Improving Atrial Fibrillation Treatment Outcomes With First Line Cryoablation

Dr Carina Blomström-Lundqvist is Professor of Cardiology at the Department of Cardiology, Institution of Medical Science, Uppsala, SE and Senior Consultant and Professor at the Department of Cardiology and Medical Science, Örebro University Hospital, Örebro, SE.

Dr Blomström-Lundqvist graduated in medicine in 1976, she went on to specialise in cardiology and internal medicine, and started research on haemodynamics and myocardial metabolism in patients with dilated cardiomyopathy. With the developments in electrophysiology she switched her research interest towards arrhythmias and after 3 years she defended her PhD thesis on the diagnostic and prognostic implications of arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia in 1987 in Gothenburg, Sweden.

At Uppsala, Dr Blomström-Lundqvist has become research leader for the arrhythmia unit, mainly focusing on research related to atrial fibrillation (AF). In collaboration with the Department of Thoracic Surgery, procedures for Maze surgery followed by thoracoscopy epicardial atrial fibrillation ablations were initiated.

Dr Blomström-Lundqvist has also served as scientific secretary to the Swedish Society of Medicine and is presently chair of the Heart Rhythm Group of the Swedish Society of Cardiology. She is presently coordinating the Arrhythmia section of ESC Congress Programme Committee and the Councillor of the ESC Board. 

Dr Blomström-Lundqvist is a member of the AER editorial board.

Dr Jason Andrade is a Cardiac Electrophysiologist at Vancouver General Hospital in Canada, with joint appointment at St Paul’s Hospital and the Montreal Heart Institute. He is an Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of British Columbia (UBC), and an Adjunct Professor at the Université de Montréal. Dr Andrade is the Director of the Electrophysiology Program at VGH, as well as Head of the Atrial Fibrillation Clinic at VGH. He also serves as co-chair of the Canadian Cardiovascular Society Atrial Fibrillation Guidelines committee, and serves as the medical lead for the atrial fibrillation care in the province of British Columbia. He previously served as chair of the education committee for the Canadian Heart Rhythm society.

Dr Andrade is the principal investigator of two ongoing multicenter clinical trials on cryoablation (the CIRCA-DOSE study and the EARLY-AF program). He has authored or co-authored over 120 scientific publications, predominantly in the domain of atrial fibrillation. He is also the author of a handbook of cardiac electrophysiology, a handbook of electrocardiogram interpretation, and several chapters related to atrial fibrillation ablation and cardiac cryoablation.

Dr Andrade is a graduate of McMaster University (BSc; Summa Cum Laude) and the University of Ottawa (MD, Magna Cum Laude). He completed his Internal Medicine residency and Cardiology fellowship training at the University of British Columbia and a clinical and research fellowship in Cardiac Electrophysiology at the Montreal Heart Institute.

Dr Yassir Javaid, Cardiovascular & Diabetes Lead Northamptonshire CCG, UK. Qualified from Cambridge University and completed his GP VTS training in Northampton. He has an interest in cardiology and echocardiography and was a clinical lead in the Northamptonshire Community Cardiology service, which had a focus on patients with heart failure and valve disease. Dr Javaid was named Pulse “GP of the Year” in 2015 for his work in reducing stroke emergency admissions in the East Midlands. He is also a council member of the British Heart Valve Society, accredited member of the British Society of Echocardiography and on the editorial board for the British Journal of Cardiology.

Dr Magnus Forsgren, Head Physician, Cardiology Clinic, Falun Hospital, Sweden

Prof Kirchhof is the Director of the Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences at the University of Birmingham. Prof Kirchhof research includes novel molecular mechanisms of heart disease that can be leveraged to develop personalised treatment approaches to common cardiovascular diseases.