Helmut Baumgartner
Institution:
Division of Adult Congenital and Valvular Heart Disease, Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, University Hospital Muenster, Germany
Current Appointment (since November 2007):
- Director, Division of Adult Congenital and Valvular Heart Disease, Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, University Hospital Muenster, Germany
- Full Professor (Cardiology/Adult Congenital Heart Disease), University of Muenster, Germany
Previous Appointments:
- Staff cardiologist, Dept. of Cardiology, Medical University – Vienna General Hospital since 1993- 2007
- Professor of Medicine / Cardiology, Medical University of Vienna 1993-2007
- Director, Adult Congenital Heart Disease and Acquired Valvular Heart Disease Program, Medical University of Vienna 1993-2007
- Director, Research Program on Adult Congenital Heart Disease and Acquired Valvular Heart Disease, Medical University of Vienna 1993-2007
- Director, In-Vitro Echocardiography Research Laboratory 1993-2007
- 1993 – 2001 Director, Echocardiography Laboratory, Dept. of Cardiology, Medical University of Vienna
- January 1, 1992 to September 30, 1993:
Staff cardiologist and Director, Echocardiography Laboratory
2nd Department of Internal Medicine / Cardiology
Krankenhaus der Barmherzigen Schwestern, Linz, Austria
Postgraduate Training:
- August 1, 1981 to December 31, 1983: Internship, Krankenhaus der Barmherzigen Schwestern , Linz and St. Pölten General Hospital, Austria
- July 1, 1984 to June 30, 1989: Residency/Fellowship, Internal Medicine; 1st and 2nd Dept. of Internal Medicine, Krankenhaus der Barmherzigen Schwestern, Linz, Austria
- July 1, 1989 to June 30, 1990: Research Fellowship, Division of Cardiology, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, USA
- July 1, 1990 to December 31, 1991: Clinical Fellowship in Cardiology; 2nd Dept. of Internal Medicine / Cardiology, Krankenhaus der Barmherzigen Schwestern, Linz, Austria
Research Activities:
- Clinical and basic research in the area of valvular heart disease and congenital heart disease
- Clinical and experimental research in echocardiography
- Catheter intervention in congenital and acquired valvular heart disease
- Myocardial viability
- More than 250 publications, of these more than 150 papers in peer-reviewed journals
Awards:
- Prof. Dr. Walter Pilgerstorfer Preis der Medizinischen Gesellschaft für Oberösterreich, 1991 (first author)
- Österreichischer Kardiologenpreis, 1992 (first author)
- Stefan-Schuy-Preis, 1994 (first author)
- Österreichischer Kardiologenpreis, 1997 (senior author)
- Österreichischer Kardiologenpreis (2), 2001 (senior author)
- Österreichischer Kardiologenpreis 2002 (senior author)
- Österreichische Kardiologische Gesellschaft: Best clinical abstracts (3), 2003 (senior author)
- Österreichischer Kardiologenpreis (clinical science) 2004 (senior author)
- Österreichische Kardiologische Gesellschaft: Best clinical abstracts (clinical science) 2004 (senior author)
- Österreichischer Kardiologenpreis (clinical science) 2005 (senior author)
- Österreichischer Kardiologenpreis (clinical science) 2006 (senior author)
Medical Societies / Fellowships / Journals:
- Austrian Society of Cardiology:
Chairman of the working group on adult congenital heart disease;
President of the Society 2005-2007 - European Society of Cardiology:
Board member 2006-2008
Nucleus member of the working group on grown-up congenital heart disease, co-chairman 2004-2006, chairman 2006 – 2008, past-chairman 2008-2010
Chairman, TF Practice guidelines on the management of grown-up congenital heart disease
Task forces and committees (Practice guidelines on the management of valvular heart disease, Education committee, Accreditation committee)
Clinical Practice Guidelines Committee (2010-2014)
Congress Programme Committee (2010-2014) - German Society of Cardiology
Guideline committees on the management of valvular heart disease and on adult congenital heart disease - Austrian Society of Biomedical Engineering
- International Society Adult Congenital Cardiac Disease (European representitive)
- Fellow of the American College of Cardiology (FACC)
- Fellow of the European Society of Cardiology (FESC)
- Member of the Ethics Committee of the Medical University of Vienna (until 2007)
- Associate Editor, European Heart Journal
- Editorial Board member, European Journal of Echocardiography, Journal Kardiologie
Michael Böhm
Institution:
University Saarland, Homburg/Saar, Germany
1977 – 1984 Medical School; Medical School of Hannover
1984 – 1986 Pharmacology; University of Hamburg
1986 – 1993 Internal Medicine and Cardiology; University of Munich
1993 – 2000 Professor of Cardiology; University of Cologne
2000 Professor of Internal Medicine and Cardiology; University of the Saarland, Homburg/Saar
Scientific Career
1980 – 1983 Head of Department of Internal Medicine, Pulmonology and Critical Care Medicine Thoraxklinik Heidelberg
Speciality certification:
