The ESC is governed by an elected board of cardiology experts supported by officials and managed by a chief executive officer who reports to the President and management group of the Board. CardioPulse presents the new 2020–22 Board
President
Stephan Achenbach MD (Germany)
Stephan Achenbach is the chairman of cardiology and a professor of medicine at the University of Erlangen, Germany. His research interests focus on cardiovascular imaging, mainly computed tomography, for the early detection and characterization of coronary atherosclerosis and for the support of coronary and cardiovascular interventional procedures. According to Thomson Reuters, Achenbach is among the top 1% of most-cited researchers in the field of clinical medicine and he is the author of over 550 papers.
Past President
Barbara Casadei
Barbara Casadei is a British Heart Foundation (BHF) Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine at the University of Oxford and Honorary Consultant Cardiologist at the Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust where she leads the Cardiovascular Theme of the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Biomedical Research Centre and is a Steering Committee member of the BHF Centre of Research Excellence.
Barbara graduated in Medicine (cum Laude) at the University of Pavia, Italy, which subsequently awarded her the Medaglia Teresiana for academic merit, and moved to Oxford in 1989 to undertake her clinical and research training. She was awarded the Joan and Richard Doll Fellowship at Green College in 1991, a DPhil in Cardiovascular Medicine in 1995, and a BHF Senior Research Fellowship in 2001. She is a Fellow of the UK Academy ofMedical Sciences, a holder of the highest honour of the British Cardiovascular Society (The Mackenzie Medal), and the Immediate Past President (2020-22) of the European Society of Cardiology.
As Vice-President of the ESC, she established theWomen in the ESC (WinESC) initiative, was responsible for the Society's 5-yr Strategic Plan on Research and initiated a partnership with the National Initiative on Gender, Culture and Leadership in Medicine, Brandeis University, US, and with the Said Business School of the University of Oxford (TheWomen Transforming Leadership Course). As President, she obtained the ESC Board's support to start the ESC Patient Forum https://www.escardio.org/The-ESC/What-we-do/esc-patient-engagement, whose members are now contributing to most ESC activities, and EuroHeart, an initiative supporting the assessment and improvement of quality of cardiovascular care in Europe https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehz599.
Barbara provides a clinical service at the Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust's John Radcliffe Hospital and leads a bench-to-bedside translational research programme, which spans from investigation in human tissue and cells to clinical trials.
President-Elect
Franz Weidinger MD (Austria)
Professor Franz Weidinger is the head of department at Rudolfstiftung Hospital, Vienna, Austria. His clinical focus is percutaneous coronary interventions and acute coronary syndromes. His research interests include cardiovascular interventional registries, ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) network implementation, and antiplatelet therapy.
‘It is a great honour having been elected for this position. As President-elect, supporting the President to ensure continuity of strategic plans and decisions should be an essential part of the job and a key contribution to the Society’s effectiveness. Fostering personal contacts within the ESC community will be even more important after the COVID pandemic, which will hopefully subside soon, to help secure a bright future for the ESC.
For my own mandate, I plan to seek close collaboration with National Cardiac Societies and to enhance their balanced representation in key activities of the ESC. Associations, Councils and Working Groups as essential contributors to ESC’s scientific and educational output require maximal support and autonomy. Providing a common platform for innovative fields such as patient engagement, digital health and novel cardiovascular therapies is a continuous challenge and needs full support of the ESC and key strategic partners. Finally, training and research should be promoted for, and in collaboration with, the ESC Young Community.
We should use any opportunity to increase the dissemination of educational and scientific products such as the Core Curriculum, the ATLAS and the Clinical Practice Guidelines. Future challenges include the implementation of these issues at the EU level and non-EU national levels in order to leverage their impact on cardiovascular care, national health regulation and standards for training in ESC member countries. Ultimately, these ESC outputs should help overcome inequalities in access to optimal cardiovascular training and care.
With a short mandate of two years, one has to be realistic and Focused regarding projects and goals. Clearly, providing a common vision and thereby enhancing collaboration, contribution and participation in key ESC activities would be a wonderful success.
My personal wish is that solidarity, transparency in communication, independence of research and education from commercial and financial pressure, and finally our cardiology profession in an increasingly digital environment, will prevail and that we will still come together for personal exchange and friendship in ten and more years from now’.
