi.

John Atherton is Director of Cardiology (Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital), Adjunct Professor (Queensland University of Technology), Professor (University of Sunshine Coast), Associate Professor (University of Queensland), Honorary Fellow (University of Melbourne), Pre-eminent Staff Specialist (Queensland Health) and an appointed member of the Australian Government Medical Services Advisory Committee.

Stefan D. Anker has been Professor of (Tissue) Homeostasis in Cardiology & Metabolism at Charité Berlin, Germany, since June 2017. He was Professor of Cardiology & Cachexia Research at Charité from 2002 to 2014, and Professor of Innovative Clinical Trials in Göttingen, Germany, from 2014 to 2017.

At the Ohio State University, Dr. Abraham holds several leadership positions including an Associate Dean position, managing the College of Medicine’s non-cancer clinical and translational research portfolio. As Division Director, Dr. Abraham has developed one of the largest and most successful academic programs of Cardiovascular Medicine in the U.S.

Stephan von Bardeleben studied medicine at the Johannes Gutenberg-Mainz University, Mainz, Germany, and at the UCSF Medical School in San Francisco (DAAD), USA. He then went on to specialise in internal medicine, intensive care medicine, cardiology, and interventional cardiology. From 2006 to 2011, he was senior consultant and head of the cardiovascular imaging laboratories. He is now senior consulting cardiologist at the Heart Valve Center, a division of the University of Medicine, in Mainz, Germany, head of the department of structural (including grown-up congenital heart [GUCH] disease) and valve interventions that constitutes the first European Heart Valve Unit and a Heart Valve Center.

Dr. Bardeleben is Past-President of the German working group on Echocardiography of the German Society of Cardiology and a member of several medical societies. He serves on the Clinical Program commission and at your region program of the ESC and is a reviewer for several peer-reviewed journals. In addition, he participates as PI, steering committee member and core laboratory in several medical device trials, including a German Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices (BfArM)-approved first- or early-in-human deep implant trial.

Dr. Nooshin Bazargani is a consultant Cardiologist stationed at Dubai Hospital in Dubai Health Authority.
The recognition, management and prevention of heart disease at the level of primary and secondary levels, especially in women, have occupied her attention increasingly in the last few years. She has been the principal organizer for public campaigns and health education in Dubai.
She is involved in undergraduate and postgraduate education and training in her country. Her interest in postgraduate teaching has centers around the membership examination of the Royal colleges of Physicians of the UK and she has been the chief organizer for the PACES (clinical) examination of the Royal Colleges of Physicians of UK, which is held in Dubai three times yearly.
She has established the Heart Failure clinic and anticoagulation clinic in Dubai Hospital. She has received numerous awards for her extensive activities in UAE.
She has been involved in several local and international research activities and has published in several regional and international journals.
She is a Board Member of World Heart Federation .She  has extensive cooperation with World Heart Federation and other international cardiac societies for continuous medical education in cardiology at local and international levels in United Arab Emirates as well as regular public awareness campaigns for prevention of cardiac disease.

Born in Germany, studying Medicine, undergoing training as a physician and cardiologist in a number of countries, Prof. Karen Sliwa lives in South Africa since 1992. Cardiovascular disease in pregnancy and postpartum is one of her main areas of clinical and pathophysiological research.

Javed Butler, MD, MPH, MBA, is the Patrick H. Lehan Chair in Cardiovascular Research, and Professor and Chairman of the Department of Medicine at the University of Mississippi in Jackson, Mississippi, USA. He is also Professor of Physiology.

Dr. Bozkurt is the Medical Care Line Executive (Medicine Department Chair) at the DeBakey VA Medical Center; W.A. “Tex” and Deborah Moncrief, Jr., Chair; Mary and Gordon Cain Chair and Professor of Medicine; and Vice-Chair of Department of Medicine; Director of the Winters Center for Heart Failure and Associate Director of Cardiovascular Research Institute at Baylor College of Medicine.

Dr. Ovidiu Chioncel received his medical degree from the University of Medicine and Pharmacy Carol Davila, Bucharest in 1992, and earned his PhD in 2012. Since 2014, he is leading ICCU and Cardiology 1st Department at Institute of Emergency for Cardiovascular Diseases, C.C.Iliescu, Bucharest, Romania. Dr Chioncel is Associate Professor of Cardiology at University of Medicine Carol Davila, Bucharest.

