EPIC 2022, August 18-19

Adam Greenbaum, MD, joined Emory after serving at Henry Ford Heart and Vascular Institute in Detroit, Michigan for the past 19 years as Co-director of the Center for Structural Heart Disease, Director of the Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory and Director of the Interventional Fellowship Program. He has dedicated his career to patient care, clinical research and fellow and resident education. Dr. Greenbaum has received numerous patient care and teaching awards, and is recognized as a clinical expert in the field of structural heart disease. His breakthrough research surrounding structural heart problems and the minimally invasive techniques he developed as a result, gives patients new treatment options. And his novel transcatheter methods and approaches to valvular heart disease bring new hope to patients with no other options. He is board certified in general and interventional cardiology and is a Fellow of the American College of Cardiology, the American Heart Association and the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions. Dr. Greenbaum graduated from the New York University School of Medicine in New York, NY. He completed his internal medicine training at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, MI and his general and interventional cardiology training at Duke University in Durham, NC.

Ajay J. Kirtane, MD, SM, is a Professor of Medicine at Columbia University Medical Center and Director of the Cardiac Catheterization Laboratories at New York Presbyterian Hospital. Dr. Kirtane is a graduate of Princeton University and Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, and completed his residency in Internal Medicine at the University of California – San Francisco. Dr. Kirtane is a practicing Cardiologist with an interest in coronary and peripheral intervention and assumed the directorship of the NYP/Columbia cardiac catheterization laboratories in 2015. In addition to his clinical commitments at CUMC, Dr. Kirtane has a strong interest in clinical education and research, serving as Chief Academic Officer of the Center for Interventional Vascular Therapy. On the national and international level, he is a co-director of the Cardiovascular Research Foundation’s Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics meeting, has served as a director of several international, national, and regional educational meetings, and has participated on the program committees for the scientific sessions of both the American College of Cardiology and American Heart Association. Dr. Kirtane’s research interests are in clinical trial methodology and outcomes of device-based and pharmacologic interventions in Interventional Cardiology. He has authored/co-authored >150 original manuscripts and >50 reviews and chapters including the “Coronary Stenting” chapters of the two most widely used textbooks in Interventional Cardiology.

Works at Montefiore Medical Center, New York, NY, US. Features in 40 videos on Wondr Medical. Azeem Latib generally speaks on Bioresorbable Vascular Scaffold (BVS), Drug Eluting Stents (DES), Intravascular Ultrasound (IVUS), Bifurcation, and Intracoronary Imaging.

Dr Catalin Toma is the Director of Interventional Cardiology for the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, as well as the Director of the Interventional Fellowship Program. His practice focuses on coronary chrnic total occlusion PCI, acute and chronic interventional treatment of pulmonary embolism and structural heart disease with a focus on transcatheter aortic valve replacement .

Chandan Devireddy MD, Associate Professor of Medicine at Emory University, also serves as Director of the Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory at Emory University Hospital Midtown and as Associate Director of the Emory Interventional Cardiology Fellowship program. After graduating from University of Michigan Medical School, he completed Internal Medicine residency training at Duke University followed by Cardiology and Interventional Cardiology fellowship training at Emory University. As Emory faculty, his research interests are focused on novel catheter therapies for structural heart disease, catheter based autonomic modulation for hypertension, and minimally invasive solutions for complex vascular disease with multiple publications in high-impact journals. He is a fellow of ACC and SCAI.

A staff clinician, adult interventional cardiologist at National Heart Lung and Blood Institute at NIH. Features in 2 videos on Wondr Medical. Christopher G. Bruce generally speaks on Live Cases.