Secretary/Treasurer
Thomas Lüscher MD (United Kingdom and Switzerland)
Thomas F. Lüscher is a consultant cardiologist and director of Research, Education and Development working at both the Royal Brompton and Harefield Hospitals in London and at Imperial College in the Capital. He also holds a part-time position as chairman of the Center for Molecular Cardiology at the University of Zurich. A widely published and cited scientist, he recently completed an 11-year tenure as Editor-in-Chief of the European Heart Journal and is known for his broad interests and expertise in the field of cardiology at large.
‘I am very pleased to take up this new role, although it’s probably going to be a more difficult job than it usually is, due to COVID-19. As the former publications chair, I have been a non-voting board member for 11 years, so I have good experience of how the Board runs. COVID-19 has changed things for the ESC. As everyone knows, the ESC had to cancel many of its meetings and conferences, so we need to keep the reality of the situation in mind when we approve the budget which runs from April to April and is likely to be more challenging than past budgets.
Our new Board will meet for the first time at the end of August 2020 online and hopefully we can start to meet face-to-face when it becomes possible. One of the things I think we have all learned during the pandemic is that many things can be done by Zoom or Teams and although we need to meet face-to-face to discuss strategic decisions and sensitive issues many things can be done remotely. A major challenge will be to see how large meetings go on when they move online as most of next year’s ESC meetings will likely do. It will be interesting to see whether people attend in similar or even greater numbers than before. Although most of us are now used to working online we have to understand it is not like the past when we would join together for a whole morning and afternoon in Amsterdam or Paris or wherever. Now the sessions need to be shorter, of maybe an hour or two in duration, so it will be challenging to reduce talks to a couple of hours and maintain the messages.
Overall, the ESC is financially solid and was able to keep some funds aside as well as using the French furlough scheme to retain some of the Society’s 250 employees in this critical period. Although there have been losses, it was not as bad as it could have been, but we will need to be more cautious about spending money in the future. I believe that the new board will cope with the consequences and challenges of COVID-19, because they are a good team and are ready to master the challenges that lie ahead’.
Vice Presidents
Francesco Cosentino MD, PhD (Sweden)
Born in Rome, Italy, Francesco Cosentino is a professor of cardiology in the Department of Medicine at the Karolinska Institute and Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden. He qualified as a doctor and trained in Rome, completed his PhD at Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA, and later joined the Division of Cardiology in the University Hospitals of Bern and Zurich, Switzerland, and worked in Rome, Italy.
‘The growth of the European Society of Cardiology has been remarkable over the past 15 years thanks to the commitment and enthusiasm of many colleagues who have gradually improved its prestige and visibility to become the number one cardiovascular society in the world. The major challenge of future management groups is to secure and develop its scientific assets in a changing environment with reduced industry support and aggressive international competition. With this in mind, I would like to confirm my willingness to serve as Vice President and continue my engagement with the Society.
I am convinced that to promote the ESC mission we have to strengthen links with our constituent bodies and invest in education and science. As a former Secretary/Treasurer of the ESC, I have learned to appreciate that National Cardiac Societies (NCS) represent the core of the European Society of Cardiology and should play a central role in all ESC scientific and educational activities. A cross-fertilization between NCS and ESC is crucial for the implementation of a common “knowledge assessment platform” to standardize specialty certification procedures and cardiovascular healthcare across the 57 NCS. From this perspective, the ESC has to stimulate networking activities among the subspecialty Associations, Councils, Working Groups and National Societies. I strongly believe that ESC and NCS can reciprocally gain from a robust cooperation plan.
The field of cardiovascular medicine is experiencing a time of rapid scientific innovation and changes of regulatory environment, hence, to strengthen ESC’s reputation we have to focus on the values of research and education. Lately, as the ESC Board representative in the Industry Relations Committee and then, as Chair of the Partnership Policy Committee, I have acquired an exceptionally good knowledge of the evolving regulatory landscape. From this perspective, it is key to set up a clear partnership framework with industry on disease-oriented initiatives for high quality science and education.
Besides my previous Board appointments, I have been working as a member of the Training and Research Grant Committee, chair and nucleus member of several Working Groups, a member of the Practice Guideline Task Force and chair of the Credentials Committee. Recently, I have been appointed ESC Chair of the new 2019 Guidelines on Diabetes, Prediabetes and Cardiovascular Diseases developed in collaboration with the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD). I am deputy editor of the European Heart Journal and consulting editor of Cardiovascular Research.
These past and present duties within the Society have given me the required insights and experience for the position of Vice President of the ESC Board 2020–2022. I will bring along my enthusiasm and determination. It will be a privilege and an honour to serve our Society’.