Professor Cleland is a Cardiologist and Director of the Robertson Centre for Biostatistics, an internationally accredited Clinical Trials Unit offering a complete service both to academia and industry to conduct trials and registries to required regulatory standards. The focus is on cardiovascular and metabolic disease but trials in many other areas of medicine and social sciences are also supported.

Josep Comin-Colet obtained his MD from the University of Barcelona in 1992 and received specialist training in cardiology at the Hospital of Bellvitge, Barcelona, Spain, from 1996 to 2001. He obtained his PhD at the Autonomous University of Barcelona in May 2012. He is currently Director of the South Metropolitan Barcelona Integrated Heart Failure Program, Director of the Department of Cardiology, Bellvitge University Hospital, Hospitalet de Llobregat (Barcelona, Spain).

In 2019 he has was appointed as the new Director of the Cardiovascular Diseases Research Group (Bio-Heart) at the Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute, Hospitalet de Llobregat, Barcelona. He is Associate Professor, in the Department of Clinical Sciences, School of Medicine, University of Barcelona. He has given more than 200 invited lectures in courses, conferences and symposia nationally and internationally.

Professor Comin-Colet has published more than 150 articles in international medicine and cardiology journals, such as The New England Journal of Medicine, Circulation, JACC Heart Failure, European Heart Journal, European Journal of Heart Failure, Circulation Heart Failure, American Heart Journal, Heart, International Journal of Cardiology, American Journal of Cardiology, Plos One, Revista Española de Cardiologia, and Journal of Cardiac Failure, with a cumulative impact factor of 550, an H-index of 27, and more than 3700 citations. He is a reviewer for several journals in cardiology in Europe and the United States (European Heart Journal, American Journal of Cardiology, Journal of Cardiac Failure, International Journal of Cardiology, European Journal of Cardiovascular Nursing, European Heart Journal, Circulation-Heart Failure).

Andrew Coats is an expert on heart failure. He first described the Muscle Hypothesis of Chronic Heart Failure that explained dyspnoea and exaggerated ventilatory responses in CHF patients. He first described chemoreflex overactivity in CHF and periodic breathing and published the first ever randomised trial of exercise training for CHF.

Dr. José L. Navarro Estrada is President of The Argentine Society of Cardiology.

Dr. Justin A. Ezekowitz is professor of medicine in the Division of Cardiology at the University of Alberta. Dr. Ezekowitz is co-director of the Canadian VIGOUR Centre at the University of Alberta. He oversaw the operations of five new heart failure clinics across Alberta to increase access to speciality services.

Gerasimos Filippatos is currently Dean, of the School of Medicine, and Professor of Cardiology, at the University of Cyprus & National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece. He studied Medicine at the University of Patras, Greece, and earned his doctorate cum laude from the University of Athens. He subsequently completed his clinical training in Chicago, USA, and Cambridge, UK.

Marat Fudim is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Duke University Medical Center and the Duke Clinical Research Institute. His clinical practice includes heart failure, mechanical circulatory support and heart transplantation. His research focus is on the pathophysiology of heart failure and the role of the autonomic nervous system, the mechanisms of vascular congestion and the investigation of novel treatments for acute and chronic heart failure.

Stephan von Haehling, MD, PhD, DIC, FESC is a consultant cardiologist and Associate Professor of Medicine at the Department of Cardiology and Pneumology at the University Medical Center Göttingen, Germany. He obtained his MD at the Institute of Immunology at Charité Medical School, Berlin, Germany. His PhD was awarded by Imperial College, London, UK after he completed studies into inflammatory mechanisms of heart failure at the National Heart and Lung Institute in London. Dr. von Haehling has authored more than 250 original research papers, review articles, and editorials. His research interests include the pathophysiology of heart failure, muscle wasting, sarcopenia, biomarkers, cardio-oncology, and novel treatments.

Dr. James Januzzi is currently the Hutter Family Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Januzzi graduated as the top-ranked student in the Class of 1994 from New York Medical College in Valhalla, NY. He joined the staff at the Massachusetts General Hospital in 2000, and is a clinician, teacher, and experienced clinical researcher and clinical trialist.

