Speakers

Michael G Clark BSc (Hons), PhD, DSc, is currently Senior Member of the Menzies Research Institute, and Professor of Biochemistry, University of Tasmania. Previous positions include Section Head, CSIR0 Division of Human Nutrition, Adelaide, Senior Lecturer Flinders Medical School, Adelaide, and Research Associate, University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA.

His awards include Fulbright Hays Fellowship, Queen Elizabeth II Fellowship, Edgeworth David Medal from the Royal Society of New South Wales, AMP Medical Research Fund Prize and an Honorary Doctor of Science from the University of Copenhagen in 2007.

Professor Clark’s publications are in excess of 230. There are also 220 conference proceedings and 2 patents arising from his research which over the last 20 years has focused on insulin action on the microvasculature of muscle, in relation to normal function and insulin resistance of type 2 diabetes. This work is well-recognized internationally and has led to various invitations as guest speaker and to author reviews. Recent speaker invitations include Point Counter-Point speaker at the American College of Sports Medicine Conference on Integrative Physiology of Exercise, Indianapolis, Indiana in 2006 and to the Copenhagen Muscle Research Centre, Denmark to talk on “Microvascular perfusion in muscle and control of glucose metabolism”in 2007. He recently chaired symposium sessions on “Microvascular actions of insulin in muscle and underlying mechanisms”at the European Society for Microcirculation, Budapest, August 26-29, 2008; and the State of the Art Lecture/Symposium on “Vascular actions of insulin” at the 44th EASD Annual Meeting, Rome, 7 - 11 September 2008.

Vicki is currently the Area Director of Aboriginal Health for Sydney South West Area Health Service (SSWAHS). She is a proud Nyoongar woman her mob is from south west of Perth.

Vicki’s career in health has expanded over three decades she has held a number of senior positions clinically, academic and in management. Vicki comes from a strong Aboriginal family where the women were healers, her Nan Lily who helped the women on the mission at Gwonangerup. And her mother who was an enrolled nurse. Vicki continued the tradition and undertook her nursing training in 1976, where she has been a strong advocate of improving Aboriginal health within New South Wales.

Vicki has background in cardiology and intensive care nursing. She has been a nurse educator and Clinical Nurse Consultant. Vicki worked in the Department of Health were she Managed the NSW Aboriginal Chronic Care Program. During her role as Manager she helped develop a major Aboriginal health policy the NSW Aboriginal Chronic Conditions Area Health Service Standards. This policy is being implemented throughout NSW and sets best practice standards for Aboriginal chronic disease.

Vicki believes that education is critical for nurses’ especially Aboriginal nurses; she has worked on many committees at a state level to improve the recruitment and retention of the Aboriginal health workforce. She has spent many years lecturing to nursing students, medical staff and whoever else will listen about Aboriginal Health.

Vicki’s passion, expertise and leadership has seen her hold a number of positions on state and national committees she is an honorary member of the National Heart Foundation of Australia.

Vicki has a firm commitment to work in partnership with key service providers in closing the gap in life expectancy between Aboriginal and non Aboriginal Australians. She recently undertook a review of Aboriginal health services in SSWAHS with former Health Minister Andrew Refshauge and is now implementing the recommendations across the Area.

Dr. Thomas Coffman is James R. Clapp Professor of Medicine and the Chief of the Division of Nephrology at Duke. A national leader in the field of nephrology, Dr. Coffman has served on several NIH review panels and advisory boards, and serves on the editorial boards of the American Journal of Physiology, Physiological Reviews, and Cell Metabolism. He is also a member of the Nephrology Subspecialty Board of the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM), the American Society for Clinical Investigation and the Association of American Physicians and is currently the President of the American Society of Nephrology. He is an AHA Fellow of the Council for High Blood Pressure Research and the Kidney Councils, and served as Chair of the AHA Cardio-Renal Study Section. Dr. Coffman graduated cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania and obtained his M.D. from the Ohio State University School of Medicine. He undertook his internal medicine and nephrology training at Duke. Dr. Coffman’s research interests include the renin-angiotensin and prostanoid systems and their role in regulating blood pressure, kidney function, and renal inflammation. His laboratory work is supported by grants from the NIH and the Department of Veterans’ Affairs.

