Acquired Domain Chair 2022-2025

Chair 2022-2025

Member (ex-officio) 2023-2026

Filip Casselman has been trained in General and Cardiac Surgery at the University of Leuven, Belgium. He continued his training with a fellowship at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation and at the St Antonius Hospital in Nieuwegein, The Netherlands. Since 2001 he is working in the department of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery at the OLV Clinic in Aalst, Belgium. His interests include minimally invasive surgery (robotic and videoscopic), valvular reconstructive surgery, percutaneous valve replacement and arrhythmia surgery. Filip is actively involved in cardiac clinical research and has participated in multiple multicenter trials (including Syntax trial, Partner and Prevail trial, etc). He is (co)author of more than 100 articles in peer-reviewed journals and has given more than 250 presentations at international meetings.

Secretary General 2022-2025

Patrick Myers is a consultant cardiac surgeon at CHUV - Lausanne University Hospitals in Switzerland and appointed Privat Docent at the Geneva University Medical School. After finishing medical school in Geneva, Patrick completed his cardiovascular surgery residency at the Geneva University Hospitals. He served as senior fellow in adult cardiac surgery at Brigham & Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School and then as fellow in cardiac surgery at Boston Children’s Hospital. He was appointed instructor in surgery at Boston Children’s Hospital & Harvard Medical School, before returning as attending surgeon in adult and congenital cardiac surgery in Geneva, Switzerland, where he was named associate of the chief of cardiac surgery. Since 2017, he has focused on adult cardiac surgery in his private practice in adult cardiac surgery in Geneva and serves as consultant cardiac surgeon at CHUV Lausanne. He serves as secretary of the European Board for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery. His areas of interest are multiple arterial coronary artery bypass grafting, evolving transcatheter techniques to treat structural heart disease, HOCM and critical appraisal of clinical trials and their discussions on social media.

Member 2019-2022

Chair 2019-2022

Fabio Barili graduated at the University of Milan in 2000 as a medical doctor and in 2005 as a cardiac surgeon. In 2005 he completed a postdoctoral fellowship in minimally invasive surgery at the Columbia University and he obtained a Ph.D. degree in Surgery and Transplantation in 2008. Fabio completed his training focusing on percutaneous intervention for mitral valve disease. He also developed a keen interest in statistical methods and in 2009 he obtained a Master Degree in Health Statistics and Biometry in 2009. Currently, he is a surgeon of the Department of CardioVascular Surgery at S.Croce e Carle Hospital in Cuneo, Italy and the vice-president of the scientific committee of the Italian Society of Cardiac Surgery. His areas of interest are structural valve disease, minimally invasive surgery, statistical methods applied to cardiovascular field and the critical appraisal of scientific evidences.

Member 2020-2023

Chair 2020-2023

Manuel Castella is a cardiovascular surgeon, Head of the Cardiac and Vascular Surgery Department at the Hospital Clínic, University of Barcelona. Among all types of cardiac surgery, his main interest and fields of research are atrial fibrillation surgery and pulmonary thromboendarterectomy for chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension. Manuel Castella has co-leadered trials in thoracoscopic AFib ablation and he is member of the ESC EACTS Committee for the development of the Guidelines for Atrial Fibrillation Management in 2016 and 2020. Since 2018, Dr. Castella is the Chairman of the Arrhythmia Surgery Task Force of EACTS. Other interest are port-access mitral repair and other types of minimally invasive surgery.

Member 2020-2023

Chair 2020-2023

Gry Dahle graduated from the University of Bergen and had her training in cardiac surgery at Rikshospitalet, Oslo University Hospital (OUS). She is now a consultant at Dept. of Cardiothoracic- and vascular surgery, Rikshospitalet , OUS. Her PhD title was”The introduction of Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation (TAVI) Clinical, patient experience, economical and occupational hazard issues” Currently she is in charge of the surgical transcatheter program at OUS. She is the PI for Tendyne study in Norway. She is an active member of ISMICS (Europe director), in the programme committee for the annual meeting and associated editor of Innovations. She is involved in several EACTS projects: Valve labelling task force, Chief of transcatheter task force and in the examination board (EBCTS). She is the president of the Norwegian Society for Cardiothoracic Surgery and in the Board of Medical societies in the Norwegian Medical association. Here she is also in a new group of Innovation in Medicine. S he is also involved in several Mini Method Evaluations and is in the ICHOM (valuebased health care) for valve implantation Her main interests are new technology, valves, imaging and VAD. She has several projects on this, one is Holgraphy for surgical planning.