Dr. Mikhail Kosiborod is a cardiologist, Vice President of Research at Saint Luke’s Health System, Director of Cardiometabolic Research and Co-Director of the Saint Luke’s Michael  & Marlys Haverty Cardio Metabolic Center of Excellence at Saint Luke’s Mid America Heart Institute, and Professor of Medicine at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. He received training in internal medicine and cardiovascular disease at Yale New Haven Hospital and Yale University School of Medicine; and training in clinical research, epidemiology, and health policy through the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program at Yale University. Dr. Kosiborod is an internationally recognized expert in the fields of diabetes and cardiovascular disease, cardiometabolic and cardiorenal syndromes, and quality care and outcomes. He has authored and co-authored more than 200 peer-reviewed publications, including scientific statements and position documents. He is involved in the leadership of numerous clinical trials and multi-center registries, and is currently the principal investigator of several investigator-initiated, multi-center trials in diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

Professor Paulus Kirchhof is Deputy Director of the Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences and Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine at the College of Medical and Dental Sciences, University of Birmingham, UK. His appointment includes a position as consultant cardiologist at SWBH NHS and UHB NHS trusts. He has worked on several guidelines of the European Society of Cardiology including as chair of the 2016 ESC guidelines for atrial fibrillation. Professor Kirchhof chairs the board of the Atrial Fibrillation NETwork (AFNET), is a member of the Board of the European Heart Rhythm Association and sits on the board of the European Society of Cardiology as chairperson of the ESC education committee.

Professor Kirchhof researches mechanisms and management of cardiovascular diseases with a special interest in atrial fibrillation and cardiomyopathies. He has published over 250 peer reviewed papers (h index 73). He leads a translational research group in Birmingham that works across the university and its major NHS partners (UHB and SWBH). He also has a long-standing experience in the planning and conduct of international multicentre investigator-initiated trials, including work as Chief Investigator, steering committee member, and data monitoring committee member. His research is funded by British Heart Foundation, Leducq Foundation, European Union, and others. Working closely with international collaborators, his research group uses genetically modified models, controlled clinical trials and trial data bases, imaging data and biosamples from trial participants, and observational cohorts in a translational team approach to science and health care. He uses these resources to improve the management of patients with atrial fibrillation and cardiomyopathies, to develop personalized therapies for AF patients, and to improve cardiovascular health in general.

Professor Kirchhof is an enthusiastic teacher, regular supervisor for MD and PhD students (over 20 completed MD and PhD degrees), and a sought-after speaker. He helps to coordinate cardiovascular curricula in Medicine and post-graduate courses in cardiovascular medicine, contributes to major textbooks in the field, and serves as educational supervisor for medicine and cardiology trainees in Birmingham. Professor Kirchhof runs a large atrial fibrillation service based at SWBH NHS trust and coordinates the interdisciplinary Inherited Cardiac Conditions Clinic at UHB NHS trust.

JoAnn Lindenfeld, MD, began her career investigating the role of anemia in the regulation of cardiac output, which subsequently led her to develop the heart failure and transplant program at the University of Colorado. She has extensive experience in the direction and oversight of large multicenter randomized clinical trials in heart failure, heart transplantation, and mechanical circulatory support and has served on steering committees, data and safety monitoring committees, and end point committees of numerous national and international multicenter trials. Dr. Lindenfeld is currently a member of the steering committee for four national and international trials, including COAPT, FIX-HF, Parachute, and CAT-HF. She has served on the FDA Cardiorenal Advisory Panel for 8 years, the Cardiovascular Devices Panel for 4 years, and continues to be an ad hoc member of both panels. She was Chair of the Heart Failure Society of America Clinical Practice Guidelines published in 2006 and 2010, served as Vice-President of the Heart Failure Society of America from 2012 to 2014, and is currently the President of the Heart Failure Society of America. Her recent work has contributed to improved anticoagulation in recipients of left ventricular assist devices (LVADs), development of models to predict the risk of peripartum cardiomyopathy, the value of cardiac resynchronization therapy in patients with New York Heart Association Class IV heart failure, the discovery that women with heart failure are more likely to have heart failure with preserved ejection fraction, the development of a model that determines specific phenotypes of heart failure with preserved ejection fraction, and most recently, the discovery that the aorta remodels significantly when subjected to non-pulsatile flow. She is a member of the Heart Failure Society of America, a Fellow of the American Heart Association, a Fellow of the American College of Cardiology, a member of the American Society of Transplantation, and a member of the International Society of Heart and Lung Transplantation. She has presented at national and international academic conferences on her work in heart failure, heart transplantation, and mechanical circulatory support. Dr. Lindenfeld has authored 126 manuscripts, 17 book chapters, and 22 invited reviews. Her work has informed national policy makers on the implementation of heart transplantation and mechanical circulatory support. As Director of the Heart Failure and Transplantation Programs, she currently leads the clinical research efforts of the group, which is reorganizing advanced heart failure and transplantation services within the Department of Medicine Division of Cardiovascular Medicine to improve delivery of all types of treatment for patients with heart failure.

