Improving the quality of revascularisation in high risk patient subsets

Dr Billal Patel is Head of Interventional Cardiology at Lancashire Cardiac Centre (Blackpool, UK). He trained as a cardiologist in Liverpool, He obtained his PhD in Coronary Microvascular Dysfunction from the University of Liverpool. United Kingdom before moving to the Lancashire Cardiac Centre. He has presented TCT, EuroPCR and ACI. His special interests include ultra low contrast PCI, intracoronary imaging, left main bifurcations, mentorship for trainees and education. Research interests include coronary physiology and microvascular dysfunction. Some of his additional interests are Brazilian Jiu-jitsu and hill walking.

Davide Cao is senior research fellow at the Center for Interventional Cardiovascular Research and Clinical Trials at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, where he is involved in the design and management of randomized clinical trials, prospective registries, and many retrospective studies. Davide Cao graduated in Rome, from Campus Bio-Medico University, and completed his general cardiology training in Milan, at Humanitas University. He is now an interventional cardiology fellow at Institute Mutualiste Montsouris in Paris. His research focuses on coronary stents and management of antithrombotic therapy, particularly in high-risk subsets of patients.

Prof Javier Escaned is Head of Section (Interventional Cardiology Section) at Hospital Clinico San Carlos / Complutense University (Madrid, Spain). He trained in the United Kingdom as Specialist in Cardiology and obtained his PhD in The Netherlands. Author of >600 indexed scientific articles on interventional cardiology, imaging and physiology (h-index 74) and over 30 years of experience as PCI operator, he regularly lectures and performs live cases at major scientific and educational meetings. He is a recipient of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) Silver Medal and the Andreas Grüntzig Award for his contributions to the fiedl fo Interventional Cardiology. Main areas of expertise include complex PCI, intracoronary diagnostics and functional coronary angiography. His track record in coronary physiology comprises being investigator on pioneer FFR trials like DEFER (1998), collaborator with Justin Davies in the validation and clinical implementation of iFR, and developer of new tools for the assessment of coronary microcirculation. Editorial roles include Deputy Editor EHJ, Advisory Editor Eurointervention, editor of the textbooks “Coronary Stenosis: Imaging, Structure and Physiology” and “Physiological Assessment of Coronary Stenoses and the Microcirculation". Recent board positions include EAPCI board / Education Committee Chair, ESC WG Coronary Pathophysiology and Microcirculation, EuroCTO Board. Recent trials as Principal Investigator include ADVISE II, DEFINE FLAIR, SYNTAX II, PIONEER IV, Cerebral-Coronary-Connection (C3), DCR4Contrast, INOCA LongCovid and AID ANGIO. Additional interests are philosophy and music.

Dr Kambis Mashayekhi is Head of the Department of Internal Medicine and Cardiology in Heart Center Lahr in Germany. Dr. Mashayekhi is performing over 350 CTO-PCI’s per year and is an world-renowned CTO and complex PCI specialist. Dr. Mashayekhi is the head of the CTO working group from the German Society of cardiology and the Co-Director of MLCTO and EuroCTO course. He is the new EuroCTO president elect for 2023.

Dr Mauro Echavarría Pinto is an Interventional cardiologist and currently works at “ISSSTE“ General Hospital in Querétaro, México. He trained clinically in the National Institutes of Health, in Mexico City, and in Hospital Clínico San Carlos, in Madrid, Spain. He holds a MSc degree in Research Methodology, Design and Statistics in Health Sciences from the Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain, and a PhD from the University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands. He is an author of >50 peer-reviewed manuscripts mostly focused on the use of coronary physiology to guide the treatment of ischaemic heart disease.

Dr Vasileios Panoulas is a Consultant Interventional Cardiologist at the Royal Brompton and Harefield hospitals, part of the Guys and St Thomas NHS Foundation Trust and Honorary Senior Clinical Lecturer at Imperial College London. He has clinical expertise that encompasses both general and interventional cardiology. He is a high volume PCI and TAVI (trans catheter aortic valve implantation) operator with interest in complex high risk PCI and use of mechanical circulatory support (MCS) in patients with cardiogenic shock. Dr Panoulas' research interests involve clinical outcomes with new generation TAVI devices, use of MCS in patients presenting with cardiogenic shock, management of acute coronary syndromes (ACS) and hypertension. Other interests include speckle tracking and hand-held echocardiography and cardiovascular disease in patients with rheumatoid arthritis.