Professor William T Abraham, MD, FACC

Dr Abraham is professor of internal medicine and director of the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine at The Ohio State University Medical Center. An internationally known researcher in heart failure, Dr. Abraham has participated as principal investigator in more than 100 multi-center clinical drug and device trials and has received grants from the National Institutes of Health, the American College of Cardiology and the Aetna Quality Care Foundation. In addition to authoring more than 350 original papers, abstracts, book chapters, and review articles, he serves on the editorial boards of several major journals including the Journal of Cardiac Failure, Congestive Heart Failure, and Journal Watch Cardiology. The findings from a study on cardiac resynchronization in chronic heart failure patients, led by Dr. Abraham, were published in The New England Journal of Medicine in June 2002. In May 2003, Dr. Abraham co-authored a study about combined therapies and the benefit to heart failure patients that was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Dr. Abraham is a member of the writing committee to update the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association Heart Failure Guidelines.

 

Stefan Anker

Stafan Anker is Professor for Applied Cachexia Research at the Department of Cardiology at the Charité Campus Virchow-Klinikum of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. He finished his studies at Charité and began his research at the National Heart and Lung Institute of the Imperial College London in 1995, where he received his Ph.D, in 1998. In 2002, he became one of the first so-called Juniorprofessor in Germany and started an entirely new research field: Applied Cachexia Research.

Dr Rinaldo Bellomo

Prof. Rinaldo Bellomo, MBBS, MD, FRACP, FJFICM, is Professor of Medicine at Melbourne University and Honorary Professor of Medicine at Monash University, Melbourne and the University of Sydney, Australia. He is a Full-time Staff Specialist in Intensive Care and holds an NHMRC Practitioner Fellowship. He is the Director of Intensive Care Research at the Austin Hospital in Melbourne and the Founding Chair of the Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Society Clinical Trials Group. He has received more than 40 national and international awards and grants, has delivered lectures at more than 80 national and international conferences and has published more than 400 scientific papers. He has written more than 80 book chapters, edited 7 books and is the Renal Section editor for all major Critical Care Medicine Textbooks. He has been married to Debbie for 20 years and they have a 15 year-old daughter, Hilary.

Peter Bergin

Dr Peter Bergin is Medical Director of Heart Failure and Heart Transplantation at the Alfred Hospital and has over 15 years extensive experience in all aspects of Heart Failure care, including end-stage Heart Failure, Transplantation, Mechanical Support and Device therapy. He is a regular lecturer to all levels of the Health Profession. His other major interest is in Echocardiography and in particular the application to diagnosis and management of Heart failure and Valvular Heart Disease.

 

Prof Steven Bolling, MD

2120 Taubman Center
Box 0348, 1500 E. Medical Center Dr.
Ann Arbor, MI  48109
United States
Faculty Appointment: Professor, Department of Surgery
Additional Titles: Director, Mitral Valve Clinic
Gayle Halperin Kahn Professor of Integrative Medicine
Specialty: Cardiac Surgery
Clinical Interests: Adult cardiac surgery, heart, mitral valve, adult cardiac surgery and heart transplantation, specific interest in mitral valve disease.
Research Interests: Protection of the ischemic myocardium, immunology of heart transplantation, and mitral valve surgery.
Education and Credentialing
Degree: M.D., 1979, University of Michigan
Certifications: 1988, General Surgery ; 1989, Thoracic Surgery

Dr Kenneth R. Chien

Dr. Kenneth R. Chien is a world-recognized leader in cardiovascular science and medicine. He received his B.A. from Harvard College and the M.D. and Ph.D. degrees from Temple University. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the 1995 Walter B. Cannon Memorial Award and Lectureship (American Physiological Society), the 1995 Kaiser Foundation Award and Lectureship, the 1996 Pasarow Foundation Medical Research Award (S. Prusiner and A. Knudsen; Co-recipients), and the 1998 Robert M. Berne Award and Distinguished Lectureship. Dr. Chien serves as a Board member of the Pasarow Medical Foundation, and as an advisor to multiple biotechnology/pharmaceutical companies including Genentech and F. Hoffman-LaRoche. Dr. Chien was recently appointed as the Director of the UCSD Institute of Molecular Medicine, which has received a $6 million award from the Jean Leducq Foundation to establish a leading centre in heart failure research. Dr. Chien has been a pioneer in applying the techniques of molecular cardiology to cardiovascular disease, and has developed new therapeutic strategies for heart failure that have led to numerous patents. These include the discovery of Cardiotrophin-1, the most potent survival factor for heart muscle cells that plays a critical role in preventing the onset of heart failure. In addition, his lab recently identified a defect in SR Ca++ cycling as critical for heart failure progression through the generation of novel double knockout mice. This result has led to the identification of phospholamban inhibition as a novel therapeutic strategy in preventing heart failure progression.