Alexander Lyon is a Senior Lecturer in Cardiology at Imperial College London and a Consultant Cardiologist at the Royal Brompton Hospital.

Dr. Vidur Mahajan runs CARING – the Centre for Advanced Research on Imaging, Neuroscience and Genomics – which works with more than 25 research groups across the world and aims to bring cutting-edge products in the artificial intelligence space into clinical practice. CARING has published several papers on AI, including the first paper on AI in the Lancet, and has more than 90 accepted academic papers in the field across the world.

Marco Metra is Full Professor of Cardiology and Director of the Institute of Cardiology of the Civil Hospital and University of Brescia, Italy, and Editor-in-Chief of the European Journal of Heart Failure and Senior Consulting Editor of the European Heart Journal.

Professor John McMurray is Professor of Medical Cardiology and Deputy Director of the Institute of Cardiovascular and Medical Sciences at the University of Glasgow, UK and honorary Consultant Cardiologist at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, Glasgow.

Mark Petrie is Professor of Cardiology in the Institute of Cardiovascular and Medical Sciences at the University of Glasgow, and a cardiologist at the Golden Jubilee National Hospital, Glasgow, and Glasgow Royal Infirmary, UK. Professor Petrie’s research interests focus on diabetes and cardiovascular disease, structural intervention in heart failure, subcutaneous furosemide in heart failure, revascularisation in heart failure, peripartum cardiomyopathy, microvascular disease in heart failure with preserved ejection fraction, cardiac remodelling, iron in heart failure and cardio-oncology. He has leadership roles in many trials including STICH, REVIVED, Dapa-HF, EMPACT-MI, STEP-HFpEF, REALIZE-K, IRONMAN, PARADISE-MI and has chaired or been a member of over 40 Clinical Events Committees for major trials (eg EMPA-REG, DELIVER, CAROLINA, TRUE-HF). Mark has published over 220 original publications many in high impact factor journals such as NEJM, Lancet, JAMA, Circulation and JACC. He was an author of the ESC NSTEMI guidelines and a reviewer of the ESC Heart failure guidelines.

Professor Piepoli obtained his Diploma in Medicine in Università di Pavia in 1987 where he specialized in Cardiology in 1991. In 1996 he obtained his Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the field of Medicine, (Cardiology), Imperial College, London, UK. He currently heads the Heart Failure and Cardiomiopathy Unit of the Guglielmo da Saliceto Hospital in Piacenza. He is Teaching Professor in School of Cardiology of the University of Parma and at the Fondazione Monasterio, and Scuolas Superiore Sant’Anna in Pisa. He is the Chair of the 6th Joint Task Force responsible for the 2016 ESC Guidelines on Cardiovascular Disease Prevention in Clinical Practice. In 2000 the Italian Society of Cardiology awarded him the title of “Scholar”. From 2012 till 2018 we hold the position of CPG member of the ESC. He is Board member of the HFA. Since 2017 he is Editor-in-Chief of European Journal of Preventive Cardiology (IF 5.64) and ex-officio member of the EAPC

Ileana L. Piña, MD, MPH, is a Professor of Medicine, at Wayne State University and Clinical Professor at Central Michigan University. Dr. Piña also serves as Senior Fellow to the Food and Drug Administrations’ Center for Devices and Radiological Health. Dr. Piña earned her undergraduate degree in chemistry from the University of Miami in Florida. She completed her medical degree and cardiology fellowship at the University of Miami School of Medicine; an internal medicine residency at the University of South Florida Tampa, where she was Chief Resident; and fulfilled a surgery internship at the University of Miami Hospitals and Clinics. She earned a master’s degree in public health from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in Cleveland, Ohio while pursuing a VA Quality Fellowship. Dr. Piña’s research interests include transition of care in heart failure patients, and the role of natriuretic peptide–guided management for patients hospitalized for heart failure, biomarkers of myocardial stress and fibrosis in chronic heart failure, and heart failure differences by sex. She has been actively involved in gender, racial and ethnic issues in the health care delivery. She is the author/co-author of more than 250 publications. She is currently the Chair of the FIT committee of the AHA and on the Board of Directors National AHA. Dr. Piña is a Senior Staff Fellow and Medical Officer of the FDA, CDRH.