Prof Dart is director of Cardiovascular Medicine at The Alfred hospital, Melbourne and an Associate Director and research group leader (cardiology and therapeutics) at the Baker IDI institute. Prof Dart studied physiology at Oxford University where he subsequently completed a DPhil in neurophysiology. Following completion of his clinical training, also in Oxford, he trained in internal medicine, clinical pharmacology and cardiology in Cardiff, Aberdeen and Edinburgh. He also spent two years as a Royal Society Exchange fellow in the department of cardiology in the University of Heidelberg, Germany. Prof Dart took up a position at the Baker Institute in 1988. He has had a wide range of research interests encompassing both clinical and experimental studies with the emphasis on research at the interface between the laboratory and the clinic. Prof Dart has had a particular interest in human vascular function particularly of large arteries and their role in risk predication and as a therapeutic target. Recent related studies have examined properties of human atherosclerotic plaque. Cardiac studies have been particularly concerned with acute myocardial ischaemia and its complications and have used a variety of experimental models. Prof Dart’s research has been supported by NHMRC programme and other grants as well as funding from the National Heart Foundation and other bodies. In addition to his research activities Prof Dart has served on numerous NHMRC, NHF and other research and advisory panels.

Hartzell V. Schaff, M.D., is a Consultant in, and the Chair of, the Division of Cardiovascular Surgery, Department of Surgery, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, Rochester, Minnesota.  He is Co-Director of the Cardiovascular Surgical Research Laboratory at the Mayo Clinic where he also serves as Stuart W. Harrington Professor of Surgery.  He received his medical degree from the University of Oklahoma School of Medicine in 1973.  Dr. Schaff’s internship and residencies in Surgery and Cardiac and Thoracic Surgery were completed at Johns Hopkins Hospital where he served as Chief Resident in Surgery and Research Fellow in the Cardiovascular Surgical Research Laboratory.

Dr. Schaff has authored or co-authored 538 papers, 71 book chapters, and edited or written 9 textbooks.  He has served or is serving on the editorial boards of 11 journals including Circulation and the Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery.  He is currently the Associate Editor for the Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery.  He has lectured nationally and internationally on topics in cardiovascular surgery such as surgical management of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, new techniques in valve repair and replacement, and management of complex congenital heart disease.  Dr. Schaff has received many prestigious awards and research grants, but is most proud of receiving the designation of Teacher of the Year in the Department of Surgery in 1998 and the Distinguished Clinician Award at Mayo Clinic Rochester in 2007.

Professor Jeroen Bax is both Director of non-invasive imaging and Director of the echo-lab at the Leiden University Medical Center, The Netherlands.

His main interests include: clinical cardiology, heart failure, cardiac resynchronization therapy and the application of all different imaging modalities to these clinical fields.

Professor Bax has authored numerous papers and holds several positions in national and international scientific organizations. He is President of the ESC congress program committee for 2007-2008; and also serves on many editorial boards of different journals, including associate editor for the Journal of American College of Cardiology and Heart.

Dr. Budoff is an Associate Professor of Medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and is the Director of Cardiac CT at Los Angeles Biomedical Research Center at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Torrance, CA.  Dr. Budoff is a graduate of the University of California at Riverside and received his medical degree from the George Washington University School of Medicine. He completed his internship and residency in internal medicine, as well as his cardiology fellowship, at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center.

Dr. Budoff is a Fellow of the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association.  He is the President of the Society of Atherosclerosis Imaging and Prevention (SAI-P) and a founding Board Member of the Society of Cardiovascular CT (SCCT).  Previously, he served as chair of: the ACC/AHA Competency document for cardiac CT and MR; the COCATS 2 – CT Section (ACC training for fellows); as well as a recent AHA Scientific Statement on Cardiac CT; and is an author of the Guidelines for Use of CT for Calcium Assessment and the competency guidelines for peripheral CT and MR.  He has recently edited a textbook on Cardiac CT (Springer, 2006).   He is on the board of both the American College of Cardiology and American Heart Association for Southern California.

Dr. Budoff has conducted extensive research over the last 15 years using cardiac CT to identify those patients at high-risk for cardiac events, progression of coronary calcium, and non-invasive CT angiography. He has published over 200 articles, book chapters and books on these topics. He was recently named one of the Top Doctors For Men in 2007, and listed as an Los Angeles SuperDoctor by his peers.

