Sponsors
Exhibitors
Zohair Y. Alhalees, MD, MCS, FRCSC, FACS, FACC
Professor Zohair Alhalees is a distinguished Senior Cardiac Surgeon at the Heart Center of Excellence at King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center (KFSH&RC).
Dr. Alhalees obtained his medical degree from King Saud University Medical School and was among the first batch of graduates from the school in 1977. He was appointed as a surgical resident at King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center (KFSH&RC), from where he was sent on a scholarship to the US and Canada for general, cardiovascular, and thoracic surgery training. He received fellowship certifications from the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada in General Surgery in 1984 and in Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery in 1984. He was the first Saudi physician to be certified by the Royal College of Canada. He then spent a year of fellowship training in Pediatric and Congenital Cardiac Surgery in Denver, USA. He returned to Saudi Arabia in late 1985 and joined the staff at King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center (KFSH&RC), where he continues to work to this day. His main area of interest is congenital cardiac surgery.
Dr. Alhalees played an instrumental role in upgrading and expanding the cardiac services at King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center (KFSH&RC), helping to elevate the Heart Center to an internationally recognized level.
He is a recipient of many fellowships and is an active member of several cardiac and cardiology associations and societies worldwide.
He was the president of the World Society for Pediatric and Congenital Heart Surgery (WSPCHS), an international society with the vision that every child born anywhere in the world with a congenital heart defect should have access to appropriate medical and surgical care (www.wspchs.org).
Dr. Alhalees has operated in many countries worldwide, helping and educating local teams in various cardiac surgical procedures, some of which he either developed or refined.
He is frequently invited to lecture at numerous local and international meetings and has delivered close to 500 presentations and lectures. He has published 426 articles and book chapters and 145 abstracts. He is also a reviewer and a member of the editorial board of various peer-reviewed international journals.
For his outstanding contributions, Dr. Alhalees has received numerous recognitions and awards, including the King Abdulaziz First Degree Medal of Honor, which was personally awarded to him by the late King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz
Yong Cui, MD, PhD,
Chief & Consultant Cardiac Surgeon
Department of Cardiovascular Surgery Department
Zhejiang Provincial People’s Hospital, Hangzhou, China
Member, Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS), USA; Canadian Society of Cardiac Surgeons (CSCS); International Society for Minimally Invasive Cardiothoracic Surgery (ISMICS)
Yin-Kai Chao
Yin-Kai Chao, MD, PhD, is currently Professor and Chief of the Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery at Chang Gung memorial hospital-Linkou in Taoyuan, Taiwan. Additionally, he is the director of the robotic surgery center and deputy director of cancer center.
Dr. Chao acquired his MD degree from Chang Gung University in 2001 and completed specialist training as thoracic surgeon in Chang Gung Memorial Hospital in 2006. In 2010, he received PhD degree in Medical sciences at the Chang Gung University.
Dr. Chao and colleagues’ early research was seminal in identifying markers for treatment response prediction and prognostic stratification in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma. He also focused on developing biodegradable medical devices for the management of difficult thoracic disease. Early in his career, Dr. Chao’s clinical work was focused on minimally invasive esophagectomy, for which he is internationally recognized. In 2015, he was awarded the international guest scholarship of the American College of Surgeons. After his return to Taiwan, he became the chief of thoracic surgery of CGMH in 2016 and established the biggest robot-assisted thoracic surgery program. His unit is the first and only da Vinci Robotic Epicenter for thoracic surgery in Taiwan. He is also a pioneer in developing image-guided video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery(iVATS) for the single-stage diagnosis and resection of small impalpable lung cancer. He established a standardized protocol to enhance the efficacy and safety of iVATS and is hosting the world first iVATS reference center.
In addition to his work, Dr. Chao also performs research to improve clinical outcomes and patient experience at hospitals. He is the primary investigator of several surgical trials, including a multi-center randomized trial to compare robotic and thoracoscopic esophagectomy(NCT03713749), two pilot trials exploring the feasibility and safety of uniportal robotic surgery on anatomical lung resection(NCT05535712) and anterior mediastinal surgery(NCT05455840) and one randomized trial to compare iVATS and VATS for the treatment of small lung cancer(NCT03395964).Being a 15 times recipient of research awards across different societies, he has published more than 180 peer-reviewed papers and has served as lecturer and visiting professor over 150 times around the world.
Dr Chao has served nationally through professional societies, including being the current President (2024/7~2026/7) of the Taiwan Society of Thoracic Surgeons, Executive Director of the Taiwan Association of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery.
He has played an active role in many international surgical societies and sits on the executive boards of Upper GI International Robotics Association (UGIRA), for which he was the president of 2023 UGIRA Congress.
As an internationally known academic thoracic surgical oncologist and expert in minimally invasive thoracic robotic surgery, Dr. Chao has made significant contributions to the field of thoracic surgery and has an outstanding record of transformative scholarly research, instructional excellence, academic leadership, and proven clinical outcomes. As a surgeon-scientist, his academic efforts have had an impact in many focused areas, including esophageal cancer, robotic thoracic surgery, and advanced imaging technologies in thoracic surgery.
Yih-Sharng Chen
Yih-Sharng Chen, DM, PhD, currently is a Professor of Surgery, CArdiovascualr Surgery in National Taiwan University Hospital, Medical college, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan. He is a famous cardiac thoracic surgeon and a well-known specialist in extracorporeal membrane oxygenation. He was the chairman of the Asian chapter of Extracorporeal Life Support Organization. His research interest focused on the innovation in early detection of pathophysiological change and the advanced image for better resolution. He also an active pediatric cardiac surgeon on the complicated congenital heart as well as the stem cell therapy. He had published more than 250 manuscripts with high citation and is a top 2% scientists in 2021.
Clin Prof Yeo Khung Keong
MBBS (S’pore), FACC, FESC, FAMS, FAHA, FAPSC, FJCS,
ABIM (Cardiology & Interventional Cardiology, USA)
Chief Executive Officer
Senior Consultant, Department of Cardiology
National Heart Centre Singapore
Clinical Professor Yeo Khung Keong is the Chief Executive Officer and Senior Consultant with the Department of Cardiology at the National Heart Centre Singapore (NHCS). He is also the Academic Chair for the SingHealth Duke-NUS Cardiovascular Sciences Academic Clinical Programme and the Deputy Co-Chair and Lead (Emerging Technologies and Data) at the SingHealth Duke-NUS Academic Medicine Innovation Institute. His expertise lies in mitral and tricuspid valve transcatheter interventions and in the treatment of calcific coronary artery disease.
Prof Yeo is the Principal Investigator of the SingCLOUD registry, Singapore’s national registry of patients with coronary artery disease and heart failure, as well as the SingHEART study, a prospective observational cohort study focusing on normal individuals with in-depth phenotyping and whole genome sequencing. He has also worked on various service transformation programmes such as the Future Outpatient Journey project.
Prof Yeo is the Past-Chair of the Scientific Advisory Board for the Asian Pacific Society of Cardiology (APSC), is a past Chair of the Chapter of Cardiologists, Academy of Medicine Singapore, is a board member for the College of Physicians, Academy of Medicine Singapore, and council member of the Singapore Cardiac Society. He is founding and current Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of the APSC.
Prof Yeo graduated in 1997 from the National University of Singapore where he obtained his Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery. He subsequently trained in the United States of America and obtained his American Board of Internal Medicine Certifications in Internal Medicine, Cardiovascular Medicine and Interventional Cardiology. Prof Yeo also obtained his Executive Master of Business Administration from INSEAD in 2018.
Xiao Li
Xiao Li is an Advanced Practice Nurse (APN), working in Cardiothoracic Surgical Unit of National Heart Centre Singapore (NHCS). She has been in Nursing profession for 25 years with wide exposure to clinical practice, training/education, leadership, research, innovation, and quality improvement. She is a clinical teacher in guiding Master of Nursing Students as mentor during clinical attachment and conducting chest drain & drainage system orientation for medical staff rotating to Cardiothoracic Surgical Unit. She is a Nurse Clinical Specialist, looking after patients in High Dependency / Intermediate Care Unit (HD/ICA) post Cardiothoracic Surgery in collaboration with medical team. She is a Nurse Practitioner, taking care of patients that require specialized thoracic surgical services, such as home ambulatory drainage system at both inpatient and outpatient setting & community.
She has a strong passion in patient safety as a competent frontline clinical leader at clinical setting through research, innovation, and quality improvement projects. She has led and participated in numerous research studies in cardiothoracic setting since 2004, and slowly she moved into innovation and clinical quality improvement projects to operationalize the research evidence to clinical practice for better patient care. As a clinical leader, she spearheaded a project in 2021 to promote early ambulation of post-operative patients by designing a multipurpose device holder to ease patient movement and facilitate physiotherapy sessions, speeding up recovery and enabling patients to go home earlier. This innovation has won her team a SingHealth’s Best Team Award and being publicized in social media channel 5 and channel 8 bilingually with interview filming. She developed a ADSR care bundle to prevent central venous catheter dislodgement in 2022, further generalized to all types of invasive line dislodgement prevention care standards. She also conceptualized a 4SAFER phlebitis prevention care bundle in 2023. She is a good teacher & efficient team leader in driving changes, both of her care bundle projects have won her team SingHealth’s Best Team Award for Target Zero Harm. Currently she is leading a training workshop on chest drainage system to beef up healthcare workers’ standard of care in this area, with the aim of target zero harm for all patients requiring chest drain care. She plans to incorporate this workshop into departmental orientation programme for new nurses, allied health, and medical professionals, with potential extension to other departments and institutions in the future.
She is constantly striving for clinical excellence with evidence-based practice, not only upgrading herself through on-the-job training, but also reviewing hospital policies and developing nursing protocols to guide clinical nursing practice in her specialized field, safeguarding patient safety. She is exploring and expanding her specialty nursing services to benefit more patients in the hospital to community and beyond for better patient experience and best clinical outcomes.
Xiang Wei
Professor Wei Xiang is the director of cardiovascular surgery at Tongji Hospital, a member of the American Association for Thoracic Surgery. Professor Wei has developed a novel transapical beating-heart septal myectomy (TA-BSM) procedure, enabled by an innovative beating-heart myectomy device, for the treatment of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM). This novel procedure eliminates the need for sternotomy and cardiopulmonary bypass, and reduces the operation time from five hours to one hour while maintaining less than 1 percent of mortality and achieving similar symptom alleviation. With real-time transesophageal echoaortography guidance, the individualized TA-BSM approach can effectively achieve adequate and precise resections in terms of the length and volume of septal myocardium. To December 2024, over 1000 cases have received TA-BSM in China, and the follow-up outcomes showed that the therapeutic advantages of TA-BSM potentially broaden the applicability of surgical septal reduction in HCM treatment.
Worawong Slisatkorn, MD
Associate Professor Worawong Slisatkorn is a chief of Cardio-Thoracic Surgery Division, and chief of Siriraj Aortic Center, Department of Surgery, Faculty of Medicine Siriraj Hospital, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand.
He received Thai Thoracic Surgery Board certification in 1999 and was trained at Utrecht Medical Center University, the Netherlands in 2004 then became a cardio-thoracic surgery fellow at Cleveland Clinic, Ohio, USA in 2005. The fields of interest are thoracic aortic surgery including aortic root, aortic arch and endovascular surgery.
The 1,400 cardiac operations are performed annually by Cardio-Thoracic Surgery Division, with 200 thoracic aortic and 100 abdominal aortic operations performed by Siriraj Aortic team.
Woong-Han KIM
Dr. Woong-Han KIM is a Professor at the Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, Seoul National University College of Medicine. He is also the Director of JW Lee Center for Global Medicine at Seoul National University and was the Chairman of The Korean Society for Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery from January 2020 to December 2021.
Dr. KIM holds various esteemed positions, including Planning Director at the National Academy of Medicine of Korea. He is a member of numerous prestigious societies such as The Society of Thoracic Surgery, The European Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery, and The Association of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgeons of Asia.
His affiliations extend to several Korean medical societies, including The Korean Society for Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, The Korean Society of Critical Care Medicine, The Korean Pediatric Heart Association, and The Korean Society of Circulation. Dr. KIM has a significant impact on the field of thoracic and cardiovascular surgery, both in Korea and internationally.
Wilson Y. Szeto, MD
Julian Johnson II Professor of Surgery
Chief, Division of Cardiovascular Surgery
Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA 19104
Wilson.szeto@pennmedicine.upenn.edu
Dr. Wilson Szeto is the Julian Johnson II Professor of Surgery in the Division of Cardiovascular Surgery at the University of Pennsylvania. He currently serves as the Chief of the Division of Cardiovascular Surgery. His clinical practice spans the entire field of adult cardiac surgery. His clinical interest involves the treatment of thoracic aortic pathology and complex structural heart and valvular disease. His expertise encompasses the full spectrum of surgical strategies ranging from complex open cardiac surgery to the latest techniques in transcatheter and endovascular therapies.
At the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Szeto remains extensively engaged in the clinical trial research and education of cardiothoracic surgical residents. He has been active in multiple clinical trials involving both endovascular stent graft therapies for thoracic aortic pathology as well as transcatheter therapies for valvular disease. From an education perspective, he has been involved with the development of an advanced integrated training program that emphasizes the integration of catheter-based interventional skills and conventional cardiovascular surgery, preparing surgeons for the future.
Miss Wijitra Jitmun
Education
Work Experience
Sheng Wang, MD PhD
Current Position:
Department of Cardiovascular Surgery,
Fuwai Central China Cardiovascular Hospital.
Specialist, Cardiac surgeon.
Performing 250 cases per year, including around 150 minimal invisive cardiac surgeries（75 endoscopic valve surgeries，75 robotic assisted CABD）, and 50 transcatheter valve cases.
EDUCATION AND TRAINING:
09/1999-07/2004 Medical study in general clinical medicine, Xinxiang Medical College
08/2004-08/2007 Resident in Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Anyang People’s Hospital
09/2007-07/2010 MD in Cardiovascular Surery, Capital Medical University(Beijing)
08/2010-03/2015 Clinical Fellow in Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, Henan Provincal People’s Hospital
03/2015-08/2015 Clinical Fellow in Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, West China Hospital of Sichuan University.
08/2015-05/2017 Clinical Fellow in Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, Henan Provincal People’s Hospital
05/2017-04/2018 Clinical Fellow for TAVI program training, German Heart Center Munich
11/2023-01/2024 Clinical Fellow for Robot assisted cardiac surgery training, New York Syracuse St.Jesoph Hospital
04/2018-Present Cardiac Surgery Specialist, Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, Fuwai Central China Cardiovascular Hospital
DOMESTIC SOCIETY:
Active member of ISMICS;
Silver membership of Asia Pacific Structural Heart Disease(APSHD) club;
Member of Interventional Treatment Academic Committee,Association of Asian Heart Valve Disease(AAHVD) China Chapter;
Active member of China Society of Minimal Invasive Cardiac Surgery(CMICS)
Vipin Zamvar MS, DNB(CTh), FRCS(CTh)
Dr Vipin Zamvar is a Consultant Cardiothoracic Surgeon at the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh.
Dr Zamvar has a joint cardiac and thoracic surgical practice and his main areas of interest are Coronary Artery Surgery (off-pump surgery, arterial revascularization), Aortic Valve Surgery, Lung Cancer Surgery, Minimally Invasive Surgery and Robotic Assisted Thoracic Surgery. He takes a keen interest in teaching and education of junior surgeons.
He has given many lectures world-wide on cardiac and thoracic surgical topics. He is the author of more than a100 papers published in peer-reviewed journals with a H index of 30 and i10 index of 51. (Total number of citations > 5000). He was the President of the World Society of CardioVascular and Thoracic Surgeons (WSCTS) from 2015 to 2016; and is currently the General-Secretary. He has been the Editor-in-Chief of the “Journal of Cardiothoracic Surgery” since 2006. He is an elected trustee of the Society for Cardiothoracic Surgery in Great Britain and Ireland. He has been the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Cardiothoracic Surgery since 2006 (Impact Factor 1.6; 1.5 million downloads in 2022).
In 2017, he described the “Zamvar Pericardial Fold”. This is a fold of pericardium over the left superior and inferior pulmonary veins, which is an ideal spot to place a deep pericardial retraction suture during off-pump coronary surgery (the Zamvar Pericardial Stitch).
Dr Zamvar enjoys playing chess and his FIDE rating is just over 1750.
You can follow him on Twitter: @VipinZamvar
Vinayak Bapat
Prof. Bapat completed his medical education in Mumbai, India and then in Canada and UK. After completing Fellowship in Toronto General hospital in 1999, he moved to UK and completed Cardiothoracic training in UK and obtained FRCS.CTh in 2005. He was appointed as a consultant at the Guys and St. Thomas’ hospital in 2007 with special interest in aortic surgery. He became full Professor in UK in 2014 in recognition of his work in the field of TAVI his work in training most institutions in UK.
He was the surgical lead for the Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation (TAVI) program at St. Thomas’ Hospital, which is the largest TAVI program in UK and acts as a tertiary referral center for complex TAVI cases. He pioneered new methods of performing TAVI (trans-aortic approach), led the original research and guidance on valve-in-valve indication and has developed smartphone Apps, which are used all over the world as a reference tool for valve-in-valve. He also leads research in advance indications of TAVR such as MAC. Dr. Bapat has trained over 100 centers in TAVI all over the world and continues to participate actively in teaching and training on all aspects of TAVI.
He has been involved in early feasibility study of the Transcatheter mitral valve implantation and has performed first-in-man implant of Edward’s FORTIS device in February 2014 and of Medtronic’s Intrepid device prior to its acquisition. He was the PI for the global feasibility trial investigating Intrepid device. He has led bench and clinical application of newer Mitral and tricuspid replacement and repair devices such as Navigate, Intrepid, Saturn, Cephea and Tricinch to name a few. He is the national PI for Intrepid Tricuspid trial in USA.
Prof. Bapat has a large research and innovation program to help advance the field and has over 150 publications. He is an invited faculty for all major cardiology and cardiac surgical meetings all over the world. Dr. Bapat has developed three Apps (Valve-in-Valve Aortic, Valve-in-Valve Mitral and Valve PPM) which are now used all over the world to treat patients with TAVR. These Apps were developed as educational tools and are free. In the last calendar year, the Apps were accessed more than 350K times in 157 countries. His role as an educator continues to evolve as he has unique knowledge of heart surgery, intervention, imaging and engineering. His latest App on Redo-TAV is eagerly awaited and will be released soon for clinical use.
Dr. Bapat moved to Columbia University Medical Center in New York in 2017 as Professor of CV surgery and helped to start the advance Mitral and Tricuspid therapy. In June 2020 he accepted the appointment at the Abbott Northwestern Hospital and Minneapolis Heart Institution as Chief of Cardiothoracic Surgery and now overseas United hospital as well.
Vegard Ellensen, MD PhD
Commencing clinical surgical training in 2003, I qualified for the specialty of General Surgery in 2010 and of Cardiothoracic surgery in 2014. That same year I defended my thesis on “Intimal hyperplasia” based on cell-culture and animal experiments, as well as clinical findings.
During my work as consultant surgeon, I have had the pleasure to visit clinics worldwide, such as Hannover Medical School, Skånes Universitetssjukhus (Lund), Leiden University Medical Center, Mayo Clinic (Rochester) and Cleveland Clinic (Cleveland).
I am, and have been, a board member of several organizations, currently serving as President of the Norwegian Association for Cardiothoracic Surgery.
Scientifically, I have been involved in several multicenter studies, RE-ALIGN, RE-VERSE AD, NOTION 2 and SUNDAY, and have also supervised several master theses.
Tomas Holubec
Tomas Holubec graduated in 2004 as a medical doctor from the Charles University, in Prague, Medical Faculty in Hradec Kralove, Czech Republic. In 2014, he received his PhD degree from the same university. After finishing his residency in cardiac surgery in 2012, Tomas became a board-certified cardiac surgeon. After collecting experience at renowned institutions such as University Hospital Zurich in Switzerland and Kerckhoff Klinik, Bad Nauheim, Germany. Since 2018, he has been a deputy director of the Department of Cardiovascular Surgery at the University Hospital, Frankfurt, and a professor for minimally invasive cardiac surgery (since October 2024) at the Goethe University, Frankfurt, Germany. His areas of clinical and research interests are minimally invasive, including totally endoscopic cardiac surgery, valve-sparing operations, complex aortic surgery, and coronary revascularization, especially off-pump. Currently, he is a leading and renowned expert in minimally invasive cardiac surgery.
Ti Lian Kah
Dr Ti Lian Kah is the Director of Cardiac Anaesthesia in the Department of Anaesthesia, National University Hospital, Singapore. Dr Ti graduated from the National University of Singapore and completed his cardiac anaesthesia fellowship at Duke University, USA. His research interests are preventing ageing-related complications after cardiac surgery by promoting dynamic resilience, and reducing postoperative acute kidney injury and delirium. His clinical interest is in enhancing recovery after cardiac surgery.
Thomas Kiefer, M.D.
Current Appointment (from 2008)
– Head of Department for Thoracic Surgery at Klinikum Konstanz
Qualifications
– Studied Medicine in Antwerp, Homburg, Heidelberg and Mannheim
– 1994 Qualified as General Surgeon
– 1995 Specialization for Thoracic Surgery at University Hospital of Freiburg, Department for Thoracic Surgery
– 1998 Qualified as Thoracic Surgeon
– 1999 Head of Department for Thoracic Surgery at Klinikum Offenburg
Focus of Research and Work
– Minimal invasive Surgery
– Development of digital chest-drain systems
– Management of chest-drains
– Pain control
– Thoracic surgery of the elderly
Memberships
Publications
– European Journal of Cardio-thoracic Surgery 40 (2011): 291-297 Consensus definitions to promote an evidence-based approach to management of the pleural space. A collaborative proposal by ESTS, AATS, STS, and GTSC
Roth M, Kiefer T
Physiotherapie in der Thoraxchirurgie
Springer 2012 ISBN 978-3-7091-1238-0
Detterbeck F, Kiefer T
Operation Primer – Video-assisted Thoracoscopic Lobectomy
Springer 2013 ISBN 978-3-642-38543-8
Müller RM, Watzka SB, Inderbitzi R, Kiefer T, Stubenberger E
Expertise Thoraxchirurgie
Thieme 2015 ISBN 978-3-13-175021-1
Kiefer T
Chestdrains in Daily Clinical PracticeSpringer 2016
Deutsch ISBN 978-3-662-49739-5
English ISBN 978-3-319-32338-1
Kiefer T
Thoraxchirurgie des alten Menschen
Journal Onkologie 2017/1;184-189
Kiefer T
Wann und wie sollte man Thoraxdrainagen beim Pneumothorax legen?