1980 – 1983 Training in pharmacology in the Division of Biochemical Pharmacology at the Medical University of Hannover
1984 Doctoral thesis in the Medical Faculty at the Medical University of Hannover (Dept. Biochemical Pharmacol)
1984 – 1986 Resident of the Division of General Pharmacology at the University Hospital of Eppendorf of the University of Hamburg
1986 – 1993 Resident at the Medizinische Klinik I, Klinikum Großhadern, Department of Internal Medicine and Cardiology, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
1992 Certification of Internal Medicine
1993 Assistant Professor of Cardiology at the Klinik III für Innere Medizin, University of Cologne
1993 Certification of Cardiology
1994 Heisenberg-Programm of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)
1995 – 2000 C3-Professorship for Internal Medicine and Cardiology, Innere Medizin III, University of the Cologne
2000 C4-Professorship and Director for Internal Medicine, Cardiology, Angiology and Intensiv Care Medicine, University of the Saarland, Homburg/Saar
2007 President Elect of the German Cardiac Society
2009 President of the German Cardiac Society
2010 Board member and Chairman of the Scientific Program Committee of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC)
2012 Honorary member and medal of merit of the Hungaria Society of Cardiology
2012 Order and Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
Scientific Journals
Chief Editor: Clinical Research in Cardiology
Consulting Editor: Basic Research in Cardiology
Editorial Board: Cardiovascular Research, Cardiovascular Drugs and Therapy, European Heart Journal
Reviewer: Circulation, Circulation Research, Hypertension, Lancet, European Journal of Heart Failure, European Heart Journal and others
Trial Experience
National Coordinator: COMET, CORONA, ONTARGET, TRANSCEND, SENIORS, ESSENTIAL
Executive Board: SHIFTDSMBRECORD
Steering Committee: CORONA, ONTARGET, TRANSCEND, SENIORS, ESSENTIAL, ASTRONAUT
Principal Investigator: OPTILINK, EDIfY
Julie De Backer
Institution:
Ghent University Hospital, Belgium
Julie De Backer, MD, PhD, FESC, is a genetic cardiologist at Ghent University Hospital, Belgium. She heads the Adult Congenital Heart Disease (ACHD) clinic and coordinates interdisciplinary programs for ACHD & Heritable Thoracic Aortic Disease (HTAD) patients, with a focus on patient centered care.
She is appointed full professor at the Ghent University. Her translational research focuses on in-depth cardiovascular profiling in Marfan syndrome and HTAD, exploring geno/phenotype relationships.
She is an active member of VASCERN, the ESC Aorta and Peripheral Vascular Disease Working Group, and the Montalcino Aortic Consortium. She co-chaired the 2020 ESC guidelines for ACHD and the 2025 ESC guidelines for CVD and pregnancy .
Explore her scientific publications here: https://biblio.ugent.be/person/801001584995
Victoria Delgado Garcia
Institution:
University Hospital Germans Trias i Pujol and Centre of Competitive Medicine and Bioimaging in Badalona, Spain
Dr. Victoria Delgado is currently the head of the cardiovascular imaging department of the Heart Institute at the University Hospital Germans Trias i Pujol and scientific director of the Centre of Competitive Medicine and Bioimaging in Badalona, Spain. She graduated in medical school at the University of Barcelona (Spain), accomplished her training in Cardiology at the Hospital Clinic in Barcelona (Spain) and followed a 3-year fellowship at the Leiden University Medical Center (The Netherlands) where she was appointed as cardiologist with expertise on multimodality imaging from 2010 till 2021. She obtained her PhD degree cum laude in 2010 at the Leiden University with the thesis entitled Novel Cardiac Imaging Technologies: Implications in Clinical Decision Making.
She has more than 800 per-reviewed publications, and an H-factor of 90. She has contributed to more than 20 textbooks, including the worldwide recognized landmark book Hurst’s The Heart, 15th edition. She has been co-promotor of 17 PhD students and currently supervises 6 PhD fellows.
She has been Associate Editor of the Journal of American Society of Echocardiography and she is currently Senior Editor of Circulation. She has been very much involved at the European Society of Cardiology, in several task force of guidelines, in the Clinical Practice Guidelines Committee, European Observational Registry Programme and ESC Congress programme committee. She has been councilor of the ESC Board and is currently the President-elect of the European Association of Cardiovascular Imaging.
Fernando Domínguez
Institution:
Hospital Universitario Puerta de Hierro–Majadahonda, Spain
Fernando Domínguez is a cardiology consultant at the Inherited Cardiac Disease and Heart Failure Unit at Hospital Universitario Puerta de Hierro–Majadahonda in Madrid, Spain. He specializes in in inherited cardiac disease, cardiomyopathies, and heart failure, bringing a broad clinical expertise to his practice.