Member 2020-2023

Chair 2020-2023

Michele De Bonis is Associate Professor of Cardiac Surgery, Chief of Cardiac Surgery-Innovation and Research and Director of the Postgraduate School in Cardiac Surgery at “Vita-Salute” San Raffaele University and Hospital, Milan, Italy. After his MD degree, he obtained the “Full registration” at the General Medical Council (UK) and the USMLE Certification (USA). As a postgraduate Fellow he attended several Cardiac Surgery Departments in Belgium and Germany (OLV, Brugmann University, German Heart Institute). He completed his full training in cardiac surgery both in Rome and at St. George’s Hospital (London). Since the year 2000 he has been working at San Raffaele University Hospital as Head of “Heart failure and Mechanical Circulatory Support” before reaching a Director position. He has been Visiting Professor at Plymouth NHS Trust (UK) and at the Cape Town University, South Africa. He is the Chairman of the Task Force on mitral and tricuspid surgery of the EACTS Adult Domain. He has been Chairman of the ESC Working-Group on Cardiovascular Surgery and he is currently member of the ESC Council on Valvular Heart Disease, “European Liaison” of the AHA Council on Cardiovascular Surgery and “Core Leader” of the Mitral Valvular Research Network of the Heart Valve Society. He is a Fellow of ESC (FESC) and AHA (FAHA). He is the inventor of an original trans-catheter device for the percutaneous treatment of tricuspid regurgitation (Star-Tric, patent 102017000052909). He has a major interest in postgraduate education at the EACTS Academy and he has been a TF member of the ESC EACTS Guidelines on Valvular Heart Disease, Endocarditis, Cardiovascular Diseases in Pregnancy and of the ESC Committee for “Raising Awareness on Mitral Regurgitation”. He is member of the EACTS, ESC, AHA, Italian Society of Cardiac Surgery and Heart Valve Society. He is Associate Editor of the International Journal of Cardiology and member of the Editorial board of several international journals.

Member 2023-2024

Ruggero De Paulis received his Medical Degree at the University of L’Aquila, Italy in 1982. He trained at the University of Torino, Italy, at the University of Paris, France, and at the University of Utah, USA, before starting his academic and surgical activity at the University of Rome, Tor Vergata in 1991 where he became Professor in 2002. Since 2006 he is the Director of the Cardiac Surgery Department at the European Hospital and currently Professor at the UniCamillus University of Rome. He has been EACTS President in 2018 2019. His areas of interest are aortic and mitral repair surgery, aortic root and arch pathologies. He is the inventor of the Valsalva graft and has designed a physiological band for mitral valve repair.

Member 2020-2023

Chair 2020-2023

Member 2020-2023

Chair 2020-2023

Dr Mario Gaudino is the Stephen and Suzanne Weiss Professor in Cardiothoracic Surgery in the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery at Weill Cornell Medicine - New York Presbyterian. He completed his undergraduate studies and earned his medical degree in Rome, Italy at the University of Rome, Faculty of Medicine and Surgery in 1994. He subsequently completed his residency in 1999 at the same University and joined the faculty there in 2000 where he remained until 2014, when he joined the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery at Weill Cornell Medicine. He completed an Advanced Cardiovascular Aortic Aneurysm Surgery Fellowship in 2016 and was recruited to stay on staff as Assistant Professor of Cardiothoracic Surgery. In 2017, he was elevated to the position of Professor in Cardiothoracic Surgery and Attending Cardiothoracic Surgeon at New York-Presbyterian Hospital. In addition to his clinical expertise, Dr. Gaudino is currently the Director of Translation and Clinical Research in the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery. Throughout his academic career, Dr. Gaudino has authored more than 400 peer-reviewed journal articles along with numerous book chapters. He is currently the lead investigator of an international, randomized, controlled trial which aims to determine the optimal strategy for coronary artery bypass surgery (the ROMA trial). He has given expert presentations at national and international meetings to share his exquisite knowledge of coronary artery bypass surgery and the use of multiple arterial grafts. He currently serves as the Chair of the Coronary Artery Surgery Task Force of the European Association for Cardio-thoracic Surgery.

Member 2021-2024

Chair 2021-2024

Dr. Juan B. Grau is the Director of Cardiac Surgery at the Valley Hospital in alliance with the Cleveland Clinic Foundation and Professor of Surgery at The University of Ottawa Heart Institute. Dr. Grau completed his residency in general surgery and cardiothoracic surgery at New York University School of Medicine. He has served as a cardiothoracic surgeon and faculty member at NYU, the University of Pennsylvania, Columbia University system, and the University of Ottawa Heart Institute. His clinical interests include advanced coronary revascularization using arterial grafting and off-pump approaches with non-touch technique of the ascending aorta, advanced aortic and mitral valve repair techniques, surgery for the treatment of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and adult congenital surgery. Dr. Grau has developed several translational research programs and institutional biobanks that have been funded by the National Institute of Health by blending clinical knowledge and expertise with the tools of basic science to find new approaches to clinically relevant programs. He is currently the co-chairman of AATS Foundation Research Committee and Chairman of EACTS Translational Research and Surgical Sciences Task Force.

Member 2021-2024

Chair 2021-2024

Wouter Oosterlinck, MD, PhD, is a Cardiac Surgery Professor of Leuven University. His main practice and scientific areas include above all Coronary Artery Disease Treatment. During the years he has been developing a wide experience in Off Pump Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting, either in open and through minimally invasive surgery approaches. His studies are now focusing on innovative systems as well, such as Robotic Cardiac Surgery. Author or co-author of many publications and presentations, he was also awarded for his scientific contribution to the studies about heart protection for Diabetes Type II patients. In the past he was a Belgian Judo Championship winner.