Dimitrios Karmpaliotis, MD, PhD is a member of the Center for Interventional Vascular Therapy at Columbia University Medical Center since 2014. He has served as the director of Chronic Total Occlusions, Complex and High Risk Angioplasty Program at NYPH/CUMC and is an Associate Professor of Medicine at Columbia University Medical School. Dr. Karmpaliotis graduated from the University of Athens School of Health Sciences in Greece (1996). He trained in Internal Medicine at Brown University School of Medicine, Critical Care Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women's Hospital (Harvard Medical School). He then trained in Cardiology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (Harvard Medical School) and Interventional Cardiology at Emory University. Before coming to Columbia University, Dr. Karmpaliotis was instrumental in building a world-class interventional cardiology program at Piedmont Heart Center in Atlanta, Georgia. Dr. Karmpaliotis has served as principal investigator on more than 50 clinical trials, and has more than 200 publications in peer-reviewed journals, with special interest in the development of techniques for treating chronic total occlusions in coronary arteries, Left Main Interventions and Advanced Hemodynamic Support. As part of the CIVT faculty, Dr. Karmpaliotis developed master-technician training programs, co-directed the complex coronary fellowship program at NYPH/CUMC, and has been an associate director of Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutic Conference, as well as a co-director of the CTO Summit.

George S. Hanzel, MD has joined Emory Healthcare and Emory University School of Medicine as an Associate Professor of Medicine. He is certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine in Cardiovascular Diseases and Interventional Cardiology. A graduate of Georgetown University School of Medicine in Washington, D.C., Dr. Hanzel completed his internship at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, his residency at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and then his cardiology fellowship at the National Naval Medical Center. Dr. Hanzel then served in the United States Navy, Lieutenant Commander, as a staff cardiologist at the Great Lakes Naval Hospital from 1999 to 2002. He completed an interventional cardiology fellowship in June 2004 at Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, Michigan. Dr. Hanzel then joined the Beaumont Hospital Royal Oak cardiology faculty in 2004 serving as Director of the Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory, Director of Structural Heart Disease, and associate professor at Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine until 2020. Dr. Hanzel's clinical and research interests include transcatheter aortic valve replacement, transcatheter therapies for mitral and tricuspid valve disease, alcohol septal ablation, and septal closure. Dr. Hanzel is a member of the STS/ACC Transcatheter Valve Therapy Registry Steering Committee and the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions Structural Heart Disease Council.

Gregg W. Stone, MD, FACC, MSCAI is an interventional cardiologist and Director of Academic Affairs for the Mount Sinai Heart Health System and Professor of Medicine (Cardiology) and Professor of Population Health Sciences and Policy at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, NY. Dr. Stone has served as the national or international principal investigator for more than 120 national and international multicenter randomized trials (many of which have led to new device approval or indications in the US), has authored more than 2000 manuscripts and abstracts published in the peer-reviewed literature, and has delivered thousands of invited lectures around the world. With a 2018 H-factor of 152, Dr. Stone was recently listed in Nature Medicine as one of the most prolific authors in science. Dr. Stone's areas of expertise include interventional therapies of acute coronary syndromes, myocardial infarction and cardiogenic shock; drug-eluting stents and bioresorbable scaffolds; left main and complex coronary artery disease intervention; antiplatelet and antithrombotic pharmacotherapies; transcatheter valve repair and replacement; interventional hypertension and heart failure therapies; left atrial appendage closure; intravascular imaging (IVUS, OCT and NIRS); vulnerable plaque diagnosis and treatment; adjunctive interventional devices including atherectomy, distal embolic protection, thrombectomy, covered stents, chronic total occlusion devices, and brachytherapy; saphenous vein graft therapies; contrast nephropathy; clinical trial design; and regulatory issues. Dr. Stone is the director of TCT, the world's largest symposium devoted to interventional cardiology and vascular medicine. Dr. Stone founded the annual National Interventional Cardiology Fellow's Course and Transcatheter Valve Therapies TVT), the Chronic Total Occlusion (CTO) Summit, and co-directs multiple other meetings in the US, China, Russia, Europe, S. Korea and elsewhere.

Isida Byku, MD, FACC is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Emory University, specializing in coronary and structural heart intervention. Dr. Byku also serves as the fellowship program director for the Structural Heart and Valve fellowship. After receiving her medical degree from Dartmouth Medical School, Dr. Byku completed residency training in internal medicine at the Johns Hopkins Hospital, followed by fellowship training in cardiovascular disease at the University of Chicago. She then came to Emory for a two-year fellowship in interventional cardiology and structural heart and valve disease, upon completion of which she joined as faculty. As a member of the cutting-edge structural team at Emory, Dr. Byku's areas of interest include advancements in the field of transcatheter therapies for structural heart and valve disease.

