Introduction to Session III – Simplifying Advanced Coronary Physiology

Dr. Pinto received his B.A., cum Laude, from Dartmouth College in Hanover, NH and M.D. degree from the Georgetown University, cum Laude and Alpha Omega Alpha. He was an Intern, Resident, Chief Resident, General Cardiology Fellow and Interventional Cardiology Fellow at Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Hospital, Boston, MA. Dr. Pinto is an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and serves as the Director of the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit, Associate Chief of the Interventional Section and Director of the General Cardiology Fellowship Program at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. He has been awarded cardiology fellow teaching and mentorship awards from Harvard Medical School. His clinical expertise is in general and interventional cardiology. In addition to a busy outpatient practice, he performs coronary and peripheral angioplasty and stenting procedures. These include stenting and other procedures in the heart, leg, abdominal and neck arteries. Dr. Pinto has research interests in a wide variety of topics including acute myocardial infarction studies, unstable angina studies, interventional trials, peripheral interventional trials specializing in clinical outcome, comparative effectiveness and cost-effectiveness studies. Dr. Pinto is the editor of the Controversies in Cardiology section for Circulation. He is a manuscript reviewer for the New England Journal, Circulation and the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. He has published over 75 articles in journals such as The New England Journal of Medicine, Circulation, Journal of the American College of Cardiology and JAMA. His work highlights the management and outcomes of patients with cardiac and vascular disorders.

Thomas Pappas, MD, is Director of St. Francis Hospital’s Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory. In this capacity, he has participated in numerous clinical trials evaluating novel coronary interventional devices. He is a graduate of Cornell University Medical College, practicing both interventional as well as consultative cardiology for the past 25 years at St. Francis Hospital. Dr. Pappas has consistently been recognized by Newsday and Castle Connolly as one of the top physicians on Long Island and has been selected as one of New York magazine’s Best Doctors.

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.