Chirurgische Praxis 2018; 83/3:417-28
Scientific Talks:
Kiefer T
Entfernen der Thoraxdrainage: Von der Empirie zur objektiven Einscheidungsgrundlage
Kiefer T
The Pleural Space – VATS in Pneumothorax
16th European Conference on General Thoracic Surgery, Bologna, June 2008
Thoracic Techno-Meeting
Kiefer T
Die drainierte Pleura: Saugen oder nicht saugen? – Ziehen oder belassen? Und wie wird es richtig gemacht?
191 Tagung der Vereinigung Nordwestdeutscher Chirurgen, Kiel, 6. – 8. Juni 2013
Kiefer T
Hauptsitzung – Mangement des PleuraspaltesMelken, Saugen, Abklemmen – alte Zöpfe?
Inderbitzi R, Kiefer T, Solèr M
Diagnostik und Therapie von Pleuraerkrankungen
Gemeinsame Jahresversammlung der Schweizerischen Gesellschaft für Pneumologie und der Schweizerischen Gesellschaft für Thoraxchirurgie
Lugano, 16 – 17. 2015
Kiefer T
Sympathektomie bei M. Raynaud – mehr als eine ultima ratio?
Aarau, 7. – 9. Mai 2015
Kiefer T, Counts S
Using Bipolar Seal-and-Cut Device for Minimally Invasive Lung Resections
AATS Centinal Meeting 2017, Boston
Chair of the annual satellite symposium “chest drains“ during the German Surgical Week
Review:
The Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgeon (Reviewer Award 2016)
Konstanz 05-10-2021
Dr. med. Thomas Kiefer
Thomas A. D’Amico
Dr. Thomas A. D’Amico is a graduate of Harvard University (BA) and the College of Physicians & Surgeons of Columbia University (MD). He received training in General Surgery and Thoracic Surgery at Duke University Medical Center. After completing a Fellowship in Thoracic Surgical Oncology at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, Dr. D’Amico joined the faculty at Duke University Medical Center in 1996. He is currently the Gary Hock Endowed Professor, Chief of General Thoracic Surgery, and Director of the Thoracic Oncology Program of the Duke Cancer Institute
Dr. D’Amico is in leadership positions in the American Association for Thoracic Surgery, including the Board of Directors, the Practice Standards Committee, and the Ethics Committee. He is also the course director for AATS Focus China. Dr. D’Amico serves as an Associate Editor for the Annals of Surgery and serves on the Editorial Board for the Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery and the Journal of the American College of Surgeons. Finally, he the co-chair of the NCCN Gastroesophageal Cancer Guidelines Committee.
Thomas A Schwann, M.D., MBA, FACS, FACC
CURRENT POSITION:
Regional Chief, Cardiac Surgery
Corewell Health East
Detroit, MI
September 2023-present
Professor of Surgery
Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine
Rochester, MI
September 2023-present
PREVIOUS POSITIONS:
Chief, Cardiothoracic Surgery
Baystate Medical Center
Springfield, MA
June 2018-June 2023
Professor of Surgery
Department of Surgery
University of Massachusetts Chan School of Medicine– Baystate
Springfield, MA
June 2018- June 2023
Associate Medical Director of the Baystate Heart and Vascular Program
Baystate Medical Center
Springfield, MA
June 2018- June 2023
Amjad Hussain Professor of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery
Vice-Chair, Department of Surgery
University of Toledo, Toledo, OH
December 2009-June 2018
Interim Associate Dean for Graduate Medical Education
Designated Institutional Official
University of Toledo College of Medicine and Life Sciences, Toledo, OH
April 2017-June 2018
Vice-Chair, Department of Surgery
University of Toledo, Toledo, OH
January 2016-June 2018
Interim Chair, Department of Surgery
University of Toledo, Toledo, OH
April 2015–August 2016
Director Heart and Vascular Center
University of Toledo Medical Center, Toledo, OH
January 2013-June 2018
Chief of Staff
University of Toledo Medical Center, Toledo OH
April 2014 – April 2017
Founder and Medical Director
Advantage Home Telehealth of Ohio, LLC
1776 Tremainsville Road, Toledo, OH
January 2010 – December 2014
Chief, Cardiothoracic Surgery
Vice Chairman of Quality, Dept. of Surgery
St. Francis Hospital, Hartford, CT
December 2008 – December 2009
Chief, Cardiothoracic Surgery
St. Luke Hospital, Maumee, OH
January 2007- December 2008
Chief, Cardiothoracic Surgery
Saint Vincent Mercy Medical Center, Toledo, OH
January 1998 – January 2007
Cardiothoracic Surgeon
Saint Vincent Mercy Medical Center, Toledo, OH
August 1994-Decemebr 1998
UNDERGRADUATE EDUCATION: 1978-1982
Columbia University, Columbia College, New York, NY
Major: Biochemistry
Degree: B.A., Summa cum laude
Phi Beta Kappa; 1982
MEDICAL EDUCATION: 1982-1986
Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons, New York, NY
Degree: M.D. – 1986
Honors: March of Dimes Distinguished Student Award; 1986
GRADUATE MEDICAL EDUCATION: 1986 -1994
Yale-New Haven Medical Center, New Haven, CT
General Surgery Residency
Yale-New Haven Medical Center, New Haven, CT
Cardiothoracic Surgery Fellowship
ADVANCED EDUCATION:
University of Toledo
College of Business Administration and Innovation
Executive MBA
2010-2012
ADDITIONAL TRAINING:
Harvard School of Public Health
Program for Chiefs of Clinical Services
January 10-22, 2016
Boston, MA
Harvard Business School
Value Measurement for Health Care
Dec 14-18th, 2013
Boston, MA
SPECIALTY CERTIFICATION:
1987 – Diplomate of the National Board of Medical Examiners – Certificate Number 323495
1991 – Diplomate of the American Board of Surgery – Certificate Number 37139
Recertified 2001
Recertified 2012
1995 – Diplomate of the American Board of Thoracic Surgery – Certificate Number 5734
Recertified 2003
Recertified 2013
LICENSURE:
1998 Michigan #4301073409
2018 Massachusetts #275133
CURRENT AND PAST ADMINISTRATIVE & LEADERSHIP POSITIONS:
Professional Societies
Society of Thoracic Surgeons; Chair, Participant User File Task Force, 2017 – present
Society of Thoracic Surgeons; Workforce on Research Development, 2018 – present
Society of Thoracic Surgeons; Workforce on Evidence Based Surgery, 2019 – present
Toledo Surgical Society, President, 2016-2017
American College of Cardiology; Board of Trustees, Ohio Chapter, 2014-2018.
Health System Consortium; Reducing Variation in Care across the Continuum Steering Committee, 2014
University of Massachusetts Chan School of Medicine, Baystate Health
Chair, Heart and Vascular Operating Room Quality Improvement Committee, 2018-present
Chair, Heart and Vascular Center High Patient Risk Committee, 2021-present
Heart and Vascular Center Value Analysis Committee, 2018-present
Baystate Medical Practices Compensation Committee, 2021-present
Peer Review Committee, 2018-present
University of Toledo College of Life Sciences, University of Toledo Medical Center
Chief of Staff University of Toledo Medical Center, 2014-2017
Co-Chair, Patient Advocacy Reporting System (The PARS Project), 2014-2017
Vice Chief of Staff University of Toledo Medical Center, 2012-2014
Chair, Operating Room Committee University of Toledo Medical Center, 2013-2017
Chair, Cardiovascular Process Improvement Committee, 2009-2017
Chair, University of Toledo Physicians, LLC Pension Committee, 2014- 2017
Chair, Quality and Patient Safety Council, 2012-2017
Chair, Standard of Care Committee University of Toledo Medical Center, 2012-2017
Chair, Peer Review Committee University of Toledo Medical Center, 2014-2017
University of Toledo Medical Center Heart Failure Leadership Committee
University of Toledo Physicians, LLC Finance Committee
University of Toledo Physicians, LLC Managed Care Committee
Department of Surgery Academic Affairs Committee
Co-Chair, Department of Surgery Value Analysis Committee
HONORS AND AWARDS:
1981- Macy Scholar, Department of Chemistry, Columbia University
1991 – Gustaf E. Lindskog Scholar in Cardiothoracic Surgery, Yale University School of Medicine
1994 – Glenn-Ferraiolo Award
2007 – Alley Sheridan Scholarship, The Thoracic Surgery Foundation
2012 – Pacemaker Award, University of Toledo College of Business and Innovation
2016 – RADIAL (Radial Artery Database International ALliance)
2017 – ATLANTIC (ArTeriaL GrAfting INTernatIonal Consortium Alliance)
2017 – Department of Surgery Chairman’s Award in Recognition of Leadership and Outstanding Academic Contribution.
2018 – Department of Surgery Chief Resident Award in Recognition of Excellence in Resident Education, Mentorship and Professionalism
2018 – The University of Toledo College of Medicine Leadership and Service Award
REVIEWER:
Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery
Annals of Thoracic Surgery
European Journal of Cardio-thoracic Surgery
The Lancet
Journal of Cardiothoracic Surgery
PACE
CURRENT ACADEMIC ACTIVITIES:
ROMA TRIAL:
(Randomized Comparison of Clinical Outcome of Single versus Multiple Arterial Grafts)
Function: Steering Committee
Status: In progress
RADIAL PROJECT:
(Radial Artery Database International Alliance)
Function: Steering Committee
Status: In progress
PATIENT-CENTERED OUTCOMES RESEARCH INSTITUTE (PCORI) GRANT: $3.4 million
Multi-arterial versus Single-arterial Bypass Grafting to Improve Late Patient Outcomes in the US.
Function: Principal Investigator
Status: Submitted
PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATIONS:
American Association for Thoracic Surgery
American College of Cardiology – Fellow
American College of Chest Physicians – Fellow
American College of Healthcare Executives
American College of Physician Executives
American College of Surgeons – Fellow
European Association of Cardiothoracic Surgeons
Society of Thoracic Surgery
International Society of Minimally Invasive Cardiothoracic Surgery
Ohio State Medical Society
Toledo Academy of Medicine
Toledo Surgical Society
MILITARY SERVICE:
Captain, United States Army Reserve
455th General Hospital
Providence, RI 02905
Honorable Discharge 2001
Thirugnanam Agasthian
I am Dr T.Agasthian, Thoracic Surgeon practising in private practise in Singapore at Mt Elizabeth Hospital. My main areas of interest are thoracic oncology and minimally invasive surgery. Currently I was the immediate President of the South-East Asian Thoracic Society (SEATS). I was previously Deputy Director and Head of Surgical Oncology at National University Cancer Institute (NCIS) at National University Hospital (NUS) and Senior Consultant at National Cancer Center Singapore.
Terrence M. Yau
Professor and Chair, Division of Cardiovascular Surgery, University of Toronto
Director of Research, Division of Cardiovascular Surgery, University Health Network
Director, Cardiac Stem Cell Therapy Program
Professor, Department of Surgery, University of Toronto
Attending Cardiovascular Surgeon, Peter Munk Cardiac Centre at UHN
Dr. Yau obtained his B.A. (Honors) from John Hopkins University in molecular biology prior to medical school at McGill University and his surgical training at the University of Toronto. In 1998 he joined the faculty of the Division of Cardiovascular Surgery at Toronto General Hospital and the University of Toronto. Since 1999, Dr. Yau has been the Director of Research in the Division, and was the inaugural Angelo and Lorenza DeGasperis Chair in Cardiovascular Surgery Research. He is a Full Professor in the Department of Surgery at the University of Toronto, which is currently ranked 3rd globally.
Dr. Yau’s clinical interest include surgery for advanced heart failure, including heart transplantation, mechanical circulatory support and regenerative medicine approaches to repair dysfunctional hearts. He also has interesst in perioperative blood conservation and cardiac intensive care. Dr. Yau directs the cardiac stem cell transplantation program at UHN and conducts a number of clinical research protocols including studies of perioperative myocardial protection and coagulation, stem cell transplantation for advanced heart failure, and novel technology.
In addition, Dr. Yau has run a translational research laboratory working on novel therapies for end-stage heart failure not amenable to heart transplantation , including stem cell transplantation, gene therapy and transmyocardial revascularization. He has published extensively on a variety of clinical and basic science aspects of cardiac surgery, and is a frequent chair, panelist and speaker at international and national conferences.
Taweesak Chotivatanapong
Dr. Taweesak Chotivatanapong is now
1.The Chairman of International Academic Institute Program
2.Senior Consultant at Central Chest Institute of Thailand
3. Senior Consultant, MedPark Hospital
4. Councilor member of the ASCVTS
5 Active member of AATS
6. President of the Heart Care Foundation.
7. Founder of “Train the Trainer” program for young surgeons and centers throughout Thailand.
8. Chairman CEO of National Cardiovascularand Thoracic Disease, Ministry of
9.Former Congress President of the 28th Annual Meeting of The Asian Society of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery (ASCVTS) February 2020
Takashi Suda
Current Appointment:
2020~
Professor of Thoracic Surgery, Department of Minimally Invasive Thoracic Surgery, Fujita Health University Okazaki Medical Center
Professional memberships :
Japan Surgical Society
Japanese Lung Cancer Society
Japanese Association for Chest Surgery
Japanese Association for Thoracic Surgery
Honorary fellow of Philippine Association of Minimally Invasive Thoracic Surgeons
European Society of Thoracic Surgeon
Special courses & experience:
Dr. Suda specializes in minimally invasive thoracic surgery. In 2005, he reported VATS extralreural pneumonectomy for malignant pleural mesothelioma. In 2009, he performed the first Da Vinci robotic lung cancer surgery in Japan. In 2012, he developed a single-port thymectomy via subxiphoid approach combined with carbon dioxide insufflation for thymoma and myasthenia gravis. In 2014, he developed a thymectomy method via subxiphoid approach using the Da Vinci robot. He has provided more than 300 surgical instructions to more than 140 facilities.
Tae Gook Yun
| Job Title: | Professor |
| Organization: | Samsung Medical Center, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine |
| Major Field: | Pediatric cardiac surgery, congenital, GUCH |
| Education: | School of medicine , Seoul National University (1986), Korea
Residency in Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, Seoul National University Hospital, Korea (Mar 1987 – Feb 1991) Fellow in Cardiovascular surgery Seoul National University Hospital ( May 1994 – April 1995) Fellow in Cardiovascular Surgery ( Aug 1997 – July 1998) Starr-Wood Cardiac Group in Portland, Oregon, USA |
| Short Bio:
(150 words) |
May 1995 to present Staff Cardiac Surgeon
Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery Samsung Medical Center Sep 2009 to Mar 2015- Director of Cardiac Surgery Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery Samsung Medical Center School of Medicine, Sungkyunkwan University April 2015 to Mar 2019 Director of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery Samsung Medical Center School of Medicine, Sungkyunkwan University April 2019 to October 2021 Director of Cardiac Center Samsung Medical Center Heart Vascular Stroke Institute March 1997 – present Professor of Cardiovascular Surgery Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery School of Medicine, Sungkyunkwan University |
Surin Woragidpoonpol
1977-1984 Secondary High School, Nakornsawan School, Thailand
1984-1989: Medical School, Faculty of Medicine, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai, Thailand
1989 – 1990 Clinical Science Course in Surgery, Mahidol University, Thailand
1989 – 1993 Resident in General Surgery, Department of Surgery, Faculty of medicine, Chiang Mai university, Chiang Mai Thailand
1993 – 1995 Resident in Thoracic Surgery, Department of Surgery, Faculty of medicine, Chiang Mai university, Chiang Mai Thailand
1996 Instructor in Division of Cardiovascular-Thoracic Surgery, Faculty of Medicine Chiang Mai university, Chiang Mai Thailand
2012 Head of Division of Cardiovascular-Thoracic Surgery, Faculty of medicine, Chiang Mai University
2019 Senior consultant of Cardiovascular – Thoracic Surgery , Faculty of medicine, Chiang Mai University
1989 Diploma of Medicine
1990 The Graduate Diploma in Clinical Science (surgery)
1993 Diplomat Thai Board of Surgery
1995 Diplomat Thai Board of Thoracic Surgery
1997 – current 1. Royal College of Surgeons of Thailand
– Challenges in Management of TOF and Pulmonary Atresia Institut Jantung Negara, Kuala Lumpur,Malaysia
– Theme “Evidence, Controversy and Innovation in Aortic Management” topic Open aortic arch repair : Cadaveric workshop, Mikkennium Hilton, Bangkok
– Atrial Fibrillation Surgery in Thailand, meeting Excellent Heart Center
– “Common problems in cardiac surgery” and workshop Endovascular skills for thoracic surgeons, Siriraj hospital
– Mentor patient treatment after cardiac surgery, Chaingrai Prachanuklao
– Update in OR: Aortic aneurysm repair with Thoraflex hybrid graft, Chiangmai university hospital
– Board committee of Division of Cardiovascular-Thoracic Surgery, Faculty of Medicine
– Pulmonic Valve Replacement and live demonstration cases, Queen Sirikit Center, Khon Khaen 2020
– 30th Two Days in Cardiology 2021
– 35 yrs annual meeting Theme : “update in Cardio-Thoracic Surgery” – Outcome of coronary endarterectomy -Aortic arch surgery, Webinar
– “Challenging of aortic disease in covid-19 situation and referral aortic center”, Nakornsawan
– CNF 13th Cardiac Network Forum 2021 : Save your heart smart with new Normal, Webinar
– Case cardiac surgery collaborated with Naraesuan hospital
– Case cardiac surgery collaborated with Nakonsawan hospital
– Case cardiac surgery collaborated with Chaoprayayommaraj hospital
– 31st Two Days in Cardiology, Sheraton Hua Hin hotel
– Liver nodules after the Fontan operation: role of the computerised tomography scan, Aug 2021
– Malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumor with local recurrence and cardiac invasion: case report, Apr 2021
– Survival and predictors of mortality in patients after the Fontan operation, Aug 2020
– Risk factors for morbidity and mortality after a bidirectional Glenn shunt in Northern Thailand, Aug 2020
– Comparison between mitral valve repair and replacement in active infective endocarditis, May 2019
4.Endovascular surgery
Surendra Kumar Agarwal
Dr Surendra Kumar Agarwal is the current Professor and Head of the Department of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery at Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Lucknow, India. He completed his basic medical training and MS General Surgery training from King George’s Medical College, Lucknow and then got trained at SGPGIMS in Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery with MCh degree. Following this he went on to get further training in Vascular and Microvascular surgery at First Department of Surgery, Nagoya University Medical School for one year through prestigious Monbusho Scholarship.
He was awarded commonwealth fellowship to undergo training in Vascular surgery at Royal Free Hospital, London, UK. His interest lies in surgery for valvular heart disease, adult congenital heart surgery, minimal access surgery and surgery for heart failure including heart transplant. He has developed a multidisciplinary team for developing thoracic organ transplant program at SGPGIMS. He also is interested in Robotic CVTS Surgery.
He is recipient of many awards and distinctions including Monbusho Scholarship (Govt. of Japan), Commonwealth Fellowship, ICRETT fellowship of UICC (for training in Minimal access thoracic surgery at Sapporo University School of Medicine, Japan), Member and then Fellow of the National Academy of Medical Sciences, Fellowship of Cardiological Society of India and Indian Association of Cardiothoracic Surgeons and Coveted Meherji Mehta Memorial Oration of IACTS. He has also been awarded Fellowship of Royal College of Surgeons of England (UK) in Cardiothoracic Surgery. He has also been awarded many travel grants for presenting papers in International Conference.
Dr Agarwal has actively contributed to research, in form of Extramural grant from Department of Biotechnology, Govt. of India for multi-institutional phase 2 trial of autologous stem cell therapy in chronic critical limb ischemia. He has participated in many landmark multinational surgery trials including CORONARY trial, STICH trial etc. He has published two book chapters and over 90 research papers in peer reviewed international and national journals of repute.
Suk-Won Song
Professor Suk-Won Song is the member of ASCVTS, EACTS, STS, AATS, and Korean Society of Caridovascular and Thoracic surgery and working at Ewha Womans University Seoul Hospital. He has the skill of both the surgeon and the interventionist and has been the pioneer in defining the crucial role of the surgeon in aortic intervention.
Since 2008, he started aortic surgery, and until now he did more than 6,000 aortic cases, and doing more than 800 aortic cases every year with the mortality rate less than 3%. He established the Aorta and Vascular hospital in Ewha Womans University Medical Center where aorta team attends the patients from diagnosis to follow-up, and another team formed by attending fellows carry out clinical studies which is ongoing with the National Research Foundation of Korea Grant and the others with the granted approval of the institutional review board at the Ewha Womans University medical center.
