Karason, Kristjan
(Gothenburg, Sweden)

Kristjan Karason is a specialist in internal medicine and cardiology, and senior lecturer in cardiology at the Gothenburg University. He is consultant in Cardiology and Transplantation at the Sahlgrenska University Hospital in Gothenburg. He is involved in various educational programs for the specialization schools and he is author of textbooks and over 100 scientific publications.

Harjola, Veli-Pekka
(Helsinki, Finland)

Veli-Pekka Harjola is Head of Division of Emergency Medicine in the Department of Emergency Medicine and Services of Helsinki University Hospital. He is also Associate Professor in the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Helsinki. He is author of 160 PubMed-listed papers and active member of the acute heart failure working group in ESC/Heart Failure Society. Veli-Pekka is also Vice President of the Finnish Society of Emergency Medicine and the Finnish Angiology Society. He is Fellow of the ESC and HFA. His expertise field in cardiology is heart failure and research interests are acute heart failure and venous thromboembolism. Veli-Pekka acts as the Principal Investigator of European multicentre study on cardiogenic shock, the CardShock Study.

Parissis, John
(Athens, Greece)

John Parissis is Associate Professor of Cardiology in the Second Department of Cardiology of Attikon General Hospital, University of Athens. He is head of ER of University of Athens. He is a fellow of the European Society of Cardiology and member of the ESC Heart Failure and Acute Cardiac Care Associations. He was member of the ESC committee for the national working groups or national societies on heart failure as well as member of the Task Force for Curriculum Heart Failure of the ESC Heart Failure Association. He is co-chair of the committee of acute heart failure of ESC HF association. Dr. Parissis has published 290 articles in Cardiology peer-review international journals. He is reviewer in 30 cardiology international journals including NEJM, Lancet, Circulation, JACC and European Heart Journal.

Pölzl, Gerhard
(Innsbruck, Austria)

Professor Gerhard Pölzl is Chief of the Heart Failure and Heart Transplant Program at the Medical University Innsbruck. His research is focused on clinical studies in advanced and chronic heart failure and on translational studies in cardiomyopathies. He has been Principal Investigator of the LevoRep clinical trial that tested the efficacy and safety of pulsed infusions of levosimendan in outpatients with advanced heart failure. He is currently P.I. of the clinical trial LEODOR, on repetitive use of levosimendan in advanced heart failure.

von Lewinski, Dirk (Graz, Austria)

Professor von Lewinski is interventional cardiologist and head of the ICU at the Dept. of Cardiology of the Medical University of Graz, Austria. He got his clinical training in Freiburg, Innsbruck, Göttingen and experienced scientific visits at the University of Sydney and Loyola University, Chicago. He has long lasting experience in treating acute and chronic heart failure and participated in multiple international trials. His main scientific interest, both in basic and clinical research, is to characterize underlying metabolic and energetic changes in failing myocardium.

Agostoni, Piergiuseppe (Milan, Italy)

Professor Piergiuseppe Agostoni is a cardiologist and a researcher. He is Professor of Cardiology at the University of Milan. He is director of the Cardiovascular Fellowship Program of the University of Milan. He is chief of the cardiorespiratory pathophysiology laboratory, head of the Heart failure Unit, and Coordinator of the Critical Care Cardiology Unit of Centro Cardiologico Monzino. He has authored over 800 publications, (> 300 in international journals with impact factor). He is president of CPX-International. He is a recognized international expert in the field of heart failure and cardiovascular research, for which he has won numerous awards.

Farmakis, Dimitrios (Athens, Greece)

MD, PhD, FESC, Associate Professor, University of Cyprus Medical School

Dr. Farmakis graduated from the University of Athens Medical School and Kapodistrian and received his Doctoral Degree from the same institution. He specialized in Cardiology at Athens University Hospital “Attikon” and was further trained in Cardio-Oncology at Bern University Hospital, Switzerland, in Heart Failure at Zurich University Medical School, Switzerland, and in Clinical Trials at Harvard Medical School, Boston, U.S.A.

He worked at the University of Athens Medical School between 2008–2017, where he was in charge of the Cardiac Clinic for Haemoglobinopathies at Athens University Hospital ”Laiko” (2012–2018) and of the Cardio-Oncology Clinic at Athens University Hospital “Attikon” (since 2015). Between 2017–2018, he worked as Assistant Professor of Pathophysiology at the European University of Cyprus Medical School, where he also served as director of the basic medical sciences program “Structure & Function in Health”. Since 2018, he is an Associate Professor of Physiology at the University of Cyprus Medical School, where he heads the Physiology lab and he also serves as the director of the Basic Medical Sciences Undergraduate Program “Phase II”.