Silvia Priori MD, PhD (Italy, Spain)
Professor of cardiology in the Department of Molecular Medicine and director of the Fellowship in Cardiology Program at the University of Pavia, Italy, Silvia Priori is also director of cardiology at the Istituti Clinici Scientifici (ICS) Maugeri, Pavia, and the Molecular Cardiology Laboratories at the Centro National de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares Carlos III in Madrid, Spain. She has a 20-year association with the ESC and has served as a Board member on three occasions.
‘My clinical practice and research activities are devoted to the treatment of patients with inherited arrhythmias and cardiomyopathies. More recently, I have focused on the development of gene therapy strategies for hereditary arrhythmias and am aiming to bring them to the first in-man study.
I started working with the ESC early in my career and it helped me to understand how important it is to have the opportunity to be exposed to the point of view of senior and experienced leaders in the multi-faceted world of cardiology. Over the years the Society has become a pillar of my professional life and I have also learned the value of working on initiatives that shape the practice of cardiology and contribute to the worldwide education of cardiologists.
Within the ESC I have observed different models of leadership that have contributed to the development of my own management style. I have served as President of the European Heart Rhythm Association (EHRA), I have chaired the Guidelines Committee, the Writing Committee of the Guidelines for the Prevention of Sudden Cardiac Death, the Congress Program Committee and have served two consecutive terms as Chairman of the Practice Guidelines Committee. Now that our society has become a worldwide model of what a professional society should be, it is the right time for me to take on the very senior role of Vice President of the ESC because I feel that it is critical to hold on to our successes while looking to the future.
One critical aspect of our expanding Society is to ensure that our membership and our constitutional bodies remain cohesively linked by a common vision. To achieve this goal, the ESC leadership needs to respond to the diversified needs of each Working Group, each Association, and each Council. Similarly, it is important to pay attention to the voice of each of the National Cardiac Societies to deliver what they expect from the ESC. I am committed to listening to the needs of all our members and working to understand and deliver a solid strategy with clearly identified goals. I will take the opportunity to promote education, innovation, and research, in the broader domain of our profession. I will face up to the challenge of supporting the ambitious projects of advanced countries that want to push the boundaries of clinical practice and research, while supporting access to education and training for those developing countries that are most in need of guidance for their cardiology community’.
Petar M Seferovic MD, PhD (Serbia)
A professor of medicine and cardiology at the University of Belgrade in Serbia, Petar M Seferovic is a member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts. He is the current president of the Heart Failure Association (HFA) of the ESC. His major interests are heart failure and diabetes, cardiomyopathies, and drugs in heart failure.
‘I have a long-standing experience of the ESC beginning in 1984, when I was treasurer of the Yugoslav Society of Cardiology. This helped me to understand the importance of mutual cooperation and working together. Over the last decade I have spear-headed several HFA/ESC initiated projects, including the first Heart Failure Awareness Day in 2009 and the National Heart Failure Societies (NHFS) summits in 2011. The success of the NHFS Summits demonstrated that there are great opportunities to improve bilateral cooperation by strengthening the National Cardiac Societies network across the ESC member countries. I will continue to encourage networking and collaboration in this respect.
Based on my interaction with HFNS/NCS, I put forward three pivotal initiatives: the HFA/ESC Atlas of Heart Failure; Quality of Care Centres (QCCs); and the ESC Textbook on Heart Failure. The first edition of the HFA Atlas, involving 42 ESC countries is completed, and will address the unmet need for contemporary data on heart failure epidemiology resources. The development of the QQCs is another key HFA/ESC project, based on cooperation with the national societies and supported by findings from the HFA Atlas. QCCs will provide multidisciplinary heart failure management at all levels of care, accredited by the HFA/ESC, and will be embedded in existing healthcare institutions. It is expected that broader implementation of QCCs will have a strong impact on reducing regional and international inequalities in patient care, as well as in promoting clinical, scientific, and technological development in heart failure. The ESC Textbook on HF is aimed at advancing heart failure-related education and knowledge. It will provide up-to-date information on all aspects of heart failure from epidemiology to the contemporary management approaches based on ESC Guidelines and HFA position papers and will be completed by mid-2021.