Stephen Yang
More information coming soon …
Stephen Fremes
Dr. Stephen Fremes completed medical school at the University of Toronto in 1979 and then entered surgical residency in 1979, also at the University of Toronto. He was the recipient of a Heart and Stroke Research Fellowship from 1982 to 1984 during residency (MSc awarded 1984), from 1988 to 1989 following residency, under the supervision of Dr. Richard Weisel and a Career Support Award 1993-8. He has been on staff at the Schulich Heart Centre at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre since 1989 and was the Head of the Division of Cardiac Surgery at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre from 2000-2013. He is a Professor of Surgery at the University of Toronto since 2001 with cross appointments at the University in the School of Graduate Studies, Institute of Medical Science, and the Institute of Health Policy Management and Evaluation. He was the inaugural recipient of the Bernard S Goldman Chair in Cardiovascular Surgery. Dr. Fremes has had consistent peer reviewed grant support for studies in cardiac surgery as a principal applicant or co-principal applicant for 35 years. Dr. Fremes research interests have primarily centred on improving outcomes following CABG, arterial grafting, myocardial protection/cardiopulmonary bypass management, and lately transcatheter aortic valve surgery. The research methodologies include multi-center clinical trials, observational studies including health systems research, systematic reviews and meta-analyses, health economics and modelling and considerable involvement in Clinical Practice Guidelines. He has regularly served on grant review panels for >30years. Currently, he is the nominated Primary Investigator of 3 CIHR funded international multicentre randomized trials in cardiac surgery. He has authored approximately 550 articles. His Google Scholar h index is 80 and the full list of publications is available at
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=fremes+s&sort=date&size=100
Sotirios Prapas
Born in Sykourio, Larisa in 1954, Dr. Prapas graduated from the Medical School of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and specialized in Cardiothoracic Surgery under Professor Panagiotis Spyrou at the “G. PAPANIKOLAOU” Hospital in Thessaloniki. Before leading the Cardiothoracic Surgery Clinic at “Henry Dunant” Hospital Center, which he organized in 2001 and has directed since, Dr. Prapas furthered his training at the “Brompton” University Hospital in London for two years and served as a Senior Doctor at the “Onassis” Cardiac Surgery Center for a decade. He is a pioneer of the beating-heart bypass surgery technique and is internationally recognized for his work.
Dr. Prapas developed the “Pi-graft” technique, a novel method enhancing myocardial revascularization demonstrating superior safety and outcomes in high-risk patients including the elderly, diabetics, and those with renal failure or a history of stroke. In 2005, he was the first in Greece to implement stem cell injection into the myocardium for heart rejuvenation post-infarction.
His academic activities include numerous publications in international and Greek journals and presentations at major global conferences. Dr. Prapas has also visited over 60 international centers to demonstrate the “Pi-graft” method. He holds a Ph.D. from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, has taught at the European School of Cardiothoracic Surgery in Bergamo in 2009, and co-founded the corresponding school in Central Asia in Mashhad, Iran. He is the Founder of the “Euro-Asian Bridge Society,” fostering collaboration among cardiothoracic surgeons from 32 countries since 2004, and has been the Vice Chancellor of the World Society of Cardio-Thoracic Surgeons (W.S.C.T.S.) since 2012. Additionally, Dr. Prapas is a member of numerous international societies including the American Society of STS and the ISMICS.
Dr. Prapas’s international acclaim is highlighted by recognition from renowned American cardiac surgeon Denton Cooley for the “Pi-graft” method at the 14th World Congress in 2003 in San Diego, USA, and his selection by Medtronic as one of the top eight surgeons in the world for the beating-heart bypass technique
Song Wan, MD, PhD, FRCS, FACC
Song Wan had worked at Prince of Wales Hospital, the Chinese University of Hong Kong for 26 years, where he had been Professor and Honorary Advisor in Cardiothoracic Surgery since 2008. Currently he is Professor and Director at Institute of Cardiovascular Surgery, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Wuhan, China.
Professor Wan is a Fellow of American College of Cardiology and Royal College of Surgeons of England. Over the past decades his clinical and research interests have been focused on adult cardiac surgical issues, such as reconstructive valve surgery. To date, he has published 240 peer reviewed articles and 18 book chapters. Professor Wan is a Councillor of ASCVTS and member of 12 learned professional bodies, such as American Association for Thoracic Surgery (AATS) and Society of Thoracic Surgeons. He has been awarded Visiting Professorship at 11 leading medical schools. He is an editorial board member of 15 international referred journals including JTCVS and Asian Annals. At present, he also serves as the International Chair for two AATS committees.
Sivakumar Sivalingam
POSITION
PROFESSIONAL QUALIFICATION
PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS
SPECIALTY:
Shuichiro Takanashi, MD, PhD
School Attended
| 1978-1984 | Ehime University School of Medicine
Graduated with MD |
| 2010 | Hyogo Medical School Hospital
Graduated with PhD |
Education and Medical Carrier
| 1984 – 1985 | Hyogo Medical School Hospital, Hyogo, Japan
Resident in Thoracic Surgery |
| 1985 – 1986 | Kansai-Rousai Hospital, Hyogo, Japan
Resident in Cardiovascular Surgery |
| 1986 – 1986 | Hyogo Medical School Hospital, Hyogo, Japan
Fellow in Cardiovascular Surgery |
| 1986 – 1988 | Cardiovascular Institute Hospital, Tokyo, Japan
Fellow in Cardiovascular Surgery |
| 1998 – 1993 | Cardiovascular Institute Hospital, Tokyo, Japan
Staff surgeon in Cardiovascular Surgery |
| 1993 – 1999 | Osaka City General Hospital, Osaka, Japan
Staff surgeon in Cardiovascular Surgery |
| 1999 – 2001 | Osaka City General Hospital, Osaka, Japan
Vice president Department of Cardiovascular surgery |
| 2001 – 2004 | Shin-Tokyo Hospital, Chiba, Japan
Chief surgeon of Cardiovascular surgery |
| 2004 – 2012 | Sakakibara Heart Institute, Tokyo, Japan
Chief Director Department of Cardiovascular surgery |
| 2009 – present | Teikyo University School, Tokyo, Japan
Professor Department of Cardiovascular surgery |
| 2012 – 2019 | Sakakibara Heart Institute, Tokyo, Japan
Vice president Chief Director Department of Cardiovascular surgery |
| 2015 – present | Keio University School, Tokyo, Japan
Visiting Professor Department of Cardiovascular surgery |
| 2016 – present | Tokyo Medical and Dental University School, Tokyo, Japan
Visiting Professor Department of Cardiovascular surgery |
| 2016 – present | The Jikei University School, Tokyo, Japan
Visiting Professor Department of Cardiovascular surgery |
| 2019 – present | Osaka University, Osaka, Japan
Visiting Professor Department of Cardiovascular surgery |
| 2019 – present | Sakakibara Heart Institute, Tokyo, Japan
Specially Appointed vice president |
| 2020 – 2024 | IUHW Mita Hospital, Tokyo, Japan
Head of Cardiac Surgery, IUHW Group, Kanto Area |
| 2019 – present | Kawasaki Saiwai Hospital, Kanagawa, Japan
Vice president Chief Director Department of Cardiovascular surgery |
Certification
Japanese Medical License #285585
Doctor of Medical science Hyogo Medical School Hospital #321
Certified general surgeon by Japanese surgical society
Certified thoracic surgeon by Japanese Association for Thoracic Surgery
Membership
Local
| The Japanese Association for Thoracic Surgery | Executive Member |
| The Japanese Society for Cardiovascular Surgery | Executive Member |
| Japanese Circulation Society | Active Member |
| Japan Surgical Society | Active Member |
| The Japanese Association for Coronary Artery Surgery | Executive Member |
| The Japanese Off-pump Coronary Artery Bypass Association | Executive Member |
| The Japanese Society for Heart Valve Disease | Representative |
International
| American Association for Thoracic Surgery | Active Member |
| The Society of Thoracic Surgeons | International
Member |
| The European Association for Cardiothoracic Surgery | International
Member |
| The Asian Society for Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery | Active Member |
| The International Society for Cardiovascular Surgery | Active Member |
Shuben Li, MD, PhD
National Center for Respiratory Medicine
The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University
Shu Chen
Current Status
Associate Professor Attending Doctor of Cardiovascular Surgey
Dept. of Cardiovascular Surgery
Union Hospital
Tongji Medical College of Huazhong University of Science & Technology
Eucation
9/2005－8/2008
Doctor of Medicine Dept. of Cardiovascular Surgery, Union Hospital
Affiliated to Tongji Medical College of Huazhong University of Science & Technology(HUST), Wuhan, China
9/2003－8/2005
Master of Medicine, Dept. of Cardiovascuar Surgery, Union Hospital Affiliated to Tongji Medical College of HUST
9/1998－7/2003
Bachelor of Medicine, Tongji Medical College of HUST
Fellowship and Research Training
2019-2020
Clinical fellow in adult cardiac surgery in Cleveland Clinic, Ohio.
2012-2014
Postdoc in Cardiovascular Research Institute in Albany Medical College, NY
2007-2008
Joint Doctor in Cardiovascular Research Institute in Albany Medical College, NY. Founded by the Exchange Scholar Fellowship of Chinese Scholarship Council of Ministry of Education of People’s Republic of China.
Area of Interests
My clinical interest is in comprehensive surgical treatment of hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy, mitral repair, interventional treatment of valvular disease including transcatheter aortic valve reimplantation, transcatheter mitral valve repair/ reimplantation, transcatheter tricuspid valve repair/ reimplantation and transcatheter pulmonary valve reimplantation. Also I am interested in surgical treatment of end heart failure, especially in temporary ventricle assist device implantation.
My research focus in computational fluid dynamics in complex structural heart disease, especially in simulation surgical treatment of extended septal myectomy and mitral valve through computational fluid dynamics.
Recent Publication
Ding, Zhihao, Qianwen Liu, Huan Luo, Ming Yang, Yining Zhang, Shilin Wang, Yuanming Luo, and Shu Chen. “A Preoperative Planning Procedure of Septal Myectomy for Hypertrophic Obstructive Cardiomyopathy Using Image-Based Computational Fluid Dynamics Simulations and Shape Optimization.” Scientific Reports 14, no. 1 (2024). https://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-74091-3.
Hou, Quanfei, Wenqian Wu, Lingyun Fang, Xin Zhang, Chenchen Sun, Li Ji, Ming Yang, Ziqiao Lei, Fan Gao, Jing Wang, Mingxing Xie, and Shu Chen. “Patient-Specific Computational Fluid Dynamics for Hypertrophic Obstructive Cardiomyopathy.” International Journal of Cardiology 389 (2023). https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijcard.2023.131263.
Liao, M., X. K. Shang, C. D. Zhang, and S. Chen. “[Progress on the Application of Transcatheter Pulmonary Valve Replacement in Autogenous Right Ventricular Outflow Tract Pulmonary Valve Regurgitation].” Zhonghua Xin Xue Guan Bing Za Zhi 50, no. 8 (Aug 24 2022): 830-34. https://dx.doi.org/10.3760/cma.j.cn112148-20220702-00510.
Wang, Shilin, Hao Liu, Peiwen Yang, Zhiwen Wang, Poyi Hu, Ping Ye, Jiahong Xia, and Shu Chen. “Exploring the Genetic Association of Allergic Diseases with Cardiovascular Diseases: A Bidirectional Mendelian Randomization Study.” Frontiers in Immunology 14 (2023): 1175890. https://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2023.1175890.
Wang, Shilin, Hao Liu, Peiwen Yang, Zhiwen Wang, Ping Ye, Jiahong Xia, and Shu Chen. “A Role of Inflammaging in Aortic Aneurysm: New Insights from Bioinformatics Analysis.” Frontiers in Immunology 14 (2023). https://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2023.1260688.
Wang, Shilin, Peiwen Yang, Hao Liu, Zhiwen Wang, Poyi Hu, Ping Ye, Jiahong Xia, and Shu Chen. “Assessing Causality between Second-Hand Smoking and Potentially Associated Diseases in Multiple Systems: A Two-Sample Mendelian Randomization Study.” Nicotine and Tobacco Research 26, no. 6 (2024): 678-84. https://dx.doi.org/10.1093/ntr/ntad193.
Wu, Wenqian, Li Ji, Mingxing Xie, and Shu Chen. “Computational Fluid Dynamics May Aid in Pre-Operative Planning of Septal Myectomy in Obstructive Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy.” Asian Journal of Surgery 46, no. 3 (Mar 2023): 1406-08. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.asjsur.2022.08.131.
Shinichi Fukuhara
Dr. Fukuhara is the G. Michael Deeb, M.D., and Nancy Deeb Research Professor in the Department of Cardiac Surgery at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI. He also serves as the Co-director of the Structural Heart Program, Director of the Adult Ross Program, and Program Director of the Cardiothoracic Surgery Residency and Fellowship at the University of Michigan.
Dr. Fukuhara earned his medical degree from Keio University School of Medicine in Tokyo, Japan, in 2006, where he also completed his training in surgery and cardiovascular surgery, gaining extensive experience in endovascular therapy. After moving to the United States, he underwent further training, including a general surgery residency at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York, NY, a cardiothoracic surgery residency at Columbia University Medical Center in New York, NY, an aortic surgery fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, PA, and an aortic and endovascular fellowship at the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, OH.
He is board-certified by the American Board of Surgery, the American Board of Thoracic Surgery, and the Japan Surgical Society. Dr. Fukuhara’s expertise includes open and endovascular aortic surgery as well as catheter-based valve therapies.
Sertaç Çiçek
Dr. M. Sertaç Çiçek is a distinguished Turkish cardiothoracic surgeon renowned for his expertise in adult and congenital heart surgery and significant contributions to cardiovascular medicine.
Education and Training
Dr. Çiçek earned his medical degree from Ankara University Faculty of Medicine and the Gülhane Faculty of Medicine in Ankara, Turkey, graduating summa cum laude in 1985. He completed a five-year residency in cardiovascular surgery at GATA (Gülhane Military Medical Academy). Furthering his specialization, he pursued fellowships in cardiovascular surgery at the Texas Heart Institute (1994–1995), cardiothoracic surgery and cardiopulmonary transplantation at the Mayo Clinic (1995–1997), and pediatric cardiac surgery at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (1997–1998).
Professional Career
Dr. Çiçek has held prominent positions in both Turkey and the United States. He served as the physician-in-chief at Siyami Ersek Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery Training Hospital in Istanbul, one of Europe’s largest heart centers. Subsequently, he led the Heart and Vascular Care Center at Anadolu Johns Hopkins Medical Center in Istanbul for a decade, expanding the program from 200 to over 1,000 cases annually.
In 2017, Dr. Çiçek joined the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, as a professor and senior associate consultant in the Department of Cardiovascular Surgery. In 2020, he was appointed professor and chief of Pediatric Cardiothoracic Surgery at WVU Medicine Children’s and the WVU Heart and Vascular Institute.
Current Role
As of 2025, Dr. Çiçek serves as Professor of Cardiothoracic Surgery at Istanbul University Faculty of Medicine, Turkey.
Professional Affiliations and Contributions
Dr. Çiçek is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, the American College of Cardiology, and the American College of Chest Physicians. He holds memberships in several prestigious organizations, including the American Association for Thoracic Surgery, the Society of Thoracic Surgeons, Asian Society for Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery and the European Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery. He has served on councils and committees of various international societies and was the chairman of the Seventh World Congress of Pediatric Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery. He was recently awarded life-time achievement award for his contributions to Pediatric heart health by Turkish Foundation of Health.
Research and Publications
Dr. Çiçek has an extensive publication record over 100 publications, contributing to research in medicine and heart disease. His work is well-cited in academic circles, reflecting his impact on the field.
Dr. Mehmet Sertaç Çiçek’s career exemplifies excellence in surgical practice, medical education, and leadership in cardiothoracic surgery.
Sang hoon Jheon, M.D., Ph.D.
Seoul National University Bundang Hospital
Professor
Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery
Seoul National University Bundang Hospital
Education
1984 Kyungpook National University School of Medicine
1990 Keimyung University Graduate School of Medicine Master of Medicine
1994 Keimyung University Graduate School of Medicine, Ph.D
Postgraduate Training
1987-84 Internship and Residency
Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery
Kyungpook National University Hospital, Daegu, South Korea
1990-93 Medical Officer
Republic of Korea Armed Forces, South Korea
1994 Visiting Surgeon
Department of Thoracic Surgery
National Cancer Center Hospital, Tokyo, Japan
1997-98 Fellowship
Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery
Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA
Academic/Clinical Appointments
2007- Professor
Current Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery
Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, South Korea
Professor
Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery
Seoul National University College of Medicine, South Korea
2012- President
Current Asia Thoracoscopic Surgery Education Program
1993-94 Chief of Thoracic Surgery
Andong General Hospital, Andong, South Korea
1994 -96 Clinical Instructor
Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery
Kyungpook National University School of Medicine, South Korea
1996-98 Assistant Professor
Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery
Kyungpook National University School of Medicine, South Korea
1998-00 Associate Professor
Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery
Kyungpook National University School of Medicine, South Korea
2001-02 Director, Faculty of Medicine
Catholic University of Daegu, College of Medicine, South Korea
2003-06 Associate Professor
Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery
Seoul National University College of Medicine, South Korea
Visiting Surgeon
Respiratory Center
Seoul National University Bundang Hospital
2003-07 Associate Professor
Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery
Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, South Korea
2009-12 Director
Respiratory Center
Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, South Korea
2010-13 Chairman
Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery
Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, South Korea
Managerial Appointments
2016-2019 President and CEO
Current Seoul National University Bundang Hosptial
2010-13 Executive Officer
Department of Public Affairs and Policy
Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, South Korea
2013-16 Chief Executive Financial and Strategy Officer
Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, South Korea
2015-16 Chief Program Advisor
Moscow Ministry of Health International Training Program
Global Medical Academy@SNUBH, South Korea
Honors & Awards
2003 The 35th Winner of Lee Young Kyun Award
2004 Listed in Marquis Who’s Who in the World 2004-2005 edition
2015 Masters Cup Winner awarded by European Society of Thoracic Surgeons (ESTS) at 23rd European Conference on General Thoracic Surgery
2015 Founder, Developer
Lung CALC—Stage 1 Lung Cancer Recurrence Risk Calculator
Professional Societies
The Asian Society for Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery President
The Korean Society for Thoracic & Cardiovascular Surgery
The Korean Association for Thoracic Surgical Oncology
Korean Association for Study of Lung Cancer
The Korean Photodynamic Association
The Korean Bronchoesophagological Society
The Korean Society for Transplantation
International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer
International Society of Heart and Lung Transplantation
Asia Thoracic Surgical Club
Asia Thoracoscopic Surgery Education Program
Saeid Hosseine
Professor Saeid Hosseine is a graduate of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences. He trained in General Surgery (1992-1996) in the same university and trained in cardiac surgery at Rajaei Cardiovascular Center (1996-1999). Finishing his studies in Iran, he moved to Paris to learn more in the field of cardiac surgery. So in La-Pitie Hospital worked with professor Gandjbakhch and Professor Acar to learn mitral valve repair (2000-2001) and congenital Heart Surgery with Professor Planche in CCML. He received AFSA; French specialty certificate in 2002. He then joined the faculty at Rajaei Cardiovascular Center. His clinical interests include all aspects of adult cardiac surgery, with particular interests in valve repair, Aorta and heart failure surgery. Now he is professor of cardiac surgery and is director of heart transplant and VAD department of the center and head of Heart valve diseases research center. He is proctor of Perceval aortic valve and HM3 implantation in Iran. He received European Board of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery (FETCS) too.
S. Chris Malaisrie
Dr. S. Chris Malaisrie is a Professor of Surgery in the Division of Cardiac Surgery at Northwestern University and Attending Cardiac Surgeon at Northwestern Medicine. Having graduated from the University of Maryland Medical School in 1998, he went on to complete a residency in Cardiothoracic Surgery at Baylor College of Medicine in 2006, followed by a fellowship in Heart and Lung Transplantation at Stanford University in 2007. Within the Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute of Northwestern Memorial Hospital, he is Surgical Director of Comprehensive Aorta Center. He specializes in cardiovascular surgery for valvular heart disease, the aorta, and the pulmonary artery. The procedures he performs include minimally invasive valve repair, valve-sparing aortic root replacement, Ross procedure, and pulmonary thromboendarterectomy. His research focus is on transcatheter and endovascular therapies for heart valves and the aorta.
Dr. Malaisrie serves as the Program Director for Thoracic Surgery Residency and Fellowship at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.
Outside of Northwestern Medicine, he co-chairs the AATS Cardiac Clinical Practice Standards Committee, chairs the STS Taskforce for International Education, and is Chair for the ACC Cardiac Surgery Team Council. Additionally, he is currently an Ad Hoc Member of the Data and Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB) on the Cardiothoracic Surgical Trials Network, and serves on the Board of Directors of the ABTS.
Rune Haaverstad MD PhD
Professor of Cardiothoracic surgery, University of Bergen, Norway and Chief, Dept. of Cardiothoracic surgery, Haukeland University Hospital, Bergen, Norway 2007-2024. Main interests: aortic surgery, valve repair surgery, endocarditis surgery, ECMO and intraoperative quality assessment of coronary artery surgery.
Rui M S Almeida
Rui Manuel de Sousa Sequeira Antunes de Almeida trained cardiovascular surgery at Curitiba ́s Evangelical Hospital, The Hospital for Sick Children, The National Hear Hospital, London.
Degrees: Parana Federal University– M.D. (1980), M.Sc. (1993), Ph.D. (2000), Full Professor (2008).
Career: Chief cardiovascular surgeon at Western Parana Institute of Cardiovascular Surgeryv(1993-2020), responsible for more than 10000 cardiovascular procedures, including endovascular surgeries. Dean of Medical School at the Western Parana State University (1995-2000). Medical School Dean of University Center “Assis Gurgacz” (2005-actual)
Association: Board member of the Paraná’ Society of Cardiovascular Surgery(2002-2006) and President (2006-08). President of the South Brazilian’ Society of Cardiovascular Surgery(2007-09). BSCVS Member of the Board(2009-2010), President of the Board(2011-2013) President of the Endovascular Department(2011-2013), Scientific Director(2014-2015) Vice-President(2106-2017), President(2018-2020) and Educational Director(2021-2026). World Society of Cardio-Thoracic Surgeons -President (2023-2024l). President of the Latin American Association of Cardiac ane Endovascular Surgery (2024-2026).
Publications: More than 200 papers in national/international medical journals; presented more than 350 papers. Editor of five books and author or co-author of 20 chapters. Invited speaker more than 100 times, in Brazil, Argentina, Bulgari, Canada, China, Croatia, France, Greece, India, Iran, Italy, Mexico, Paraguay, Portugal, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom, Uruguay and United States of America. Participation in the editorial board of ten international journals and five Brazilian ones.