Dr Chuang Hsuan-Hung, MBBS, MRCP, M.Med, FAMS, FESC, FACC

Consultant Cardiologist and Physician, Gleneagles Hospital & Mount Elizabeth Hospital Visiting Consultant, Heart Failure and Transplantation Program, National Heart Centre, Singapore

Dr Chuang graduated with MBBS from the National University of Singapore in 1994. He received postgraduate qualification in Internal Medicine from Singapore and UK. Upon completing his cardiology training at the National Heart Centre, Singapore, he pursued senior clinical fellowships in Heart Failure and Transplantation and in Advanced Cardiovascular Imaging at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Ohio, USA. A cardiologist in private practice, Dr Chuang is concurrently a visiting consultant to National Heart Centre, whereby he has started the hypertrophic cardiomyopathy program and is actively involved in heart failure intensive care and transplant medicine. Besides lecturing regularly in postgraduate courses in Cardiology and Emergency Medicine, he is also appointed as a Clinical Tutor at Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine at National University of Singapore.

Dr Chuang’s publications and book-chapters have ranged from HF management, heart transplant immunology & outcome, biomarkers & HF, imaging for interventional cardiology, HF device therapy & surgery, 3D echocardiography and CT angiography. He is involved in numerous heart failure, arrhythmia and CRT trials. His current clinical and research interests include heart failure and pharmacogenomics, cardiomyopathy, sudden death, novel cardiac imaging techniques, and preventive cardiology.

Dr Chuang is a fellow of the Singapore Academy of Medicine, the American College of Cardiology and the European Society of Cardiology. He is actively involved in numerous international associations, including Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy Association, American Heart Association, American Society of Echocardiography, Heart Failure Association of the ESC, etc. He is the Organizing Chairman of the upcoming Annual Scientific Meeting of the Singapore Cardiac Society, and also serves as the Honorary Secretary of the Chapter of Cardiologists, Academy of Medicine Singapore.

 

Dr Robyn Clark

For the past seven years Dr Robyn Clark has worked in telehealth and telemonitoring delivering care to rural and remote Australians. She was the inaugural recipient of a National Institute of Clinical Studies scholarship supported by the National Heart Foundation for researching the management of heart failure in rural and remote Australia using telephone supported database systems.

Dr Clark a Registered Nurse, Registered Midwife and Critical Care Nurse who holds a Graduate Diploma of Applied Science, Bachelor of Nursing, Masters of Education, is a Fellow of the Royal College of Nursing and Life Member of the Australian College of Critical Care Nurses.

She is also a member of a niche research collaboration exploring the use of geo-graphical systems for the identification of health service provision to rural, remote and indigenous populations.

 

Patricia Davidson

Patricia Davidson RN, BA, MEd, PhD is Professor of Cardiovascular and Chronic Care in the School of Nursing and Midwifery at Curtin University of Technology and Director of the Cardiovascular and Chronic Care Centre based in Sydney. Her clinical and research specialty focuses on chronic cardiovascular disease, focussing on heart failure, women’s health, indigenous health and models of care development.  Dr Davidson is the President of the International Council on Women’s Health Issues and Secretary of the International Network for Doctoral Education in Nursing.  She is a member of the Cardiovascular Nurses Working Group of the Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand and also President elect of the Australasian Cardiovascular Nurses College.  She is a Fellow of the Royal College of Nursing Australia and an Editor of Collegian.

Kenneth Dickstein

University of Bergen, Stavanger University Hospital, Stavanger, Norway

Kenneth Dickstein was born in Philadelphia and completed undergraduate education at the Univ. of Pennsylvania. He has medical degrees from the Univ. of London and the Royal College of Surgeons (1977). He was a research fellow at Harvard Medical School (1988-90) and received his PhD at the Univ. of Bergen in 1992. Dr. Dickstein is in charge of the coronary care unit at Stavanger University Hospital, professor of medicine at the Univ. of Bergen and coordinator for the medical student teaching program at the hospital. His primary focus is clinical research in heart failure and he is director of the research program at Stavanger Health Research Foundation. Professor Dickstein is President of the Heart Failure Association of the European Society of Cardiology and Chairman of the Task Force for the ESC Guidelines on Heart Failure. He serves on numerous editorial boards and steering committees. He has published over 170 scientific papers and held over 200 invited lectures at international venues. He resides with his wife and 2 sons on the west coast of Norway and spends most of his free time fly fishing.

Dr Philip Ding

Dr Ding is Professor of Medicine (Cardiology and Critical Care), Veterans General Hospital, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan and Visiting Professor, Department of Medicine, National Defense Medical Center, Taipei, Taiwan.

He is the author of over 280 refereed papers and over 350 abstracts and is an editorial board member of several journals.

Dr Rob Doughty

MBBS MRCP (UK), MD, FRACP

Dr Rob Doughty received his undergraduate medical degree from the University of London and completed postgraduate training in medicine and cardiology in the UK and New Zealand. In 1999 he was awarded a Doctorate of Medicine, the thesis for which was the effects of beta-blockers in patients with heart failure. This included an echocardiographic sub study of the Australia-New Zealand Carvedilol Trial, which established the beneficial effects of carvedilol on left ventricular remodelling in patients with heart failure. 

Dr Doughty was the recipient of the National Heart Foundation BNZ Senior Fellowship for 3 years from 1997 to 2000 and is now Senior Lecturer in Cardiology at the University of Auckland and a cardiologist at Auckland Hospital. He was co-chair of the NZ Heart Failure Guidelines group.

Dr Kathleen Dracup

Dr. Dracup is a well-known heart failure nurse researcher, editor and Dean of the School of Nursing at University of California San Francisco. Kathy Dracup earned a Doctorate in Nursing Science from the University of California, San Francisco, a Master of Nursing degree from the University of California, Los Angeles, and a Bachelor of Science degree from St. Xavier's University, Chicago, IL.