I am the first ESC Board member from Serbia, and I bring a new perspective from Eastern, and Southern Europe and Russia where there is a huge disparity in standards of care and cardiology is not as advanced as in Western European countries. I see my role as helping to bring these countries from Eastern and Southern Europe closer to the ESC, in order to reach new audiences and help to equalise standards of care in those countries. Looking to the future, I am convinced that the medical community worldwide will have the strength and knowledge to prevail over the COVID-19 pandemic by unifying medical and public efforts and measures to conquer this dangerous disease. As a former Judo champion and holder of the 7th Dan, I believe in the spirit of continuous effort and fight in order to advance and make the ESC bigger and better’.
Councillors
Stefan Agewall MD, PhD (Norway)
Stefan Agewall has been professor and senior consultant in cardiology at Oslo University Hospital, Norway, since 2006. Prior to that, he was head of the Coronary Care Unit at Karolinska University Hospital, Sweden. His current research focus is the assessment of endothelial function and subclinical atherosclerosis in cardiovascular disease, epidemiological studies within coronary heart disease/heart failure, and myocardial infarction with non-obstructive coronary arteries.
‘I am very honoured to have been elected Councillor for 2020–2022. I was chairman of the ESC Working Group on Cardiovascular Pharmacotherapy between 2014–16. The group started a new journal six years ago, the European Heart Journal-Cardiovascular Pharmacotherapy, and I have served as Editor-in-Chief since the beginning. The impact factor (IF) of the journal is 6.7 which is the highest IF of all clinical cardiovascular pharmacology related journals in the world. Furthermore, I have had the privilege to serve as Senior Consulting Editor of the European Heart Journal since 2015 and I am a member of the ESC Publications Committee.
It has also been a great pleasure to participate in the ESC’s guideline production as a member of the Committee for Practice Guidelines. I have been a co-author of several guidelines and have served as review coordinator twice. The ESC Congress is the largest cardiology congress of the world. It has been extremely exciting for me to act as ESC Congress Program Committee (CPC) topic coordinator in Cardiovascular Pharmacotherapy between 2016–2018.
Knowledge saves life. I believe the main purpose for the existence of the ESC is to produce knowledge. The Guidelines will continue to be a very important task for the ESC and so will the EHJ family of journals. The ESC Clinical Trial Unit, the ESC grants, support for high-quality research and the ESC registry projects are also highly valuable. Another very important base for the ESC is the Congress, which is the largest of its kind in the world. It is my belief that the ESC can continue to develop its activities based on generating knowledge and education.
The ESC is probably the strongest opinion leader within cardiology worldwide. We must take that opportunity to have influence on political health decisions within Europe. We already have an office in Brussels, and we must do our duty to be a player in the health-political arena. We have the knowledge and we have the will.
As clinicians, we save human lives in our daily practical work, a fact that makes our work very inspiring. However, it is my sincere belief that cardiologists can save even more lives through taking part in ESC activities, adhering to practice guidelines, participating in educational activities, visiting ESC congresses, and following our scientific journals. We know from several studies that hospital units adhering to international guidelines have a better outcome for the patients than those with a lower adherence to guidelines. ESC produces knowledge in several ways, and it is extremely stimulating to take part in these activities. I believe the ESC exists to produce and promote high-quality knowledge. A major challenge will be to keep these activities going after the COVID-19 pandemic has affected lives and our financial outcome’.
Lina Badimon BSc, MSc, PhD (Spain)
Lina Badimon is the director of the Cardiovascular Science Program (ICCC) at the Hospital Santa Creu and San Pau, director of the Cardiovascular Research Chair of the Autonomous University of Barcelona, and director of the UNESCO Chair in Biomedical Sciences Training and Research. Her research interests focus on cardio-metabolic diseases, thrombosis, atherosclerosis, and ischaemic heart disease.
‘I was chair of the ESC Advocacy Committee between 2018–2020, nominated by then President Barbara Casadei. My work during these last two years is having a significant impact, but we are only really starting the job. We need long-standing work and solid initiatives to change the false perception of cardiovascular disease as a resolved issue with no further need of investment or of necessity of creating awareness in society. We have contacted the newly elected MEPs of the European Parliament, Ministers of Health, and high-ranking officials of many European Union member states to communicate the realities of CVD; we have streamlined advocacy importance with National Cardiac Societies and with the different ESC bodies; we have organised high level meetings to communicate our messages.With my highly esteemed Brussels office advocacy experts, Elisabetta Zanon and Christina Dimopoulou, we have opened different avenues to have our voice heard and to create awareness of the many as yet unresolved CVD issues. However, these activities are not yet consolidated, and I would like to keep working in Advocacy in order to see all the seeds we have planted flourishing during the new Board time frame. Incoming President, Prof Stephan Achenbach will be decisive in deciding the level of importance he would like to give to these initiatives and I, as ESC Councillor, will work accordingly to these priorities.