Jaffar Khan is a Staff Clinician at the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute at NIH. He completed his interventional cardiology fellowship at Medstar Washington Hospital Center. He has a special interest in transcatheter electrosurgery for structural heart disease. Working closely with colleagues at the NHLBI and at Emory University, he has developed the LAMPOON, BASILICA, PASTA, antePASTA, TASTI, and ELASTIC procedures, and worked on developing devices for mitral cerclage and transcaval closure.

Jai Khatri is a cardiologist at Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH, USA.

Dr. James Harvey, MD, FACC is an Interventional Cardiologist with WellSpan Health. He attended undergraduate and graduate school at Vanderbilt University and then went to medical school at the University of South Florida College of Medicine. Dr. Harvey then did his residency training in Internal Medicine at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, GA and completed fellowship training in both Cardiovascular Medicine and Interventional Cardiology at the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, OH where he served as the chief interventional fellow. Board-certified in Cardiovascular Medicine and Interventional Cardiology, Dr. Harvey has a special interest in structural and valvular heart disease, complex coronary artery disease, and mechanical cardiovascular circulatory support. He is the Director of the Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory and the Structural Heart Program at WellSpan York Hospital. He also serves as a member of the Executive Council for the Pennsylvania Chapter of the American College of Cardiology.

Director, Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory, University of Washington Medical Center Section Chief, Interventional Cardiology Attending Physician, University of Washington Medical Center

Jason Foerst, MD is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Virginia Tech-Carilion School of Medicine and the Director of the Structural Heart and Valve Program at Carilion Clinic in Roanoke, Va. He completed his residency, cardiology and interventional cardiology training at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center and Structural Fellowship at the University of Duesseldorf, Germany. He is the PI for numerous clinical trials including collaborations with the NIH and Emory studying transcaval access, LAMPOON, Mitral CERCLAGE and SESAME.

An internationally recognized interventional cardiologist, Dr. Moses has performed more than 15,000 interventional procedures, authored over 600 publications, and served as lead investigator for numerous national and international clinical studies that have demonstrated the effectiveness and safety of coronary stent placement. In 2002, Dr. Moses was the lead investigator on a large clinical trial, the first in the U.S. that demonstrated the enormous benefit that led to FDA approval of the first drug-coated stent now used in the majority of interventional procedures in the U.S. Most recently in on the Executive Committee of PARTNER trial; they brought the first transcatheter aortic valve to clinical use in the U.S. He currently serves as Director of Interventional Cardiovascular Therapeutics at Columbia University Medical Center and as Director of Advanced Cardiac Interventions at St Francis Hospital and Heart Center in Roslyn, NY. He is also a pioneer in developing approaches involving minimally invasive surgery, angioplasty, gene therapy, novel imaging technologies and various support devices that allow for wider application of interventional cardiovascular procedures.

Dr. Douglas is Professor of Medicine and Director of the Interventional Cardiology Fellowship Program at Emory University. He is a graduate of the University of the South and received his M.D. degree from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. He completed residency in Internal Medicine at the University of North Carolina and at Emory University. Dr. Douglas was a Lieutenant Commander in the United States Navy Medical Corps and served at the Camp Lejeune Marine Corps Base and in An Hoa, South Vietnam. In 1980 Dr. Douglas was a member of the team that performed the first coronaryangioplasty at Emory University Hospital and in 1987 the first coronary stent in the United States . Dr Douglas was a partner of the late Andreas Gruentzig, the inventor of coronary angioplasty and participated in the development of current coronary angioplasty and stent techniques. He has mentored over one hundred and fifty interventional cardiology fellows. He is a Fellow and prior member of the Board of Governors of the American College of Cardiology and Society for Cardiac Angiography and Intervention and is currently listed in Castle Connolly Guide of America’s Top Doctors, Atlanta’s Top Doctors and The Best Doctors in America. He received the American College of Cardiology Lifetime Achievement Award, the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the University of the South and the SCAI Mason F. Sones, Jr., MD, Distinguished Service Award.

John Lisko is a research fellow at Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA, USA.