Dr Domínguez earned his medical degree from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid and subsequently completed his PhD in Medicine at Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. His doctoral research, focused on the clinical and therapeutic aspects of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, earned him an extraordinary mention for the best PhD thesis of 2017. He completed his cardiology residency at Hospital Universitario Puerta de Hierro–Majadahonda, with an external rotation at the Cardiomyopathy Unit of Charité Hospital in Berlin. He further honed his expertise as a fellow at the Inherited Cardiac Disease at his current institution and as a researcher at the National Cardiovascular Research Center (CNIC).
With over 90 peer-reviewed publications, Dr Domínguez Rodríguez is recognized for his contributions to the clinical management of inherited cardiac disease and various cardiomyopathies, including cardiac amyloidosis. He is an active member of various professional organizations, including the Sociedad Española de Cardiología (SEC), where he serves as the Coordinator of the Myocarditis Working Group. Dr Domínguez is also a member of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) and the Heart Failure Association of ESC (HFA) and a nucleus member of the Cardiogenomics group. Within the HFA, he contributes to the Scientific Committee on Cardiomyopathies, Myocarditis, and Pericardial Disease, particularly in the Study Group on Heart Failure in Inflammatory Cardiomyopathies. Additionally, he is a member of the ESC Working Group on Myocardial and Pericardial Diseases.
Andre Keren
Institution:
Heart Failure and Heart Muscle Disease Center, Hadassah University Hospital, Jerusalem, Israel
Andre Keren is Professor Emeritus of Medicine (Cardiology) at Hadassah-Hebrew University School of Medicine Professional Activities
1982-1984 Post Doctoral Fellow, Cardiology Division, Department of Medicine, Stanford University Hospital, Stanford, California, USA.
1993-1994 Visiting Associate Professor, Department of Medicine, Division of Cardiology, Stanford University Hospital, Stanford, California, USA. 1997-2001 Chairman of the Working Group on Myocardial and Pericardial Diseases of the Israeli Society of Cardiology
1999 – 2006 Director, Department of Cardiology, Bikur Cholim Hospital, Jerusalem, affiliated with the Hebrew University – Hadassah Medical School, Jerusalem, Israel
1999-2006 Chairman of the Jerusalem Heart Chapter of the Israel Heart Society
2001- 2004 Chairman of the National Board of Examinations in Cardiology 2006 Visiting Professor, University College of London Hospitals, London, United Kingdom
2006 – 2008 Member of the Task Force of the European Society of Cardiologyfor Guidelines of “Diagnosis and Treatment of Acute and Chronic Heart Failure 2008”.
2006- 2008 Chairman of the Working Group of Myocardial and Pericardial Diseases, of the European Society of Cardiology
2006 – 2015 Director, Heart Failure and Heart Muscle Disease Center, Hadassah-Hebrew University Hospital, Jerusalem, Israel
2014- Coordinator of National Society Meetings in the Congress Program Committee of the European Society of Cardiology
2013- Member, National Committee of Medical Accreditation of the Health Ministry 2013 – Official representative of the Israel Heart Society in the Israeli Ministry of Health Committee for revision of the regulations of athletes’ screening
2015 – Member of the National Cardiology Advisory Board of the Ministry of Health 2015- Senior Cardiologist, Hadassah-Hebrew University Hospital, Dept of Cardiology
2015 – Director of Heart Failure Services, Clalit HMO, Jerusalem District
2015 – Director of Heart Institute, Assuta Hashalom Tel Aviv, Assuta Hospitals
Fellowships: Fellow of the European Society of Cardiology, American College of Cardiology, American Heart Association Council on Cardiovascular Sciences, Israel Heart Society, International Society of Cardiovascular Ultrasound, Honorary Member of the Romanian Society of Cardiology
Publications Over 170 published papers in peer-reviewed journals
Konstantinos Koskinas
Institution:
Dyslipidemia Center, Department of Cardiology at Bern University Hospital, Bern, Switzerland
After receiving his MD from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, he completed research fellowships at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, USA, a clinical Cardiology fellowship at Hippokration University Hospital, Thessaloniki, Greece, and an interventional Cardiology fellowship at Bern University Hospital, Bern, Switzerland.
Dr. Koskinas has served as member of the 2020-2022 and 2022-2024 European Society of Cardiology Clinical Practice Guidelines (ESC CPG) Committee, task force member of the 2019 ESC/EAS dyslipidaemia guidelines and 2021 ESC guidelines for cardiovascular prevention, coordinator of the 2024 ESC guidelines on chronic coronary syndromes, and Co-Chair of the 2025 ESC/EAS dyslipidaemia guidelines update and the 2027 ESC guidelines on obesity and cardiovascular disease. He is currently Board Member and Chair of the Education Committee of the European Association of Preventive Cardiology (EAPC).
