Speakers

Prof.Margus Viigimaa

Research Chief of the Centre of Cardiology, North Estonia Medical Centre, Cardiologist at Confido Medical Centre, Tallinn, Estonia

Professor Margus Viigimaa is the Research Chief of the Centre of Cardiology, Centre of Cardiology, North Estonia Medical Centre and Head of the Centre for Cardiovascular Medicine, Tallinn University of Technology. Medical Doctor (cum laude), Faculty of Medicine, University of Tartu (EST), PhD, postdoctoral research in Germany, Sweden, UK and Japan.He has published more than 300 original scientific papers, H-index is 41 and number of citations is 31403 (Scopus database). M. Viigimaa is the editorial board member of several journals: Cardiology, Blood Pressure, High Blood Pressure & Cardiovascular Prevention, Journal of System Hypertension, Arterial Hypertension, Romanian Journal of Cardiology, Russian Journal of Cardiology, Journal of Cardiology and Therapy. He is the President of the Baltic Atherosclerosis Society, past president of the Estonian Society of Cardiology, Membership Committee member of the European Society of Cardiology, Fellow of the American College of Cardiology, Fellow of the European Society of Cardiology, past Council member of the European Society of Hypertension, Chairperson of the European Society of Hypertension Working Group on Hypertension and Sexual Dysfunction. Prof. Viigimaa is honorary member of the Swedish Society of Hypertension, Hungarian Society of Hypertension, Bulgarian Hypertension League, Association of Cardiologists of Kazakhstan, Estonian Society of Cardiology and Estonian Society of Hypertension. He is holding the Red Cross III class Service Order of the Republic of Estonia, Tallinn city Order of honor and Gold medal of the Ukraine National Academy of Medical Sciences.

Prof.Olena Mitchenko

Head Of The Department Of Endocrine Cardiology And Dyslipidemia Of The State Institution "National Scientific Center" The M.D. Strazhesko Institute Of Cardiology, Clinical And Regenerative Medicine Of The National Academy Of Medical Sciences Of Ukraine"

Professor Olena Mitchenko is an active member of the Ukrainian Association of Cardiology, the European Society of Cardiology, the European and International Atherosclerosis Societies. Since 2014, she has been the Head of the Expert Diagnostic and Consultative Treatment Center for Diagnosis and Treatment of Family Dyslipidemias and the Coordinator of the Ukrainian Registry of Patients with Family Hypercholesterolemia within the International Screen ProFH Project and The EAS-FH Studies Collaboration (FHSC) programs. Awarded with Honorary Certificates of the Academy of Medical Sciences of Ukraine and the Ministry of Health of Ukraine in 2004, 2009, 2011, 2014 for significant personal contribution to health care development and training of highly qualified personnel. Author of more than 460 scientific papers, 3 monographs, 9 methodical recommendations, 25 patents. In 2018, she received the Strazhesko Prize of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine for the monograph “Ischemic Heart Disease in Patients with Diabetes”.

Prof.Dan Atar

Head of Research and Professor of Cardiology at the University of Oslo, Norway


He studied medicine in Basel and was then trained in internal medicine and cardiology. Prof. Dan Atar joined the John Hopkins University in Baltimore (1991–1994) and the University of Copenhagen, where he worked as a senior cardiologist. From 1997 to 1998 Dan Atar served as senior physician, supported by the Cloëtta Foundation of Cardiology at the University Hospital of Zurich. He has written over 530 articles and book chapters (H-index 81) and holds the fellowship-titles FESC, FACC, FEHRA and inaugural FAHA. He served as Chairman of the ESC Working Group on Cardiovascular Pharmacotherapy. He was on several ESC guideline writing committees, amongst others the 2010, 2012 and 2016 ESC Guidelines on Atrial Fibrillation, the 2012 STEMI-Guidelines and the 2018 Universal Definition of AMI. In 2012 Professor Atar was elected as Councilor and Board member, in 2014 as Vice President, and in 2018 as Treasurer of the ESC. He was awarded the life-time achievement award in cardiac research in 2023, presented by His Majesty King Harald of Norway.

Prof.Alberico Catapano

Professor of Pharmacology and Director of the Center of Epidemiology and Preventive Pharmacology at the University of Milan, Italy

Prof.Alberico Catapano is also director of the Laboratory of Lipoproteins, Immunity and Atherosclerosis and the Center for the Study of Atherosclerosis at Bassini Hospital, and at Multimedica IRCCS Milan. His main research interests include the study of atherosclerosis, lipids, lipoproteins and genetic dyslipidaemias, and he has made landmark observations regarding heat shock proteins and pentraxins in atherogenesis, on high-density lipoproteins in the modulation of the immune response, and on the identification of possible therapeutic targets by exploiting genetic information. A past President of the European Atherosclerosis Society (EAS), Professor Catapano is currently Co-Chairman of the EAS/European Society of Cardiology (ESC) guidelines for dyslipoproteinaemias, President of the Italian Society of Clinical and Experimental Therapeutics.

