Session I: Show Me the Data

Dr. Bruce Samuels is an interventional cardiologist on staff at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center (CSMC) in Los Angeles, California. Dr. Samuels completed his medical studies at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York before returning to Southern California to complete his residency and chief residency in Internal Medicine at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center. At CSMC, he trained in both general and interventional cardiology before joining the medical staff there. In addition to his clinical practice in coronary intervention, Dr. Samuels has actively participated in numerous interventional trials including IVUS guided therapy, coronary physiology and microvascular disease. He is also working closely with the Barbra Streisand Women’s Heart Center based at CSMC, working as an interventionalist in the active coronary reactivity research there. As co-chair of a 30-day readmissions task force, he has helped to shape policy for CSMC in its efforts to improve quality delivery of care. He has frequently been invited as faculty to many scientific meetings and is a sought after speaker for numerous peer educational platforms. Dr. Samuels is a fellow of the American College of Cardiology and is Board Certified in Internal Medicine, Cardiovascular Diseases, and Interventional Cardiology. He is married with three sons; his outside interests include contemporary art and long distance running.

Dr. Evan Shlofmitz is an Interventional Cardiologist and the Director of Intravascular Imaging at St. Francis Hospital - The Heart Center in Roslyn, NY. He completed a fellowship in Interventional Cardiology at Georgetown University/MedStar Washington Hospital Center. He previously completed an Intravascular Imaging and Physiology fellowship at the Cardiovascular Research Foundation (CRF) and Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC), a Cardiovascular Disease fellowship at Northwell Health and served as Chief Resident for Internal Medicine at New York Presbyterian Queens. He serves on SCAI's IHD Council and is a co-director of Optimizing PCI (OPCI). His research interests have centered on intravascular imaging, the treatment of calcified coronary artery disease, in-stent restenosis and the optimization of stent implantation, with more than 100 publications in peer-reviewed journals.

Gary S. Mintz, MD, is a Senior Medical Advisor at the Cardiovascular Research Foundation (CRF, New York, NY) and a Director of Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT). He is the author of more than 1000 peer reviewed articles, 60 book chapters, 4 books, and 850 abstracts concerning various aspects of clinical cardiology, cardiac ultrasound, hemodynamics, cardiac radiology and coronary arteriography, interventional cardiology, and (especially) intravascular imaging and physiology. In 2005, Dr. Mintz published his single-authored textbook Intracoronary Ultrasound that has now been translated into Chinese. In 2014, Dr. Mintz received the Master of the Masters Career Achievement Award at the TCTAP-Cardiovascular Summit in Seoul, Korea; in 2015 Dr. Mintz received the Chien Foundation Outstanding Lectureship & Lifetime Achievement Award, also presented at TCTAP-Cardiovascular Summit in Seoul, Korea; in 2017 Dr. Mintz received the Outstanding Achievement Award at CBS 2017, Nanjing, China; in 2018 Dr. Mintz received the Career Achievement Award at NFIC in Krakow, Poland; and in 2020 Dr. Mintz received the Jiangsu Friendship Award from the People’s Government of Jiangsu Province, China, the highest award presented to a non-Chinese. He also serves as a Senior Scientist and Advisor at the Medstar Cardiovascular Research Network, Washington, DC. Dr. Mintz completed his undergraduate education at the University of Pennsylvania in 1970 and received his medical degree from Hahnemann University (now part of Drexel University), in 1974, both in Philadelphia, PA. He finished his internship in 1975, residency in 1976, and cardiology fellowship in 1978, each at Hahnemann University. He joined the Hahnemann University Department of Medicine faculty in 1978 and was ultimately promoted to Professor of Medicine in 1987 before joining CRF in 1991. His past appointments at CRF have included Chief Medical Officer and Editor-in-Chief (and one of the founders) of TCTMD.com.

Paul Teirstein, MD, is the Chief of Cardiology and Director of Interventional Cardiology for Scripps Clinic and Director of the Scripps Prebys Cardiovascular Institute for Scripps Health. With a primary focus on complex coronary interventions and new technology development, Dr. Teirstein has played an active role in the initial development and clinical investigation of coronary stent procedures, rotablator atherectomy, coronary angioscopy and the utilization of cardiopulmonary support. Dr. Teirstein pioneered the first effective treatment for restenosis (low dose radiation therapy) and was one of the early investigators of medicated and bioabsorbable stents. Recent areas of investigation include new technology for minimally invasive transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR). Dr. Teirstein currently performs in excess of 800 stent procedures per year and maintains an active clinical research and teaching unit at Scripps Clinic where he strives to offer patients the most advanced cardiovascular care available worldwide.