She is recognized nationally and internationally for her investigation into the care of patients with heart disease and the effects of this disease on spouses and other family members.

Dr Andrea Driscoll

Andrea Driscoll recently completed her PhD on the benchmarking of CHF management programs throughout Australia. She was supported by an NHMRC Public Health Postgraduate scholarship and a National Heart Foundation grant. Andrea also has a Critical care certificate and has over 18 years experience in Critical care nursing including over 7 years experience in Cardiology/CCU in senior management roles. Up until recently she was Editor of Critical Times for ACCCN (Crit Care Assoc) for over 5 yrs and is currently a member of the editorial board for Australian Critical Care Journal. She has been invited to judge Research/Scholarship nursing prizes at Australian and NZ Intensive Care Society national conferences and has received awards for best research paper from Austin Health and Deakin University. She has been an invited speaker at national disease management conferences and is currently a consultant and expert advisor on Nurse Practitioners for the Nurses Board of Victoria. Andrea was also recently appointed appointed to the hearing panel of  Nurses Board of Victoria by the Minister of Health for Victoria.

Prof. Kritvikrom Durongpisitkul

Prof. Kritvikrom Durongpisitkul currently is an professor of Pediatrics Faculty of medicine, Siriraj Hospital, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand.

Prof. Durongpisitkul graduated his Medical Degree with First Class Honor from Siriraj Hospital, Mahidol University in 1989 and then he pursued a Pediatric Residency training in Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, USA from 1991-1994, where he was chosen Chief Resident during his final year, a Clinical Fellow in Pediatric Cardiology at Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota in 1994-97 and was a Senior Clinical Fellow (cardiac catheterization) at Children’s Hospital, Harvard University in Boston, Massachusetts.

His clinical research interest is comparing the result of transcatheter therapy in various congenital heart lesions both in children and adults such closure of ASD, PDA and VSD with surgery. Among this group of patients, pulmonary hypertension seemed to be one of the complicate conditions for transcatheter closure. His recent research include management of Eisenmenger disease using cardiac MRI as a marker for improvement.

Dr Mike Davis

Michael Davis trained in cardiology at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital and Royal Perth Hospital before undertaking subspecialty cardiac electrophysiology training at Massachussetts General Hospital in Boston. He has been on staff at Royal Perth Hospital since 1985.

Dr Davis specialises in cardiac arrhythmia management including pacing, catheter ablation and implantable defibrillator use. He has been a pioneer in ablation, with research interests in this area and, in the management of atrial fibrillation.

Dr Maros Elsik

Dr Maros Elsik is a Cardiologist at the Alfred Hospital and Monash University in Melbourne. His interests are cardiac pacing, device therapies and heart failure. His research is focused on non invasive measures of cardiac fibrosis in heart failure and mechanisms of reverse remodelling including investigation of novel strategies aimed at reducing cardiac fibrosis.

Lorraine Evangelista

Lorraine Evangelista completed her baccalaureate training at the University of the Philippines in 1985.  She received her Master’s degree in 1993 and her doctoral degree in 2000 from the UCLA School of Nursing.  She has worked in the critical care/coronary care setting as a clinical nurse and nurse manager for seven years and later as a Clinical Nurse Specialist and Case Manager.  She has taught at both the undergraduate and graduate levels for the Nursing Programs at the University of Southern California and California State University Los Angeles prior to joining the UCLA School of Nursing faculty in 2002. Her area of research is in quality of life, adherence, diet and exercise in cardiovascular patients.

Professor Marcus Flather

Marcus Flather has been the Director of the Clinical Trials and Evaluation Unit since August 1996. He is also an Honorary Consultant at the Royal Brompton Hospital and Honorary Senior Lecturer at the Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine. Prior to this he worked as a Senior Research Fellow at McMaster University in Canada and at the Clinical Trials Service Unit in Oxford. He is a trained cardiologist whose primary research interest is clinical trials in acute coronary syndromes. Broader interests include clinical trial methods, meta-analysis and health services research.

 

Richard Gilbert

Richard Gilbert is an endocrinologist and Professor of Medicine at University of Toronto, St. Michael’s Hospital. His major interests are in the treatment and prevention of diabetic complications, especially heart failure where his primary focus is on translational research. Dr. Gilbert is a prolific publisher, the recipient of several distinguished research awards and holds numerous patents for novel therapies. He is the team leader of a Canadian Institutes of Health Research program grant in the cardiovascular complications of diabetes and holds an Heart and Stroke Foundation grant to study novel therapies for heart failure in diabetes.

 

Dr Garun Hamilton

Dr Garun Hamilton is a Sleep Disorders and Respiratory Physician at St Vincent’s Hospital, Melbourne. He graduated his MBBS from Melbourne University in 1994 and completed training as a Respiratory and Sleep Physician in 2002. He has a particular interest in the cardiovascular consequences of obstructive sleep apnoea and recently submitted a PhD (through Monash University) looking the coronary artery blood flow changes in obstructive sleep apnoea. He has authored a review of obstructive sleep apnoea and cardiovascular disease and has several papers from his PhD studies currently under review.