Ruggero De Paulis
Ruggero De Paulis is the Director of the Cardiac Surgery Department of the European Hospital in Rome, a position he has held since 2006. After graduating from the University of L’Aquila and completing his residency at the University of Torino, he spent two years in the Artificial Heart Programme at the University of Utah, and then two years as staff surgeon at the VI and XII University of Paris. Since then, he has been working in Rome, at the University of Tor Vergata, where he was appointed Associate Professor in 2002. In 2006 he became the Director at the Cardiac Surgery Department of the European Hospital in Rome. In 2018 he has been appointed Associate Professor at the Weill Cornell Medicine, New York Presbiterian Hospital. In 2020 he has been appointed at the Unicamillus Medical International University in Rome where is now full Professor in Cardiac Surgery. His main interest is in aortic and mitral repair surgery and he is the designer of the “Valsalva” graft, currently used in most aortic root surgeries and the co-designer of the new “Physioflex” ring for mitral repair. He has been Associate Editor of the ICVTS for 6 years. He has been EACTS Chairman of the Vascular Domain from 2014 to 2017. He has served as EACTS President in the period 2018-2019. He is currently the Chairman of the Francis Fontan Fund at the EACTS.
He has authored more than 250 scientific articles in peer reviewed journals.
Roberto Di Bartolomeo
| EDUCATION: | |
| GRADUATE: | University of Studies of Bologna |
| M.D. Degree: | Dee. 13th , 1974 |
| GRADUATE: | University of Studies of Bologna – Policlinico S.Orsola-Malpighi – Specialization School for Master Degree Cardiac Surgery |
| Master Degree | Nov. 11 th, 1978 Cardiae Surgery |
| University of Studies of Bologna – Policlinico S.Orsola-Malpighi – Specialization School for Master Degree Vascular Surgery | |
| Master Degree | Jul. 6th, 1979 Vaseular Surgery |
| University of Studies of Bologna – Policlinico S.Orsola-Malpighi – Specialization School for Master Degree Generai Surgery | |
| Master Degree | Jun. 26th, 1984 Generai Surgery |
ACTUAL POSITION:
Director of the Cardiac Surgery Unit of the Cardio-Thoraco-Vascular Department of the Policlinico S. Orsola-Malpighi of Bologna (Period: August 2002 – October 2018)
Full Professor of Cardiac Surgery of the Alma Mater Studiorum – University of Bologna (Period: October 2002 – present)
POSITIONS:
Robert James Cusimano
Dr Robert James “RJ” Cusimano is a cardiac surgeon at the Peter Munk Cardiac Centre at the Toronto General Hospital and is a Professor of Surgery at the University of Toronto. He is the inaugural holder of the Cynamon Professorship in Cardiovascular Innovation and Education at the Peter Munk Cardiac Centre. In addition to his clinical duties, he has been deeply interested in education. He was the programme director of Cardiac surgery at the University of Toronto and at the Royal Collage of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, helped in the development and implementation of the competency, based curriculum now in existence in Canada. He has taught both within the University, Canada and internationally, having either taught or helped in programme development in China, Ethiopia, Sri Lanka, Brazil, Europe, and the US. In 2016 he conceived and held the first Toronto Cardiac Tumour Conference, which brings the world’s experts in the field of cardiac tumours on a yearly basis. Recently, he conceived, and has been working on the INTERACT project (International Registry to Assess Cardiac Tumours), a global initiative to capture all cardiac tumours in the world. This is a multi-national, multidisciplinary endeavour which will bring centres around the world together to try to improve care and outcome in these very rare tumours. Recently he was in Africa to help develop a plan to harmonize interaction on the continent. Eventually he would like to develop a subspecialty of cardiac surgery in the area of cardiac tumours.
Rick Fischel
Dr Rick Fischel has been an innovator, scientist and advocate in the field of lung cancer therapy for several decades. As an academically trained private practice thoracic surgeon working with Dr Robert McKenna he was a pioneer in developing, studying, promoting and teaching minimally invasive VATS technology for the treatment of lung cancer and emphysema. He participated in the National Emphysema Treatment Trial (NETT) and was instrumental in developing several lung cancer screening programs as the director of Thoracic Oncology at two major community medical centers in Orange County California. He also developed and ran the interdisciplinary lung cancer tumor boards at St Joseph and Hoag hospitals bringing a new level of care guided by NCCN guidelines and access to clinical trials to patients with lung disease. He has been intricately involved in the decision-making process for the treatment of thousands of patients with lung nodules/abnormalities and cancer.
Dr Fischel has authored over 66 peer reviewed articles and book chapters and has several patents for medical technology. He has received numerous awards for his work with lung cancer patients and has served on the board and as president of the American Lung Association of Orange County. Dr Fischel graduated from UCLA medical school and completed his surgery and cardiothoracic training as well as his Ph.D research in surgery and immunology at the University of Minnesota and UCLA. He is currently an Assistant Project Scientist, department of Surgery at University of California Irvine and CEO of Precision Thoracic LLC.
Richard A. Jonas
Dr. Jonas undertook his general surgical training in Australia at the Royal Melbourne Hospital and his cardiothoracic surgical training at Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne and Green Lane Hospital in Auckland New Zealand. He was admitted to the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons in 1982 and subsequently moved to Boston where he undertook fellowships at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Children’s Hospital. He was invited to take a staff position at Boston Children’s Hospital with Dr Aldo Castaneda in 1984. In 1994 he was appointed to the William E Ladd Chair of Surgery at Harvard Medical School and became the Cardiovascular Surgeon in Chief at Children’s Hospital Boston. In 2004 after 22 years in Boston he moved to Washington DC where he established the Children’s National Heart Institute which he co-chaired as Chief of Cardiac Surgery until 2020. He maintained NIH supported laboratory and clinical research studies until 2023.
In 2005/6 Dr Jonas was President of the American Association for Thoracic Surgery. In 2009/10 he was President of the Congenital Heart Surgeon’s Society of North America and from 2016-18 President of the World Society for Pediatric and Congenital Heart Surgery.
Dr Jonas has a long-standing interest in international education in congenital heart surgery and is currently President of the Global Council for Education in Congenital Heart Surgery. He played a key role in the establishment of the World Journal for Pediatric and Congenital Heart Surgery. His textbook “Comprehensive Surgical Management of Congenital Heart Disease “has been published in several languages and continues to be widely used globally.
Rawn Salenger
Rawn Salenger, MD is the Chief of Cardiac Surgery at the University of Maryland St Joseph Medical Center and the Surgical Director of the University of Maryland Cardiac Service Line. He strives to optimize access, quality, and equity in delivering complex cardiac services to patients throughout the state. Dr. Salenger is a pioneer of Cardiac Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) and an Executive Board member of the ERAS Cardiac Society, as well as the Editor of the ERAS Cardiac Newsletter. He has published numerous studies on Cardiac ERAS, patient blood management, and minimally invasive valve surgery. He has also served as the Chair of the Maryland Cardiac Surgery Quality Initiative and on the planning committee for the High Value Academic Alliance Annual Conference. Dr. Salenger is Co-Chair of the Maryland Health Care Commission Cardiac Services Advisory Committee which advises the state on health care policy.
Dr. Salenger is also an Associate Clinical Professor in the Department of Surgery at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. He received his BS/MD magna cum laude from the Union College/Albany Medical School Seven Year Medical Education Program, where he was inducted into the Phi Beta Kappa Honor Society. He received cardiac surgery training at the University of Massachusetts, and additional specialized training in mitral valve repair at The Mount Sinai Hospital in New York. His clinical practice includes all aspects of adult cardiac surgery with a special emphasis on minimally invasive mitral valve repair, minimally invasive aortic valve surgery, and coronary bypass with arterial grafting. Dr. Salenger believes a specialized team-based approach helps the University of Maryland team deliver the highest quality care and optimal recovery for patients.
Randolph Wong
Prof Randolph Hung-leung WONG received medical training from Medical School of The Chinese University of Hong Kong since 1995. He received Tang Siu Cho Memorial Prize in 1998 and obtained his MBChB (CUHK) in 2000. He undertook higher surgical training in cardiothoracic surgery in Prince of Wales Hospital, Grantham Hospital and Queen Elizabeth Hospital and obtained FRCSEd (CTh) from The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in 2008. He further obtained Fellow of The College of Surgeons of Hong Kong and Fellow of Hong Kong Academy of Medicine in 2009.
Prof Wong’s career interests include complex open aortic surgery, hybrid thoracic aortic intervention, hybrid and minimally invasive cardiothoracic and vascular procedures. His research interests include innovative hybrid arch stengraft interventions, radiogenomics and deep learning empowered risk model development for aortic diseases. Under his leadership, the Cardiothoracic team was awarded NTEC Aortic Multidisciplinary team in 2018 and HA outstanding Coronary revascularization team in 2023.
Academically, Prof Wong’s research interests are the techniques in improving outcomes of complex aortic procedures, screening for thoracic aortic aneurysm, genetic basis of aortic pathology as well as hybrid endovascular intervention for cardiovascular diseases. He contributed over 170 publications in peer-reviewed journals including Lancet, Circulation, JACC, CHEST, Journal of Cardiothoracic and Vascular Surgery and Annals of Thoracic Surgery, 7 book chapters and more than 145 invited talks. He is now review editor of Frontier in Cardiovascular Medicine (IF 5.85), Annals of Translational Medicine (IF 3.93) and Journal of Clinical Medicine (IF 4.96). He has been regular reviewer of CHEST, HEART, Journal of Thoracic and CardioVascular Surgery, Journal of Cardiac Surgery, Journal of Thoracic Disease, European Journal of Cardiothoracic Surgery and Interactive CardioVascular and Thoracic Surgery.
Currently, Prof Wong is the Chief of Cardiothoracic Surgery at the Cardiothoracic Division of the Department of Surgery, The Chinese University of Hong Kong and Honorary Consultant of the Hospital Authority. He is also the Cluster Service Team Head of the New Territories East Cluster and Ex-Chairman of the Specialty Group of Cardiothoracic Surgery of Hospital Authority. He is the Secretary of Cardiothoracic Surgery Board of Hong Kong and a council member of the College of Surgeons of Hong Kong. Prof Wong is a fellow of American College of Chest Physician, European Association of Cardio-Thoracic Society and member of The Society of Thoracic Surgeons, International Society of Minimally Invasive Cardiothoracic Surgery, and Asian Society for Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery.
Dr. Rajan Sethuratnam
MBBS., MS., MCh., FRCS (Edin)
Chairman and HOD
Cardiac Surgery
The Madras Medical Mission
EDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATION
| Degree | University | Year |
| MBBS | University of Madras, Madras | 1979 |
| MS (Gen.Surgery) | University of Madras, Madras | 1985 |
| M.Ch (Cardiothoracic Surgery) | University of Madras, Madras | 1987 |
| FRCS ( Edinburgh) | Royal College of Edinburg | 2020 |
TRAINING
National
| Position held | Institution | Period |
| P.G.Trainee
M.Ch Cardiothoracic Surgery |
Govt.General Hospital
Madras Medical College, Chennai |
Nov.1985 to Oct.1987 |
| Registrar | Emergency Services and Gen. Surgery
Vijaya Hospital, Chennai |
June 1984 to Nov.1985 |
| P.G.Trainee
M.S. General Surgery |
Govt. Stanley Hospital
Stanley Medical College, Chennai |
June 1982 to April 1984 |
| Senior House Surgeon General Surgery | Govt.General Hospital
Madras Medical College, Chennai |
Feb.1981 to June 1982 |
| Rotatory Intern | Govt.General Hospital
Madras Medical College, Chennai |
Feb.1980 to Feb.1981 |
Overseas:
WORK EXPERIENCE
| POST | INSTITUTE | DURATION |
| Chairman & HOD – Cardiac surgery | Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases, The Madras Medical Mission | June 2024 till date |
| Director – Cardiothoracic Surgery | Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases, The Madras Medical Mission | May 2007 to June 2024 |
| HOD – Cardiothoracic Surgery | Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases, The Madras Medical Mission | Oct 2003 to May2007 |
| Senior Consultant | Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases, The Madras Medical Mission | June 1998 to Sept 2003 |
| Consultant | Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases,
The Madras Medical Mission |
August 1996 to June1998 |
| Registrar | John Radcliffe Hospital,Oxford, U.K.The Birmingham Children’s Hospital, Birmingham, UK | July 1995 to July 1996 |
| Consultant | Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases, The Madras Medical Mission | Jan.1990 to June 1995 |
| Jr. Consultant | Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases, The Madras Medical Mission | Dec.1987 to Jan.1990 |
PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES
| Current Status: | Chairman and HOD – Cardiac Surgery
Chairman of Hospital Medical Board Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases, The Madras Medical Mission |
SPECIAL MERITS
ASIAN SOCIETY OF CARDIO VASCULAR THORACIC SURGERY
Ong Boon Hean
Clinical Assistant Professor Ong Boon Hean is a Senior Consultant and Deputy Head of the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery at the National Heart Centre Singapore. He graduated from the Faculty of Medicine, National University of Singapore in 2006. He subsequently completed his training in cardiothoracic surgery at the National Heart Centre Singapore and was admitted as a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons (Edinburgh) in 2014. He was then awarded the Singapore Ministry of Health-SingHealth HMDP Award in 2014 to pursue an advanced clinical fellowship in general thoracic surgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School in the United States of America.
In 2016, he returned from fellowship training to practice cardiothoracic surgery with subspecialty interests in minimally invasive thoracic surgery, thoracic oncology and lung transplantation at the National Heart Centre Singapore. He currently is the service chief at the Singapore General Hospital campus for the SingHealth Duke-NUS Lung Centre and vice chairman of the Chapter of Cardiothoracic Surgeons, Academy of Medicine Singapore. Aside from his clinical work, he is also actively involved in education and research in thoracic surgery. He is a core clinical faculty member of the National Heart Centre Singapore Cardiothoracic Residency program, a clinical senior lecturer with the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore and an examiner for the Joint Committee on Specialist Training / Royal College of Surgeons (Edinburgh) Joint Specialty Fellowship Exit Examination in Cardiothoracic Surgery. He also a co-investigator for several studies related to lung cancer screening and novel treatment strategies for lung cancer.
Louis Perrault
Louis P. Perrault earned his medical degree from Université de Montréal in 1986. He pursued three years of basic science research training in Paris under the mentorship of Professor Paul VanHoutte at Université Louis-Pasteur, completing a PhD in fundamental research in 1997. That same year, Dr. Perrault joined the Department of Cardiac Surgery at the Montreal Heart Institute (MHI) as a cardiovascular and thoracic surgeon.
His clinical expertise includes coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG), valve surgery, and heart transplantation. As an active researcher at the MHI, his primary research interests focus on endothelial dysfunction in left ventricular hypertrophy, pulmonary hypertension after cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB), stem cell therapy, and heart transplantation.
Dr. Perrault also serves as a Vice-Chair & Vice-Chair of scientific affairs at the department of surgery at Université de Montréal, but also as full Professor of Surgery and Pharmacology. He has been the Director of the Extracorporeal Perfusion Program since 2004. He has been the local Principal Investigator for the Cardiothoracic Surgical Trials Network (CTSNet) under the NIH/CIHR since 2007 and is an investigator with the Fonds de la Recherche en Santé du Québec (FRSQ).
Dr. Perrault has authored or co-authored over 360 peer-reviewed articles, including publications in The New England Journal of Medicine, Circulation, Journal of Cardiovascular & Thoracic Surgery, and The Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation. He has served as senior author on more than 90 of these papers and contributed several book chapters. Additionally, he has delivered over 60 lectures at international conferences. His key research areas include endothelial dysfunction in left ventricular hypertrophy, pulmonary hypertension post-CPB, stem cell therapy, and heart transplantation
Kyung Hwan Kim
Kyung Hwan Kim is Professor and has worked as a staff Cardiac surgeon in the Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular surgery, Seoul National University Hospital (SNUH), Seoul, Korea, since 1998. He is one of the top-class cardiac surgeons in Korea leading innovative heart valve surgery and complex aorta surgery. Until Dec 2024, he performed around 5000 procedures of major cardiovascular surgery. He has served as CEO of the Korean Society for Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, and currently is President of Heart Valve Disease Forum and official Proctor of Edwards INTUITY Elite Rapid Deployment Valve (worldwide 2nd largest experience) which is related to innovative heart valve surgery. He is also President of the Korean Society for Patient Blood Management (KPBM). He is expertise in innovative heart valve replacement, mitral valve repair, complex valve surgery and major aortovascular surgery. He is member of the Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS), European Association of Cardiothoracic Surgery, and Asian Society for Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery. And this year 2025, he became member of the American Association of Thoracic Surgery (AATS)
He has steadily thought connection between clinical practice and healthcare medical data. That’s why he is deeply involved in the medical IT field. He is distinguished IT leader in Korea and has dedicated as CIO and IT team leader in SNUH for around 20 years since the year 2004 when the full Hospital Information System (HIS) system had launched in SNUH. He served as Vice President of The Korean Society of Medical Informatics (KOSMI) and currently, he is chairman of the medical CIO forum and board member for international cooperation. He contributed to the first implementation of the Precision Medicine Platform (Syapse) in Korea for advanced stage cancer patients. In the HIMSS 2024 Orlando Meeting, he is one of speakers in Education Session. The topic is The Impact of Convergence Medicine on Healthcare and Medical Technology.
He was the principal investigator of next-generation smart clinical trial technology innovation center funded by the Korean Ministry of Health and Welfare for 4 years from 2019. Recently, he published one meaningful paper in the Journal of Medical Internet Research; Information Technology-Based Management of Clinically Healthy COVID-19 Patients-Lessons From a Usability Study at a Living and Treatment Support Center Operated by a National Hospital in Korea. As President in the Korean Society for Patient Blood Management (KPBM), he is making nationwide platform for adequate transfusion, blood conservation and patient safety via FHIR and SNOMED CT. He is preparing many big data platform project which can make roles for contributing standardized healthcare data based patient health.
Currently, he is head of Institute of Convergence Medicine with Innovative Technology (ICMIT) in Seoul National University Hospital pioneering cutting edge, high end future medicine in South Korea. Recently he has started working as principal investigator of nationwide big project, ‘Development of the Nationwide Decentralized Clinical Trial Technologies including Remote Monitoring Platform’ in South Korea (DECENT)’. As a cardiac surgeon, and as a healthcare IT specialist, he is continuously performing best clinical practices with medical IT toward futuristic medicine.
Jose Luis Pomar
Born in Palma de Mallorca, Spain in 1947. After completing his school studies in
Mallorca he moved to the University of Navarra in Pamplona, where he obtained the
M.D. degree in 1972. Since the 4th year, he was already living at the University Clinic,
engaged in the Cardiothoracic Department where he was widely involved in the clinical
and the experimental fields. In 1969 he published his first experimental paper on the
Pharmacological properties of a new drug: the LB 46, now popularized as propranolol.
He did his housemanship at the Nuffield Dpt. of Surgery at the Radcliffe Infirmary of
the University of Oxford, UK.
After completing his residency training in Pamplona he went to Santander together
with his former boss Prof. Carlos Durán. At that time he became also involved in
teaching programs, both in the Nurses School of Valdecilla Medical Center and the
Cantabria University Medical School, where he was able to start and run a new
Experimental Laboratory. From this laboratory, many papers have been published and
among them his own PhD thesis on the experimental and clinical development of a
New Totally Flexible Ring for Mitral & Tricuspid Annuloplasty, today worldwide known
as the Duran Flexible Ring and distributed by Medtronic, Inc.
During close to three years he joined the team of the Montreal Heart Institute in
Canada, in an attempt to get better skills especially in coronary artery
revascularization. There, he was able to perform more than 800 operations as first
surgeon under the tutorship of Claude Grondin, MD. After visiting a few Cardiothoracic
Units in the US and Canada, in 1983, he went back to Spain and appointed at the
Cardiovascular Surgery Unit of the Hospital Clinic of the University of Barcelona.
In 1987 he got the position of Professor of Surgery at the University of Barcelona and
was running since then the Adult Cardiovascular Section and coordinating the studies
of Cardiovascular Medicine on an integrated program. He got the European Board of
Cardiothoracic Surgery.
After being Senior Consultant Cardiovascular Surgery at the Hospital Clinic and
Professor of Surgery at the University of Barcelona Medical School, he became Deputy
Director of the Cardiovascular Institute; he was also Director and conducted all
scientific aspects of the Cardiovascular Tissue Bank at the same institution (now BST)
and the Cardiothoracic Transplantation Program of the Hospital. He has also been
President of the Catalonian Commission for the CV Tissue Transplants.
He has been for more than 20 years one of the co-directors of the European Master of
Valve Repair having a wide teaching experience with close to 2000 surgeons trained.
He is an active member of the most relevant scientific societies of Cardio-thoracic and
Vascular Surgery included the American Association of Thoracic Surgery, where he was
also the first European Councilor, and the European Association of Cardio-Thoracic
Surgery.
Prof. Pomar has been member of the Board of Advisors of the European Journal of
Cardiothoracic Surgery, the European Heart Journal, the Journal for Heart Valve
Diseases, the Revista Española de Cardiología, Cor Europeum, Cirugía Cardiovascular
and Cardiac Surgery Today.
He has published more than 300 scientific articles and presented more than 550
papers and lectures in the most prestigious meetings all over the world. His most
relevant work refers to valve diseases and organ or tissue transplants, mitral valve
repair and biomaterials. Pulmonary thrombendarterectomy and health management
are other topics of his more recent interest.
Prof. Pomar has been President of the Society of Cardiac Surgeons and Vice President
of the European Society for Cardiovascular Surgery. He has also been President of the
International Scientific Committee for the Advancement on Cardiac Bioprostheses and
Chairman of the Working Group on Bioprostheses of the Society of Heart Valve
Diseases. Moreover, until a few years ago he was the President of the Society for Heart
Valve Disease and leader of the joining process to the Heart Valve Society of America
together with Prof. Jeff Borer. Today, after Past President and finished this merging is
currently Senior Advisor of the Heart Valve Society.
He was also, in the past, elected President of the Catalonian Society of Cardiac Surgery
and some years later, elected Vice-President and President of the Spanish Society of
Cardiovascular Surgery.
He has been largely involved in the Program Committee of the EuroPCR and the
London Valves PCR.
Prof. Pomar was President of the EACTS and is currently a Past President of the
Association. Previously, he was member, Treasurer and Chairman of the Adult Cardiac
Domain and Councilor for more than 12 years. He is currently the Chairman of the
International Cooperation Committee of EACTS.