The ESC is one of the best scientific societies in the world. It is admired and appreciated by cardiologists and by the scientific community at large. This year 2020, has brought unheard of challenges and difficulties that may change our way of life for years; however, the ESC has so far shown resilience and adaptation, and we will turn the situation into new opportunities to keep working in order to fulfil our mission.
I believe our Society stands on high ground which will enable us to undertake the revolution that knowledge is bringing to us and we should be ready to integrate the change. We should focus on young cardiologists, we should focus on promoting the development of the clinician–scientist career tracks, we should focus on updating all areas of knowledge in cardiac specialties, and we should focus on maintaining and improving excellence. The ESC should also be the guiding light for our individual national societies and help to reduce inequalities in care, education, and science among our members’.
Victoria Delgado MD, PhD (The Netherlands)
Victoria Delgado is a senior specialist in the Department of Cardiology at the Leiden University Medical Center, in the Netherlands. Born in Barcelona, Spain, she attended medical school in the city and trained as a cardiologist there. She undertook a PhD at the University of Leiden and describes her research interests as: the application of different non-invasive imaging techniques in clinical cardiology, including coronary artery disease, arrhythmias, valvular heart disease, and heart failure. She is a member of both the Dutch Society of Cardiology and the Spanish Society of Cardiology.
‘It is a great honour to have the opportunity to serve as a Councillor of the ESC Board for the 2020–2022 period after several years of being involved in the European Society of Cardiology in various areas. The opportunity that the ESC gave me to attend the Women Transforming Leadership Programme two years ago made me aware of new possibilities and the potential for appointment to new roles such as Board member of the ESC.
My previous involvement in the ESC includes being a Board member of the European Association of Cardiovascular Imaging for two terms (first as Councillor and second as Chair of the scientific documents committee); a member of the Committee of Practice Guidelines and I was also a member of various Task Force Guidelines; a member of the European Observational Registry Programme and a member of the Council of Valvular Heart Disease. I have been involved in the steering committee of large multicentred European registries such as the EuroHeart Survey II and the EURECA registry. In addition, I am currently involved in the Global Affiliates Programme and contribute as much as I can in spreading the mission of the ESC—to reduce the burden of cardiovascular disease—to whichever countries I go to.
This experience at many different levels within the ESC allows me to have a good insight into the complexity of the Society and increases my interest in being involved in other ESC activities. I am very much interested in contributing to the ESC mission with scientific and educational activities. As a Board member, I will provide unbiased and open-minded input to the decisions and initiatives of the Society as well as contributing with new ideas in terms of scientific and educational activities whenever possible’.
Dan Gaita MD, PhD (Romania)
Dan Gaita is a professor of medicine/cardiology at Universitatea de Medicina si Farmacie Victor Babes/Institutul de Boli Cardiovasculare Timisoara, Romania. His major research interests include cardiovascular prevention (hypertension, lipids, diabetes, obesity) and rehabilitation with the main focus on chronic heart failure.
‘It has been my dream to become a member of the ESC Board and I have grown and developed over the last 30 years through identifying my mentors and role models inside of the ESC. For me, every Congress was the perfect place to see and be seen and I have looked to Heart House like to a place of pilgrimage—with a kind of religiosity based on proof, not only belief.
I describe myself as a preventive cardiologist, living in the Eastern part of Europe, advocating lifestyle changes alongside the best evidence-based medical interventions in order to achieve a prolonged, well-deserved good life, if possible, free of cardiovascular diseases.
Regarding my priorities, I would like to highlight the superiority of preventive cardiology which comes from a strong base and its connections to a high level of civilisation. I also believe that good partnerships are the ultimate solution to a world where divisions and discrepancies are common. This is why in our current environment, translating and unifying are the key strategies and we must transform our diversity into a powerful advantage. In my case, I am proud of my European values, having Eastern roots, Western training, a Northern look, and Southern habits.
I am convinced that together we can put into practice successful projects and that we have the skills to develop strong alliances. We can improve leadership at a national and European level with a combination of communication, networking experience and healthcare expertise. We can also keep our specialty at the centre of medical sciences, having a broad understanding of medical, social, and political aspects of what CVD actually means in Europe.