 

James Hare

Originally trained at the Alfred Hospital in Melbourne, James is a cardiologist and cardiac imaging research fellow at the Princess Alexandra Hospital, Brisbane. Currently completing a PhD in echocardiography at the University of Queensland, his research interests have included the reproducibility and clinical application of novel measures of left ventricular function.

 

Dr. David Shu-Cheong Hui

Background & Training:
Trained in Respiratory and Sleep Medicine in Sydney, Australia.
Chairman, Specialty Board in Respiratory Medicine, Hong Kong College of Physicians, from July 2007.
Associate Editor for two indexed journals: Sleep  (The official journal of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, since July 2006) & Respirology (since Mar 2006).
President of the Hong Kong Thoracic Society from 2003 to 2005.

Research interests: Respiratory failure, sleep disordered breathing, emerging respiratory infections, safety of respiratory therapy in the post SARS era, asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Publications:
15 book chapters & 125 peer-reviewed full journal papers (published and in press) as of 6 Dec 2007.

 

Gerald Kaye

Qualified in 1978 in the UK.
Trained as a cardiologist and electrophysiologist in London and Leeds in the UK.
Have a special interest in implantable cardiac devices. Was part of the ECG analysis core laboratory for the CARE-HF study.
Doctoral thesis studying atrial peptides during tachycardias in man.
Currently associate professor of cardiology at the Princess Alexandra Hospital, Brisbane.

 

Professor Henry Krum
Director NHMRC Centre of Clinical Research Excellence in Therapeutics

Professor Henry Krum is a well recognised figure in the area of cardiovascular clinical pharmacology and therapeutics, attested to by his extensive professional activities in this area.

Prof Krum is also a physician at the Alfred Hospital in Melbourne and heads Clinical Pharmacology at Monash University and the Alfred Hospital. He has extensive research experience in cardiovascular diseases and clinical pharmacology, something to which his publication record testifies. His interests lie with heart failure and hypertension, and his work spans the fields of both basic and applied sciences.

Professor Krum has been a member of numerous International Steering and Executive Committees for major clinical trials in the area of cardiovascular pharmacotherapy. He is currently Principal Investigator of a number of multicentre investigator-initiated trials testing cardiovascular therapeutic strategies.

 

Angeline Leet

Angeline is a Heart Failure, Transplant and Echo-Cardiologist at The Alfred Hospital, Melbourne.  Her research interests include echocardiography and myocardial dysfunction after heart transplantation. 

 

Professor Yean Leng Lim

Professor Yean Leng Lim graduated with BMedSc, MBBS and PhD from Monash University and Clinical and Research Fellow of Harvard University. He is currently the Professor and Director of the Cardiovascular Therapeutics at the Western Health, University of Melbourne, Director of the Raffles Heart Centre in Singapore and Visiting Professor of Fudan University, Tsinghua University-Peking Union Medical College in China and 16 other universities throughout China. Prof. Lim is recognized as a pioneer of coronary intervention in Australia and the Asia Pacific region and serves as the Permanent Secretary of the Asia Pacific Society of Interventional Cardiology (APSIC). He was the Foundation Dean of Xiamen UniversityMedical College in Fujian, China. Born in Singapore, he was invited by the Singapore Government in 1997 to head the National Heart Centre, the National Medical Research Council and the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts. He also chaired the Medical Education Review Committee, the Taskforce in Traditional Chinese Medicine Research and served as a member of the Inter-Ministerial Executive Committee of Life Sciences in Singapore. A patron of the arts, Prof Lim graduated in Fine Art at the age of 13, and obtained an Associate Fellowship of the Royal Photographic Society of United Kingdom. He is currently the Vice-President of the Board of Chinese Christian Theological Department at the Bible College of Victoria and one of the Patrons of the Musical Society of Victoria. He was awarded the Inaugural Monash University Distinguished Alumni Award in 1993 and Member of the Order of Australia in 1997, for his contributions to Education and Medicine. In the field of interventional cardiology, he was awadred the Great Wall International Cardiology PTCA Coach award, the APIA Gary Roubin Award and outstanding contribution awards in cardiology by the Clinical Research Foundation in Souel, Korea and Chaoyang Hospital in Beijing recently.

 

Dr. Fady Malik

Dr. Malik is the Senior Director of Muscle Biology and Therapeutics and Cardiovascular Research and Development at Cytokinetics.  He joined Cytokinetics as its first scientist in 1998.  Shortly after joining Cytokinetics, he began and has since led the company’s program focused on activators of cardiac myosin for the treatment of heart failure.  He now leads a broader effort at the company related to the therapeutic applications of small molecule modulators of muscle contractility.

Dr. Malik received M.D. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF) where his graduate studies focused on the biophysics and biochemistry of motor protein function.  He was one of the first to develop  nanometer resolution position tracking microscopes capable of resolving in real time the individual steps taken by the motor proteins.  He subsequently completed his clinical training in Cardiology and Interventional Cardiology at UCSF.  Since 2000, Dr. Malik has held an appointment in the Cardiology Division of UCSF, where he is an Assistant Clinical Professor and an attending interventional cardiologist.

 

Justin Mariani

Justin Mariani is a cardiologist at the Alfred Hospital and Research Fellow at the Baker heart Research Institute, finalising a PhD under Professor David Kaye’s supervision. His clinical and research interests include cardiac haemodynamics, device management for heart failure and gene and cellular therapies.

