Innovation, precision and reinvention on EuroPCR 2023

Dr. Sam Dawkins is a cardiologist based in London and Oxford. He is the Clinical Lead for Structural Intervention in Oxford.

He specialises in general cardiology, interventional cardiology and structural intervention, including mitral and tricuspid transcatheter edge-to-edge repair (using Pascal, MitraClip and TriClip), transcatheter aortic valve implantation, closure of patent foramen ovale and atrial septal defect, paravalvular leak closure and left atrial appendage occlusion. 

Dr. Dawkins has been an investigator for multiple clinical trials, including first-in-human studies. He has introduced several new technologies to the UK, including the first left atrial appendage occlusion procedure with the Watchman Flx device and the first tricuspid repair procedures with the Pascal and TriClip devices. His work has been published in reputable and peer reviewed journals. He is also a member of a number of professional societies including the British Cardiovascular Society, British Cardiovascular Intervention Society, and British Society of Cardiac Computed Tomography.

Dr Christian Besler is an interventional cardiologist and incoming head of the TMTT / Structural Heart Program at the University Heart Center Freiburg / Bad Krozingen, Germany. He has been actively involved in the clinical implementation and scientific advancement of tricuspid and mitral interventions, contributing as an investigator to the CLASP IID/IIF, TRISCEND-II and HERACLES HFpEF clinical studies.

Dr. Rodrigo Estévez-Loureiro trained as an Interventional Cardiologist at the Hospital of A Coruña and became a Transcatheter Valve Therapies Fellow at Royal Brompton Hospital (London). He holds a PhD degree from the University of La Coruña with work related to STEMI networks. 

He is currently a Consultant of Interventional Cardiology and a Leader of transcatheter mitral and tricuspid valve programs at the University Hospital Álvaro Cunqueiro in Spain. He is also a Leader of the LAAC program and a Fellow of the ESC. 

Dr. Estevez’s main research focus is in ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction, transcatheter mitral and tricuspid valve repair/replacement, and LAA occlusion. He has >100 published articles, book chapters and numerous presentations at national and international congresses. He is also an active member of the sentinel registries of the ESC on transcatheter valve therapies. 

Prof Giuseppe Tarantini serves as Head of the Interventional Cardiology Unit, Department of Cardiac, Thoracic and Vascular Sciences, University of Padua Medical School, Padua (Italy) and in an internationally renowned researcher in the fields of ischemic heart disease, structural heart disease and cardiomyopathies.

He acts as first operator for a wide range of interventional procedures including Coronary interventions (including atherectomies), Peripheral interventions (Carotid and Renal) and Structural Heart interventions (ASDs, PFOs, TAVI and AVP).

Prof Tarantini is a faculty member of a number of international conferences including Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT), Congresso della Societa Italiana di Cardiologia Invasiva (SICI-GISE), Euro PCR and European Society of Cardiology (ESC). He has published 245 clinical papers and serves as an editorial board member and reviewer for a number of respected journals.

Tiffany Patterson graduated from St Bartholomew’s and the Royal London School of Medicine with MBBS (Hons) and BMedSci (Hons) in 2005 and was awarded MRCP in 2009. She has trained in Interventional Cardiology at several hospitals in London. Tiffany was awarded a British Heart Foundation Clinical Research Training Fellowship in 2014 to support her PhD. Following the award of her PhD in 2017 in Cardiovascular Physiology, she was awarded a Clinical Study Grant from the British Heart Foundation to perform a multicentre randomised control trial examining the pre-hospital management of patients following cardiac arrest. Her research interests include the randomised control trial in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, machine learning for determination of FFR during invasive coronary angiography, and investigating the mechanisms of TAVI thrombosis. She has been awarded an early researchers grant from the BMA foundation for Medical Research to conduct this work.

Dr Christian Besler is an interventional cardiologist and incoming head of the TMTT / Structural Heart Program at the University Heart Center Freiburg / Bad Krozingen, Germany. He has been actively involved in the clinical implementation and scientific advancement of tricuspid and mitral interventions, contributing as an investigator to the CLASP IID/IIF, TRISCEND-II and HERACLES HFpEF clinical studies.