I am happy to join the ESC Board and I am looking forward to improving cardiovascular health and to bringing together the enthusiasm and efficiency of our Society of which the youthful and active ESC Twitter community is a perfect example’.
Massimo Piepoli MD, PhD (Italy)
Massimo Piepoli currently heads the Heart Failure and Cardiomyopathy Unit of the Guglielmo da Saliceto Hospital in Piacenza. He is a professor at the School of Cardiology of the University of Parma and at the Fondazione Monasterio, and Scuolas Superiore Sant’Anna in Pisa. His areas of expertise include autonomic nervous system, cardiac prevention and rehabilitation, exercise physiology, and heart failure.
‘I am very honoured to be part of this fantastic team at this moment in time. I am from the town of Piacenza in Northern Italy which was at the centre of the COVID-19 outbreak in February 2020 and I faced a very difficult time as a physician, a cardiologist, and a health care provider. Although the situation in Italy was the worst situation possible and we made many mistakes, it showed me how important it is to collaborate with different countries and specialities and share knowledge through the ESC.
I have been involved with the ESC for over 25 years and in the Heart Failure Association (HFA) since the mid-1990s. I believe this is an additional benefit that I can bring to the ESC in terms of expanding the collaboration between the different Associations. This is important as the ESC is a large family with a lot of sons and daughters. I have always appreciated the spirit of the ESC, based on excellence, and friendship, personal exchange, and mutual support. I also serve on the Editorial Board of the most successful ESC family of journals: the European Heart Journal and the European Journal of Heart Failure.
Since 2012, I have been Director of the Heart Failure and Cardiomyopathy Unit within the Cardiology Department of Guglielmo da Saliceto Hospital, as well as a teaching professor at the University Hospital in Parma, and at the Scuola Superiore S. Anna in Pisa. My Heart Failure Unit is the largest in my Region and it has a clear focus on treatment, and preventative aspects relating to heart failure patients. In the out-patient clinic my team of four physicians, and three nurse specialists care for over 5000 patients yearly ranging from the young to the elderly. This spectrum of patients has had an impact on my research interests, which have focused on the role of exercise in disease prevention and therapy, treatment of cardiovascular risk factors and cardiac disease focusing on heart failure with reduced or preserved ejection fraction.
In a changing world, where cardiovascular diseases are still a leading cause of morbidity and death in Europe, despite improvements in outcomes, inequalities, and gaps in access to health care and treatment are increasing. Moreover, the rising age of the population in Europe has increased the social and health care burden of specific age-related conditions such as heart failure and cerebrovascular disease. Furthermore, many cardiovascular risk factors, particularly obesity, diabetes mellitus, and sedentary lifestyle habits have been increasing.
The ESC has risen as a leader worldwide with the strength to successfully face the challenges in this changing world thanks to the different sub-specialist constitutional bodies which cover the full spectrum of cardiology’.
Susanna Price MBBS BSc (United Kingdom)
Susanna Price is a consultant cardiologist and intensivist at the Royal Brompton & Harefield National Health Service (NHS) Foundation Trust, London, and a professor of practice in cardiology and intensive care at the National Heart Lung Institute, at Imperial College, London, UK. She is currently clinical lead for cardiac intensive care, peri-procedural echo, and COVID-19 critical care at Royal Brompton Hospital. Her professional interests focus on acute mechanical circulatory support, critical care in adult congenital heart disease, and advanced imaging in critical care.
‘I am deeply honoured to have been elected as Councillor for the 2020–2022 ESC Board. I was first actively involved in the ESC in 2006 when I joined what was at that time the nucleus of the Working Group on Acute Cardiac Care, which provided a “home” within a cardiac scientific society for me as a cardiologist who specialised in cardiac intensive care. I was later lucky to be elected President of the (by then) Acute Cardiovascular Care Association, and as such had the privilege to be a member of the ESC Board in this role during the 2018–2020 mandate, under then President Barbara Casadei.
As cardiovascular disease remains one of the leading causes of death and morbidity worldwide and with a rapidly changing evidence-base and extraordinary innovations across all the cardiac specialties, the role of the ESC as a leading scientific society with its mission to reduce this burden of cardiovascular disease is enormously important. Bringing together those managing patients with cardiovascular disease from all cardiac specialties and national cardiac societies provides an extraordinary platform from which to collaborate in order to drive excellence in both education and science in the specialty of cardiology, to the ultimate benefit of all of our patients’.
Conflict of interest: none declared.
