2024 International Faculty
Christophe Dubois - Belgium
Christophe Dubois was born on October 12, 1970, in Rocourt, Belgium. He is married with three children. He received his MD from the Katholieke Universiteit of Leuven in 1995 with magna cum laude. From 1995 to 1998, Prof. Dubois was a fellow in internal medicine at the Imelda Hospital of Bonheiden and at the Gasthuisberg University Hospital of Leuven. From 1998 to 2001, he completed a fellowship in cardiology at the Sint Jan Hospital of Genk and at the Gasthuisberg University Hospital of Leuven, where he graduated as a cardiologist in 2001.In 2001 Prof. Dubois joined the staff of the department of cardiovascular medicine of the Gasthuisberg University Hospital. During his first years of practice he gained large experience in acute and interventional cardiology. In 2003 he started fundamental research on the potential role of stem cells in the regeneration of cardiac tissue following myocardial infarction, and received his PhD on this topic in 2010. Simultaneously, he focused on complex coronary interventions in bifurcation lesions and the left main coronary artery, and was site principal investigator of numerous clinical trials. In 2008 he set up a percutaneous heart valve program together with his surgical colleagues. To date, he is serving as clinical head of the department of cardiovascular medicine at the University Hospital of Leuven and professor at the faculty of medicine and biomedical sciences of the University of Leuven.Prof. Dubois has published multiple papers and abstracts in influent peer-reviewed journals as the New England Journal of Medicine, Journal of the American College of Cardiology, Lancet, European Heart Journal, International Journal of Cardiology, EuroIntervention, American Journal of Cardiology, Catheterization and Cardiovascular Interventions and Heart.Prof. Dubois is Fellow of the European Society of Cardiology and Board Member of the Belgian Working Group on Interventional Cardiology.
Volkmar Falk - Germany
Professor Volkmar Falk is Medical Director of the Department of Cardiothoracic and Vascular Surgery of the Deutsches Herssentrum der Charite (DHZC) and Chairman of the DHZC Board. He is also professor of Translational Cardiovascular Technologies at the ETH in Zurich. After completing Medical School and his doctorate at the University of Bonn he began his basic surgical training at the University in Gottingen and completed his residency at the Department of Cardiac Surgery at the Heart Centre Leipzig. From 1998 to 2003 he held the position of a senior surgeon there, with an interruption of his clinical work for a one year post-doc research fellowship at Stanford University, Palo Alto, California. In 2001 he completed his "Habilitation" and in 2003 he became a senior consultant in Leipzig. From 2009-2014 Falk was appointed professor and director of the Department of Cardiovascular Surgery at the University Hospital in Zurich. In 2014 he was appointed Professor and Chair of the Division of Cardiovascular Surgery at the Charite Berlin and became medical director and director of the Department of Cardiothoracic and Vascular Surgery of the Deutsches Herzzentrum Berlin. In 2018 he was appointed Professor for Translational Cardiovascular Technologies (TCT) at the ETH, Zurich, a newly formed research group at the Department of Health Science and Technology.
Mark La Meir - Belgium
Mark La Meir, MD, PhD, is professor and Head of the Department Cardiac Surgery at the University Hospital Brussels, BE, and consultant at the Maastricht University Medical Center, NL. He earned his medical degree at the Free University Brussels in 1992 and his surgical degree in 1998. He received his PhD on “Hybrid Treatment of Atrial Fibrillation” at the Maastricht University Medical Center in 2012. He has a special interest in minimal invasive surgery and the treatment of arrhythmias.
Emmanuel Lansac - France
Emmanuel Lansac is a valve specialist in cardiac surgery, in the Department of Cardiac Pathology of the Institut Mutualiste Montsouris, Paris. He did his surgical training in Paris Hospital and learned mitral valve repair with Professor A Carpentier and Professor C Acar. In 2000, he did his PhD in dynamic anatomy of the aortic valve complex with Professor Duran at The International Heart Institute of Montana Foundation, USA. Since then he developed a standardised and physiological approach to aortic valve repair for aortic root aneurysms and/or isolated aortic insufficiency, based on a new expansible aortic ring annuloplasty. Emmanuel is the main investigator of the prospective multicentric CAVIAAR trial (Conservative Aortic Valve surgery for aortic Insufficiency and Aneurysm of the Aortic Root) comparing this approach with the mechanical Bentall procedure. As chairman of the aortic valve repair group from the Heart Valve Society, he gathered a large international consortium of physicians and scientists involved in dystrophic aortic insufficiency and root aneurysm management who initiated the international AVIATOR registry. Their goal is to combine forces and share experience to address key epidemiological issues and raise better medical evidence for surgical indications as well as the place of repair versus replacement in aortic valve surgery.
https://www.eacts.org/educational-events/programme/annuloplasty-avr-24/
Patrick McCarthy - USA
Patrick M. McCarthy is a cardiac surgeon, executive director of the Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute and vice president of the Northwestern Medical Group at Northwestern Medicine, the first Heller-Sack Professor of Surgery at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and professor of Biomedical Engineering at Northwestern University McCormick School of Engineering. McCarthy joined the Mayo Clinic in 1980. After eight years at the Mayo Clinic, McCarthy worked at Stanford University Medical Center for 18 months before joining the Cleveland Clinic where he worked for 14 years. In 2004, McCarthy moved back to Chicago and joined the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine as the first Heller-Sacks Professor of Cardiothoracic Surgery and executive director of the new Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute. Through his work with the School of Engineering, McCarthy serves as a Farley Fellow.
