Introduction to Session IV – Use of Imaging & Physiology in Complex PCI

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.

Director of Rescue the Heart Program, Director CTO, and Advanced Coronary Therapeutics, Morristown Medical Center Dimitrios Karmpaliotis, MD, PhD, FACC, FSCAI is Medical Director of the Cardiovascular Rescue and Recovery Program and the Advanced Coronary Therapeutics and Chronic Total Occlusions Program at Morristown Medical Center. Dr. Karmpaliotis was formerly at the Center for Interventional Vascular Therapy at Columbia University Medical Center, where he provided world-class care since 2014. He is a former associate professor of medicine at Columbia University Medical School and formerly served as director of the Chronic Total Occlusions, Complex and High-Risk Angioplasty Program at New York-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center.

George Petrossian, MD, is Director of Interventional Cardiovascular Procedures at St. Francis Hospital, as well as Co-director of St. Francis Hospital’s Heart Valve Center. He is a board certified cardiologist and interventional cardiologist who has been a Principal Investigator for a number of nationwide studies that have transformed the treatment of heart disease. His pioneering research helped win FDA approval of CoreValve, a minimally invasive device that offers new hope for patients with aortic stenosis too frail to undergo open heart surgery. Dr. Petrossian has participated in multiple pivotal trials. His interests include left atrial appendage closure, and peripheral vascular disease.

Dr Giora Weisz is the Section-Head and director of the interventional cardiology program at Montefiore Medical Center in New York. He also serves as faculty of the Cardiovascular Research Foundation in New York. Dr Weisz graduated from the Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical School in Jerusalem, Israel. He completed his cardiology fellowship training at the Carmel Medical Center-Technion School of Medicine in Haifa, Israel, and underwent advanced training in interventional cardiology at Lenox Hill Hospital and the Cardiovascular Research Foundation in New York City. Dr Weisz is an internationally recognized researcher focused on innovative technologies in cardiovascular medicine. He has pioneered the use of novel robotic-enhanced coronary interventions, navigation and positioning technologies. Dr Weisz has been the Principal Investigator for pivotal clinical studies leading to FDA approval of cutting-edge technologies for interventional cardiology device positioning and navigation and robotics, as well leading multicenter studies in interventional imaging and the combination of PCI with pharmacological anti-ischemic treatment. Dr Weisz has published extensively in the most prestigious peer-review medical journals. He is an associate-director of TCT, which is the premier interventional cardiology conference, and is a regular faculty member for the most important international cardiovascular meetings.