Prof. Pinto is the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Lisbon, and Full Professor of Cardiology, Head of the Cardiology Department and of the Heart and Vascular Department of Santa Maria University Hospital, President Elect of the World Heart Federation (2019-2020), National Coordinator of the Medical Schools Council (2018-2020) and President of the Executive Board of the Lisbon Academic Medical Centre (2019-2021) and Director of Lisbon Cardiovascular Institute since 1999.

Milton Packer is currently Distinguished Scholar in Cardiovascular Science at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas, TX, USA. Previously, he was the Distinguished Chair in Cardiology at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and the Dickinson W. Richards Professor of Medicine at Columbia University. In 2010, he received the Lewis Katz Prize in Cardiovascular Research in recognition of lifetime achievements and contributions to medicine.

Prof. Pieske is graduated from Medical School at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich Germany in 1986. Since November 1, 2014, he holds the position as joint Chair of the Department of Internal Medicine-Cardiology at Charité Berlin, Campus Virchow Klinikum, and at the German Heart Center Berlin.

Giuseppe M.C. Rosano, MD, PhD, is Professor of Cardiology and Consultant Cardiologist at St. George’s Hospital NHS Trust University of London, United Kingdom where he is also the Director of the MSc in Heart Failure.
G.R. received his medical degree and his specialisation in cardiovascular medicine from “La Sapienza” University of Rome in Rome, Italy, and his PhD in Medical Sciences from the Imperial College of Science and Technology in London, United Kingdom.
G.R. has served as member of the CVWP of the European Medicines Agency since July 2020, he has been board member of the Italian Space Agency and member of the pricing and reimbursement committee at the Italian Drug Agency.
G.R. is fellow of the European Society of Cardiology, the Heart Failure Association, the American College of Cardiology, and the Italian Federation of Cardiology. He serves as Editorial Board Member for European Heart Journal, European Journal of Heart Failure, European Heart Journal—Cardiovascular Pharmacotherapy, ESC Heart Failure, Cardiovascular Diabetology, Nature Research Scientific Reports, Cardiovascular Reviews, Advances in Therapy, European Cardiology Review, and Climacteric.
G.R. has authored or co-authored more than 500 peer-reviewed articles.
He is the president-elect of the Heart Failure Association of the ESC.

He is a Staff Physician in the Heart and Vascular Institute at Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi.     

Prior to joining Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi, Dr. Sabbour graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in basic Medical Sciences and Bachelor’s Degree in Medicine and Surgery from Kuwait University Faculty of Medicine in 1994 with first class honors and was twice awarded His Highness the Emirs Gold Medal for academic excellence in both degrees. He subsequently went on to train in Internal Medicine and Cardiovascular Disease at SUNY Stony Brook in New York and was elected resident and fellow of the year several times. He then completed his training in Clinical Cardiac Electrophysiology at Massachusetts General Hospital Harvard Medical School and was appointed Clinical Instructor in Cardiology at Harvard Medical School in 2001 as well as SUNY Stony Brook. He has six American Board Certifications. He is currently American Board of Internal Medicine Certified in Cardiac Electrophysiology, Advanced Heart failure and Transplant Cardiology, Cardiovascular Disease , Internal Medicine, and Board Certified in Echocardiography and Nuclear Cardiology. He has always been heavily involved in teaching and been on the teaching faculty at Brown University since 2006. He was promoted to Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine and Cardiology at Brown University Warren Alpert School of Medicine in 2013 . Dr Sabbour has been active in research and is currently an active PI in two international multi-center trials in the field of pacing and ICDs and has had several publications in the field .He was also appointed the Internal Medicine residency program director at Al Ain Hospital as well as Arab Board Cardiology fellowship site co-director . He has been  practicing in Rhode Island for 11 years and moved to the UAE in 2013 to be on staff as Consultant Cardiologist at SEHA (SKMC, Mafraq, Al Ain Hospital and Tawam) Hospitals , he recently moved to CCAD in 2016  . His main clinical interests and expertise are in the management of Arrhythmias & Ablation of Atrial Fibrillation , Advanced CHF and Pulmonary Hypertension  and Adult Congenital Heart Disease , as well as familial hyperlipidemia and complex lipid disorders .He is a co PI in the Gulf  Familial Hyperlipidemia Registry and co-author on the Middle East Dyslipidemia Guidelines as well as the Gulf ICD Registry and Practical Guidance on Anticoagulation for Atrial Fibrillation in the Middle East .    