Bart Meuris - Belgium
Bart Meuris, MD PhD, earned his medical degree in 1998 at the University of Leuven (KUL, Belgium) and his PhD in 2007 with research on calcification of bioprosthetic valves. He is currently Full Professor and staff member at the Cardiac Surgery Department of the University Hospitals Leuven, performing mainly valve surgery, off-pump CABG and aortic surgery. He runs an animal lab for experimental research on artificial heart valves, also covering pre-clinical work for the valve industry. Other research interests are clinical valve studies on tissue valve performance and biostatistical models. He published over 185 peer-reviewed papers, serves as proctor and consultant for various valve manufacturers and was awarded twice with the C. Walton Lillehei Young Investigator’s Award in 2003 (HVS) and 2005 (EACTS).
Martin Misfeld - Germany
Senior Consultant and Professor of Cardiac Surgery. From 1986 – 1993 Medical School, University of Hamburg. Residency at the Department of Cardiac- and Thoracic Vascular Surgery, University of Luebeck, Germany (Director: Prof. Hans-H. Sievers). MD degree in 1996. Registrar and Research Fellow at Harefield Hospital, England, under the supervision of Prof. Sir Magdi Yacoub from 1998 – 1999. PhD degree, Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, University of London in 2004. German „Habilitation“ in 2005. Associate Professor, University of Sydney in 2008. Since 2009 Senior Consultant Cardiac Surgeon, Leipzig Heart Center. Current positions: Co-Director and Leading Senior Consultant in Aortic Surgery, Leipzig Heart Center; Visiting Medical Officer, Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Sydney; Honorary Professor, Medical School, University of Sydney. More than 300 peer-reviewed papers. 20 book chapters. Reviewer for leading cardiovascular journals and member of national and international societies. Associate Editor “Annals Cardiothoracic Surgery”. Editorial Board “Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgeon”. Surgical expertise: MIS, valve preserving techniques, Ross procedure, novel aortic valve substitutes, complete spectrum of aortic surgery, “anaortic”, complete arterial OPCAB/MICS-CABG techniques, Maze procedures and complex cases.
Patrick Perier - France
Dr Patrick Perier obtained his medical degree at the Paris V University in France. In 1982, he started his senior residency in the department of Professor Alain Carpentier at the Broussais Hospital where he became a staff member. In 1990, he joined the team of the Herz und Gefäss Klink (Bad Neustadt/Saale) in Germany to develop mitral valve surgery and started the development of the ‘Mitral Group’. Over the last 15 years, he has refined the techniques of minimally invasive mitral valve repair.
John Puskas - USA
Dr. John D. Puskas is Chairman of the Department of Cardiovascular Surgery at Mount Sinai Morningside, Mount Sinai Downtown and Mount Sinai West and also serves as Director of Surgical Coronary Revascularization for the Mount Sinai Health System. He is Professor of Cardiovascular Surgery in the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York. A summa cum laude graduate of Princeton University, Dr. Puskas won the senior thesis prize from the Department of Biology and went on to receive his medical degree from Harvard Medical School. He completed his residency in general surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital and his cardiothoracic surgery residency and fellowship training at Emory University School of Medicine. He earned a Master’s degree in Surgical Science from the University of Toronto. Dr. Puskas is expert in all aspects of adult cardiac surgery and has a special interest in state-of-the-art coronary bypass surgery. He is internationally recognized for his expertise in off-pump coronary artery bypass surgery and has performed more than 5000 off-pump coronary bypass surgeries since 1996, with exceptional results. He in a global leader in the development of minimally invasive Hybrid Coronary Revascularization, which combines robotic bypass grafting with catheter-based stents in selected patients. Dr Puskas has performed approximately 500 minimally invasive robotic coronary bypass procedures. At Mount Sinai, Dr. Puskas has continued his pioneering work investigating the benefits of off-pump cardiac surgery, developing new surgical techniques, and testing the latest technologies in advanced clinical trials. He is or has been the national/international principal investigator for four U.S. Food and Drug Administration investigational device trials and national principal investigator for the NIH-sponsored Hybrid Revascularization Trial, exploring novel approaches to the treatment of coronary artery disease by combining both minimally invasive robotic coronary bypass surgery and catheter-based stent therapies
Hans-Joachim Schafers - Germany
Hans‑Joachim Schäfers received his medical degree from the University of Essen, Germany. He was awarded the Research Award for Cardiovascular Surgery, University of Giessen in 1991 and the Presidential Award of the International College of Chest Physicians in 1993. Hans‑Joachim is currently the Director of the Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery at the University Hospitals of Saarland in Homburg, Germany. He is on the editorial board of the Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery and author/co-author/editor of 4 books and more than 390 scientific publications.
Previous TPC International Faculty
2022
- Anelechi Anyanwu - USA
- Daniel Chan - Hong Kong
- Gry Dahle - Norway
- Tirone David - Canada
- Gebrine El Khoury - Belgium
- Michael Moon - Canada
- Patrick Perier - France
- David Taggart - UK
- Kevin Teoh - Canada
- Timo Weimar - Germany
2018
- Anelechi Anyanwu - USA
- Vinayak Bapat - USA
- Filip Casselman - Belgium
- Mario Gaudino - USA
- Theo Kofidis - Singapore
- Patrick Perier - France
- Simon Redwood - UK
- Filip Rega - Belgium
2021
- Gry Dahle - Norway
- Tirone David - Canada
- Gebrine El Khoury - Belgium
- David Taggart - UK
- Frank Van Praet - Belgium
- Timo Weimar - Germany
2016
- Michael Borger - USA
- Charles Bruce - USA
- Duke Cameron - USA
- W Randolph Chitwood - USA
- James Cox - USA
- Mattia Glauber - Italy
- Fred Mohr - Germany
- Shigeyuki Ozaki - Japan
- Gerhard Schuler - Germany