He has been Councilor of the American Association for Thoracic Surgery and member
of the Board of Directors of the European Heart Institute of the European Academy of
Sciences and Arts and of the Spanish branch. Also, he is since 2024, President of the
World Society of Cardio-Thoracic Surgeons.
In addition, he is President of the Council of the Consorci Corporació Sanitària Clínic
and the Cardiovascular Coordinator and Consultant of the Program Hospital Clínic
Barcelona – China.
He is member of several CECs (SURTAVI; EMPIRE; LANDMARK…) and DSMC for
different transcatheter and surgical biological valve trials.
Jimmy Hon Kim Fatt
More information coming soon….
Javier Tejero
Dr. Javier Tejero is a passionate, young cardiac surgeon currently practicing at Hospital Universitari de Girona Doctor Josep Trueta, in Girona (Spain). He received his training at Hospital Universitari de Bellvitge in Barcelona, where from an early stage developed a strong curiosity for minimally invasive techniques. To further deepen his knowledge, during his residency he completed a one-month training at Medizinische Hochschule Hannover (Germany) under the supervision of Prof. J. Schmitto.
Dr. Javier Tejero further specialized in minimally invasive and percutaneous treatments for structural heart disease during his fellowship at San Raffaele Hospital (Milan, Italy) with Prof. F. Maisano. His other areas of interest include off-pump coronary artery surgery and aortic surgery.
Friedhelm Beyersdorf
| University | 1975 – 1981 School of Medicine, Johann Wolfgang Goethe-University Frankfurt/M., Germany and Thomas Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, USA. Final exam (“Approbation”): October 30, 1981 |
| US-Medical Exams | National Board, Part I (ECFMG), June 1980
National Board, Part II (VQE), September 1982 |
| Scholarship | Scholar of the Dr. Carl Duisberg-Foundation |
| Doctoral Thesis | “Determination of the maximal ischemic tolerance of the human heart by ultrastructural and biochemical recording of the preischemic hypertrophic and degeneration degree of the myocardium” Mark: summa cum laude (best possible mark), 11/1981 |
| Post Graduate Training | Senckenberg’s Department of Pathology, Johann Wolfgang Goethe-University Frankfurt/M.12/01/81 – 02/28/83 Department of Thoracic- and Cardiovascular Surgery, 03/01/83 – 08/08/90 |
| Research Training | Department of Cardio-Thoracic Surgery, University of California (UCLA), Los Angeles, CA, USA, 1984 – 1985 |
| Boards of General, Cardio-Thoracic and Vascular Surgery | Frankfurt/M., 1990, 1992, 1994 |
University Appointments
| Assistant Professor
06/1990 |
Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery Johann Wolfgang Goethe-University, Frankfurt/Main |
| Associate Professor
06/1992 |
Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery Johann Wolfgang Goethe-University, Frankfurt/Main |
| Full Professor and Chairman
10/1994 until 04/2022 |
Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, Albert-Ludwigs-University Freiburg, Germany |
| Full Professor
10/1994 until today |
Member of Medical Faculty of the Albert-Ludwigs-University
Freiburg, Germany |
Honours and Awards
| 11/1981 | Award of the Society of the Friends of Paul Ehrlich for the
best Doctoral Thesis in Frankfurt/M. in the Year 1982 |
| 02/1999 | Appointment as Fellow of the EACTS (FECTS) |
| Professor honoris causa | University Marilia, Brazil, November 2000 |
| 1. Implantation of a permanent | 05/2001, First destination therapy with a LVAD Jarvik 2000 LVAD in Germany |
| European LVAD Training Center | Election of Freiburg as a European training center for LVAD HeartMate I |
| Dr. Barbara Stark-Mez Research Laboratories of the Dept. of Cardiovascular Surgery (2004) | Research Laboratories, financed by a patient donation (1 Mill DM) |
| February 2007 | Election as 1. Vicepresident of the German Society for Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery |
| Doctor honoris causa | National University of Health Sciences, Laos, 03/ 2008 |
| February 2009 | Election as President of the German Society for Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery (2009 – 2011) |
| May 2010 | Founder of Start-up „ResuSciTec“ of the University Medical Center Freiburg |
| September 2010 | Election as Editor-in-Chief of the European Journal of Cardiothoracic Surgery/Interactive Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery |
| Fritz-Acker Award 2011 | Award given by the German Society of Cardiology |
| Dezember 2013 | Nomination as „Membre Correspondant Etranger de l’ Académie Nationale de Médecine”, Paris, France |
| 2018 | Nomination as Surgical Chairman of the German Aortic Valve Registry (GARY) (2018 – today) |
| 2019 | Nomination as Surgical Chairman of the 2021 ESC/EACTS
Guidelines for the management of Valvular Heart Disease |
| 2020 | Election as Vice-President of the European Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery (EACTS) (2020 – 2021) |
| 2021 | Election as President of the European Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery (EACTS) (2021 – 2022) |
| Visiting Professorships | Stanford-University, CA; Harvard-University, Boston; University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA); University of Virginia, Charlottesville; Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem; and others. |
| 2024 | Election as Chairman of the EACTS Innovation Ciommittee
(2024 – 2027) |
Personal “first” cardiac surgery procedures in Freiburg, Baden-Wuerttemberg resp. Germany
| 1st Heart Transplantation in Freiburg (1994) | November 29, 1994 |
| 1st implantation of a permanent left ventricular assist device (2001) | May 16, 2001, First implantation of a “permanent” LVAD of the Jarvik 2000 type in Germany |
| 1st implantation of a complete Total Artificial Heart (TAH) (2005) | May 05, 2005, First TAH implantation “CardioWest” (Jarvik 7) in Baden-Wuerttemberg |
| 1st heart-lung transplantation in June 2008 | Performance of the 1st heart-lung transplantation in Baden-Wuerttemberg |
Foundation of the Charity Organisation “Kinderherzen retten e.V.” (“Save the Children´s Hearts)
| Kinderherzen retten e.V. | Foundation in 2002 256 congenital procedures from all over the world (09/2020) Donations: 2.7 Mill EURPositive follow-up in terms of sustainability |
Foundation of the Start-up Company ResuSciTec from the Albert-Ludwigs-University Freiburg
| Foundation | 2010 |
| Finances 2012 – 2022 | Complete financial support (50 Mill EUR) by State Ministry of Science and Technolgy (BMBF), EU grants and private investors |
| December 2021 | CE certificate of the CARL Controller, CARL-MOX and CARL-Cooler |
Publications
| Total Impact Factor (1980 – 2022) | 1,540 | |
| Publons Feb. 16, 2022 | Publications | 902 |
| Total times cited | 17,760 | |
| H-Index | 58 | |
El Khoury Gébrine
Prof. El-Khoury arrived in Belgium from Lebanon when he was 18 and completed medical school at Université Catholique de Louvain from 1977–1984 (maxima cum laude).
In September 1996, he joined the UCL St. Luc, as Associated Professor in the Department of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery, Université Catholique de Louvain.
Since 2004, he has been the head of the Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery Department. He is recognized as a pioneer in aortic valve repair.
Prof. El-Khoury and his team run what has become a key center in the treatment of valve disease. The center is considered a true authority on cardiac surgery, as illustrated by its many daily visitors, its active involvement in high-level international conferences (live surgery, lectures, postgraduate courses, etc.) and the organization of three international meetings each year.
Doreen Chew
Head of Nursing
Assistant Director of Nursing
National University Heart Centre Singapore (NUHCS)
National University Hospital (NUH)
Ms Doreen Chew have been a Registered Nurse for 24 years and currently she is the Head of Nursing for National University Heart Centre Singapore (NUHCS), NUH. Her interest in the care and management of critically ill patient prompted her to pursue Master of Nursing (NUS) to become an Acute Care Advanced Practice Nurse (APN) in 2011, specializing in the field of Cardiothoracic and Vascular Surgery.
Being a strong advocate for safety and process improvement, Doreen was instrumental in streamlining Nursing Handover Process in NUH in 2018, and subsequently clinched the Merit Award for Quality Improvement Project. At the national level, Doreen had the opportunity to serve in the International Council of Nurses (ICN), Education Subgroup.
During the COVID pandemic, Doreen spearheaded the APN-led Teleconsultation for COVID Vaccine Enquiry. This teleconsultation service enabled an increased uptake of the COVID vaccination among patients with medical comorbidities.
Doreen’s priorities lie in advancing nursing practice. She is passionate and committed to expand the role of nurses to practice to the full extent of their education and training. In her dept, Doreen has developed and supported the growth of advanced practice nurses, specialty nurses; and implemented nurse-led services which saw an improved access to care, better coordination of care and patient-centered care.
Doreen has demonstrated organizational abilities and excellent interpersonal and communication skills in both clinical and leadership position roles. She was elected Chairperson of the NUH Nursing Professional Practice Council (PPC) from 2011 to 2017, Chairperson of the NUH Nurse Leaders Council (NLC) from 2018 – 2021, which is an overarching governing body for all nursing initiatives and practices.
She was well recognized for many of her outstanding contributions with accolades such as the National Day Awards – Efficiency Medal, National Day Awards – Commendation Medal and the NUHS-Mochtar Riady Pinnacle Awards – High Achiever Award.
Doreen’s leadership style is defined by a passion to engage and develop her people. Her strength lies in coaching and mentoring; and she believes strongly in growing the next generation of nurses and nurse leaders of Singapore Healthcare.
Carlos A. Mestre
Carlos A. Mestres, MD, PhD, FETCS, was born in Barcelona on the 27th of September 1956. He is currently an Extraordinary Professor at the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery and the Robert W.M. Frater Cardiovascular Research Centre, The University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa, appointed 2018. He served as Senior Consultant in the Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, University Hospital Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland (August 2017-September 2021) where he transitioned after there years as Staff Surgeon at the Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi, UAE (August 2014-2017) and thirty years as Senior Consultant at the Hospital Clinico, University of Barcelona in Barcelona, Spain (1985-2014). Dr. Mestres has experience and expertise in Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery. Dr. Mestres received his medical degree in 1979 and his PhD in 1988 from the University of Barcelona. He holds the Spanish Certificates in Thoracic
Surgery (1982) and Cardiovascular Surgery (1988) and The European Board of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery (FETCS – 1988).
He has shown particular interest in inflammatory and infectious diseases of the cardiovascular system in addition to the regular practice in all areas of surgery (especially endocarditis and HIV-1 infection), cardiovascular tissues (homograft valves and arteries), coronary surgery, valve surgery and surgery of the aorta, biomaterials, and medical devices. In addition, he has particular interest in hospital management, databases, and quality assurance. His research interest includes antiplatelet drugs, the behaviour of vascular grafts and homografts, aortic diseases and cardiovascular infections. He is active in clinical surgery.
As a member of the Hospital Clinico Endocarditis Working Group, the pioneer in cooperative work in the field in Spain and Europe, active for over three decades, several studies and publications were produced over the years. Dr. Mestres has participated in the development of Cardiovascular Tissue banking in Spain, as the tissue bank at the Hospital Clinico was the first of its kind in the country. Long-term follow-up on patients treated with 2 homologous tissues is nowadays available. Dr. Mestres also participated in the development of the Endocarditis Board at the University Hospital Zürich, Zürich (Switzerland), the 5-year experience of the Board recently reported. Currently, Dr. Mestres has over 389 international publications in peer-reviewed international journals, 139
domestic publications in Spanish journals and over 30 chapters in books. (h-index 62, i10-index 183).
Dr. Mestres is a clinical surgeon. He has participated in teaching of surgical residents in the foundations of cardiovascular and thoracic surgery and has extensive experience in academic and scientific activities. He was a member of the Spanish National Cardiovascular Council, the regulatory body for Specialty training (1997-2006). He was a member of the European Board of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgeons (EBTCS) (2005-2018) and continues to be an Examiner of the EBCTS. More recently, in March 2024, he has participated in the implementation of the first examination of the EBTCS Cardiovascular Critical Care.
Among other positions he has been a Foreign Teaching Fellow at the Department of Surgery, Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery, National University of Singapore (1990-1991), Visiting Professor, The Third Teaching Hospital, Beijing Medical University, Beijing, PRC (1993-1994) and Visiting Professor, Tajoura National Heart Centre, Tajoura, Tripoli, Libya (2006-2010).
He also serves in the Editorial Board of several scientific journals covering the specialty of cardiovascular and thoracic surgery. Among them:
1. Editor-in-Chief
“Cirugia Cardiovascular”. Official Journal of the Spanish Society for Thoracic-Cardiovascular Surgery (SECTCV) 2004-2012
“Vessel Plus”. Executive Chief Editor. ISSN 2574-12093
2. Associate Editor
The European Journal of Cardio-Thoracic Surgery (2012-2017)
3. Associate/Section Editor
Asian Cardiovascular and Thoracic Annals (2011-…). Founder 1993.
4. Editorial Board Member
The Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery (2013-2022)
The European Journal of Cardio-Thoracic Surgery (2006-2013)
The Indian Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery (2006-…)
5. Reviewer
The Annals of Thoracic Surgery Circulation
The European Heart Journal
The Journal of Heart Valve Disease
American Journal of Cardiology Cirugía Española
The Journal of the American College of Cardiology – Case Reports Innovations
He served as a reviewer of the 2015 European Society of Cardiology (ESC) Guideline for the Management of Infective Endocarditis and Task Force Member of the 2023 ESC Infective Endocarditis Guideline and currently serves in other Working Groups and Consensus Documents of the European Association for Cardio-thoracic Surgery (EACTS).
He also served as a Task Force Member of the 2024 EACTS/STS Guidelines for diagnosing and treating acute and chronic syndromes of the aortic organ.
He served as President of the Spanish Society of Cardiovascular Infections (SEICAV) (2013-2015).
4
He served as Director of the Teaching Programme of the CAS-Certificate of Advanced Studies in Structural Cardiac Interventions issued by the University of Zürich, aiming at defining the leaders of the Heart Teams in the future (2017-2021).
He enjoys reading, music, cricket and travelling among other activities of all kinds.
Aung Ye Oo
Professor Aung Ye Oo is the clinical lead for aortovascular surgery at the St Bartholomew’s Hospital and affiliated to William Harvey Research Institute of Queen Mary University of London as the Honorary Clinical Professor in Cardiovascular Surgery. He is also a consultant cardiac surgeon at the Cleveland Clinic London. He has developed the largest and most prolific complex aortic surgery service in the United Kingdom.
Professor Oo is an international expert, mentor and one of the key opinion leaders in complex aortic surgery. He has trained and supported many surgeons across the world in development of aortic surgery programmes.
The research interest of Professor Oo has been the organ protection in complex aortovascular surgery. He has introduced the cost-effective intraoperative and postoperative Motor Evoked Potential monitoring in management of thoracic and thoracoabdominal aneurysm patients in United Kingdom. He subsequently development research into spinal cord ischaemia during surgery by detecting biomarkers utilising microdialysis catheter, multi-modality monitoring of spinal cord ischaemia and biomarkers in cerebral protection during complex aortic arch procedures. He has published over 200 papers and book chapters on cardiac and aortic surgery.
Professor Aung Ye Oo is the founder chair of the United Kingdom Aortic Surgery group which actively promotes education and research into aortic surgery as well as support patient groups like Aortic Dissection Awareness UK and Ireland, The Aortic Dissection Charitable Trust and Marfan Foundation. He is a member of the European Association for Cardiothoracic Surgery Taskforce in Thoracic Aortic Forum, Director of Barts Aortovascular Symposium, and Research Advisory Board of the Aortic Dissection Charitable Trust.
Atsuo Do
Dr Atsuo Doi is a Consultant with the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery & Transplantation of the Alfred Hospital in Melbourne, Australia.
Following graduation from Chiba University in Japan, he began his surgical training in Japan and then continued to work abroad in Singapore and Australia including National University Hospital, Alfred Hospital, and Princess Alexandra Hospital. In 2017, he was awarded the Fellowship of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons. He is also fully registered as a specialist in Cardiovascular Surgery with the Japanese Board of Cardiovascular Surgery.
He returned to the Alfred Hospital in Melbourne, Australia as a consultant surgeon in 2018. His special interests include heart and lung transplantation, mechanical circulatory support, aortic surgery including Ross procedure, and pulmonary endarterectomy for chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension.
Anantharaman Vathsala
Designations:
– Head & Senior Consultant, Department of Medicine, National University Hospital
– Director, National University Centre For Organ Transplantation, National University Hospital
– Head, Department of Medicine, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore
Prof A Vathsala graduated with a Bachelor of Science in the Premedical Curriculum from Auburn University, Alabama and studied Medicine at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, USA. She completed her training in Internal Medicine in Singapore and obtained her Membership in the Royal College of Physicians (United Kingdom). She underwent training in Renal Medicine at the Singapore General Hospital and received a Health Manpower Development Programme scholarship to undergo training in Transplantation at the University of Houston, Texas and the Cornell University School of Medicine, USA. She is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh and a Fellow, Academy of Medicine (Singapore). She has been instrumental in advancing Singapore’s renal transplantation program, overseeing significant milestones such as the first spousal kidney transplant in 1991 and the introduction of crossmatch-positive deceased donor kidney transplants in 2007. Under her leadership, NUH performed Singapore’s first pancreas-kidney transplant in 2012. She has also held leadership positions in professional organisations, including serving as the founding President of the Society of Transplantation (Singapore) and as President of the Asian Society of Transplantation for two terms. Her significant contributions to medicine have been widely acknowledged through prestigious awards, reflecting her leadership in the field of nephrology and renal transplantation, such as the Master Clinician Award (2025), SMA Merit Award (2023), Distinguished Senior Clinician Award (2018), National Outstanding Clinician Award (2010). A staunch advocate for ethical practices in medicine, Prof Vathsala is a vocal opponent of the commercialisation of organ donation. Her career reflects a deep commitment to advancing clinical renal transplantation and promoting ethical standards in healthcare.
Prasanta K Chanda
Dr Prasanta K Chanda, Senior Consultant & Co-ordinator, Department of Cardiac Surgery of Square Hospitals Ltd. Dhaka. He has 25 years of experience and skills to perform a wide array of cardiac surgeries like Beating Heart CABG, Minimally Invasive Cardiac Surgery (MICS), Redo cardiac surgery, Aortic surgery-specially Bentall’s, David procedure, Total Arch Replacement, Frozen Elephant Trunk etc. He is one of the pioneers of MICS & Aortic Surgery program in Bangladesh.
He had his MBBS from Sir Salimullah Medical College and obtained his Masters on Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery from National Institute of Cardio-vascular Diseases (NICVD). He served different Govt. and private institutes before joining Square Hospital. Notably for last 14 years before joining Square Hospitals Ltd. he served National Heart Foundation Hospital as Consultant & Assistant Professor and Senior Consultant & Associate Professor.
Dr. Prasanta got the opportunity to work as a fellow/ observer in the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery at All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India; National University Hospital, Singapore; Houston Methodist DeBakey Heart & Vascular Center, Houston, USA; Cleveland Clinic, Ohio, USA and many others. He has lots of publications in national & international journals.
Presently he is serving as Vice President, Cardiac Surgeons Society of Bangladesh (CSSB). He is also member of BMA, Bangladesh Cardiac Society, IACTS, SMICTSI, STS, EACTS, ISMICS.
Piroze M. Davierwala
Dr Piroze M. Davierwala is the Director of Minimally Invasive Cardiac Surgery at the Peter Munk Cardiac Center in Toronto General Hospital. He graduated from medical school in 1993 followed by a residency in General Surgery (1994-1996) with the attainment of Masters in General surgery from the University of Pune, India. Thereafter, he did his residency in Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery (1997-2000), and obtained the degree of Master of Chirurgie from the University of Mumbai, India. Subsequently, he did a 3-year clinical fellowship at the University of Toronto, Canada. Following the completion of his training, he worked as a consultant in Cardiovascular Surgery in two private hospitals in the city of Pune, India. He was then recruited by the Division of Cardiac Surgery at the Leipzig Heart Center, Germany in 2009, where he was the Lead Senior Consultant and Director of Coronary Bypass surgery, until he moved to Toronto in 2021. During his 12-year tenure at this institute, which is predominantly renowned for minimally invasive cardiac surgery, he developed a keen interest and expertise in the entire spectrum of minimally invasive surgical procedures including mitral, tricuspid and aortic valve repairs, coronary artery bypass and aortic surgery. Additionally, he pioneered the development and establishment of the technique of multi-vessel total arterial minimally invasive coronary surgery with the use of bilateral internal thoracic arteries at the institute. Besides, he has tremendous experience in performing complex reconstructive surgery for endocarditis and complications of myocardial infarction among other procedures. His research work chiefly encompasses clinical studies and trials, which have been published in numerous peer-reviewed international journals. He has over 100 publications and is an author of several book chapters as well. He has been awarded the Angelo and Lorenza De Gasperis Chair in Cardiovascular Surgery Research at the University of Toronto starting January 1, 2023. He is a member of esteemed societies such as the American Association of Thoracic Surgeons, the European Association for Cardiothoracic Surgery and the International Society for Minimally Invasive Cardiothoracic Surgery and is also a fellow of the American Heart Association (FAHA).
Ourania Preventza
Ourania Preventza MD served as the George Minor Professor of Thoracic Surgery, Chief of Cardiothoracic Surgery and Co-Director of Cardiovascular Surgery Service Line at the University of Virginia Health. She is also adjunct Professor of Surgery at Baylor College of Medicine, in Houston where she spent 15 years of her career and she was the first female cardiothoracic surgeon to be Professor of Surgery with tenure at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. Dr. Preventza is triple-boarded; American Board of Surgery, American Board of Surgery (Surgical Critical Care), and American Board of Thoracic Surgery. She is the immediate Past President of the International Society of Endovascular Specialists 2021-2023. Past Program Committee Chair of the Southern Thoracic Surgical Association, immediate past chair of the adult cardiac surgery program at the annual meeting of the American Association for Thoracic Surgery and an MBA holder on Health Care leadership from Brandeis University in Boston. Dr Preventza is the winner of the Socrates Award given every year at the Society of Thoracic Surgery Annual meeting (January 2023 ) for an outstanding mentor for thoracic surgery residents in the USA. She is a world expert in aortic disease, and she is the Co –chair of the recently published 2022 ACC/AHA guidelines on aortic disease. She has lectured nationally and internationally on cardiovascular disease and on leadership and women in science and medicine. She has co –authored more than 200 articles in peer review journals and multiple book chapters. Her interest includes education, health outcomes research, aortic surgery, heart valve surgery, new technologies and cardiovascular disease and women.