David Eisner has been at The University of Manchester since 1999 and has held the British Heart Foundation Chair of Cardiac Physiology since 2000. He was on the Faculty at University College London (1980-90) and the University of Liverpool (1990-1999) before moving to Manchester. He is Editor in Chief of The Journal of Molecular and Cellular Cardiology.  He is a member of the International Council of the ISHR and a Fellow of the ISHR.

His research has focused on the basic mechanisms regulating intracellular sodium and calcium concentrations. He demonstrated the steep dependence of contraction on intracellular sodium concentration and characterized the mechanisms responsible for the normal, stable control of sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) Ca content. His work demonstrated that SR Ca content is controlled by the systolic Ca transient modulating fluxes of calcium across the sarcolemma. This mechanism explains many, previously perplexing, aspects of calcium regulation including the fact that changes in the properties of the SR Ca release channel (Ryanodine Receptor) have no effect in the steady state on the amplitude of the calcium transient due to changes of SR Ca content. Perturbations in this regulation may be responsible for disorders such as pulsus alternans. His recent research has focused on the mechanisms responsible for the generation of the diastolic Ca waves that are known to be responsible for some cardiac arrhythmias and how therapeutic strategies might be developed to abolish these arrhythmias.

Chris Jackson has divided his career between the pharmaceutical industry and academia, focussing throughout on the pathophysiology and treatment of cardiovascular disease. He was awarded his PhD in 1989 at the University of Cambridge, UK, for work carried out at Cambridge and at Aventis on factors and drugs, particularly antihypertensive agents, controlling the behaviour of vascular smooth muscle cells after arterial injury. He extended this work in the laboratory of Michael Reidy at the University of Washington in Seattle, USA, showing that PDGF and FGF are controlling factors for smooth muscle cell migration and that plasminogen activators form a link between fibrinolysis and arterial repair. After a period in pharmaceutical research at Pfizer and DuPont Merck in the UK and the USA, he returned to academia to head a research group at the Bristol Heart Institute in the University of Bristol, UK and focussed their work on atherosclerotic plaque rupture. This led to the development of the first animal model of plaque rupture, and has shown that a number of proteolytic enzymes are coordinated during plaque rupture and subsequent repair. More recently, they have begun to investigate links between arterial adaptive remodelling and plaque rupture.

Dr. Krahn is Professor in the Division of Cardiology at the University of Western Ontario. Dr. Krahn received his MD from the University of Manitoba. His clinical expertise is in management of cardiac arrhythmias. Current research interests include investigation of genetic causes of arrhythmias, causes of loss of consciousness and implantable arrhythmia device monitoring.

His research has been published in scientific journals such as Circulation, Canadian Journal of Cardiology, American Journal of Medicine, Clinical Investigative Medicine, American Journal of Cardiology, Cardiac Electrophysiology Monitor, European Heart Journal, Canadian Medical Association Journal, JAMA and the American Heart Journal.

Dr. Krahn is affiliated with several professional associations including the American Heart Association Council on Cardiology, the Royal College of Physicians of Canada, the American College of Cardiology, the Canadian Cardiovascular Society and the Heart Rhythm Society. 

Dr. Krahn’s is a Career Investigator and has research funded by the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario and Canada.

Dr. Krumholz is the Harold H. Hines, Jr. Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology and Public Health at Yale University School of Medicine, where he is Director of the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program. He is also the Director of the Yale-New Haven Hospital Center for Outcomes Research and Evaluation (CORE). Dr. Krumholz received his MD from Harvard Medical School and an SM in Health Policy and Management at the Harvard School of Public Health. He trained in internal medicine at the University of California, San Francisco and in cardiology at Beth Israel in Boston.

Dr. Krumholz’s research is focused on determining optimal clinical strategies and identifying opportunities for improvement in the prevention, treatment and outcome of patients with or at risk for cardiovascular disease. He leads initiatives through the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to develop national mortality measures for public reporting of hospital performance. He also initiated and chaired the steering committee of D2B: An Alliance for Quality, an international campaign launched by the American College of Cardiology to implement key evidence-based strategies to achieve guideline recommended door-to-balloon times. He serves as Principal Investigator on two multi-center projects sponsored by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute: the VIRGO study, an investigation of issues surrounding the care and outcomes of young women with acute myocardial infarction; and a study examining the effect of a telemonitoring strategy on the outcomes of patients with heart failure.