Professor Akira Matsumori

Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, Kyoto University of Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto, Japan
Prof. Akira Matsumori of Japan graduated from the Kyoto University School of Medicine and went on to receive a PhD at its Graduate School of Medicine. He is Secretary of the World Heart Federation (WHF), a member of the Council on Clinical Cardiology of the WHF, President of the International Society of Cardiomyopathies and Heart Failure, Chairman of the Global Network on Myocarditis, Secretary-General of international affairs of the Japanese Circulation Society, Co-Chairman of the China-Japan Cardiovascular Forum, Chairman of the Scientific Advisory Board and Treasurer of the Asian Pacific Society of Cardiology, and Governor of the International Society of Cardiovascular Pharmacotherapy. He has also been an instructor and visiting professor at the Harvard Medical School.

In 1996 he received the Japan Heart Foundation’s Sato Award for his clinical and basic research on the etiology, diagnosis and treatment of cardiomyopathy. In 1990 he received the Mochida Memorial Prize for clinical and basic research on the etiology of cardiomyopathy and myocarditis.

Julie McMullen

Julie McMullen (PhD) is an NHMRC and NHFA CDA Fellow at the Baker Heart Research Institute. Dr McMullen graduated from the School of Physiology & Pharmacology at the University of New South Wales. She then trained as a Cardiology Research Fellow at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Centre and Harvard Medical School in Boston. During this time she gained experience generating and characterising cardiac specific transgenic mice in the laboratory of Dr Seigo Izumo. Dr McMullen returned to Australia to start up her own laboratory at the Baker in 2005. Her research interests include cardiac hypertrophy and failure, specifically focusing on molecular mechanisms responsible for the induction of physiological and pathological cardiac hypertrophy.

 

John McMurray

Professor John McMurray, MD, FRCP, FACC, FESC attended St Patrick’s College, Knock, Belfast and obtained a scholarship to Manchester University from where he graduated MB ChB (Hons) in 1983. His subsequent training was in Edinburgh, Dundee and Glasgow. He is Professor of Medical Cardiology at the University of Glasgow, based at the BHF Glasgow Cardiovascular Research and Honorary Consultant Cardiologist at the Western Infirmary, Glasgow. He is Chairman of the Clinical Section and President-Elect of the Heart Failure Association of the ESC (HFA of the ESC). His primary research interests are in heart failure, atrial fibrillation and coronary heart disease, with a focus on epidemiology, health services research and clinical trials. He also has an interest in socioeconomic determinants of health and outcomes. Professor McMurray is, or was, the principal investigator, member of the executive committee or steering committee member in a number of large trials in heart failure and other cardiovascular diseases. He has also run or participated in several end-point committees. He has published approximately 350 original papers, reviews, book-chapters and books. He has also contributed to a number of guidelines and was principal author of the WHO’s guidelines on the management of heart failure. Professor McMurray is also on the editorial board of several cardiovascular journals including the European Heart Journal. He is married with six children and is a season ticket holder at Celtic F.C.

 

Dr Philip Mottram

Dr Mottram's training included a fellowship in clinical echocardiography at Monash Medical Centre in Melbourne, and a research fellowship at the Baker Heart Research Institute. He undertook a PhD as a National Heart Foundation Scholar with the Cardiac Imaging Research Group at the University of Queensland, investigating cardiac function in hypertensive heart disease. He is currently Head of Non-invasive Cardiac Imaging at Monash Medical Centre and an Honorary Senior Lecturer at Monash University, with interests in stress and transoesophageal echocardiography, and echo investigation of cardiac mechanics.

 

Muhammad Munawar

Dr Manuwar graduated from Gajahmada University’s School of Medicine School in 1976 and furthered his studies by specialising in cardiology at the University of Indonesia in 1989. Dr. Munawar was a Cardiology Research Fellow at Austin Hospital (Melbourne, Australia) and a Basic Electrophsiology Research Fellow at Nagoya University (Nagoya Japan). In 2005, Dr Munawar took his PhD at the University of Indonesia.

He is a fellow of the European Society of Cardiology (since June 2001), American College of Cardiology (since February 2002) and the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Intervention (since 2005).

Currently, he is a Cardiology Consultant in the National Cardiovascular Center, Harapan Kita Hospital (Jakarta). His experiences have brought him to be the President of the Indonesian Heart Association since 2006.

Assoc Prof Julie Mundy

After completing her General Surgical training at the Princess Alexandra Hospital, Brisbane, Julie commenced training in Cardiothoracic Surgery and Heart-Lung Transplantation at St Vincent’s Hospital, Sydney. This was followed by overseas clinical and research experience at the Royal Infirmary, Glasgow as the National Heart Foundation, Walton Clinical Lecturer in Cardiac Surgery. On return to Australia in 1993, she commenced as a full-time Staff Specialist at St Vincent’s Hospital, Sydney. This involved general cardiothoracic surgery as well as heart-lung transplantation, cardiomyoplasy, LVAD’s and laser revascularisation. In 1999, Julie moved back to Brisbane as Director of a new cardiothoracic surgical unit at the Princess Alexandra Hospital. This unit is now the second largest adult cardiac surgical unit in Australia. Julie has a particular interest in left ventricular reconstruction for heart failure.