Gianluigi Savarese is an Italian cardiologist, currently Associate Professor of Cardiology at the Department of Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden and Consultant in Heart Failure at the Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden. He received his MD from Federico II University in Naples (Italy) in 2010 and underwent cardiology residency (2011-2016) at the same Institution. In 2013-2014 he was guest fellow at the Center for Molecular Cardiology of the University of Zurich (Switzerland) headed by Prof TF Luscher, where he investigated the molecular mechanisms of heart failure. In 2017 he got the title of heart failure specialist from the University of Zurich, the Heart Failure Association of the European Society of Cardiology and the European Heart Academy. In 2018 he received his PhD from the Karolinska Institutet (Stockholm-Sweden), with a thesis entitled “Biomarkers for eligibility and surrogate endpoints in heart failure trials”. He is currently fellow of the European Society of Cardiology (FESC) and of the Heart Failure Association (FHFA), former secretary and current board member of the ESC working group on cardiovascular pharmacotherapy and board member of the Heart Failure Association of the European Society of Cardiology.

Over the last 5 years, he has published more than 120 articles on top peer reviewed journals. Major focus in his research is heart failure, with a particular interest in phenotyping heart failure with preserved and mid-range ejection fraction, biomarkers and selection criteria for HF clinical trials. He is heavily involved in registry studies (Swedish Heart Failure Registry, HFA registry) and he has several research collaborations in Europe and USA. He has worked as reviewer for several peer-reviewed journals (EHJ, EJHF, JACC, Annals of Internal Medicine, International Journal of Cardiology, Journal of Cardiovascular Medicine, Journal of Cardiac Failure, European Heart Journal – Cardiovascular Pharmacotherapy, etc) and he is currently editor for Plos One, European Heart Journal Open and and European Heart Journal – Case reports. He is expert in meta-analyses, big data analyses and registry-based research.

Born in Germany, studying Medicine, undergoing training as a physician and cardiologist in a number of countries, Prof. Karen Sliwa lives in South Africa since 1992. Cardiovascular disease in pregnancy and postpartum is one of her main areas of clinical and pathophysiological research.

Academician of the Russian Academy of Science, member of the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Honoured Scientist of Russia, Director General of Almazov National Medical Research Centre, President of the Russian Society of Cardiology, Chief Cardiologist of Saint Petersburg, chief visiting cardiologist of the Russian Ministry of Health for the Volga, Southern, North Caucasian and Northwestern federal districts

Professor Evgeny Shlyakhto, born in 1954, graduated from the Pavlov Medical University in Saint Petersburg, Russia in 1977. Since 1997, he has been a Head of the Chair for Internal Medicine at the University where he was trained to become a doctor and a medical scientist. Professor since 1994, a full member of the Russian Academy of Medical Science since 2011 and a full member of the Russian Academy of Sciences since 2014. Professor Shlyakhto has been the Chief Cardiologist of Saint Petersburg (since 2001) and the Northwestern Federal District (since 2002). Since 2011, he has been the President of the Russian Society of Cardiology. In 2010, Professor Shlyakhto became a member of the WHO Expert Working Group.

Since 2001, Evgeny Shlyakhto has been Director of Almazov National Medical Research Centre, one of the leading medical institutions in Russia involved in fundamental and applied research in cardiology and cardiovascular surgery, hematology, rheumatology, endocrinology, pediatrics, molecular biology and genetics, information nanotechnology. Almazov Centre provides specialized and high-tech medical care as well as training for research and medical personnel within the modern system of continuous medical education.