Amir Lerman, MD, is Professor of Medicine, Division of Cardiovascular Diseases and Internal Medicine at the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota. He serves as the Director of research of the Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory and CCU and is Director of the Chest Pain and Coronary Physiology and Imaging Center and Clinic, and is a Consultant for the Division of Cardiovascular Diseases, Mayo Graduate School of Medicine.
 
Dr. Lerman graduated with honors from the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology, School of Medicine, in Haifa, Israel. He completed all his clinical training at the Mayo Cinic
 
Dr. Lerman is a Fellow of the American College of Cardiology the American Heart Association and the European Society of Cardiology, as well as holding membership in such prestigious organizations as Sigma XI, The Scientific Research Society, the American College of Physicians, Minnesota Medical Association, and the Society of Cardiac Angiography and Interventions, among others. Dr. Lerman is on the editorial boards of several medical journals
 
Dr. Lerman has a  special interests in the role of the endothelium in vascular tone with emphasis on the coronary circulation in atherosclerosis, acute coronary syndrome, plaque vulnerability, cardiovascular disease in women Hi areas of interests also include the clinical approach to the patient with chest pain and non obstructive disease; coronary physiology and coronary imaging. The NIH, AHA and the DOD fund his research. He authors more than 300 manuscripts

Dr. Elizabeth Murphy received her PhD from the University of Pennsylvania in Biochemistry, followed by postdoctoral studies in Physiology at Duke University.  She joined the National Institutes of Environmental Health Sciences in 1984 where she was the Head of the Cell Biology Section in the Laboratory of Signal Transduction.  In 2006 she became Head of the Cardiac Physiology Section in the Translational Medicine Branch of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.  She is an Associated Editor for the Journal of Molecular and Cellular Cardiology and she also serves on the editorial board of Circulation, Circulation Research, and the American Journal of Physiology.  She is a member of NIH Study Section (Electrical Signaling, Transport and Arrhythmias).  She has served on a number of American Heart Association committees and is currently a member of the Basic Cardiovascular Sciences Leadership committee of the American Heart Association.  She is also Secretary of the American Section of the International Society for Heart Research.  Her research has focused on ionic alterations and signaling pathways in cell death and cardioprotection. 

Christine (Kricket) Seidman is a Professor in the Departments of Medicine and Genetics at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital.  In 2005 she was named the Thomas W. Smith Professor of Medicine.  She is also an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.  She was an undergraduate at Harvard College and received a M.D. from George Washington University School of Medicine in 1978.  Dr. Seidman served as an intern and resident in Internal Medicine at John Hopkins Hospital and received subspecialty training in cardiology at the Massachusetts General Hospital.  She joined the staff at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in 1987 and is currently the Director of the Cardiovascular Genetics Center.

Honors include: Marion Hypertension Research Award (1984); American Heart Association Clinician-Scientist Award (1986); Bristol-Myers Squibb Unrestricted Cardiovascular Research Grant Award (1990); American Heart Association Established Investigatorship Award (1992); Robert J. and Claire Pasarow Foundation Award in Cardiovascular Research (1992); American Heart Association, Edgar Haber Cardiovascular Award (1997); American Heart Association, Helen B. Taussig Memorial Lecturer (1997); Member, Johns Hopkins University Society of Scholars (1998); Member,  American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1999); Member, Institutes of Medicine (1999); American Heart Association, Basic Research Prize (1999); Gill Heart Institute Award for Cardiovascular Research (2000); American College of Cardiology, Louis F. Bishop Lecture (2000); Gill Heart Institute Award for Cardiovascular Research (2001); 12th Annual Bristol-Myers Squibb Award for Distinguished Achievement  in Cardiovascular Research (joint recipient with Jonathan Seidman, PhD) (2002); Fellow, International Society Heart Research (2002); Distinguished Scientist, American Heart Association (2003); Cannon Award, American Physiologic Society (2004); Member, Association of University Cardiologists (2005); Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award, The George Washington University (2005); Member, National Academy of Sciences (2005); Lefoulon-Delalande Foundation, Grand Prix for Science (joint recipient with Jonathan Seidman, PhD)(2007); Katz Prize (joint recipient with Jonathan Seidman, PhD)(2008).

Frans Van de Werf is professor and chairman of the Department of Cardiovascular medicine at the University Hospital Gasthuisberg in Leuven, Belgium.