 

Carmine De Pasquale

BM BS (honours) the Flinders University of South Australia,1992.
Fellowship Royal Australasian College of Physicians (Cardiology), 2000.
Clinical Fellowship in Heart Failure, St Vincent’s Hospital, Sydney, 2002.
Winner Ralph Reader Basic Science Prize CSANZ03.
Ph.D. Flinders University of South Australia “Altered alveolocapillary permeability in cardiogenic pulmonary oedema”, 2004.
Currently Staff Cardiologist at Flinders Medical Centre specializing in heart failure, and Senior Lecturer at Flinders University of South Australia.
Current Chairman of the Heart Failure Working Group of the Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand.
Ongoing research interest in the lungs in heart failure and the use of biomarkers in heart failure.

 

Professor Carol Pollock

Professor of Medicine, University of Sydney, Royal North Shore Hospital
Chairman of Research: Northern Sydney and Central Coast Area Health Service
Chairman of the Area Health Advisory Council of Northern Sydney and Central Coast Area Health Service.
Chairman of the Greater Metropolitan Clinical Taskforce
Editorial Board of several renal related journals.
Member of the Executive Council of the International Society of Nephrology in 2005-2007
Director on the Boards of several philanthropic and not-for-profit organizations.
Member and deputy chair of NHMRC Disciplinary Panel into Renal and Cardiovascular Research over many years
Over 160 peer-reviewed research publications, successfully supervised 8 PhD students  and currently 7 PhD students.

 

Willem Remme

Willem J. Remme MD, PhD, FESC, FACC, FAHA, is currently Professor of Medicine at the Cardiology Division of “Carol Davila” University in Bucharest, Romania, Director of “Sticares” Cardiovascular Research Foundation, Rhoon, The Netherlands, and Director of Sticares InterACT Research Institute, Rhoon, The Netherlands.

Professor Remme has served as an Associate Professor at the University of Groningen, the Netherlands, Visiting Associate Professor of Medicine at the Harvard Medical School and as Visiting Research Professor of Medicine at the University of Arizona.

He has been Director of the Sticares Cardiovascular Research Foundation in Rhoon, The Netherlands since 1981.He has served on Editorial Boards including: Cardiology (Section Head – Clinical Pharmacology), Journal of Cardiac Failure, Heart Failure Reviews, Netherlands Journal of Cardiology, Dialogues in Cardiovascular Medicine, and the European Journal of Heart Failure and was Journal Editor to Advances in Cardiology. Currently, he is Editor-in-Chief of Cardiovascular Drugs and Therapy.

He is a Fellow of the American College of Cardiology, the American Heart Association and the European Society of Cardiology. Professor Remme was the initiator and first Chairman of the Working Group on Heart Failure of the ESC. He served as Chairman of the Task Force Guidelines for the Treatment of Heart Failure of the ESC in 1997 and as Co-Chairman in 2001.  In 1997, he became the President of the International Society of Cardiovascular Pharmacotherapy, Member of the Council on Clinical Cardiology of the World Heart Federation and in 1998 became the Chairman of the European Educational Programme in Cardiology of the ESC. In 2004 he initiated and became the first President of the World Heart Failure Society.

Professor Remme is a Honorary Member of the Société Cardiologique Française, the Romanian Society of Cardiology and the Romanian Society of Internal Medicine.
His major research interests are in the field of heart failure, serving as Chairman or member of Steering and Critical Events Committees of large trials including: EUROPA, CIBIS I and II, RALES I and II, COMET, CARMEN, CAPRICORN, EPHESUS, PREAMI and EMPHASIS.

He is also the initiator and Chairman of a pan-European heart failure awareness and perception survey and educational programme (SHAPE) carried out amongst the general public, health care authorities, general practitioners, internists, geriatricians and cardiologists involved in heart failure care.

 

Professor A. Mark Richard

MD(Otago) PhD(Otago) FRACP
Current Roles
Director, The Christchurch Cardioendocrine Research Group
Consultant Cardiologist , The Canterbury District Health Board

Research Interests

• Neurohormonal physiology and pathophysiology in cardiovascular health and disease
• Heart Failure

• Acute Coronary Syndromes
• Hypertension
• Vasoactive Hormones
• The Cardiac Natriuretic Peptides

Barbara J Riegel

Dr Barbara Riegel, an Associate Professor from the School of Nursing at the University of Pennsylvania, is one of five Americans to be recognised a Fulbright Senior Scholar to Australia in 2007. Through her Fulbright Dr Riegel will undertake collaborative research with ACU National (Melbourne) in conjunction with St Vincent's Hospital into the Self-Care of Patients with Heart Failure.

Dr Riegel has been recognised with a wide range of awards including the American Heart Association Lembright Award; the First Annual Nursing Research Award of the Heart Failure Society of America; and the Distinguished Alumni Award from the San Diego State University, College of Health and Human Services. She is editor of the Journal of Cardiovascular Nursing and two major cardiovascular nursing texts and has collaborated on research and publications with colleagues around the world. She currently serves as a doctoral student mentor for students in Thailand and Australia, co-mentoring doctoral students from the University of Melbourne and from Deakin University.

Since 1994, Dr. Riegel has led interdisciplinary research in chronic heart failure, an extremely common and debilitating syndrome. Approximately 550,000 new cases of heart failure occur each year in the United States and one year mortality rates for newly diagnosed cases averages 35-45%. In her research, Dr. Riegel has tested various disease management approaches and developed psychometrically sound methods of measuring the self-care of persons with heart failure.

