Archives: Faculty

Dr. Davide Pacini graduated from the University of Bologna in 1993. He completed Cardiac surgery residency training at the same University in 1998. Since 2000, he was a staff surgeon of the Cardiac Surgery Department at the S.Orsola-Malpighi Hospital in Bologna and in 2018 he became Director in the same Department. He is mainly interested in cardiac and aortic surgery as well as in heart transplantation. In 1998, he was recipient of the “C. Walton Lillehei giovani laureati” Award. In 2009, he was recipient of the “Hans Borst Award”. He was Councilor of the Italian Society of
Cardiac Surgery and Chair of the Vascular Domain of the European Association for Cardiothoracic Surgery. He serves on the Workforces on New technologies and on international relationships of the Society of Thoracic Surgeon. He is the author or co­ author of over 300 scientific papers. He is Full Professor of Cardiac Surgery at the Alma Mater Studiorum, University of Bologna and Director of Cardiac Surgery Residency Program. He is active member of the Italian Society of Cardiac Surgery, European Association of Cardiothoracic Surgery {EACTS}, the Society of Thoracic Surgeon and the American Association for Thoracic Surgery. He serves on several editorial boards and he is also reviewer of many scientific journals.

Florian Schoenhoff is an assistant professor of surgery and staff surgeon in the Department of Cardiovascular Surgery at the University Hospital Bern, Switzerland. He received his MD from the University of Heidelberg, Germany and trained in cardiac surgery in Bern with a special focus on diseases of the thoracic aorta. He spent 2 years as a research fellow at Johns Hopkins University, USA, working on biomarkers in patients with connective tissue disorders. Florian is responsible for the Marfan clinics in Bern, seeing patients with various forms of connective tissue disorders and cardiovascular involvement.

Eduard Quintana MD PhD is a Cardiovascular Surgeon and Associate Professor of Surgery at the University of Barcelona Medical School – Hospital Clínic.   He is currently in charge of the Cardiovascular Surgery and Postoperative Critical Care fellowship program. He is a Board Member of the EBCTS and Chairs the Membership Examination of Cardiothoracic Surgery European Board Exam. He is an active member of the Vascular Domain of EACTS and Aortic Dissection Task Force Chair. His main clinical interests are aortic and vascular surgery, surgery for infective endocarditis, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, valve repair and cardiovascular surgery critical care.

Denis Berdajs achieved his degree in 2001 at the Semmelweis University Budapest. After 5 years of residency at the University Hospital Zürich, he was appointed as chief resident in general surgery. After he completed his residency in general surgery he was appointed to the University Hospital in Lausanne for 6 years, at the department of Cardiovascular Surgery and has since 2013 been appointed Associated Professor at University of Lausanne. Denis spent a year at the University of Toronto as a Clinical Fellow and is currently a Consultant Surgeon in the Department of Cardiac Surgery, University Hospital Basel, Switzerland. As of 1 March 2017, Denis is Associated Editor of the European Journal of Cardio-Thoracic Surgery (EJCTS) and has won several awards, including the 2001 European Society for Cardiovascular Surgery Rabago Prize, for the “Geometrical model of aortic root” and the 2013 Research Award of Swiss Society of Cardiac Surgery: “Operative Anatomy of the Heart.

Friedrich W. Mohr, MD, PhD is the Clinical Director of the Leipzig Heart Center, Leipzig, Germany. Professor Mohr has also served as President of the European Association of Cardio-Thoracic Surgery, President of the German Society of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, President of the Society of Heart Valve Disease, and Congress-President of the German Society of Cardiology. In 2010, Professor Mohr was awarded the highest civilian award of Germany, the Federal Cross of Merit.

Jean-Louis Vanoverschelde graduated as a physician in 1983 from Université Catholique de Louvain with highest distinction. He went on to specialise in internal medicine and became a cardiologist in 1994. From 1990 to 1992, he attended Washington University in Saint Louis, USA and then went on to defended his thesis on myocardiac hibernation in Brussels. In 1997 he became the chief of the Cardiology division at the Cliniques Universitaires St. Luc, Brussels. In 2014, he was appointed as chairman of the Cardiovascular Department, which groups the Cardiology, Cardiac Surgery and Cardiovascular Intensive Care divisions. In 2016, he became Chief Medical Officer of the Cliniques Universitaires St. Luc. Jean-Louis is the author and co-author of more than 260 scientific publications and his work has been referenced over 11,000 times. His main focus area is the use of cardiovascular imaging techniques to diagnose cardiac and valvular diseases. He is member of several national and international societies and was President of the Société Belge de Cardiologie from 2000- 2002.

Horia Muresian is a senior cardiovascular surgeon with cross-cultural medical and scientific experience. He earned his MD title at the University of Medicine, Bucharest, in the USA and in Italy. Horia is presently appointed as head of the cardiovascular surgery clinic at the University Hospital of Bucharest. His surgical interests comprise of new techniques in coronary surgery, valvar plasty, the use of homo- and autografts, the surgery of aortic aneurysms, the surgical therapy of cerebro-vascular diseases (including revascularisation of the vertebro-basilar system) and limb-salvage vascular and hybrid procedures. Since his medical student years, Horia has been continuously involved in research activity, particularly regarding the anatomy and embryology of the cardiovascular and of the central nervous systems. 

 

John Baksi is a consultant cardiologist at the Royal Brompton & Harefield NHS Foundation Trust, specialising in cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) and cardiomyopathy. He reports across a comprehensive range of cardiovascular conditions including cardiomyopathy, ischaemic heart disease, valvular heart disease and aortic disease. John has reported over 7,000 CMR studies at the Royal Brompton Hospital, one of the world’s largest clinical CMR practices with an international reputation for cardiovascular imaging and research. John’s particular areas of research interest include correlation between appearances of the heart and genetics in dilated cardiomyopathy, advancing understanding and treatment of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, CMR imaging, cardiac genetics and cardiomyopathy.

Ruggero De Paulis is the director of the Cardiac Surgery Department of the European Hospital in Rome, a position he has held since 2006.  After graduating from the University of L’Aquila and completing his residency at the University of Torino, he spent two years in an artificial heart programme at the University of Utah, and then two years as staff surgeon at the VI and XII University of Paris. Since then he has been working in Rome, at the University of Tor Vergata, where he was appointed Associate Professor in 2002.  His main interest is in aortic and mitral repair surgery and he is the designer of the “Valsalva” graft, currently used in most aortic root surgeries.

Bartosz Rylski is a consultant cardiovascular surgeon at the Heart Centre Freiburg University, Germany. He studied at Charite University in Berlin and completed his fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. His interests include transcatheter techniques and aortic surgery. Author of patent on ascending aortic stentgraft. Winner of Young Investigator’s Award EACTS 2012, Cliffort Award STSA 2013, Hans Borst Award EACTS 2013, Proctor Harvey Award University Freiburg 2013, Zbigniew Religa Cardiac Surgery Development Foundation Award 2014, Techno College Innovation Award EACTS 2015, EACTS/STS Award 2015, St. Jude Medical Award 2016 and Edith von Kaulla Award 2016. He is the associate editor in EJCTS and the former Core Skills domain editor in MMCTS. He is also a reviewer in 12 journals and is a pianist.