Ottavio Alfieri
Professor Ottavio Alfieri was Director of Cardiac Surgery at San Raffaele University Hospital in Milan for 20 years.
He is author or coauthor of more than 750 peer-reviewed publications in international scientific journals and has performed more than 15,000 cardiac operations.
He invented a mitral valve repair technique (the Edge-to- Edge repair) which the basis of the currently most commonly used method to correct percutaneously mitral regurgitation.
He is the owner of a dozen patents related to devices for the treatment of heart valve disease.
He received in 2004 the Gold Medal for civic merits from the City of Bergamo, and he received in 2011 the Ambrogino d’Oro from the City of Milan. He was in 2011 President of the European Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery
In 2018, he received the Gold Medal from the European Society of Cardiology for his contributions in the field of cardiology.
In 2023, he was awarded the “Lifetime Awards” by the American Association of Thoracic Surgery.
In 2018 he created the Alfieri Heart Foundation, to promote innovation, research and education in the field of heart valve disease.
Oleksandr Babliak
Dr Babliak obtained his specialization in Cardiovascular surgery in 1997 in Kyiv, Ukraine and underwent the additional training in in CardioThoracic Surgery at Royal North Shore Hospital, Sydney, Australia in 1999-2001. PhD in 2005.
His work experience includes 16 years of mostly adult cardiac surgery and 11 years of adult and pediatric cardiac surgery.
Since 2016 he is a chief of Cardiac Surgery Division at Dobrobut Medical Network, Kyiv, Ukraine, and his professional focus is on minimally invasive adult and pediatric cardiac surgery. He is an author of the minimally invasive multivessel CABG method, known as TCRAT-CABG.
LinkedIn Oleksandr Babliak
CTSNet Oleksandr Babliak
YouTube: Oleksandr Babliak. Heart Surgery
Nuttapon Arayawudhikul, M.D.
Position Cardiovascular and thoracic surgeon (medical Physician, Expert Level)
Qualifications Obtained
Qualification – 1998
Doctor of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Chiangmai University, Chiangmai, Thailand
Qualification – 2002
Diploma Certifying Proficiency in Medical Practice in General Surgery, Chiangmai University, Chiangmai, Thailand
Qualification – 2007
Diploma Certifying Proficiency in Medical Practice in Thoracic Surgery, Chiangmai University, Chiangmai, Thailand
Position Title – Cardiothoracic surgeon
From 01/07/2007 to 30/3/2009
At Maharat Nakhon Ratchasima Hospital
Address: 49 Changpuek Road, Tambon Naimuang, Amphoe Muang, NakhonRatchasima, Thailand 30000
Telephone: +6644235000
Responsibilities: Cardiothoracic surgeon
Full time, Attending Physician and Consultant of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery (clinical duties, operations and ward rounds)
Position Title – Cardiothoracic surgeon
From 01/04/2009 to Present
At Lampang Hospital
Address: Department of Surgery, Lampang Hoapital,280 Paholyotin Road, Tambon Huawiang, Amphoe Muang, Lampang, Thailand 52000
Telephone: +6654237400 (8844)
Responsibilities: Chief of Cardiothoracic surgeon staff
Fields of Interest
1.Off-pump coronary revascularization
2.Arterial conduit revascularization
3.Minimally Invasive Cardiac Surgery
3.1 Mini-Mitral Mini-Sternotomy
3.2 Mini-sternotomy and Right Anterior Mini-thoracotomy (RATS) AVR
3.3 MIDCAB, MICSOPCAB
3.4 Hybrid Coronary Revascularization
Nishith Patel
Nishith Patel is a Consultant Cardiothoracic Surgeon at Waikato Hospital in Hamilton, New Zealand and an Associate Professor in the department of surgery at the University of Auckland. He completed his Cardiothoracic training in Bristol, London and Papworth in the UK, was awarded a PhD from the University of Bristol, FRCS (C-Th) from the Royal College of Surgeons of England and was appointed as a Consultant cardiac surgeon at the Royal Papworth Hospital. He currently leads a programme of research in to aortic disease and was recently awarded the Foundation 100 Fellowship by the Heart Foundation of New Zealand. His research focuses on the epidemiology of aortic disease in New Zealand, the pathophysiology of hypertension in patients with aortic disease, the role of the coagulation system in aortic dissection and the use of radiomics, biomechanics and AI to predict aortic events.
Nikolaos Bonaros
Nikolaos Bonaros is an academic cardiac surgeon affiliated to the Medical University of Innsbruck, Austria. His clinical and academic interests focus on minimally invasive and endoscopic valve and coronary surgery and structural valve interventions. His scientific interests extend from clinical research on valvular heart and coronary artery disease to basic research on ischemic heart failure. He has a Master’s Degree on Minimally Invasive Cardiac Surgery and Innovation form the University of Pisa, and on Health Economics and Policy from the London School of Economics.
Murali P. Vettath
Dr Murali P. Vettath is a trailblazing coronary surgeon of this generation. Hailing from Kerala, India, he is one of the few globally renowned specialists to carry out all of his coronary surgeries using the beating-heart technique, His pioneering spirit and unwavering obligation to this state-of-the-art medical procedure have made him a leading protagonist and a revered mentor. As an advocate of this avant-garde technology, Dr. Vettath has imparted his knowledge, insight, and expertise to numerous aspiring surgeons and anesthesiologists across the world, solidifying his reputation as an influential educator and clinician.
He is the only cardiac surgeon in India and around the world who has invented and patented both a proximal and a distal anastomotic device for performing Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting Surgery.
Apart from being an off-pump coronary surgeon, he has innovated, fabricated, invented, patented, and developed techniques and technology for performing off-pump coronary surgery with ease.
He is both the Director of the International Centre of Excellence in OPCAB Surgery at Meitra Hospital and the Chairman of Cardiac Surgery in the Institute of Heart, Vascular, and Transplantation, and he has numerous publications to his credit.
His name was engraved in one of the stones at Kos Island, Greece, along with that of three other Indian surgeons, on the occasion of the 18th World Congress held by the World Society of Cardio-Thoracic Surgeons, held between April 30 and May 3, 2008.
He has 33 years post MCh experience in Cardiothoracic & Vascular Surgery, including 23 years as Chief Cardiothoracic Surgeon. He has had more than 9000 open heart surgeries done here, with more than 5,800 bypass surgeries being done on beating hearts and a mortality rate of less than 0.5%. Which remains better than the world standard.
He has been widely quoted for his numerous publications in national and International journals, of which he is on the editorial board of a few and a reviewer of many more. He has also contributed by writing chapters on his technique of OPCAB surgery in international textbooks. Many eminent cardiac surgeons from India and abroad had come over to Kozhikode to observe and work with Dr. Murali during the last twenty-one years. Cardiac surgeons from the USA, Europe, Australia, China, Singapore, and the Gulf had visited his International Centre of Excellence in OPCAB surgery to learn his first-hand techniques in beating heart surgery,
With his innovations and inventions, which include;
Has delivered invited lectures in 25 countries and operated in 8 countries to train surgeons in these countries to perform this innovative technique to the world. has performed operative workshops in Romania, Peru, Vietnam, Dhaka, Australia and South Africa, demonstrating his technique of beating heart surgery there.
Dr Mohammad Ziaur Rahman
Chief Cardiac Surgeon
Apollo Imperial Hospitals
Khulshi, Chittagong, Bangladesh
CAREER
FORMER ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR
ADULT CARDIAC SURGERY
NATIONAL HEART FOUNDATION HOSPITAL
DHAKA, BANGLADESH
EDUCATION
MBSS – 2001
SIR SALIMULLLAH MEDICAL COLLEGE
DHAKA, BANGLADESH
MS – CARDIOTHORACIC SURGERY, 2011
NATIONAL HEART FOUNDATION
DHAKA, BANGLADESH
FELLOWSHIP TRAINING
NATIONAL UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL
SINGAPORE (2017-18)
VINCENTS HOSPITAL, SYDNEY AUSTRALIA (2018-19)
Minoru Tabata
Dr Minoru Tabata is the Chairman and Professor of Cardiovascular Surgery at Juntendo University in Tokyo, Japan. He graduated from the University of Tokyo in 1999 and trained in Japan, the United States, and Belgium. Specializing in endoscopic and robotic valve surgery as well as transcatheter heart valve interventions (TAVR, TEER, TTVR, Neochord), he performs approximately 400 open-heart surgeries annually, including 300 minimally invasive cases and over 200 mitral valve repairs, along with 70 transcatheter interventions. Dr. Tabata has published more than 200 peer-reviewed papers and has delivered over 350 invited lectures at national and international conferences.
Minoru Ono
Dr. Ono was graduated from the University of Tokyo in 1987. He started his career as Cardiothoracic surgeon. After he took his PhD degree, he joined the fellowship program at the Ohio State University Medical Center for advanced training in minimally invasive surgery and heart transplantation from 1999 to 2001. He came back to the University of Tokyo Hospital as a staff surgeon, and established a program of surgery for advanced heart failure. He was appointed as Professor and Chairman, Department of Cardiovascular Surgery in 2009. Since then, the advanced heart failure program of the University of Tokyo has grown up to be one of the leading centers in the globe. He has been actively participating in a cooperative development program of the medial devices with School of Engineering and some companies (endoscopic surgical manipulators and an innovative suture device). He was co-appointed as Professor at Research Institute for Biomedical Science and Engineering in 2017, and promoted to the Director in 2024.
He published more than 400 peer review English papers. He is actively involved in many major academic medical societies: President both for Japanese Society for Cardiovascular Surgery and Japan Society for Transplantation, and Board Member for Japanese Association for Thoracic Surgery, Japanese College of Angiology and Japanese Society for Artificial Organs. He is also a member of many world-leading societies, such as AATS, STS, EACTS, ISHLT, and TTS. He also has the office of the President for International Federation for Artificial Organs and Secretary General with Asian Society for Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery.
Melissa Levack
Dr. Melissa Levack grew up in the Northeastern United States. She graduated from Dartmouth College for her undergraduate degree. She then completed medical school at Emory Univerity in Atlanta, GA. Upon earning her MD, she began her General Surgery Residency at Masschusetts General Hospital in Boston, MA. She also completed a Research Fellowship in Cardiac Surgery at the University of Pennsylvania. This inspired her to pursue a career in Cardiothoracic Surgery and she subsequently became one of the first female Cardiothoracic Surgery residents at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation. Upon completion of her cardiac surgery training in Cleveland, she took a faculty position as an Assistant Professor at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, TN. She was promoted to the Director of Thoracic Aortic Surgery in 2022. After 6 years at Vanderbilt, she was offered the incredible opportunity to move to Denver, Colorado and become the AdventHealth Rocky Mountain Region Medical Director for Cardiac Surgery. She has spent the last year and half building a regional program and Center of Excellence. Dr. Levack met her husband Guy in Nashville. He is a pilot. They have one daughter, Alessandra Elizabeth, who just turned 2 years old. In her free time, she enjoys spending time with her family, working out, trying new restaurants, traveling internationally and shopping.
Masakazu Nakao
Dr Masakazu Nakao obtained his medical degree from the Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine, Japan in 1998. He completed his training in Cardiothoracic Surgery and Paediatric Cardiothoracic Surgery in Singapore and was awarded FRCS(CTh) in 2011. He completed his fellowship at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, London in 2013. He was then appointed as the Head of Heart Centre, Al Jalila Children’s Hospital, Dubai in 2018, following his service as a Consultant in Paediatric Cardiothoracic Surgery, KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital, Singapore. He completed his Master of Science in Epidemiology in 2023. Currently, he is a Senior Consultant with Paediatric Cardiothoracic Surgery Service, KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital and National Heart Centre Singapore since January 2020.
His areas of interests in congenital heart surgery include tracheobronchial surgery, complex neonatal cardiac surgery, and reproducibility of surgery. He is also active in translational research and has been awarded several grants from SingHealth Foundation and National Medical Research Council.
Marco Solinas
Academic Qualifications
1994, July: Faculty of Medicine at University of Bologna: Degree Magna cum Laude with a thesis in Cardiac Surgery, on the subject: “Surgical treatment of Native and Prosthetic Endocarditis.” Tutor: Professor Angelo Pierangeli, Chief Department of Cardiac Surgery, University of Bologna.
1999, November: Cardiac Surgery Specialization Magna cum Laude with a thesis on the subject; “Surgical treatment of anomalous origin of coronary arteries in the pediatric age” Tutor: Professor Angelo Pierangeli, Chief Department of Cardiac Surgery, University of Bologna.
Consultant Cardiothoracic Surgeon Honorary Senior Lecturer Imperial College NHS Trust Hammersmith Hospital Du Cane Road London W12 0HS
2015 Accolade of “Cavaliere della Repubblica” for Professional merits awarded by the President of the Italian Republic Giorgio Napolitano
Clinical Activity
1992: academical internship in Department of Cardiac Surgery, University of Bologna. (Policlinico Sant’Orsola).
1994-1999: full-time internship in Cardiac Surgery Department of University of Bologna (Policlinico Sant’Orsola); clinical and surgical activity.
-1998 : fellowship at St. Antonius Hospital (Nieuwegein, Holland)
-1999 : observer in the Pediatric Cardiac Surgery of the Sol Goldman Children’s Heart Center, Columbia University, New York
-2000 to April 2014 consultant in Cardiac Surgery “Ospedale del Cuore, Fondazione Toscana G. Monasterio”, Massa, Italy.
– July 2010-May 2011 Consultant in Cardiac Surgery Imperial College University/Imperial College Trust, Hammersmith Campus, London.
-2010-2015 Honorary Senior Lecturer Imperial College London
– July 2014 Director ad interim Cardiac Surgery Unit “Ospedale del Cuore, Fondazione Toscana G. Monasterio”, Massa, Italy
–January 2015 -present Director Cardiac Surgery Unit “Ospedale del Cuore, Fondazione Toscana G. Monasterio”, Massa, Italy
Membership
Publications
120 Lavori pubblicati in riviste internazionali di settore. Editore del libro “Minimally invasive mitral valve surgery”. Contributo d’autore di 5 volumi scientifici
Specialist Training in Cardiac surgery 1994-1999:
In 2000, I was appointed to a Consultant position in Cardiac Surgery at “Ospedale del Cuore,
Fondazione Toscana G. Monasterio”, Massa, Italy.
During this period I have been responsible for all aspects of modern Cardiac Surgery with a
specific interest in minimally invasive techniques, including training and proctoring in Italy and
Europe.
During the absence of the Head of Department, I have been responsible for the running of the
Unit. I am also involved in dealing with inter-departmental relations with particular attention to
management skills and the negotiation and management of conflicts.
In the above role I attended the course of the Italian Society for Cardiac Surgery on the subject
“The Responsibility of the New Corporate Management and the elements necessary for the
management of the Department” Bologna, 27-28 April 2001”.
I have coordinated work groups for the publication of scientific articles.
Furthermore, I have been instrumental in the development and running of the hospital data-base and digital medical records.
July 2010 I was appointed for an initial period of 12 months to a Consultant position in Cardiac
Surgery at Imperial College University/Imperial College Trust, Hammersmith Campus, London.
I have been recruited to lead of a specific project to develop minimally invasive mitral and aortic surgery.
1 January 2013 High specialization appointment: development of research and follow up activity on minimally invasive mitral valve repair; supervision for minimally invasive surgery training on junior surgeons; coordination of outpatient activity at Ospedale del Cuore in Massa and Ospedale S.Cataldo in Pisa, both Fondazione Toscana G.Monasterio.
May 2014 I was appointed to a substitute position as Director of Adult Cardiac Surgery Unit
“Ospedale del Cuore, Fondazione Toscana G. Monasterio”, Massa, Italy
From January 2015- present: Director of Adult Cardiac Surgery Unit “Ospedale del Cuore,
Fondazione Toscana G. Monasterio”, Massa, Italy.
Co-director of the II level Master Innovation in cardiac surgery: advances in minimally invasive
therapeutics–Institute of Life Sciences of the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna – Fondazione G.
Monasterio Regione Toscana-CNR- II and III Edition.
Marco Di Eusanio
Professor of Cardiac Surgery,
Director, Cardiac Surgery Department, Lancisi Cardiovascular Center, OORR
Director, Marfan Center
Director Minimally Invasive and Trans-Catheter Cardiac Surgery Research Center
Università Politecnica delle Marche
Ancona, Italy
His main practice and scientific areas include aortic and mitral valve repair, minimally invasive surgery and fast recovery, trans-catheter valve interventions (TAVI, percutaneous EtoE MV repair, TMVI) surgery of the thoracic aorta (open, endo, hybrid), cerebral protection, endocarditis, hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy surgery, surgical education. He is author or co-author of >200 publications; he lectures nationally and internationally and hosts at his Center other surgeons to visit and learn minimally invasive techniques. In his spare time, he enjoys travelling, practicing sports (tennis and skiing) and listening jazz pianists.
Malakh Shrestha
Malakh Shrestha is currently professor of surgery and director of aortic surgery at the Mayo Clinic Rochester Minnesota. He is also the director of the Mayo clinic aortic center.
He has been involved and led numerous multi-center, multi- country clinical trials. He has also performed numerous ‘first in man’ implantations of various medical innovations like the Sorin/ Corcym ‘Perceval sutureless valve’ in 2007, the Edwards Intuity rapid deployment valve in 2010.
He is a co-developer of the ‘Thoraflex Hybrid Frozen Elephant Trunk graft’ and performed the first post CE cetification implant in 2012.
He was also part of the surgical advisory team of the development of the Edwards Konect prefabricated Tissue Valved concduit.
He completed his cardiac surgery residency and obtained his PhD in Cardiac Surgery from Hannover Medical School, Germany. Before moving to the Mayo Clinic, he was Professor of cardiac surgery and Vice Chairman of the Department of Cardio-thoracic, Transplantation and Vascular Surgery at the Hanover Medical School, Germany.
His main interests are in the field of aortic surgery, especially, valve sparing aortic root replacements and total aortic arch replacement with frozen elephant trunk hybrid grafts as well as new iinovations in the field of Cardiac Surgery.
He had published more than 130 peer reviewed original publications in the international Journals. He has given over 170 invited presenations around the world, including the ‘ 2017 William Glenn memmorial Lecture’ at the Yale University, ‘ 2017 Visiting Professor lecture at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, the ‘Inaugural Barratt Boyles Visiting professor lecture at the Auckland Hospital in 2024’ in New Zealand and the “ 2024 Hilgenberg Lecture’ at the Mass general Hospital, Harvard University, Boston.
Affiliations:
Malakh Shrestha, MBBS, FRCS (Eng), PhD
Director of Mayo Clinic Aortic Center
Director of Aortic Surgery, Cardio Vascular Surgery
Professor of Surgery, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine & Science
The Mayo Clinic
Kisaburo Sakamoto MD
President of Shizuoka Children’s Hospital,
Consultant surgeon of the department of cardiovascular surgery
in Shizuoka Children’s Hospital in Japan
Domestic activity
#) Clinical professor of Kyoto University and Hamamatsu University
#) Part-time clinical professor of Shimane University (part-time)
#) Part-time clinical professor of Yamanashi University (part-time)
#) Vice-Director (former director) of Japanese Society of Pediatric Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery
#) Representative Director of Congenital Heart Surgeons Society Japan (CHSS-Japan)
#) President of Councils of Designated Teaching Institutions for Thoracic Surgery
#) Former Director of Japanese Association for Thoracic surgery
#) Former Director of Japanese Society for Cardiovascular Surgery
#) Former Director of Kansai Thoracic Surgical Association
International activity
#) Founding president of Asian Association for Pediatric and Cardiology Heart Surgery (AAPCHS)
#) Member of American Association for of Thoracic Surgery
#) Member of The Society of Thoracic Surgeons
#) Member of European Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgeons
#) Founding & Active Member (former council) of World Society for Pediatric and Congenital Heart Surgery(WSPCHS)
#) Member of Asian Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgeons
#) Honorary International Member of Indian Association for of Thoracic Surgery
「Personal history in Medical area」
1985.5〜 Resident of the department of cardiovascular surgery in Kyoto University in Japan
1987.1〜 Resident of the department of cardiovascular surgery in Shizuoka Children’s Hospital in Japan
1988.4〜Staff (like senior resident in USA) of the department of cardiovascular surgery in Shizuoka Children’s Hospital in Japan
1991.4〜 Staff surgeon of the department of cardiovascular surgery in Shizuoka Children’s Hospital in Japan
1995.9〜1997.2 Chef de clinic of the department of cardiovascular surgery in Strasburg University in France
1997.3〜1997.8 Chef de clinic of the department of pediatric cardiovascular surgery in Marie-lane long Hospital at Paris in France
1997.9〜 Consultant surgeon of the department of cardiovascular surgery in Shizuoka Children’s Hospital in Japan
2001.4〜 Director and Consultant surgeon of the department of cardiovascular surgery in Shizuoka Children’s Hospital in Japan
2007.4〜 Vice-president of Shizuoka Children’s Hospital,
Director of the cardiovascular center in Shizuoka Children’s Hospital,
and Consultant surgeon of the department of cardiovascular surgery
in Shizuoka Children’s Hospital in Japan
2017.4〜 President of Shizuoka Children’s Hospital,
Consultant surgeon of the department of cardiovascular surgery
in Shizuoka Children’s Hospital in Japan
Keita Kikuchi, M.D., Ph.D.
Professional Address: Xi’an Jiaotong University
(1st, APRIL,2025~) Professor, Department of Cardiovascular Surgery
Professional Address: Tokyo bay Urayasu Ichikawa medical center
（～31，MAR,2025） 3-4-32, Todaijima, Urayasu city,Chiba, Japan (279-0001)
CURRENT TITLES
Clinical Appointment
Tokyo bay Urayasu Ichikawa medical center
Coronary program director, Department of Cardiovascular Surgery
Xi’an Jiaotong University
Visiting Professor, Department of Cardiovascular Surgery
Yuuai medical center
Supervisor , Department of Cardiovascular Surgery,
EDUCATION
College/University:1985-1991 M.D.