Dr. Koskinas’s main research interests include risk factors of atherosclerosis, intracoronary imaging, and coronary artery disease. He has published peer-reviewed articles in international journals including JAMA, Circulation, the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, and the European Heart Journal among others.
Irene Marthe Lang
Institution:
Medical University of Vienna, Austria
Professor Irene Lang is Head of Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory, Head of the Pulmonary Hypertension Outpatient Clinic at the Medical University of Vienna and Deputy Director of the Clinical Department of Cardiology.
Professor Lang’s basic and clinical research include Thrombosis and Vascular Biology, Pulmonary Hypertension and Coronary Artery Disease and ACS. Her main therapeutic areas are Stable Ischemic Heart Disease, Myocardial Infarction, Pulmonary Hypertension, Thrombosis, Vascular Biology, and Heart Failure.
Felix Mahfoud
Institution:
University Hospital Basel, Switzerland
Felix Mahfoud is Head of Department and Professor of Cardiology at University Basel, Switzerland. Professor Mahfoud holds board certifications in internal medicine, cardiology, intensive care medicine, emergency medicine, and hypertension. He is member of several editorial boards and serves as Secretary of the Council on Hypertension of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC)‚ PCR Board of Director and program committee member (topic coordinator hypertension) of the ESC congress 2023 & 2024. He has authored more than 460 articles in peer reviewed journals and was writing committee member of the 2019 ESC Guidelines for the diagnosis and management of chronic coronary syndromes, the 2018 ESC/ESH Guidelines for the management of arterial hypertension, and the 2023 ESH Guidelines for the management of arterial hypertension.
Christian Sticherling
Institution:
Department of Cardiology of the University Hospital Basel, Switzerland
Christian Sticherling is professor of Cardiology, Head of Electrophysiology and Deputy Chief of the Department of Cardiology of the University Hospital Basel, Switzerland. He received his MD from the University of Heidelberg, Germany. He completed his training in cardiology at the University of Frankfurt and the Charité University Hospital in Berlin. For his fellowship in Invasive Electrophysiology he spent 2 years at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, MI.
Professor Sticherling is an active member of EHRA as well as of the ESC, serves in the editorial board of Europace, is past-president of the working group “Cardiac Pacing and Electrophysiology” of the Swiss Society of Cardiology and the acting president of the Swiss Rhythmology Foundation.
He authored more than 330 peer-reviewed articles and was in the writing committee of the 2022 ESC guidelines for the management of patients with ventricular arrhythmias and the prevention of sudden cardiac death. His research interests include risk stratification of sudden cardiac death, invasive therapy of atrial fibrillation and the role of wearables for the diagnosis and monitoring of cardiac arrhythmias.
Arian Sultan
Institution:
ASKLEPIOS Clinic St. Georg, Hamburg, Germany
Professor of Cardiology and Internal Medicine Arian Sultan, M.D., FEHRA, Head of Electrophysiology, Heart Center St. Georg Hamburg, Department of Cardiology and Internal Intensive Care Medicine, ASKLEPIOS Clinic St. Georg, Germany.
Med School 1997-2004 University of Hamburg, Germany, USA, Chile. Residency, Fellowship and Board Certification at University Heart Center Hamburg-Eppendorf 2004 – 2014.
In 2014 senior consultant at the University Heart Center Cologne.
2022 – 2025 Co-Head of the EP-Department at the University Heart Center Cologne.
Since 2025 Head of Electrophysiology at the Heart Center St. Georg Hamburg, ASKLEPIOS Clinic St. Georg
2019-2021 DAS-CAM EHRA Class.
2020-2022 ESC Alumni Task Force Member.
2022-2024 EHRA SIC Committee Member.
Co-leading the women in EP initiative Germany, Swiss, Austria. Reviewer for international journals (e.g. EHJ, JACCEP, JCE, IJC), Since 2021 FEHRA (Fellow of European Society of Cardiology). Course director for the preparatory allied professional course EHRA 2022. Course director for the preparatory EHRA Exam course EHRA 202.
Wojciech Wojakowski
Institution:
Medical University of Silesia, Katowice, Poland
Chief of Division of Cardiology and Structural Heart Diseases, Medical University of Silesia
Interventional cardiologist with over 20 years of experience in coronary and structural interventions (mitral and tricuspid TEER, investigational valve replacement devices, TAVI, LAA occlusion, PFO/ASD closure, and renal denervation.
Research focuses on intravascular imaging with OCT and the identification of vulnerable plaques.
Co-author of ESC Guidelines on valvular heart disease and cardiovascular assessment and management of patients undergoing non-cardiac surgery. Member of the ESC Clinical Practice Guidelines Committee, and EAPCI.