Evgeny Shlyakhto is an internist and cardiologist, who has made an outstanding contribution to the development of new methods for the diagnosis and treatment of CVDs. The Centre led by Prof. Shlyakhto carries out intensive research in translational medicine, molecular diagnostics, the development of diagnostic tools for personalized treatment, cellular and tissue engineering for therapeutic purposes, the creation of biocompatible materials and tissue-engineered constructs designed to create breakthrough medical technologies of fundamental importance for providing high-tech care to patients with cardiovascular, endocrine and blood diseases.

The results of research by Prof. Shlyakhto have been summarized in more than 800 publications, 16 inventions, 2 scientific discoveries and a number of monographs.

Evgeny Shlyakhto is an Editor-in-Chief of medical journals: Russian Journal of Cardiology, Translational Medicine, and Journal of Arrhythmology. He also is a member of the editorial board of the European Heart Journal.

Dr. Horst Sievert is the Director of the CardioVascular Center Frankfurt, chief of the Department of Internal Medicine, Cardiology and Vascular Medicine of the Sankt Katharinen Hospital in Frankfurt, Germany. He is also a Professor of Internal Medicine/Cardiology at the University of Frankfurt, as well as Honorary or Visiting Professor at Universities in the UK and China.

Gregg W. Stone, MD, FACC, FSCAI is an interventional cardiologist and Director of Academic Affairs for the Mount Sinai Heart Health System with dual professor appointments in Cardiology and Population Health Sciences and Policy. Dr. Stone is also the Co-Director of Medical Research and Education at the Cardiovascular Research Foundation in New York, NY. Dr. Stone has served as the national or international principal investigator for more than 100 national and international multicenter randomized trials (many of which have led to new device approval or indications in the US), has authored more than 2000 manuscripts and abstracts published in the peer-reviewed literature, and has delivered thousands of invited lectures around the world. With a 2018 H-factor of 152, Dr. Stone was recently listed in Nature Medicine as one of the most prolific authors in science. Dr. Stone’s areas of expertise include interventional therapies of acute coronary syndromes and myocardial infarction; drug-eluting stents and bioresorbable scaffolds; left main and complex coronary artery disease intervention; antiplatelet and antithrombotic pharmacotherapies; transcatheter valve repair and replacement; interventional hypertension and heart failure therapies; left atrial appendage closure; intravascular imaging (IVUS, OCT and NIRS); vulnerable plaque diagnosis and treatment; adjunctive interventional devices including atherectomy, distal embolic protection, thrombectomy, covered stents, chronic total occlusion devices, and brachytherapy; saphenous vein graft therapies; contrast nephropathy; clinical trial design; and regulatory issues.

Dr. Stone, along with Dr. Martin B. Leon, is the director of Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT), the world’s largest symposium devoted to interventional cardiology and vascular medicine. Dr. Stone founded the annual National Interventional Cardiology Fellow’s Course, and co-directs multiple other meetings in the US, China, Russia, Europe, Korea and elsewhere.

Dr. Stone previously held similar positions at Columbia University Medical Center/New York Presbyterian and Lenox Hill Hospitals in New York and the Washington Hospital Center in Washington, DC. Previously he was the Director of Interventional Cardiology at the Cardiovascular Institute at El Camino Hospital and Stanford University Medical Center in California.

Dr. Stone completed medical school at Johns Hopkins University Medical Center, in Baltimore, MD, and his internship and residency at the New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center in New York City. He completed his general cardiology fellowship at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, CA, under Dr. Jeremy Swan, and subsequently a dedicated fellowship in advanced coronary angioplasty with Dr. Geoffrey O. Hartzler in Kansas City, MO.

John Spertus is a cardiologist and the Lauer/Missouri Endowed Chair and Professor of Medicine at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, where he serves as Clinical Director of Outcomes Research at Saint Luke’s Mid America Heart Institute. He is a graduate of UCSF Medical School and completed his internal medicine, cardiology and health services training at the University of Washington.

Dr. John R. Teerlink, F.A.C.C., F.A.H.A., F.E.S.C., F.H.F.A., F.H.F.S.A., F.R.C.P.(UK) is Director of Heart Failure and of the Echocardiography Laboratory at the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center in San Francisco, California. He graduated from Swarthmore College with Highest Honors in Comparative Religious Studies and Cellular Biology. After receiving his medical degree from Harvard Medical School, where he performed a year of research in the laboratory of Drs. Janice and Marc Pfeffer, he completed an internal medicine residency at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF). He continued his basic science training through a post-doctoral research fellowship at Hoffman-LaRoche in Basel, Switzerland with Drs. Martine and Jean-Paul Clozel. Dr. Teerlink completed his cardiovascular medicine fellowship and a Howard Hughes post-doctoral research fellowship at UCSF, subsequently joining the faculty, where he currently is a Professor of Clinical Medicine.