Kendra J Grubb, M.D., M.H.A, F.A.C.C joined the Emory faculty in 2018. She is an Associate Profesor, Department of Surgery, and serves as the Surgical Director of the Structural Heart and Valve Center. She completed a fellowship in cardiothoracic surgery at the University of Virginia in 2012 and subsequenlty trained in interventional cardiology at Columbia University - NYPH.

Dr. Kevin J. Croce is an interventional cardiologist and the director of the Chronic Total Occlusion Complex Percutaneous Coronary Intervention Program at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH). He is an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School (HMS) who also directs the BWH Translational Discovery Laboratory which is a centralized research facility that uses state-of-the-art technology to perform preclinical testing of promising therapies and medical devices. Dr. Croce received his medical and Ph.D. degrees from Tufts University School of Medicine. He completed an internal medicine residency, a cardiology fellowship and an interventional cardiology fellowship at BWH. Dr. Croce is board certified in internal medicine, cardiovascular disease and interventional cardiology. His clinical interests include advanced treatments for obstructive coronary artery disease (CAD), and optimization of antithrombotic and antiplatelet pharmacotherapy. The author of over 50 peer-reviewed publications, Dr. Croce’s research focuses on understanding the molecular pathobiology of atherothrombotic (CAD) and on identifying new targets for CAD treatment. His research has received support from the National Institutes of Health.

Dr. Reisman received his Medical Degree from Sackler School of Medicine, New York State Program. He did his Internship at Robert Wood Johnson Hospital in New Brunswick. He finished both Residency in Internal Medicine and Cardiology Fellowship at St. Luke’s Roosevelt Hospital in New York. Dr. Reisman completed Interventional Cardiology at University of California San Diego Medical Center in San Diego. Dr. Reisman has a very productive career as exemplified by authorship and co-authorship of over 100 publications. He is a highly regarded practitioner in the field of interventional cardiology and a leader in national education forum. Dr. Reisman serves as Director of Structural Heart Disease at Weill Cornell Medicine

Martin B. Leon, MD is Professor of Medicine at Columbia University Irving Medical Center (CUIMC). Dr. Leon is also Director of Columbia Interventional Cardiovascular Care, Director of the Cardiac Catheterization Laboratories, and is on the Executive Board of the Columbia Structural Heart & Valve Center. He is a practicing interventional cardiologist at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital in New York City. Dr. Leon is also the Founder and Chairman Emeritus of the Cardiovascular Research Foundation. Dr. Leon has served as principal investigator for over 50 clinical trials that have helped shape the field of interventional cardiovascular medicine, including the following studies: STRESS, STARS, Gamma-one, SIRIUS, ENDEAVOR, and most recently, the PARTNER trial, studying the value of transcatheter valve therapy for patients with aortic stenosis. Dr. Leon has co-authored over 1550 publications, has performed over 10,000 interventional procedures, and has had a major impact as a thought-leader and innovator in the expanding sub-specialty of interventional cardiovascular device and drug therapies. He is the Director and Founder of Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT), the world’s premier interventional cardiovascular meeting, which recently celebrated its 24th anniversary. Dr. Leon has also served as Director or Co-Director of more than 100 international educational programs in areas of interventional cardiology. Dr. Leon has received 10 international career achievement awards and was awarded an honorary degree from the University of Athens.

Dr. Rinaldi has worked as an interventional cardiologist and vascular interventionalist for the Sanger Heart and Vascular Institute (SHVI) at Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte NC. He held the leadership position of Director of Clinical Research for SHVI for over a decade. He holds an appointment as Professor of Medicine at UNC. He earned his medical degree from Cornell University and completed his internal medicine residency and cardiology and interventional cardiology fellowships at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center / Harvard Medical School in Boston, MA. He also completed a Peripheral Vascular Medicine Fellowship at St. Elizabeth's Medical Center in Boston and the Course in Clinical Effectiveness from the Harvard School of Public Health. He has served as an investigator for more than 50 clinical trials and has authored or co-authored more than 60 publications and 90 abstracts including in journals such as the NEJM, Lancet, JACC, and Circulation. He has served on faculty at most major cardiovascular conference in the US and serves on the DSMB and CEC of several clinical trials. He holds expertise in the fields of coronary intervention, peripheral intervention, and structural heart intervention including trans-catheter mitral valve repair, transcatheter aortic valve replacement and left atrial appendage occlusion.