He has served as a visiting professor in a number of institutions, including the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, and the Mayo Clinic. Dr. Van de Werf is editor-in-chief of the European Heart Journal and has served on the editorial boards of many journals including the New England Journal of Medicine, Circulation, Nature Clinical Practice, International Journal of Cardiology and Coronary Artery Disease,Japanese Circulation Journal  . He is a past recipient of the International Roche Chair in Cardiology and the 5-yearly Joseph Maisin award of the Fund of Scientific Research of Belgium and a past president of the Belgian Society of Cardiology. He served as the chairman of the European Society of Cardiology program committee for the annual congresses of 1997 and 1998 .In November 2006 he gave the Paul Dudley White International Lecture at the Scientific Sessions of the American Heart Association in Chicago.

Dr Van de Werf’s research interests include coronary reperfusion, antithrombotic therapies, left ventricular function, and cardiac imaging. As chairman of the Publications Committee he serves on the Board of the European Society of Cardiology . He is a member of the European Society of Cardiology  Subcommittee for Survey of Acute Coronary Syndromes and of the American Heart Association  Subcommittee for Acute Cardiac Care. He is also the chairman of the European Society of Cardiology Task Force for updating the guidelines for treatment of ST-elevation acute myocardial infarction. He is currently a fellow of the American College of Cardiology and an international fellow of the American Heart Association. He is the author or co-author of more then 500 peer-reviewed articles.

Director of Cardiac Hospitalization at the Sourasky Tel-Aviv Medical center, Israel.
Associate Editor: Heart Rhythm and Europace.
Editorial Consultant: The Lancet.
Editorial Board: Heart Rhythm, Journal of Cardiac Electrophysiology, PACE Pacing and Clinical Electrophysiology, Heart, Europace, Annals of Non-Invasive Electrocardiology.
Guest Editor: Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
Journal Reviewer: The Lancet, Circulation, Journal of the American College of Cardiology, American Heart Journal, American Journal of Cardiology, BMJ Case Reports, Circulation: Arrhythmia Electrophysiology, European Heart Journal, Nature Clinical Practice Cardiovascular Medicine, Heart Rhythm, Journal of Cardiac Electrophysiology, PACE Pacing and Clinical Electrophysiology, Heart, Europace, Annals of Non-Invasive Electrocardiology.
Publications: 104 publications, including The New England Journal of Medicine, The Lancet, Annals of Internal Medicine, Circulation, Journal of the American College of Cardiology, Heart Rhythm, Journal of Cardiac Electrophysiology, PACE Pacing and Clinical Electrophysiology, Heart, Europace

Joseph Woo received his undergraduate degree from the M.I.T. and his M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania where he was a member of the AOA Honor Society and was awarded the I.S. Ravdin prize in Surgery as the top Penn student.  Dr. Woo conducted his general surgery and cardiothoracic residencies at Penn, during which he won several teaching awards as well as the Surgical Scholar Award for scoring 99th percentile on the American Board of Surgery In-Training Exam.  Dr. Woo also completed a two year post-doctoral basic science research fellowship with H. Lee Sweeney, Ph.D. studying cardiac gene transfer and novel strategies of attenuating myocardial ischemia.  For his research, Dr. Woo was awarded the American Heart Association Vivien Thomas Young Investigator Award. 

Dr. Woo joined the faculty at Penn as Assistant Professor of Surgery and Director of the Minimally Invasive and Robotic Cardiac Surgery Program.  Dr. Woo performed the world’s first robotic aortic valve procedure.  Other areas of expertise include: off-pump coronary artery bypass, complex mitral valve repair, VAD implantation, and transplantation.  Dr. Woo was also appointed Associate Surgical Director of Thoracic Transplantation.  Dr. Woo has served as P.I. on multiple clinical trials as well as a translational study of implantation of a tissue engineered angiogenic cell sheet onto ischemic, non-graftable myocardium at the time of CABG.

Dr. Woo currently heads a NIH R01-funded basic science research laboratory studying angiogenic, myocardial regeneration, and tissue engineering strategies for the treatment of heart failure.  Dr. Woo has published several papers describing novel treatments for myocardial ischemia and heart failure and currently has 70 original peer-reviewed clinical and basic science publications.  Dr. Woo has served as a guest editor for Seminars in Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery and as a reviewer for JCI, JTCVS, ATS, and JMCC.