TAVI Update: Latest Evidence Leads to Growing Confidence in Patient Treatment

Professor Volkmar Falk is the Medical Director and Director of the Department of Cardiothoracic and Vascular Surgery of the German Heart Center Berlin, Chair of the Division of Cardiovascular Surgery at the Charité Berlin and Professor for Translational Cardiovascular Technologies at the ETH, Zurich.

After successfully completing medical school and his doctorate at the University of Bonn, he began his basic surgical training at the University in Göttingen and became a senior surgeon at the Department of Cardiac Surgery of the Heart Center Leipzig. 

His main areas of current clinical and academic research are in the field of endoscopic and minimally invasive cardiac surgery and image guided transcatheter therapies. 

Prof Nicole Karam is an associate professor in the Department of Cardiology at the European Hospital Georges Pompidou. She specializes in interventional cardiology and performs both coronary and valvular percutaneous surgeries, as well as research in Cardiovascular Epidemiology at the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research.

After starting her medical studies at Saint-Joseph University in Beirut, she moved to Paris in 2010 and specialized in Interventional Cardiology. Subsequently, she trained in a highly specialized center for valvular heart disease in Munich, Germany, where she learned new techniques in percutaneous valvular interventions that she later brought back to Georges Pompidou Hospital.

Prof Karam is an active member and a fellow of the European Society of Cardiology, and a member of the steering committee of the Women’s European Association of Percutaneous Cardiovascular Interventions. 

Hendrik Treede is currently the Director of the Department of Cardiac Surgery at the Mid-German Heart Center, University Hospital Halle (Saale). Hendrik’s professional interests are minimally invasive mitral valve reconstruction, minimally invasive bypass surgery, transcatheter valve interventions, aortic valve repair and aortic surgery, and fully endoscopic atrial ablation. He graduated medical school in 1997 from the University of Hamburg.

Alec Vahanian studied medicine at University Paris VI becoming a Doctor of medicine in 1972. He became a Professor of Cardiology in 1988 and was made head of the cardiology department at Tenon Hospital, Paris in 1994. His special research interests are in valvular heart disease and interventional cardiology. He is a member of the Board of the European Society of Cardiology and Chairman of the Education Committee.