Nicholas J. Lembo, MD, is an interventional cardiologist affiliated with NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center. He received his medical degree from Howard University College of Medicine in Washington, DC. Dr. Lembo completed his internship and residency at Georgetown University Hospital in Washington, DC, a cardiology fellowship at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio, Texas and an interventional cardiology fellowship at the Andreas Gruentzig Cardiovascular Center, Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia.

Nikoloz Shekiladze is an epic course director at Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA, USA.

Dr. Olga Toleva graduated Medicine in Sofia, Bulgaria, and completed Family Medicine residency at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. She subsequently practiced as a Family physician and after a year in practice entered the Internal Medicine residency program at UBC, Vancouver. Dr. Toleva completed her training in Adult Cardiology and Interventional cardiology at the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada. During her cardiology fellowship she also completed Masters in Public Health at The Harvard School of Public Health. Dr. Toleva worked as an Assistant Professor in the University of Manitoba and an Interventional Cardiologist at St. Boniface Hospital from 2014 until March 2021. She was involved in Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement (TAVR) and coronary physiology. She focused on outcomes research, frailty, and quality of life assessments in the older adults who are the predominant population requiring TAVR. Dr. Olga Toleva just moved to the US and is a new Interventional Cardiologist at Emory Healthcare, primarily located at Emory St. Joseph's Hospital. She is involved in Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement (TAVR) and coronary physiology microvascular dysfunction invasive testing in the cardiac catheterization laboratory. Dr. Toleva has a strong interest in Women's Heart Health with clinical work and research related to the diagnosis and therapy of Spontaneous Coronary Artery Dissection (SCAD), Myocardial infarction without obstructive coronary artery disease (MINOCA), and Micro Vascular Dysfunction (MVD) - chest pain syndromes without obstructive coronary disease. She will be part of the Emory Women's Heart Health Clinic focusing on the care of patients and performing research in the area. These conditions are predominantly seen in women and continue to be poorly understood and under-treated. Dr. Toleva has a high volume PCI and TAVR practice and is very active in the world of coronary and structural heart research and innovation.

Pratik Sandesara is a Complex and High-Risk Interventional Procedures (CHIP) fellow and a Senior Associate at Emory University School of Medicine. He graduated from the combined 6-year BA/MD program at University of Missouri-Kansas City. He went on to complete internal medicine residency and general and interventional cardiology fellowships at Emory University. His areas of clinical interest are complex coronary intervention including chronic total occlusion PCI, structural heart intervention (TAVR, ASD and PFO closure) and coronary intravascular imaging.

Rhian E. Davies DO, MS, FACC is an Interventional Cardiologist at WellSpan Health in York, PA where she focuses on high risk PCI and the treatment of coronary CTO. Dr. Davies completed her undergraduate studies and medical training in Philadelphia PA before going on to complete her internal medicine and general cardiology training at Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center in Hershey PA. She then went on to Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University in Providence RI to complete her interventional cardiology training. Dr. Davies completed a year of advanced training with a focus on high risk PCI and the treatment of chronic total occlusions at the University of Washington Medical Center in Seattle.

Robert Lederman works at National Institutes of Health/National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, Bethesda, MD, USA.

Dr Simon Walsh has been working as a Consultant Cardiologist at the Belfast Trust for over 10 years. It is one of the largest NHS trusts in the UK. The centre performs ~2750 PCI per year, with 650-700 STEMI and calcium modification in ~10% of our PCI cases. Dr Walsh also works internationally as an educator, teaching advanced techniques for complex PCI and CTO PCI. This involves training visiting Cardiologists in Belfast retrograde CTO techniques, antegrade dissection and re-entry CTO techniques and other advanced PCI procedures. He has visited multiple centres in the UK, Ireland, Europe, Australia, Asia and North America to act as a visiting proctor for complex PCI and CTO PCI cases. Dr Walsh’s research interests include PCI, coronary artery disease, defibrillation, acute coronary syndromes and chronic total occlusions. Research responsibilities have included acting as a recruiting investigator for the >25 multicentre studies over the last 17 years. He acted as a primary investigator for numerous international trials including the Evolve, Noble, Leaders Free and Ischemia multicentre studies. He has been the lead UK investigator for the October trial, Syntax 2, Recharge and Ischaemia-CTO. He is also the Chief Investigator for the Consistent CTO, Celtic Bifurcation and Discrete CTO trials.

