President 2022-2023

Vice President 2022-2023

Member 2022-2025

Franca Melfi is a Professor of Thoracic Surgery at the Medical School of the University of Pisa and Chair of Robotic Multidisciplinary Centre for Surgery - Thoracic MIS and Robotic surgery at the University Hospital of Pisa. Pioneer in the field of robotic surgery, she performed the first robotic procedure for the treatment of lung cancer in 2001. Since then, she has dedicated her professional life to the application of robotic surgery in the thoracic field. Her activity focuses on clinical research and training, particularly on the standardization of robotic thoracic procedures and on the application of new technologies for the treatment of lung cancer, mediastinal pathologies and surgical training with the dissemination of her expertise acquired during her 20-year long experience to the next generation of thoracic robotic surgeons. The Multispecialty Robotic Centre of which she has the honour to lead is, in fact, home to University Masters and European accredited training courses. Presently, Professor Melfi is engaged in several research projects at the University of Pisa, in collaboration with other clinical institutions focusing on the application of high technology for the development of precision medicine in the thoracic field through the implementation of surgical planning with 3D reconstruction and the intra-operative detection of micro-metastasis and the development of surgical physical simulators.

Secretary General 2022-2025

Member 2020-2023

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.

Editor-in-Chief 2020-2025

Matthias Siepe graduated in 2002 as a medical doctor at the Freiburg University and started his surgical residency in the local Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery. After research fellowships in Paris (Prof. Menasché) and Berne (Prof. Carrel), he completed his training for adult cardiac surgery in 2009, for congenital surgery in 2012 and for vascular surgery in 2014. Currently, he is Co-Chair of the Department of Cardiovascular Surgery at the Freiburg University Heart Centre and Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Medicine. His areas of interest are minimally invasive heart valve surgery, complex aortic surgery, congenital surgery and surgical options for heart failure. From 2016 to 2020, he was the Editor-in-Chief of the Interactive Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery. Since October 2020 he is the Editor-in-Chief of the European Journal of Cardio-Thoracic Surgery.

Domain Chair 2022-2025

Chair 2022

Deputy Chair 2020-2023

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.

Domain Chair 2021-2024

Chair 2021-2024

Domain Chair 2021-2024

Chair 2021-2024

Domain Chair 2020-2023

Chair 2020-2023

Member 2020-2023

Konstantinos Tsagakis graduated in 1998 as a medical doctor at the University of Vienna, Austria. After his basic medical practice, he moved 2001 to Germany as resident in cardiac surgery in Heart Center North Rhein Westphalia in Bad Oeynhausen and since 2004 in West German Heart and Vascular Center of the University Hospital of Essen. In 2009 he performed the board exams for cardiac surgery and he continued as staff surgeon in Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery in Essen. His specialization focused on open and endovascular thoracic and thoracoabdominal aortic repair and reconstructive aortic valve surgery. He habilitated as private lecturer in medical University of Duisburg-Essen in 2018. Currently, he is the Section Head of Aortic Surgery in the Department of Cardiac Surgery at the University Hospital of Essen.

Immediate Past President 2022-2023

Friedhelm Beyersdorf received his medical degree at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main, Germany in 1981. His work was driven by a research stay at the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he worked with Gerald Buckberg on crucial work on blood cardioplegia of the heart, which is now the standard cardioplegia at most cardiac surgery centres. He was appointed full professor at the Clinical Centre of the Albert-Ludwigs-University of Freiburg, Germany in 1994 for cardiovascular surgery. Friedhelm has been a member of the Council of the European Association of Cardiothoracic Surgery (EACTS) since 2002 and was elected Editor-in-Chief from 2010 to 2020. Between 2009 and 2011 Friedhelm was President of the German Society for Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery (DGTHG). In 2013, he was appointed "Membre correspondant étranger de l'Académie nationale de Médecine". In 2000, he was awarded the title of Professor honoris causa by the University of Marilia (Brazil) and in 2008 he was awarded an honorary doctorate (Dr. h. c.) by the National University of Laos (Ventiane). Friedhelm holds more than 700 publications and patents.

Councillor-at-large 2022-2025

Chair 2022-2025

Dr Rafael Sádaba graduated in Medicine and Surgery from the University of the Basque Country (Bilbao, Spain) and completed his basic and advanced training in Cardio-Thoracic Surgery at the Leeds General Infirmary and East Yorkshire Hospitals in the UK, and the Sir Charles Gardner Hospital in Perth (Australia). During his training, he was awarded a Master’s Degree in Science by the University of Leeds. Subsequently he was awarded a PhD degree by the Public University of Navarra for his work on degenerative aortic valve disease. Dr Sádaba is currently working in the Dept of Cardiac Surgery at the "Complejo Hospitalario de Navarra" in Pamplona (Spain), where he is Coordinator of Cardiovascular Research and Innovation, and Associate Clinical Professor at the University of Navarra. He is the former Secretary of the European Board of Cardio-Thoracic Surgery. Dr Sádaba is a Fellow in Cardio-Thoracic Surgery of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. As member of the European Society for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery, he holds leadership positions in this association as Council member, Chair of the Education Committee and Chair of the Francis Fontan Fund. He is also member of the Spanish Society for Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, the Heart Valve Society, and the Society of Thoracic Surgeons. He is Associated Editor of the journal “Interactive Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery” and lead clinician in the “Translational Cardiology Research Group” at NavarraBiomed Foundation. His research interests have focused on the surgical pathology of the aortic valve and myocardial regeneration therapy.

Councillor 2021-2024

International Councillor 2021-2024; Interim Treasurer 2023

Resident Representative 2022-2025

Chair 2022-2025