Rebecca Ritchie

Dr Ritchie is an NHMRC Senior Research Fellow and laboratory head in the Heart Failure Research Group at the Baker Heart Research Institute in Melbourne, Australia. She is a cardiac pharmacologist who obtained her PhD from the University of Adelaide in 1994. The major thrust of her research focuses on investigating new therapies for the precursors of, and preventing their transition to, heart failure.

Dr Peter Ruygrok

Peter Ruygrok (MBChB (Auckland), FRACP, FESC, MD) trained in cardiology at Green Lane Hospital and then completed an interventional cardiology fellowship at the Thoraxcenter in Rotterdam. He works as a consultant cardiologist at Greenlane with special interests in interventional cardiology, cardiac transplantation and adult congenital heart disease, and part-time at the Auckland Heart Group.

Dr. Anwar Santoso, Ph

Dr. Anwar graduated from Medical School, University of Airlangga, Surabaya in 1981 and then he continued to take his specialist training in Cardiology at the same University. He has also taken courses and advance Cardiology training in Melbourne, the universities of Brawijaya, Gajah Mada and Pajajaran. Dr Anwar is currently a Senior Lecturer at the Medical Faculty of the University of Udayana. In addition, he is also a Cardiology Consultant at Sanglah Hospital and the Coordinator of Research Division in the Department of Internal Medicine. He is a member of the Indonesian Heart Association and the American Heart Association. He is also executive-member of Asia Pacific Society of Atherosclerosis and Vascular Disease. 

Associate Professor Christopher Semsarian

Qualifications
1984-1989     MB BS at University of Sydney
1996               FRACP (Cardiology)
1999               PhD in Molecular Cardiology, University of Sydney
2005               FCSANZ (Fellow of Cardiac Society of Australia & NZ)

A/Prof Semsarian is a Molecular Cardiologist with a specific research focus in the molecular basis of cardiovascular disease, in particular, identifying genes that cause disease and elucidating how these gene defects activate signalling pathways leading to disease. A/Prof Semsarian has an established research program that performs genetic studies in humans, development of transgenic mouse models of human disease, and studies in isolated cell culture (cardiomyocyte) systems. All of his research has an interface between basic science and clinical research, i.e. translational research in cardiovascular medicine.

 

Professor Andrew Sindone

Professor Andrew Sindone has been principal investigator in heart failure projects involving exercise training, inotropes, disease severity and telemedicine. He is assessing efficacy of Multidisciplinary Heart Failure Clinics, is principal investigator in many multicentre clinical trials and has presented over 60 papers nationally and internationally. Professor Sindone is Director of a Heart Failure Outreach Program and Chairman of the NSW Cardiac Rehabilitation Advisory Committee. He is a member of the executive and a coordinating author of the Australian Guidelines for the Management of Heart Failure. He also assists the Italian Community in education and support of those with heart disease.

Karen Sliwa

Prof Karen Sliwa is the director of the Soweto Cardiovascular Research Unit (www.socru.org), Department of Cardiology, Baragwanath Hospital, University of the Witwatersrand. Born in Germany Karen has lived and worked in South Africa since 1992.

For the last 10 years her main focus of research has related to immune activation in idiopathic and peripartum Cardiomyopathy (heart failure). More recently, Karen initiated and currently leads a large collaborative project*, The Heart of Soweto Study, to better understand the emergence of heart disease in Africa’s largest community of Black Africans in epidemiological transition. This involves a large cardiac registry capturing more than 9000 patients from Soweto and community focused awareness and intervention programs.

As part of her research program, Karen established strong collaborations with a range of prestigious national and international clinical and academic centers. This includes Groote Schuur Hospital, Cape Town; Maputo University, Mozambique; Hannover University, Germany; University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia (Adjunct Professor)*, and The Baker Institute, Melbourne Australia*.

Karen is currently the president of the South African Heart Failure Society (www.hefssa.org). She is an editorial consultant to the prestigious medical journal ‘The Lancet’ and working group member of the international campaign to revitalize academic medicine (ICRAM). 

Asst. Prof. Neil Smart

Neil is an Asst./Prof. at Bond University where he leads the Primary Healthcare research unit (PHCRED) unit. Neil's specialist field is exercise therapy for the management of chronic disease, especially in heart failure patients. Neil is currently working on projects to provide outpatient maintenance exercise programs for patients with chronic disease.

 

Professor Simon Stewart

Prof. Simon Stewart is the Head of Preventative Cardiology at the world-renowned Baker Heart Research Institute in Melbourne, Australia (www.baker.edu.au).

For the past 10 years his main focus of research has been developing community models of multidisciplinary care to optimize the prevention and management of chronic cardiac disease (e.g. chronic heart failure) in addition to undertaking large population-based research to monitor the evolving epidemic of cardiovascular disease. More recently, Simon has collaborated closely with Professor Karen Sliwa from the University of the Witwatersrand to undertake The Heart of Soweto Study in South Africa. This large collaborative program seeks to better understand the emergence of heart disease in Africa’s largest community of Black Africans in epidemiologic transition. It involves a large cardiac registry capturing more than 9000 patients from Soweto and community focused awareness and intervention programs.