An interventional cardiologist at McGill University Health Centre, Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Features in 4 videos on Wondr Medical. Stephane Rinfret generally speaks on Chronic Total Occlusion (CTO), Live Cases, and Calcified Lesions.

Dr. S. Tanveer Rab is a Professor and an Interventional Cardiologist at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. He received his Medical degree in 1979 from the University of Karachi Pakistan. Between 1983 and 1986 he completed residency training in Internal Medicine at the Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, Michigan. He trained at Emory University between 1986-1990 in Cardiology and Interventional Cardiology and joined its faculty in 1988 where he is extensively involved in the training and teaching of general cardiology and interventional cardiology fellows. He is Board Certified in Medicine, Cardiology and Interventional Cardiology and is a Fellow of the American College of Cardiology and Society of Coronary Angiography and Interventions. Dr. Rab currently serves in the Publications Committee and the Leadership Committee of the Interventional Section Leadership Council of the American College of Cardiology, where he is the chair of the complex angioplasty group. He was the former chair of the Interventional Section's publication committee, having authored or coauthored twelve peer reviewed articles on topics of importance to the interventional community. Most recently he was appointed to the examinations writing committee for the subspeciality of Interventional Cardiology by the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM). Published clinical research interests are in Left Main and coronary bifurcation interventions, all forms of coronary atherectomy procedures and care of patients with cardiac arrest and cardiogenic shock. These interests have led to a national and international dialogue including participation in writing groups for consensus documents. Dr. Rab is a high-volume complex PCI angioplasty operator particularly in the areas of his clinical interest.

Dr. Rogers in an interventional cardiologist and scientific lead for the MedStar Heart & Vascular Institute Structural Heart Disease program. He has a special interest in all aspects of minimally invasive treatment of structural heart disease, including Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement (TAVR), Transcaval access, Transcatheter Electrosurgery (LAMPOON and BASILICA techniques), para-valvular leak closure, percutaneous treatment of mitral valve regurgitation including Mitraclip and Transcatheter Mitral Valve Replacement (TMVR), LAA occluder, percutaneous pulmonary and tricuspid valve interventions, and cerebral protection devices for TAVR.

Tony DeMartini is an interventional cardiologist at Memorial Medical Center in Springfield, IL specializing in coronary CTO and protected PCI. He is the Medical Director for the Endovascular Program. He continues to proctor other physicians for coronary CTO and coronary complex PCI. He is excited to participate in the EPIC conference at Emory.

Vasilis Babaliaros, MD is Professor of Medicine and Surgery at Emory University School of Medicine, and Co-Director of the Emory Structural Heart and Valve Center. He received his bachelor of science in biomedical engineering, summa cum laude, from Duke University, and his medical degree, magna cum laude, from Emory University. He also completed his training in Internal Medicine, Cardiology and Interventional Cardiology at Emory University. He received advanced training in valvular intervention under the direction of Alain Cribier at the University of Rouen, France before returning to Emory to join the faculty. His research interests include percutaneous cardiac valve repair and replacement as well as treatment of structural and congenital heart disease.

After completing his M.D. at Tulane Medical School, Bill Lombardi went on to the University of Utah, Salt Lake City for his internal medicine residency and fellowships in cardiology, heart failure/cardiac transplant, and interventional cardiology. Dr. Lombardi then returned home to Washington State and joined St. Joseph’s Hospital in Bellingham. During the 13 years that he was at St. Joseph’s, Dr. Lombardi helped to develop novel CTO techniques and technologies and was fundamental to the inception of the “hybrid algorithm” to facilitate reproducibly successful outcomes in chronic total occlusion and complex lesion PCI. During this time he was also active in physician training, CME courses and proctoring. Dr. Lombardi joined the University of Washington Medical Center in 2014 as associate clinical professor and director of the Complex Coronary Disease Therapies Program. He is certified in interventional cardiology and cardiovascular disease by the American Board of Internal Medicine. Dr. Lombardi's interests include sailing, fishing, and spending time with family.

