HTN:RDN - The Next Chapter - From Proof to Patients

Prof. Flavio L. Ribichini is Full Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine and Director of the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine of the University of Verona, where he has served since 2006. Since 2022, he has been a chief of the cardio-thoracic department. Dedicated full time to Interventional Cardiology since 1993, he was Associate Professor of Cardiology and Director of the Catheterization Laboratory of the University Amedeo Avogadro in Novara, Italy from 2002 to 2006. He also worked as a full-time staff cardiologist at the Intensive Care Unit and the Catheterization Unit at Ospedale Santa Croce in Cuneo, Italy in the nineties. Prof. Ribichini obtained his medical degree in 1986 at the National University of Cordoba, Argentina, and then completed his fellowship in Internal Medicine in 1988. He obtained his board certification in Cardiology at the University of Torino, Italy in 1992. He had extensive training around the world in interventional cardiology, including at the University of Paris VII, Henry Mondor Hospital; Stanford University, California; and Mount Sinai Medical School, New York. In addition, he was a awarded a Research Fellowship of the ESC at the OLVZ Cardiovascular Centre, Aalst, Belgium. Prof. Ribichini is the Director of the School of Cardiovascular Medicine and the President of the PhD Department of the University of Verona. He is member of the Editorial Board of the European Heart Journal, member of the Executive Board of the European Association of Percutaneous Cardiovascular Interventions (EAPCI), member ESC Guidelines Task Force, and of the of the scientific committee of the Euro-PCR and the TCT. He is Coordinator, Principle Investigator, and member of the steering committees of several clinical trials and has authored over 350 full publications on clinical and basic cardiovascular research in peer reviewed scientific journals available on PubMed with an H index: 42.

Prof Markus Schlaich is a renal physician and a European Society of Hypertension (ESH) accredited hypertension specialist with a strong background in clinical research. His main scientific interests focus on pathophysiologic aspects of hypertension including the contribution of the sympathetic nervous system, the L-arginine/nitric oxide pathway, their interaction, and the involvement of the kidneys. Professor Schlaich has a specific interest in treatment modalities targeting the sympathetic nervous system and has contributed to the development of renal denervation as a novel therapeutic approach to hypertension. Markus has been highly successful in attracting competitive grant funding and currently holds an NHMRC Senior Research Fellowship. He has authored more than 230 publications and book chapters in peer reviewed journals. For his work in the areas of hypertension, cardiorenal and metabolic disease he received 18 research prizes and awards including the Australian Museum Eureka Prize for Medical Research Translation. Markus has served on the Executive Committee of the High Blood Pressure Research Council of Australia for 6 years and is an elected member of the Council of the International Society of Hypertension, and a founding member of the ESH Working Group on Interventional Treatment of Hypertension. After relocating from Germany in 2006 he became Head of the “Neurovascular Hypertension & Kidney Disease Laboratory” and later on Division Head of the “Hypertension, Stress and Obesity” Program at the Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Research Institute in Melbourne. In July 2014 he has taken up the newly created and MRF funded “Dobney Chair in Clinical Research” at the Royal Perth Hospital and the University of Western Australia. As Head of the Dobney Hypertension Centre he and his interdisciplinary team strive to develop more effective therapies for hypertension and its adverse consequences.

Dr Rasha Al-Lamee is an Interventional Cardiology Consultant at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust in London, UK. Dr Al-Lamee’s research interests are complex coronary intervention, coronary physiology and invasive intravascular assessment. She designed, conducted and led the ORBITA trial and is the lead author of the primary publication in The Lancet. At Imperial College, she is actively involved in the development and recruitment for a number of multi-centre clinical trials. Dr Al- Lamee has over 40 peer-reviewed publications and has presented at international Cardiology conferences worldwide throughout her clinical career. She studied at the University of Oxford and University College London. She went onto complete her training as a junior doctor on the Barts and the London Medical rotation before being appointed as a Specialist Registrar on the North West London Cardiology rotation in 2006. Dr Al-Lamee has twelve years of Cardiology experience and completed three years of Interventional Fellowship training at Hammersmith Hospital in London. She also spent a year training as an Interventional Fellow under the supervision of Professor Antonio Colombo in Milan. She completed specialist training in Cardiology in 2013.