His research activity has focused on heart failure, haemoglobinopathies, cardiovascular pharmacology and cardio-oncology. He has published 192 papers in international journals indexed in PubMed with a total impact factor of 1384, a total number of citations of 6655 (Google Scholar) and 5196 (Scopus) and an h index of 47 (Google Scholar) and 38 (Scopus). He has participated with abstracts in 218 international and national congresses. He has further contributed with 67 chapters to international and Greek educational textbooks, while he has been invited as a speaker or chairman in 150 international and national congresses. He has received grants for research protocols and programs and served as a primary investigator or steering committee member in research projects funded by the European Commission, while he sits on editorial boards of international medical journals and international guideline committees.

Dr. Farmakis is the immediate past President of the Working Group for Cardiomyopathies and Basic Research of the Hellenic Society of Cardiology, a Fellow of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC), a member of the Heart Failure Association (HFA) of the ESC, a member of the Cardio-Oncology Committee of the HFA, an ex-officio a member of the Board of the ESC Cardio-Oncology Council and a former member of the Board and Treasurer of the Hellenic College of Cardiology. Finally, Dr. Farmakis has received awards and distinctions from institutions such as Harvard Medical School, University of Athens Medical School and University of Patras Medical School.

García-Pinilla, José M. (Malaga, Spain)

Medicine and surgery graduate, University of Granada (Spain), 1996. Doctorade cum laude, University of Malaga (Spain), 2006. Cardiology specialist epidemiology and clinical investigation expertise, University of Granada (Spain), Heart failure master, San Antonio University (Murcia), 2015. Acute cardiovascular care master, San Antonio University (Murcia), 2014. Cardiovascular imagine master, Miguel Hernández University (Elche), 2014. Heart failure and familial cardiomyopathies unit coordinator, University hospital Virgen de la Victoria, Malaga (Spain). Senior investigator, Malaga Biomedicine Institute, Malaga (Spain). Collaborator investigator, Ciber-CV, Instituto de Salud Carlos III (Spain). President of Spanish working group of heart failure. Spanish society of cardiology.

Reinecke, Alexander (Kiel, Germany)

Senior physician, heart transplantation, heart failure and VAD-therapy, Clinic of Cardiology, University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein, Campus Kiel.

Dr. Reinecke specialized in IMC and ICU treatment and in particular in ambulatory long-term and patient-oriented stabilization of advanced and end-stage heart failure, including pharmacotherapy, device therapy, VAD, and cardiac transplantation. He has comprehensive experience with vasoactive drugs and treated in the past ten years more than 800 patients by more than 5,000 administrations of levosimendane.

Main research interests are heart failure, pulmonary hypertension and echocardiography. He is an invited speaker at international congresses and teaching courses in echocardiography.

Recio-Mayoral, Alejandro (Sevilla, Spain)

Alejandro Recio-Mayoral, MD, bachelor of Medicine and Surgery from the University of Seville.

Clinical cardiologist, tutor in charge of training Cardiologist and director of the Heart Failure and Pulmonary Hypertension Unit at the department of Cardiology of Virgen Macarena University Hospital in Seville. Active in the research fields of Inflammation and microvascular dysfunction, and Frailty and Acute Coronary Syndrome in the elderly.

He contributed to opinion papers on the Repetitive use of levosimendan in advanced heart failure and on the role of levosimendan in acute heart failure complicating acute coronary syndrome.

Yerly, Patrick (Lausanne, Switzerland)

Dr Patrick Yerly is consultant in the unit of advanced heart failure of the Lausanne University Hospital, which is the transplant center for the French speaking part of Switzerland. He is also in charge of pulmonary hypertension. After a first graduation in internal medicine, he completed his education in general cardiology in Lausanne with a special interest for heart failure. He then spent a 2 years fellowship at the Erasme Hospital of the free University of Brussels in Belgium by Prof R Naeije and JL Vachiéry to extend his knowledge and experience in hemodynamics. His research field is about heart failure and pulmonary hypertension.

Zima, Endre (Budapest, Hungary)

Associate Professor Zima is the head of Cardiac Intensive Care Unit of Heart and Vascular Centre of Semmelweis University. After achieving his MD degree in Semmelweis University he got his and a specialty in anesthesiology, intensive care medicine, and cardiology.

Dr Zima signed over 11 book chapters, 101 papers, edited 1 book. He has cumulative impact factor 129,176 and has 391 independent citations, with H-index 12, g-index 18.

He has an Accreditation of EHRA on CPG&ICDs, he is accredited AALS Instructor of ERC. He is Fellow of ESC, member of EHRA, ACCA, and is Board Member of Hungarian Society of Cardiology, WG on Cardiac Pacing, WG of Heart Failure of HSC.

Fields of interest: intensive cardiac care, CPR and PCAS, heart failure, device therapy of arrhythmias, defibrillator waveform& AED development.