St. Marianna University School of Medicine, Kanagawa, Japan
Graduate School of Medicine: 1993-1997 Ph.D.
St. Marianna University School of Medicine, Kanagawa, Japan
BACKGROUND
Residency: 1991-1993
Resident in General Surgery, St. Marianna University School of Medicine, Post-graduate Surgical training, Kanagawa, Japan,
Residency: 1993-1999
Resident in Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, St. Marianna University School of Medicine, Kanagawa, Japan
Fellowship: 1999-2000
Clinical Fellow in Adult Cardiac Surgery, Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Singapore National Heart Centre, Singapore
Residency: 2000-2005
Resident in Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, St. Marianna University School of Medicine, Kanagawa, Japan
Residency: 2005-2006
Resident in Department of Cardiothotacic Surgery, Shimane University Faculty of Medicine, Shimane, Japan
Residency: 2005-2011
Resident in Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, Juntendo University School of Medicine, Kanagawa, Japan
Residency: 2011-2016
Division of Cardiovascular Surgery, Yamato Seiwa Hospital, Kanagawa, Japan
Residency: 2016-2017
Department of Cardiac Surgery, Wuhan Asia Heart Hospital, Wuhan, China
Residency: 2018-
Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, Ichinomiya west Hospital, Japan
Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, Tomishiro central hospital, Okinawa, Japan
Residency: 2020-2022
Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, YuuAi medical center, Okinawa, Japan
(Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, Tomishiro central hospital, Okinawa, Japan)
(Tomishiro Central Hospital changed the name to YuuAi medical center in this August.)
Residency: 2020-present
Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, Tokyo bay Urayasu Ichikawa medical center, Chiba, Japan
Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, YuuAi medical center, Okinawa, Japan
Visiting Professor, Department of Cardiovascular Surgery
Xi’an Jiaotong University
MEDICAL LICENSURES
Medical Practitioner License in Japan #344001, 1991
SPECIALITY BOARDS
Fellow of the Japan Surgical Society # 380144, 1991
The Japanese Society for Cardiovascular Surgery International Member Board eligible, 642-3607,2005
The Japanese Society for Cardiovascular Surgery, Board certified Cardiovascular surgeon 5001182, 2002-2014, 2017-present
PROFESSIONAL AND SOCIETY MEMBERSHIPS
Japan Surgical Society, 1991-present
The Japanese Society for Cardiovascular Surgery, 1991-present
The Japanese Association for Thoracic Surgery, 1991-present
Japanese society for vascular surgery 2002-present
Japanese association for coronary artery Surgery 2002-present
The Japanese coronary association 2002-present
EACTS Active member
ISMICS Board of Director 、Active member
ASCVTS Active member
MICS (Minimally invasive coronary surgery) club, International faculty
Dr med Kalliopi Athanassiadi, MD, PhD, FEBTS
Senior Consultant Thoracic Surgeon
Kalliopi Athanassiadi was born in Athens in December 1964. She graduated from the German School of Athens and attended the Medical School of the University of Athens. She specialized in Thoracic Surgery in Greece and then went to centers in Germany and Canada. She was Head of the Thoracic Surgery Department of the Medical School of Hanover, Germany. In 2009 she returned to Greece and was appointed as senior consultant in Thoracic Surgery, initially at the General Hospital of Piraeus and then at the General Hospital “EVANGELISMOS”, where she remains until today being also president of the Association of the Scientific Staff. She was elected president of the Hellenic Society of Thoracic-Cardiac-Vascular Surgeons and actively participates in European Societies, has been Regent of Greece and member of the Council of the European Society of Thoracic Surgeons, member of the Thoracic Committee of the European Association of Cardiothoracic Surgery, co-founder of the European School (EACTS Academy), coordinator of the Thoracic Surgery Course, general secretary of the Thoracic Group of the European Respiratory Society, and the only Greek examiner in the European Examinations in Thoracic Surgery. Organizer of Greek and European conferences including the first organized workshop on Thoracoscopic Surgery in Greece. She has over 300 presentations and 150 Lectures in Greek and international conferences, participation in the writing of over 20 Greek and foreign language books and over 95 publications. Former active member of “Doctors of the World”, founding member of “Medical Intervention”. She speaks 7 foreign languages.
Joseph Woo
Joseph Woo, M.D. serves as the Norman E. Shumway Professor and Chair of the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery at Stanford University and holds a courtesy appointment in the Department of Bioengineering. He received his undergraduate degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania where he also conducted his postgraduate surgical training in general surgery and cardiothoracic surgery as well as a postdoctoral research fellowship developing novel molecular strategies for attenuating myocardial ischemic injury. Dr. Woo has an active clinical practice of over 300 pump cases/year focusing on complex mitral and aortic valve repair, thoracic aortic surgery, cardiopulmonary transplantation, and minimally-invasive surgery, and has advanced these fields by developing several innovative operations. Currently funded via two NIH R01 grants on which he serves as principal investigator, Dr. Woo leads a basic science research lab studying stem cells, angiogenesis, tissue engineering, and valvular biomechanics and has held continuous NIH funding since 2004. He has also served as PI for several clinical device trials as well as translational scientific clinical trials entailing administration of stem cells during coronary artery bypass grafting and LVAD implantation. He has co-authored over 440 peer-reviewed publications. He serves as the American Association for Thoracic Surgery Foundation Secretary and as immediate past-president of the AATS Cardiac Surgery Biology Club.
John Andrew Ma Yam, MD
INTERESTS
EDUCATION
PROFESSIONAL TRAINING
HONORS / AWARDS
MEMBERSHIPS / AFFILIATIONS
Jia Hu M.D, Ph.D
Professor, Supervisor of PhD Candidates
Director of Aortic Surgery, Deputy Director of the Department of Cardiovascular Surgery of West China Hospital, China
Prof. Hu focused on open, hybrid and endovascular treatment for complex aortic diseases (aneurysm & dissection), minimal invasive surgery for heart valvular diseases and coronary artery diseases. A series of research results have been published in high impact factor peer-reviewed journals, including EHJ, JACC, Circulation, IJS, JVS, JTCVS, EJVES, ATS and JET.
Dr Jang Ming, Lee M.D Ph.D
Graduated from Medical School, and acquiring his PhD degree in the Medical Research Institute in National Taiwan University, Prof. Lee is currently the Professor of Surgery in the National Taiwan University Hospital (NTUH) and has been the chief of Thoracic Surgical Department of the NTUH between 2011 and 2017. He is one of the important pioneers in the development of minimal invasive surgery in thoracic and esophageal space in Asia. He possesses comprehensive understanding of both surgery development and medical environment of Taiwan. He is deeply devoted in development and education of minimally invasive thoracic surgery especially in the complex procedures including minimally invasive esophagectomy, robotic surgery or endoscopic surgery of the esophagus. Elected as president of Asia Thoracoscopic Education Platform (ATEP) (2018-2022) and Taiwan Association of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery (2017-2019), he voices for the society to the government sector, policy makers, the patients and other healthcare stakeholders and led the education of study for surgery in Taiwan. He also actively participates in the editorial or review board in many distinguished international medical journals and has published more than 150 scientific papers.
Specialty: Esophageal cancer, Lung cancer, Robotic-assisted Surgery, VATS
Jai Sule
Dr Jai Sule is a consultant cardiac and aortic surgeon at the National University Heart Centre, Singapore, having graduated from the National University of Singapore. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh with special interests in modern aortic surgery, arrhythmia surgery and minimally invasive cardiac surgery techniques. He is part of the institution’s aortic surgery team in enhancing the management and follow up of acute aortic syndromes.
Igor E. Konstantinov
Professor Igor E. Konstantinov, MD, PhD, FRACS is Consultant Cardiothoracic Surgeon at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne, Australia. He is Professor at the University of Melbourne and Director of Melbourne Centre for Cardiovascular Genomics and Regenerative Medicine. Dr. Konstantinov graduated from the Military Medical Academy in St. Petersburg, Russia in 1992 and obtained his PhD from the University of Toronto in Toronto, Canada in 2004. He has published 495 peer-reviewed articles and several book chapters. Dr. Konstantinov is a member of the American Association for Thoracic Surgery, a Feature Editor of the Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery and an Associate Editor of the Operative Techniques in Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery. In 2021, he received the the Order of Australia Award for his outstanding contribution to academic cardiovascular surgery.
Husam Balkhy
Dr. Balkhy is Professor of Surgery and Director of Robotic and Minimally Invasive Cardiac Surgery at the University of Chicago Medicine. He received his Cardiothoracic and Vascular surgery training at Tufts New England Medical Center and the Lahey Clinic in Boston, MA. He was Chairman of Cardiac Surgery at the Wisconsin Heart Hospital in Milwaukee, WI prior to moving to the University of Chicago in July 2013.
Dr Balkhy runs a unique multi-spectrum robotic cardiac surgery program at the University of Chicago and is considered a pioneer of robotic cardiac surgery having performed over 2500 cases as of 2024. He has the largest series of robotic totally endoscopic coronary bypass operations in the world (over 1200 cases), a large robotic intracardiac and mitral valve experience as well as the world’s largest clinical experience with coronary anastomotic devices. With well over 100 peer-reviewed publications and book chapters, he is a frequently sought after speaker and proctor worldwide and has trained many surgeons both nationally and internationally on robotic cardiac surgical techniques. He is currently the President of the International Society of Minimally Invasive Cardiothoracic Surgery (ISMICS) 2024-2025 and serves as a Governor of American College of Surgeons. He also sits on the Board of the Society of Robotic Surgery (SRS) and is on the Steering committee of the Endoscopic Cardiac Surgery Club (ECSC).
Ho Kay Woon
I am a senior consultant cardiologist in National Heart Centre, Singapore. My area of specialization is in Cardiology with special interest in Interventional Cardiology and Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation. I participate actively in Medical Education and hold the role of Education Vice Chairman in National Heart Centre Singapore. My areas of research interests are in Interventional Cardiology and Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation.
Hirofumi Takemura, M.D., Ph.D. MBA
Present Academic position: Professor and Chair, Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, Kanazawa University School of Medicine
Research and Professional experiences
1985 Graduated from Kanazawa University (M.D. 1985)
1985-1986 Kanazawa University Hospital
1986-1988 Yokohama Sakae Kyosai Hospital
1988-1989 Fukui Cardiovascular Center
1989-1991 Kanazawa University Hospital
1991-1992 National Kanazawa Hospital
1992-1998 Kanazawa University Hospital (Ph.D. 1993)
1998-2000 Green Lane Hospital, Auckland, New Zealand
2001-2013 Kanazawa University Hospital (Assistant Professor)
2003-2015 Gifu University (Professor & Chair)
2015-present Kanazawa University (Professor and Chair)
2016-2022 Vice Director, Kanazawa University Hospital
2020-2022 Director, Kanazawa University Health Service Center
2022-2024 Anglia Ruskin University (UK), MBA
Interest
OPCAB, Aortic arch operation, Mitral valve repair, Graft evaluation, VSP operation, Endoscopic cardiac operation
Organization
AATS, STS, EACTS, ASCVTS, JATS, JACAS, JSCVS, JCS, JCA, JSS
Hermann Reichenspurner
Hermann Reichenspurner went to Medical School in Munich, Germany. In 1985 he started his training as a resident in the Department of Cardiac Surgery at the University Hospital in Munich. In 1987 he joined the Department of Cardiothoracic surgery at the University of Cape Town, South Africa as a registrar. In 1989 he went back to Munich to finish his training first in general surgery followed by a three-year additional training in cardiac surgery. In 1994 he started as a fellow of cardiothoracic transplantation at the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Stanford University, USA. In 1996 he got a position as Assistant Professor at the University Heart Center in Dresden, Germany. In 1997 he was appointed Associate Professor at the Department of Cardiac Surgery, University Hospital Munich-Grosshadern. In 2001 he was appointed full Professor and Chairman of the Department of Cardiovascular Surgery at the University Hospital Hamburg-Eppendorf. In 2005 he took over the position as Chair of the newly founded University Heart Center Hamburg. He served as President of the International Soci ety for Minimally Invasive Cardiothoracic Surgery from 2001 to 2002, as President of the International Society for Heart and Lung transplantation from 2014 to 2015 and as Chancellor of the World Society of Cardiothoracic Surgery since 2023. He received his MD degree in 1985 at the University of Munich and his PhD degree at University of Cape Town in 1992.
Hans-Joachim Schäfers
Prof. Dr. med. Hans-Joachim Schäfers completed his surgical and cardiovascular surgical training at the Hannover Medical School and a fellowship in thoracic surgery at the Toronto General Hospital, University of Toronto, with a specific focus on lung transplantation. He then joined the staff at the Hannover Medical School.
In 1995, he was appointed as chief and Professor of Surgery at the Saarland University Medical Center; he served in this position until he retired from it in December 2023. Currently, he is Professor emeritus at the Saarland University. He is affiliated with the University Hospital Quironsalud in Madrid and the Westpfalz Klinikum in Kaiserslautern. He has been visiting professor at the Universities of Tel Aviv (Israel) and Malaga (Spain).
Prof. Schäfers is member of many national and international scientific societies. He has served as reviewer for numerous scientific journals; he has published 5 books and more than 580 articles in scientific journals as author or coauthor. He has received national and international recognition for his achievements in lung transplantation. In the past decades, his focus areas have included aortic surgery and pulmonary endarterectomy, and he is widely recognized for his contributions to aortic valve repair.
More information coming soon…
Adjunct Associate Professor Glenn Wei Leong Tan
MBChB, FRCS (Glasg), MMed (Surgery), FRCSEd (Gen Surg)
Divisional Chairman (Surgery)
Head, Department of General Surgery
Head of Service, Vascular and Endovascular Surgery
Senior Consultant
Tan Tock Seng Hospital, Singapore
Dr Glenn Tan completed his training in General Surgery in 2010, where he was conferred the Gold Medal from the College of Surgeons, Singapore, following completion of the Joint Specialty Fellowship Examination in General Surgery and admitted as a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh.
His sub-specialty interest in Vascular Surgery lies in Complex Endovascular Aortic Aneurysm Repair including Fenestrated and Branched Endografts in the Aortic Arch, Thoraco-abdominal and Juxtarenal aorta.
He has an active interest in both undergraduate and postgraduate medical education and is Adjunct Associate Professor with the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, Nanyang Technological University where he was formerly Principal Lead for Surgery. He also serves as a Member of the Joint Committee for Specialist Training (JCST) General Surgery Examination Committee and is Co-Chief Examiner for the Joint Specialty Fellowship Exit Examination for General Surgery in Singapore.
Giles Peek
Giles Peek, FELSO, is Professor of Surgery & Pediatrics at the University of Florida. He has been fascinated by ECMO since 1994. His thesis investigated the use of different biomaterials during extracorporeal life support. He served as PI of the CESAR trial, on the ELSO steering committee (1999-2019), as the inaugural chair of EuroELSO (2011-2014) and is a member of the ELSO Guidelines and Membership Sub-Committee, and the neonatal and pediatric Foundations Development Group. He is married with three children and three grandchildren. For relaxation he enjoys ascending and descending mountains.
Gilbert H. L. Tang, MD, MSc, MBA, FRCSC, FACC, FSCAI
Surgical and Academic Director, Structural Heart Program
Director, Mitral and Tricuspid Structural Interventions
Mount Sinai Health System
Professor and Vice Chair of Innovation, Department of Cardiovascular Surgery
Professor, Department of Medicine / Cardiology Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
As an interventional surgeon, Dr. Tang has performed >5000 structural heart interventions (including >700 mitral and tricuspid procedures) and is a world expert in the lifetime management after TAVR (redo TAVR and TAVR explant), transcatheter mitral and tricuspid interventions, and 3D intracardiac echo. Dr. Tang has pioneered several techniques in TAVR (cusp overlap, commissural alignment) that have become the standard practice. He serves on committees in the Heart Valve Collaboratory, PCR, CRF meetings and several clinical trials, and is the Principal Investigator in the global EXPLANT-TAVR, EXPLANTORREDO-TAVR, and CUTTING-EDGE registries. Dr. Tang is the Editor-in-Chief for JACC Case Reports, a 4-time recipient of the Simon Dack Award for JACC, a FRCSC, FACC and the first surgeon to be a FSCAI, as well as a member of the AATS, STS and AHA. He has published >250 articles, lectured and trained many heart teams around the world, owns a YouTube channel and has >21,000 followers on X and Linkedin. Dr. Tang obtained his BA from Harvard University and MD from University of Toronto. Dr. Tang completed his cardiac surgery residency training at the University of Toronto and also a Masters of Science there and an MBA at Harvard.During his spare time he enjoys spending it with his lovely wife Lydia and his 2 boys: Alexander, aged 8 and Julian, aged 5.
Geetha Kayambu
Dr Geetha Kayambu is a principal physiotherapist and specialises in cardiac critical care at the National University Hospital. She obtained her PhD at School of Medicine, University of Queensland in 2015 from Australia and was awarded the NUHS Allied Health Excellence Award in 2023. She has served as a clinician for 20 years and as Director of Research for the Department of Rehabilitation from 2015-2019. She has been instrumental in critical care preceptorship, promoting research interest amongst physiotherapists, overseeing the direction of potentially high-impact research in physiotherapy and motivates local and overseas research collaborations. She has authored and peer reviewed several publications and been invited as speaker at national and international conferences and webinars. She mentors staff clinically, in research and supervises students in cardiothoracic critical care units. Her research interests include novel rehabilitation in intensive care, cardiac and thoracic prehabilitation, point of care ultrasound adjunct to physiotherapy and early mobilisation of critically ill patients.
Gavin Ng
Dr Gavin Ng is presently a Consultant with the Department of Cardiology, National University Heart Centre Singapore (NUHCS) and Clinical Assistant Professor of the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore. He is the Clinical Director of Interventional Cardiology and Angiography Centre, NUHCS.
Dr. Ng completed Internal Medicine Residency NUHS in 2014 and Cardiology Senior Residency, National University Heart Centre, Singapore (NUHCS) in 2017. His subspecialty interest is in interventional cardiology. He underwent further training in Barts Heart Centre in 2022, focusing on treating severe coronary artery disease and chronic total occlusion lesions.
During procedures, he is a strong advocate for patient comfort and ultrasound use in obtaining vascular access. He is well versed in all aspects of calcium modification techniques and promotes routine use of imaging and physiology for all his procedures.
He currently performs coronary interventions in National University Hospital and in Ng Teng Fong General Hospital (NTFGH).
He is active in undergraduate and postgraduate medical education and has received multiple teaching awards. He is also a core faculty member of the Cardiology Senior Residency Programme.
Francis Joseph C. Belmonte
Dr Francis Joseph C. Belmonte is a fully-trained cardiac and vascular surgeon. He is board-certified in cardiac and vascular surgery by the Philippine Board of Thoracic Cardiac and Vascular Surgery and a fellow of the Philippine Association of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgeons, Incorporated.
Upon graduating from the University of Santo Tomas Faculty of Medicine and Surgery in 2009, he went to the University of Santo Tomas Hospital for his training in general surgery, which he completed in 2015. He is also a diplomate of the Philippine Board of Surgery.
He then pursued further training in cardiac and vascular surgery at the Philippine Heart Center which he completed in 2020. He practices both cardiac and vascular, with special interest in
open aortic and peripheral arterial interventions. He is currently a member of the active staff in the Philippine Heart Center and serves as training coordinator for the Division of Vascular and Endovascular Surgery. He is also affiliated at St. Luke’s Medical Center (Global City and
Quezon City), UST Hospital and Cardinal Santos Medical Center.
Filip P. Casselman MD PhD FETCS
Filip P. Casselman MD PhD FETCS has been trained in General and Cardiac Surgery at the University of Leuven, Belgium (1991-1997). He continued his training with a fellowship at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation (1997-1998) and at the St Antonius Hospital in Nieuwegein, The Netherlands (1999-2000). During these fellowships he completed a PhD thesis at the University of Utecht.
Since 2003 he is a staff surgeon in the department of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery at the OLV Clinic in Aalst, Belgium. His interests include minimally invasive cardiac surgery (including robotics, videoscopic surgery, percutaneous valve technology, …), aortic and mitral valve reconstructive surgery and atrial fibrillation surgery. He is actively involved in clinical research which led to over 160 scientific publications and more than 310 international presentations. He is a member of the Belgian Association of Cardio-Thoracic Surgery, the European Association of Cardio-Thoracic Surgery, the International Society of Minimally invasive Cardiac Surgery, the Society of Thoracic Surgeons and the American Association of Thoracic Surgery.
He serves as the co-director of the Heart Center OLV Clinic Aalst, Belgium since 2021.
He is the current Chair of the Acquired Domain within EACTS and member of the EACTS Council.
Fang Wentao
Chief Director, Department of Thoracic Surgery, Shanghai East Hospital, Tong Ji University Medical School
IASLC member
Staging and Prognostic Factor Group
Member, Data Quality Committee
Chair, Thymic tumor Subcommittee, M factor subcommittee
Multidisciplinary Clinical Science Committee member
ITMIG member
Chair, Education Committee
ISDE member
AATS member
EACTS member, Thoracic Domain Committee member
ASCVTS member, Thoracic Domain Executive member
Fan Yue Yan
Dr Katherine Fan is currently the Consultant Cardiologist in Cardiac Medical Unit, Grantham Hospital in Hong Kong. She graduated from University of Dundee, Scotland in 1990. After receiving her medical residency training in Scotland, she returned to Hong Kong and started her cardiology training in Grantham Hospital. She underwent Cardiac Fellowship training in Cardiac Electrophysiology in Stanford University Medical Center in 1996. Her specialty interests are cardiomyopathy, advanced heart failure (including device therapy, Cardiac Transplantation and Mechanical Circulatory Support), and cardiac arrhythmias management including atrial fibrillation and ventricular tachyarrhythmias.
Faisal Bakaeen, MD
Faisal Bakaeen, MD, is Professor of Surgery at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine and the Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum Distinguished Chair in the Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery. He serves as the Surgical Director of the Coronary Center at the Heart Vascular and Thoracic Institute, Cleveland Clinic.