As part of his research program, Simon has established strong collaborations with a broad range of prestigious national and international institutions with a number of Honorary Professorial appointments. This includes Monash University (Australia), University of the Witwatersrand (South Africa), Chinese University of Hong Kong (China), Yale University (USA) and Glasgow University (UK).

Simon is currently an Executive Board Member of the World Society of Heart Failure, Associate Editor of the International Journal of Cardiology and previously held a world-first appointment as the National Heart Foundation of Australia Chair of Cardiovascular Nursing. He has published more than 150 research papers and books relating to the epidemiology and management of cardiac disease.

 

John R Teerlink

Dr Teerlink is Associate Professor of Medicine at the School of Medicine and Director of the Heart Failure Clinic and Clinical Echocardiography at the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Centre, University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). His previous positions with the UCSF include Director of the sub-specialty out-patient clinics at the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Dr Teerlink was awarded a fellowship in the American College of Cardiology (ACC) in 1999, in the American Heart Association (AHA) in 2002, and in the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) in 2003. He serves on the AHA National Committee on Heart Failure and Transplantation, is a member of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Cardiovascular and Renal Drug Advisory Committee, and is on multiple committees with the Heart Failure Society of America. He has given over 100 presentations regionally, nationally, and internationally and has authored or co-authored scores of publications on heart failure, many of them in the field of endothelin. Dr Teerlink received his post-graduate clinical cardiology and internal medicine training at the UCSF after obtaining his medical degree from Harvard University in 1988. He received his baccalaureate with highest honors from Swarthmore College in 1983.  

Dr. James D. Thomas

Dr. James D. Thomas was born and raised in Oklahoma City and received his Bachelor’s Degree summa cum laude in Applied Mathematics from Harvard College in 1977.  After medical education at Harvard and clinical training at Massachusetts General Hospital and the University of Vermont, he served as Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard and Massachusetts General Hospital before assuming his current position at The Cleveland Clinic Foundation in 1992.  Dr. Thomas is the Charles and Lorraine Moore Chair of Cardiovascular Imaging within the Department of Cardiovascular Medicine and a Professor of Medicine and Biomedical Engineering at the Ohio State University and Case Western Reserve University.  He also serves as Lead Scientist for Ultrasound to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and is a consultant to the Department of Defense and the NIH.  He currently serves on the Cardiovascular Board of Examiners for the American Board of Internal Medicine and was co-chairman for the 2007 ACC Annual Scientific Sessions.  Dr. Thomas has over 500 peer reviewed research manuscripts (published or in press), 100 invited articles and book chapters, and over 600 abstract presentations (focusing on such areas as valvular heart disease, abnormalities of ventricular filling, and the development of new technology in echocardiography).  When he’s not reading echoes, Dr. Thomas enjoys cooking, skiing, scuba diving, and the occasional bungy jump.

Dr Susan Wright

Dr Susan Wright PhD FRACP is currently a cardiologist at Middlemore Hospital, Auckland, New Zealand. Her interests include heart failure, cardiac peptides, and non-invasive cardiac imaging particularly CT angiography and echocardiography. Her doctoral project addressed the use of N-terminal BNP by general practitioners to diagnose heart failure presenting in the community. Prior to her current position, Dr Wright was a staff specialist and director of the echocardiography laboratory at St George Hospital, Sydney and a lecturer at the University of New South Wales. Her current research examines the use of CT angiography for left ventricular function and cardiac perfusion.

Michael Yii

Michael Yii is the acting director of cardiothoracic surgery at St Vincent's Hospital in Melbourne.
He has special interest in surgery and research in heart failure. He is the chairman and regional leader of the Australian STICH committee.

Professor Cheuk-Man Yu

Cheuk-Man Yu is Head of the Division of Cardiology in the Department of Medicine and Therapeutics, Prince of Wales Hospital, The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), Hong Kong. He is also Honorary Consultant at the Prince of Wales Hospital. He currently leads an energetic team in a broad spectrum of clinical and basic research in cardiovascular diseases.

Professor Yu graduated with Distinction in Medicine from the medical school of CUHK in 1990. He was awarded Membership of Royal College of Physicians of United Kingdom, Fellowship of the Hong Kong College of Physicians, Hong Kong Academy of Medicine, Hong Kong College of Cardiology, Royal Australasian College of Physicians, as well as Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, from 1993–2002.

Professor Yu takes special interest in elucidating the pathophysiology, diagnosis and therapy of heart failure and obtained the Doctor of Medicine in 1999. He has been appointed as the principal investigator and steering committee member of a number of international multicentre clinical trials for biventricular pacemaker and related-device therapy in heart failure. He was the international leading expert who employed special cardiac ultrasound technology to optimize implantable device therapy and is renowned for his work in pioneering the advanced pacemaker therapy programme for heart failure.

Professor Yu has cultivated a wide spectrum of clinical and research interests, which is reflected by his international publications of more than 100 full articles and over 200 abstracts. He is Chief Editor of the textbook “Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy” and has written many other book chapters. In collaboration with the Division of Neurology, Professor Yu established the SH Ho Cardiovascular Disease and Stroke Centre of CUHK to provide top quality service and research with the incorporation of cutting-edge cardiovascular diagnostic imaging facilities. Professor Yu has led the Division to organize two international cardiology conferences, in 2004 and 2005.