Session: Debates in sports Cardiology 2

Dr Antonio Pelliccia is a specialist in Cardiovascular Diseases and Sports Medicine. He is Head of the Cardiology Department of the Institute of Sports Medicine and Science of the Italian National Olympic Committee. Adjunct Professor of "Sports Cardiology" at the School of Specialization in Cardiovascular Diseases and Sports Medicine, University of L'Aquila and La Sapienza in Rome. Dr Pelliccia served as the Health Manager of the Italian mission to the Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake 2002, Turin 2006, Beijing 2008, Vancouver 2010 and London 2012. He is an associate professor in Medicine at TUFTS University, Boston. Dr Pelliccia is the author of numerous papers in international scientific journals (New Engl J Med, Circulation, JACC, Eur Hart J) on the cardiovascular physiopathology of exercise and sports activities. Past President of the European Association of Cardiovascular Prevention and Rehabilitation, of the European Society of Cardiology.

Dr. Jonathan Drezner is a Professor in the Department of Family Medicine and Director of the UW Medicine Center for Sports Cardiology at the University of Washington (Seattle, WA – USA). He serves as Editor-in-Chief of the British Journal of Sports Medicine, and he is Team Physician for the Seattle Seahawks (NFL), OL Reign (NWSL), and the University of Washington. Dr. Drezner is past-President of the American Medical Society for Sports Medicine (2012-13) and Director of the Division for Cardiac Injury in Sport for the National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research. Dr. Drezner has dedicated his career to the prevention of sudden cardiac arrest and death (SCA/D) in young athletes and the development of effective models for prevention. His primary research focuses on the incidence and etiology of SCA/D, cardiovascular screening and ECG interpretation in athletes, and emergency response planning and the use of automated external defibrillators (AEDs) in the school and athletic settings.

Since 2003, university professor Dr. Martin Halle is the medical director of the centre for prevention and sports medicine at the university hospital “Klinikum rechts der Isar” of the Technical University of Munich, Germany. He is specialized in internal medicine, cardiology and sports medicine as well as preventive cardiovascular medicine DGPR®. He is an expert in the field of “sports cardiology” (Certification German Cardiac Society) with a special expertise in cardiovascular disease prevention and rehabilitation. His scientific interest lies in prevention of and recovery from cardiovascular diseases, particularly in heart failure, by physical exercise. Internationally, he is one of the leading scientists in his field of research. Among other honors, Prof. Martin Halle was appointed President of the European Association of Preventive Cardiology (EAPC) of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) for the period of 2020-2022.

Dr. Börjesson is a professor at Göteborg University (Institute of Food, Nutrition and Sports Science and the Institute of Neuroscience and Physiology) and Sahlgrenska University Hospital. He is also Director of the Center for Health and Performance, Göteborg University, and a practicing physician in Östra, Goteborg with specialties in internal medicine and cardiology. Börjesson has served on many task forces and chaired multiple societies including the Sports Cardiology Section of the European Society of Cardiology (2008-10); Swedish Society of Exercise and Sports Medicine (2013-15), where he was also the president from 2015-17; and the Swedish Society of Cardiology (2016-18).

Dr. Meagan M. Wasfy MD MPH is a sports cardiologist in the Cardiovascular Performance Program at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts. She received her undergraduate degree from Harvard College and her medical degree from Harvard Medical School. She trained in internal medicine and cardiology at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Dr. Wasfy’s clinical practices focuses on the cardiovascular care of athletic and active individuals and on echocardiography. Dr. Wasfy is also active in research, with a focus on the use of cardiac imaging to characterize exercise-induced cardiac remodeling and the specific question of how to better distinguish between cardiac enlargement due to exercise versus that due to cardiac disease.

Dr Papadakis is an Assoc Professor in Cardiology at St George’s, University of London. He is the president-elect for the European Association of Preventive Cardiology and the past chair of the European section of Sports Cardiology and Exercise. He is consultant to the charity Cardiac Risk in the Young, English Institute of Sport, English and Wales Cricket Board and Rugby Football Union. His interests include sports cardiology, inherited cardiac diseases, cardiovascular disease prevention including prevention of sudden cardiac death in young and athletic individuals, heart failure and cardiac imaging. Dr Papadakis is currently credited with more than 100 publications in peer reviewed medical journals and numerous presentations in national and international conferences. He has contributed to international projects, including the creation of the Sports Cardiology curriculum, the criteria for the interpretation of the athlete’s ECG and the exercise guidelines in individuals with heart disease. In 2016 he launched a novel MSc degree in Sports Cardiology.

Sabiha Gati is a cardiologist at Guys and St Thomas's NHS Trust, London, UK.