Dr Duncan is a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and the lead interventional echocardiologist at Royal Brompton Hospital. She has guided over 1,200 TAVI, and hundreds of transcatheter mitral and tricuspid valve interventions. Additionally, she is a member of several professional societies and has authored over 80 published manuscripts and over 180 scientific abstracts. Dr Duncan is also a principal investigator for various transcatheter clinical trials and UK imaging proctor for transcatheter mitral valve implantation.

Prof. Philipp Lurz is the deputy head of the Cardiology Department at Heart Centre Leipzig at the University of Leipzig, Germany. Working as an Interventional Cardiologist, he is the Lead of the Congenital Structural Interventional program, the MitraClip and Tricuspid Repair program as well as responsible for interventional heart failure therapies.

He is a board-certified specialist in grown-up congenital heart disease, interventional cardiology, and magnetic resonance imaging. His major area of research is related to structural heart disease and heart failure with preserved ejection fraction. 

Prof. Lurz has contributed to various conferences including ESC congresses, EuroPCR, and PCR London Valves 2021. He is widely published in leading international peer-reviewed journals. He is a member of the ESC, ASPCI and HFA. 

Dr. Sam Dawkins is a cardiologist based in London and Oxford. He is the Clinical Lead for Structural Intervention in Oxford.

He specialises in general cardiology, interventional cardiology and structural intervention, including mitral and tricuspid transcatheter edge-to-edge repair (using Pascal, MitraClip and TriClip), transcatheter aortic valve implantation, closure of patent foramen ovale and atrial septal defect, paravalvular leak closure and left atrial appendage occlusion. 

Dr. Dawkins has been an investigator for multiple clinical trials, including first-in-human studies. He has introduced several new technologies to the UK, including the first left atrial appendage occlusion procedure with the Watchman Flx device and the first tricuspid repair procedures with the Pascal and TriClip devices. His work has been published in reputable and peer reviewed journals. He is also a member of a number of professional societies including the British Cardiovascular Society, British Cardiovascular Intervention Society, and British Society of Cardiac Computed Tomography.

Prof. Tobias Geisler is a Specialist in Internal Medicine with a focus on cardiology. He is the Deputy Medical Director at the University Hospital of Tuebingen. 

His clinical focus includes interventional coronary and valve therapy as well as drug and interventional treatment of heart failure. Prof. Geisler’s main research areas include therapy and pathophysiology of cardiovascular diseases, platelet-mediated inflammation, thrombosis, pharmacogenomics of antithrombotic therapies, interventional cardiology, translational research, epidemiology, and personalised cardiovascular medicine. He has been the principal investigator of numerous multi-centre and investigator-driven studies in the field of cardiology and angiology. 

Prof. Geisler has won a number of awards including the 2009 Advancement award of the foundation "The diabetic with heart disease." He is also the Editor of the journal Emergency Medicine and Section Editor of Thrombosis and Haemostasis. He maintains a number of society memberships including the nucleus of the Working Group on Thrombosis of the ESC.

Dr Dabit Arzamendi in an interventional cardiologist at Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau in Barcelona. His specialisms include percutaneous aortic, mitral and tricuspid valve treatments, intracardiac septal defect repair and complex coronary interventions.

Prof. Wolfgang Rottbauer is the Medical Director at the University Hospital Ulm, Clinic for Internal Medicine II.

He has an extensive academic history including serving as a Postdoctoral Scientist at Harvard Medical School. He was the Head of the Molecular Genetics Group at the University of Heidelberg from 2002 to 2008. He has also served as the Vice Chair of the Department of Cardiology at the University of Heidelberg and Head of the Department of Internal Medicine II at Ulm University.

He has various research interests such as genetic and molecular pathways in cardiac development and disease, high throughput forward and reverse genetic and small compound screens in zebrafish, human cardiovascular genetics, cardiac imaging and interventional cardiology. He has numerous publications in reputable journals and has won several awards and funding opportunities throughout his career.