Dr. William Nicholson is acting Associate Professor of Medicine at Emory University School of Medicine and Director of Complex Coronary and Cardiac Intervention at Emory Healthcare. Dr. Nicholson also serves as the program director for the Advanced Complex High-Risk Interventional Procedures (CHIP) fellowship at Emory University Hospital. Dr. Nicholson came to Emory in 2020 after fourteen years in private interventional cardiology practice in York, Pennsylvania. While in private practice, Dr. Nicholson founded and developed that institution’s carotid stenting program, structural heart program, transcatheter aortic valve replacement program, and the complex coronary intervention program. He also has become nationally and internationally recognized for his expertise in treatment of Chronic Total Occlusions (CTO’s). He is a perennial live case operator for nationally televised conferences. Dr. Nicholson formerly trained at Emory University Hospital having completed his general cardiology and interventional fellowship in 2006. He completed his medical residency at Brown University Hospitals where he also served as Chief Medical Resident. He is a graduate of Pennsylvania State College of Medicine.

Medical Director of the Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory, Emory University Hospital Associate Professor of Medicine, Emory University School of Medicine Senior Physician, Emory University School of Medicine

Ziad Ali is the Director of the DeMatteis Cardiovascular Institute, Director of Investigational Interventional Cardiology, and Director of Cardio-nephrology at St Francis Hospital & Heart Center in New York. He is also Director of the Angiographic Core Laboratory at Cardiovascular Research Foundation and Associate Professor of Medicine at Columbia University Medical Center. His clinical research interests focus on the use of intravascular imaging and physiology technologies such as optical coherence tomography, intravascular ultrasound, and flow wire assessment to optimize coronary interventions, for which he has served as a Global principal investigator on a number of trials. Dr. Ali is also a recognized innovator, playing an integral role in the development of the Resting Full-Cycle Ratio (RFR) and Shockwave intravascular lithotripsy. Clinically Dr. Ali developed pioneering techniques to perform vascular interventions without contrast administration, including IVUS-guided zero-contrast PCI and OCT using saline flush media, protecting patients with advanced kidney disease from acute kidney injury and the need for dialysis.

Dr. Ziyad Ghazzal earned his MD at AUB Faculty of Medicine and completed his residency in internal medicine at AUBMC in 1984. Dr. Ghazzal has upheld an academic rigor in all his professional life, becoming an internationally renowned interventional cardiologist who has excelled as a highly accomplished clinician, researcher, and teacher/ mentor. He was promoted to Professor of Medicine at Emory University, Atlanta, GA, where he has been a full-time faculty member since 1990, after completing his fellowship training at the same institution from 1985 to 1990. Dr. Ghazzal has published extensively in the cardiology literature, including high-quality original papers and many other reviews, editorials, book chapters, and video seminars. He is regularly sought after by international organizations for clinical lectures, tutorials, and other CME activities in the area of interventional cardiology. As a director of the Interventional Fellowship Program at Emory, Dr. Ghazzal has played an instrumental role in the success of the training program there, one of the premier programs in the United States. He has been a member of a large number of prospective multicenter clinical trials, including being the local principal investigator at Emory. He was an associate editor of the popular 'Cardiosource', the official teaching website of the American College of Cardiology. He was also the co-chair of the international distant learning program of the College. He is an editorial consultant for JACC Cardiovascular Interventions and the American Journal of Cardiology. Dr. Ghazzal is an Alpha Omega Alpha member and has received many honors, including the Medical Leadership Award from the National Association of North America, and the Excellence in Teaching Award from Emory University. In 2008 Dr. Ghazzal joined the American University of Beirut where he functioned as the Deputy to the Executive Vice President/Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Medical Center in addition to his duties as an interventional cardiologist. He was appointed interim Medical Center Director and Chief Medical Officer (2017-2020). He is the Founding Director of the Heart & Vascular Institute and currently serves as the Director of the Moufid Farra Heart, Vascular & Kidney outpatient center.