He is actively involved in the design and execution of many acute and chronic heart failure clinical trials, serving on endpoint, data safety monitoring, and steering committees for numerous international studies investigating a variety of new therapies, including tezosentan (RITZ program, VERITAS), levosimendan (REVIVE 1&2), nesiritide (ASCEND-HF), serelaxin (Pre-RELAX-AHF, RELAX-AHF, RELAX-AHF-2, RELAX-ASIA, RELAX-Repeat), rolofylline (PROTECT), omecamtiv mecarbil (CY1111, CY1121, ATOMIC-AHF, COSMIC-HF, GALACTIC-HF, METEORIC-HF), TRV027 (BLAST-AHF), warfarin/ clopidogrel/ aspirin (WATCH, WARCEF), nitroxyl donor (STANDUP-AHF), fineranone (FIGARRO, FIDELIO), LCZ696 (sacubitril/ valsartan; PARADIGM-HF), and empagliflozin (EMPEROR-Preserved, EMPEROR-Reduced, DINAMO; EMPULSE), as well as stem cell therapies (CHART-1) and diagnostic modalities, such as CardioMEMS device (CHAMPION, CardioMEMS Post-approval Study), left atrial pressure sensor (LAPTOP-HF) and other devices (ADAPT-Response). He serves as a consultant on clinical development programs in multiple areas of cardiology, as well as in cardiovascular safety for non-cardiovascular indications.

Dr. Teerlink has been an active member of the Heart Failure Society of America, serving on many committees including the Membership, Scientific Program, Corporate Affairs, Development, Lifetime Achievement Award and Guideline Committees and currently serves as Secretary and on the Board of Directors and the Executive Council. He also currently serves on the Acute Heart Failure Committee of the European Society of Cardiology Heart Failure Association and has served on the National Committee on Heart Failure and Transplantation of the American Heart Association. He is a founding and charter member of the American Association of Heart Failure Nurses. Dr. Teerlink completed a four-year term as a permanent member of the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Cardiovascular and Renal Drugs Advisory Committee, and frequently serves as an ad hoc member of multiple other FDA advisory committees and panels for medical devices, diagnostics, biologics and drugs. He is a member of the joint FDA/ Duke University Standardized Data Collection for Cardiovascular Clinical Trials Initiative to develop standardized definitions for cardiovascular endpoints. He was an Associate Editor for the Journal of Cardiac Failure, is currently the Guest Editor-in-Chief for JACC: Heart Failure, and is a clinical scholar presenting many lectures and publications, including a chapter on Acute Heart Failure in Braunwald’s Heart Disease textbook. He was profiled in The Lancet as an internationally recognized leader in heart failure.

Professor and Chairman, Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Kyushu University, Japan

Dr. Shelley Zieroth joined the Section of Cardiology at St. Boniface Hospital in Winnipeg in July 2006. She is currently an Associate Professor in the College of Medicine, Max Rady Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Manitoba, as well as Director of the Heart Failure and Heart Transplant Clinics. She is also Head of the Medical Heart Failure Program for the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority, Cardiac Sciences Program.

Yuhui Zhang is currently working in State Key Laboratory of Cardiovascular Disease, Heart Failure Center Fuwai Hospital, National Center for Cardiovascular Diseases, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China. She has many publications in different journals. The main research area is acute decompensated heart failure, haemodynamic effect, vascular smooth muscle cells, arrhythmia, cardiac dysfunction, cardiac fibrosis and myocardial infarction.

Jian Zhang, Professor, Cardiologist, FACC, FESC, FHFSA. Director of Heart Failure Center, Fuwai Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Science and Peking Union Medical College. Chairman of the Ethics Committee for Clinical Trials of Carediovascular Drugs, National Center for Cardiovacular Diseases. President of Chinese Heart Failure Association, Chinese Medical Doctor Association. Mainly engaged in diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular diseases in HF-ICU, especially for cardiomyopathy, myocarditis, CHD and hypertension related heart failure, cardiac shock etc..