Previously, Dr. Bakaeen was the Chief of Cardiothoracic Surgery at the Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center, Baylor College of Medicine, and the Chair of the VA Surgical Quality Data Use Group and a member of the Surgical Advisory Board that oversaw the clinical operations at all 44 VA cardiac surgery centers.
Dr. Bakaeen earned his medical degree from the University of Cambridge School of Medicine, Cambridge, UK. He completed residency in general surgery at Mayo Clinic followed by a cardiothoracic surgery fellowship at Baylor College of Medicine.
Dr. Bakaeen runs a busy clinical practice and has performed over 5000 cardiac surgeries. His areas of expertise include multi-arterial and minimally invasive coronary artery bypass grafting in addition to complex valve and aortic surgery. He is the recipient of the Distinguished Service Award and the Fulbright Jaworski Faculty Excellence in Teaching Award from Baylor College of Medicine. He has over 340 publications and is an active member of multiple editorial boards. He has served in leadership positions of numerous high-profile trials including ROOBY, REGROUP, and EXACT and chaired and co-authored multiple professional clinical practice guidelines.
Dr. Bakaeen is a member of the American Surgical Association; served as Treasurer and President of the Association of VA Surgeons; Chair of Society of Thoracic Surgeons Workforce on Evidence Based Surgery; Co-Chair of the American Association for Thoracic Surgery Clinical Practice and Standards Committee; and Councilor of the Southern Thoracic Surgical Association.
Prof. Dr. med. Evaldas Girdauskas
Current Position
| Since 01/2021 | Director Cardiothoracic Surgery, University Hospital Augsburg / Full-Professor (W3) University Augsburg |
Academic Career / Positions held
| 2017 – 2020 | Full-Professor (W2) / Co-Director / Senior Managing Physician
University Heart and Vascular Center Hamburg, UKE, Hamburg, Germany |
| 2016 – 2020 | Program Director “minimally invasive valve surgery”
University Heart and Vascular Center Hamburg, UKE, Hamburg, Germany |
| 2014 – 2015 | Co-Director – Department of Cardiac Surgery, Central Hospital Bad Berka, Germany |
| 2009 – 2013 | Consultant – Department of Cardiac Surgery, Central Hospital Bad Berka, Germany |
| 2003 – 2008 | Resident (Department of Cardiac Surgery, University Heart Center Leipzig, Germany |
| 2002 | Approbation Graduation (Staatsexamen) in Medicine, grade: „sehr gut“ (A) |
| 1996 – 2002 | Kaunas University of Medicine, Lithuania |
| 2000 – 2001 | University of Leipzig, Germany (ERASMUS program) |
| 1996 | High school Graduation, High school Kaunas, Lithuania |
Scientific Career
| 2002 – 2003 | Research-Fellowship (DAAD)
1-year full-time experimental research, University Heart Center Leipzig |
| 2008 | Promotion in Medicine, University Leipzig, Grade: „summa cum laude“ |
| 2013 | Habilitation and Venia Legendi
Cardiac Surgery, granted by the Medical Faculty of University Leipzig |
| 2016 | Research Fellowship (Cleveland Clinic Foundation) |
Fellowships/ Scholarships
| 2016 | Visiting Professor, National University Hospital (NUH) Singapore |
| 2017 | Travel-Scholarship, Hospital Sancta Maggiore, Sao Paulo, Brazil |
| 2016 | Academic Fellowship, AATS Graham Foundation, Cleveland Clinic, USA |
| 2016 | Travel-Scholarship, TSI Lab, University of San Francisco, UCSF |
| 2014 | Travel-Scholarship, Leiden University Medical Center, Netherlands |
Scientific Awards / Prizes
| 2019 | Hans Georg Borst Award of the German Society of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery (DGTHG), awarded at the Annual Conference, Wiesbaden |
| 2019 | Innovation-Award 2019 of the G-BA “Innovationsfonds – neue Versorgungsformen” |
| 2019 | Best Scientific Paper Presentation Award of the European Society of Cardiothoracic Surgery (EACTS), awarded at the Aortic Valve Repair Summit, Paris |
| 2017 | Poster Prize of the International Society of Minimally Invasive Cardiac Surgery (ISMICS), awarded at the Annual meeting, Rome |
| 2015 | AATS Graham Foundation Award, awarded at the Annual meeting, Boston |
Eduard Quintana MD PhD
Eduard Quintana MD PhD trained in cardiovascular surgery at Hospital Clinic Barcelona and at the Mayo Clinic Rochester MN. He is a consultant cardiovascular surgeon and associate professor of surgery at the University of Barcelona Medical School – Hospital Clinic. He is a teacher and coordinator in the Biomedical Engineering Degree at the University of Barcelona.
He has been a board member of the EACTS Vascular Domain, chair of the aortic dissection task force and member of the cerebral protection task force. He is a board member of the EACTS Francis Fontan Fund Fellowship. He is currently a member of the EACTS Clinical Guidelines Committee. Dr. Quintana is a board member and the secretary of the European Board for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery.
He has been a coauthor of the 2024 EACTS/STS Organ aorta guidelines and the 2023 ESC Guidelines for the management of endocarditis. He is a member of the international advisory board for the Asian Cardiovascular & Thoracic Annals and for the Indian Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery.
His clinical interest focus on diseases of the aorta, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, infective endocarditis, critical care and education in cardiovascular surgery.
Duke Cameron
Dr Duke Cameron is a graduate of Harvard College and Yale Medical School. He completed his general surgery training at Yale-New Haven Hospital and his cardiothoracic fellowship at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. After his training, he remained on the faculty at John Hopkins, and rose to the rank of Professor and Cardiac Surgeon-in-Charge, as well as the Director of the Dana and Albert “Cubby” Broccoli Center for Aortic Diseases. He joined the staff at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston in 2017, where he focused on surgery for aortic and adult congenital disease. He recently returned to Johns Hopkins to resume directorship of the Broccoli Center for Aortic Disease. He has a longstanding interest in aortic surgery for Marfan syndrome, Loeys-Dietz syndrome and other connective tissue disorders. He has edited several textbooks of adult and pediatric cardiac surgery and authored nearly 300 peer reviewed papers. He is a past-president of the American Association for Thoracic Surgery.
Deo Alice
Deo Alice is a distinguished Nurse Clinician at the National University Heart Centre, Singapore (NUHCS), part of the National University Hospital (NUH). With a specialization in Cardiothoracic Intensive Care nursing, Alice has established herself as an expert in the management of patients on Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO).
As a key facilitator of the annual ECMO workshop at NUHCS, Alice plays a crucial role in advancing professional development in this critical area. Her commitment to inter-professional education is evident through her instrumental work in training nurses in ECMO management using innovative simulation techniques.
Beyond her clinical expertise, Alice is a dedicated educator. She serves as a Clinical Nursing Facilitator (CNF) for the Graduate Certificate in Critical Care Nursing program at the National University of Singapore (NUS), further cementing her position as a leader in nursing education and critical care.
With her wealth of experience and passion for both patient care and professional development, Deo Alice brings valuable insights to the field of Cardiothoracic Intensive Care Nursing.
David Pacini
Dr Davide Pacini graduated from the University of Bologna in 1993. He completed Cardiac surgery residency training at the same University in 1998. Since 2000, he was a staff surgeon of the Cardiac Surgery Department at the S.Orsola-Malpighi Hospital in Bologna and in 2018 he become Director in the same Department. He is mainly interested in cardiac and aortic surgery as well as heart transplantation. In 1998, he was recipient of the “C. Walton Lillehei giovani laureati” Award. In 2009, he was recipient of the “Hans Borst Award”. He was Councilor of the Italian Society of Cardiac Surgery and Chair of the Vascular Domain of the European Association for Cardiothoracic Surgery. He serves on the Workforces on New technologies and on International relationships of the Society of Thoracic Surgeon. He is the author or co-author of over 300 scientific papers. He is Full Professor of Cardiac Surgery at the Alma mater Studiorum, University of Bologna and Director of Cardiac Surgery Recidency Program. He is active member of the Italian Society of Cardiac Surgery, European Association of Cardiothoracic Surgery (EACTS), the Society of Thoracic Surgeon and the American Association for Thoracic Surgery. He serves on several editorial boards and he is also reviewer of many scientific journals.
Dr Daniel Chan Tai-Leung
After obtaining Fellowship in Cardiothoracic Surgery of the College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in 2009, he pursues advance training in minimally invasive cardiac surgery in East Carolina University, USA, under the guidance of Prof. Randolph Chitwood. He has performed many first in Asia and Hong Kong procedures including off pump beating heart NeoChord procedure, Convergent hybrid ablation, TAVI for aortic regurgitation with J-valve, transcatheter tricuspid valve replacement with LuX valve, etc. He is also a clinical proctor of several companies and reviewer of several major journals.
Chun Soo Park
My name is Chun Soo Park, and I am a pediatric cardiac surgeon currently working at Asan Medical Center in Seoul, South Korea. I graduated from Seoul National University College of Medicine and completed my residency training at Seoul National University Hospital.
Since beginning my practice in 2009, I have been actively working as a pediatric cardiac surgeon. In 2016, I had the privilege of spending a year as a visiting researcher at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital under the mentorship of the late Dr. Jim Tweddell. During this time, I participated in research involving single ventricle animal models and CorMatrix valve animal experiments. Additionally, I contributed to the pediatric cardiac surgery textbook, collaborating on the chapter about hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS), and conducted research utilizing UNOS data.
Recently, my primary clinical and research interests have centered on left heart disease, Ebstein anomaly, coronary anomalies, and single ventricle physiology. I am also deeply interested in perfusion strategies aimed at optimizing organ protection during pediatric cardiac surgeries.
I sincerely hope that our Asian academic conference continues to grow and establish itself as a global benchmark, and I will do my best to contribute to this development.
Professor NG Sze Hang Calvin 吳士衡
Environmental Foundation Professor of Thoracic Surgery
BSc (Hons), MBBS (Imperial), MD (Res) (Lond), FRCSEd, FCSHK, FHKAM (Surgery)
Biography
Byung Moon
Senior Staff Cardiac Surgeon
Former Chief / Medical Director of Cardiac Centre
2003- present
Division of Cardiac Surgery
Southlake Regional Health Centre
30 Prospect Street, Suite 300,
Newmarket, Ontario L3Y 3S9
Canada
Tel: 905-898-7777
Fax: 905-898-0880
Adjunct Associate Professor of Surgery
2003-present
Department of Surgery
University of Toronto
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Director of Heart Institute
Cha Hospital
Bundang, Korea
2014-2015
Staff Surgeon: Associate Professor in Surgery
Division of Cardiovascular Surgery,
London Health Sciences Centre
University of Western Ontario,
London, Ontario, Canada
(Aug. 1992 – Sep. 2003)
Educations:
Queen’s University Medical School,
Kingston, Ont. Canada
(1982)
General Surgery Internship & Residency,
Queen’s University, Kingston, Canada
(1982-88)
Research Fellowship in Trauma,
Queen’s University, Kingston, Canada
(1984-85)
Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery Residency,
University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
(1988-90)
Fellowship in Adult Cardiac Surgery,
University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
(Supervisor: Dr. Tirone David)
(1990-1992)
Fellowship in Surgical Ethics.
University of Toronto
(Supervisor: Dr. Martin McKneally)
(Oct. 2015)
Medical Licence:
Licentiate of the Medical Council of Canada (LMCC) 1982
Fellow in General Surgery (FRCSC) 1988
The Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada
Fellow in Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery (FRCSC) 1991
The Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada
(ABTS: Board Eligible)
Medical Licentiate of Republic of Korea (1993)
Fellow of Korean Society for Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery
(1995)
Professional Membership:
Current Area of Clinical Interests and Concentrations:
Area of Innovative Technology:
Bob Kiaii, BSc, MD, FRCSC, FACS
Dr. Bob Kiaii is a Professor in the Department of Surgery and in the Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery at the University of California Davis in Sacramento, California, USA. He is the past President of the International Society of Minimally Invasive Cardiothoracic Surgery.
Dr. Kiaii was a Professor in the Department of Surgery and Chair of the Division of Cardiac Surgery at the Schulich School of Medicine and Director of the Minimally Invasive and Robotic Cardiac Surgery Program at the London Health Sciences Centre at Western University in London, Ontario. He was the endow Chair of the Ray and Margaret Chair of Surgical Innovation at Western University in London, Ontario.
Research Applications
He was one of the founding members of Canadian Surgical Advanced Technology and Robotics (CSTAR) of the Lawson Health Research Institute. Dr. Kiaii is one of the most experienced minimally invasive and robotic cardiac surgeons nationally and internationally and received a Canadian Foundation for Innovation New Opportunities Fund Grant, which allowed him to do the research for performing simultaneous integrated coronary artery revascularization. Dr. Kiaii was the site principal investigator of numerous grants and multi-center clinical Trials studying the effectiveness of different transcatheter valves in the treatment of aortic valve stenosis.
Notable Achievements
Dr. Kiaii has performed ground-breaking minimally invasive and robotic-assisted cardiac surgical procedures including the first North American simultaneous integrated coronary artery revascularization procedure on September 1, 2004. He also performed the first Canadian totally endoscopic coronary artery bypass grafting on the beating heart using the da Vinci® Robotic System, the first Canadian robotic-assisted multi-vessel coronary artery bypass, and the world’s first robotic-assisted left atrial appendage ligation for atrial fibrillation. In 2011, Dr. Kiaii performed the world’s first aortic valve bypass using the Correx apical conduit and the world’s first repair of a perforation of the right atrium using the da Vinci® Robotic System. In 2014 and 2015, he was part of the heart team that utilized a novel self-expanding transcatheter heart valve (Symetis Accurate Valve) for the first time in North America. In 2018, he performed the world’s first Robotic-assisted aortic valve replacement for aortic valve stenosis. In 2020 he developed the minimally invasive and robotic cardiac surgery program in Sacramento and the team performed the first robotic mitral valve procedure in Northern California.
He has served on numerous scientific advisory boards and is a regular reviewer of grant submissions and journal articles as an expert in the field of minimally invasive surgery. His bibliography includes 10 book chapters, 204 peer-reviewed papers, 146 published abstracts, and more than 200 guest lectures.
Bijoy G Rajbanshi
| Job Title: | Principal Consultant Cardiac Surgeon and Head |
| Organization: | Department of Cardio Vascular and Thoracic Surgery
Nepal Mediciti, Sainbu, Bhainsipati, Lalitpur Nepal |
| Major Field: | Adult Cardiac Surgery, Aortic and Endovascular Surgery |
| Education: | Medical School from Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College, India.
Residency in Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery from BSM Medical University and National Institute, Dhaka, Bangladesh. Clinical Fellowship in Cardiac Surgery at Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, USA. Advanced Clinical Fellowship in Adult Cardiac Surgery at Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut USA. |
| Short Bio: | Dr Bijoy G Rajbanshi is a Cardiovascular Surgeon and is the Principal Consultant and Head, Department of Cardio Vascular and Thoracic Surgery at Nepal Mediciti in Lalitpur, Nepal.
He has a work experience of over 20 years. He has written multiple publications in International and National journals including chapters in textbook related to Cardiovascular surgery. He is the Immediate Past President, Cardiac Society of Nepal which is the largest organization of medical professionals that are involved with cardiovascular diseases in the country. He was previously the Vice President of Asia Pacific Society of Cardiology. At present, he serves as a Council Member for Association of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgeons of Asia and Extra Corporeal Life Support (ELSO) – SWAAC Chapter. |
Bashi Velayudhan
Chairman, Aortic Aneurysm Centre, Director, Institute for Cardiac & Aortic Disorders [ICAD], Senior Consultant Cardiothoracic & Vascular Surgeon
SIMS (SRM Institute for Medical Sciences) Hospital, Chennai
Adjunct Professor, MGR Medical University, Chennai
Former Professor of Cardiothoracic Surgery, CMC, Vellore
51st President – IACTS (Indian Association of Cardiovascular – Thoracic Surgeons)
Dr. Bashi was born in Kalady, Ernakulam Distict, in the state of Kerala. He passed his M.B.B.S in 1975 as the best outgoing student and held distinctions in many subjects. He was the President of the Student Council during his studies. He passed his M.S General surgery in 1980 from Trivandrum Medical College with distinction. He later joined the Christian Medical College (CMC), Vellore, for training in cardio-thoracic surgery and received his M.Ch degree (Master of Surgery) in Cardiothoracic surgery in 1983, where he worked till 1992. He used to do right thoracotomy for ASD closure and Mitral valve surgeries as early as 1987. In 1992, he became the youngest professor at CMC, Vellore. During the tenure at CMC, he was involved in many research projects and was co-investigator in a DST (Department of Science and Technology) project on anti-coagulation after valve replacement. He has published many landmark papers during his time along with Professor Stanley John. Dr. Bashi contributed to the development of the department by training three postgraduate students every year for cardiac surgery.
In between his term in CMC, he worked as Senior Registrar during 1987-90 at the Royal Adelaide Hospital in South Australia where he got expertise in coronary bypass surgery.
He came to Chennai in 1992 and worked at the Madras Medical Mission (MMM), as a Senior Consultant for 4 years. In 1996, Dr. Bashi joined as Clinical Director and Chief Surgeon at Malar Heart Foundation, Chennai and worked till 2002. During this period, he popularized beating heart surgery.
In 2002, he joined as the Chairman and Chief Cardiothoracic surgeon at MIOT hospitals. He has attended many International meetings as a Faculty and took part in many symposias and has presented many papers. Dr. Bashi has traveled to many centres and delivered invited and guest lectures in USA, UK, Germany, Japan, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam, Australia, and Sri Lanka. He has been conducting live surgical workshop in aortic surgery in Chennai along with many international experts for nearly two decades.
SURGICAL EXPERIENCE
MEMBERSHIPS & PUBLICATIONS
AWARDS
Dr Avenilo L. Aventura Jr.
BACKGROUND
OTHER INTERESTS
ADDITIONAL EDUCATIONAL INFORMATION
Arjang Ruhparwar, MD
Arjang Ruhparwar graduated in 1994 as a medical doctor at the University of Cologne, Germany. He spent two years at Indiana University and completed his training in cardiac surgery at Hannover Medical School in 2004. Moving to the University of Heidelberg in 2006, he was Head of the Transplantation and Mechanical Circulatory Support program and later he became Vice-Chairman of the Department of Cardiac Surgery. In 2019, he became Chairman of the Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery at the University of Duisburg/Essen, Germany. Since April 2023, he is the Head of the Department of Cardiothoracic, Transplantation and Vascular Surgery at Hannover Medical School. His main interests are Aortic surgery, Mechanical support systems, Heart transplantation, Tissue Engineering, and Regenerative therapy and Nano technology.
Anson Cheung, MD, FRCSC
Cardiovascular Surgeon
Surgical Director, Cardiac Transplantation
Clinical Professor of Surgery – University of British Columbia
Vancouver, British Columbia
Dr. Anson Cheung is the Director of Cardiac Transplantation of B.C. and Clinical Professor of Surgery with the University of British Columbia, Department of Surgery, Division of Cardiovascular Surgery. Practicing since 2000, he is currently on staff at St. Paul’s Hospital and Vancouver General Hospital. He is a graduate of the University of Manitoba with post-graduate work at Stanford University, University of Western Ontario and the University of Pittsburgh. He joined the academic staff at UBC in 2001 and St. Paul’s Hospital in 2000. His specialties include cardiac transplant surgery, mechanical circulatory assist devices, transcatheter valve therapy and off-pump coronary artery bypass grafting (OPCABG). Dr. Cheung has established the VAD (Ventricular Assist Device) Program at St. Paul’s Hospital which is the first VAD program in Western Canada. He is also a leader in transcatheter valve therapy. He is currently involved in numerous research projects along with other works in progress. He was also the recipient of the Department of Surgery Concept Awards in 2003 as well as the International Society of Minimally Invasive Cardiac Surgery President’s Award in 2010 and 2015. He continues to foster cardiac surgical education by participating in numerous symposiums and post-graduate courses worldwide.
Alistair Royse
Alistair is a professor at the University of Melbourne and the Royal Melbourne Hospital in Australia. He is a pioneer in the use of total arterial coronary revascularisation and has published widely on survival outcomes and techniques, particularly the use of the radial artery. He’s also involved in many other aspects of adult cardiac surgery and is involved in numerous multicenter international trials covering a diverse range of topics, including blood utilisation, coronary bypass trials, antibiotics, anticoagulant or antiplatelet therapies, and multiple atrial fibrillation-related trials.
Additionally, he is active in the use and education of clinical ultrasound and online education, where 18,000 students are concurrently enrolled on their platform.
Akio Ikai
I am Dr. Akio Ikai, a pediatric cardiac surgeon and researcher. I previously worked as a surgeon at Mt. Fuji Shizuoka Children’s Hospital and am now focused on research in congenital heart disease. I was trained in unifocalization techniques at Stanford University and am passionate about bringing this approach to Japan and across Asia. My current research interests include exploring factors derived from hepatic venous blood in the Glenn circulation, as I work to better understand pulmonary vascular health in congenital heart conditions. I am grateful for the chance to share my findings and discuss these advancements with colleagues in the field.
Akif Turna, MD, PhD, FETCS
Dr. Turna graduated from Istanbul University Istanbul Medical School. He has been trained in thoracic surgery at Yedikule Teaching Hospital for Chest Diseases and Thoracic Surgery. He started VATS lobectomy program in 2007, received national and European Thoracic Surgery Board Certificates.
He received his PhD in Immunology in 2003.
He became a professor of thoracic surgery in Istanbul University-Cerrahpasa in 2013. He has been serving as a chief of Thoracic Surgery at Cerrahpasa School of Medicine. He has a strong interest in minimally invasive thoracic surgery particularly uniportal VATS and RATS resections, mediastinal staging procedures, VAMLA, inflammatory and infectious diseases, surgery for emphysema, anti-tumor immunology and molecular biology of cancer.
He is currently associate editor of Asian Cardiovascular and Thoracic Annals, Euroasian Journal of Pulmonology, Heliyon.
He is managing editor of Turkish Journal of Immunology.
He is a member of 10th Edition of Lung Cancer Staging Committee (IASLC).