Prof.Andrejs Ērglis

Chief of Latvian Centre of Cardiology at Pauls Stradins Clinical University Hospital, Riga, Latvia

He is also Professor of Medicine of the Faculty of Medicine and Director of Institute of Cardiology and Regenerative Medicine at the University of Latvia. He is currently the President of Latvian Society of Cardiology and the Vice-President of Latvian Academy of Sciences. He obtained his medical degree from Riga Medical Institute in 1989, obtained his PhD from the University of Latvia in 2006. He continued his training in interventional cardiology in USA, Australia, the Netherlands, Italy, Germany and France. Since 2005 he is President of Latvian Society of Cardiology. He is Fellow of the American College of Cardiology and the European Society of Cardiology. He is a principal investigator and a member of the Steering Committees in several international multicentre trials. He is the author or co-author of more than 400 peer-reviewed articles.

Dr.Anu Hedman

Senior Cardiologist, East-Tallinn Central Hospital, Estonia

Dr Anu Hedman has been working 30 years at Centre of Cardiology in East-Tallinn Central Hospital and since 2008 as a Senior Cardiologist. She worked 7 years in Sweden in University of Uppsala and finished her PhD there as well. She has been a President of Estonian Society of Hypertension and is a board member of Baltic Atherosclerosis Society.

Ass.Prof.Dovilė Karčiauskaitė

MD, Ph.D., Ass. Prof., Vilnius University, Lithuania

Dovilė Karčiauskaitė MD, Ph.D., is an associated professor in the Department of Physiology, Biochemistry, Microbiology and Laboratory Medicine of the Faculty of Medicine of Vilnius University, and also a laboratory medicine physician at Vilnius University Hospital “Santaros Clinics”. Her clinical and research interests are focused on atherosclerosis pathogenesis, from routine lipid profile, cardiac markers to novel functional lipoprotein tests and investigation of the role of psichosocial factors and oxidative stress on metabolic pathways leading atherogenesis.

Prof Tetiana Kolesnyk

Professor of the Department of Family Medicine, Faculty of Postgraduate Education and Propedeutics of Internal Medicine Dnipro State Medical University
The main directions of the scientific and research activity of professor T. Kolesnyk are associated with investigation of clinical and genetic features of the arterial hypertension and it treatment in patients with a high cardiovascular risk. She pays special attention to development of new technologies for personalized diagnosis and progression of arterial hypertension, evaluation of the effectiveness of antihypertensive therapy in various comorbid pathologies in her work.
Professor Tetiana Kolesnyk is an active member of the Ukrainian Association of Cardiology, a member of the European Society of Cardiology, the European Society of Arterial Hypertension and Atherosclerosis. In 2016, she was awarded the Medal named by Academician M.D. Strazhesko " For special services in healthcare".

Prof.Gustavs Latkovskis

Cardiologist, University of Latvia
Gustavs Latkovskis, MD, PhD is a cardiologist and Professor of Medicine at the University of Latvia. He is one of the key opinion leaders on cardiovascular prevention in Latvia with particular focus on lipids. In 2015, he established the Latvian Registry of Familial Hypercholesterolemia which has collected data on more than 700 individuals and identified more than 350 patients with FH diagnosis and almost 300 patients with possible FH in Latvia. Dr. Latkovskis graduated cum laude in Medicine at the Latvian Medical Academy (currently Riga Stradins University) in 1995 and completed his clinical training in internal medicine and cardiology in Riga, Latvia. He defended PhD thesis at the University of Latvia in 2006 on the topic "Impact of genetic variations of interleukins on the course of coronary heart disease". Dr. Latkovskis has been involved in several clinical trials and published on cardiovascular medicine-related topics, including dyslipidemias, clopidogrel resistance and novel markers. He has co-authored more than 50 publications in international peer-reviewed journals with h-index 15, three national guidelines and three national scientific statements. In Latvia and other Baltic Countries, he is a recognized lecturer on topics such as lipids, hypertension and cardiovascular prevention. He is currently Board Member at the Latvian Society of Cardiology and the Baltic Atherosclerosis Society as well as Board Member and Chairman of the Certification Council of the Latvian Medical Association. He has been president of the Baltic Atherosclerosis Society in 2013-2017. He is also a member of various international societies including ESC, EAS and AHA. In 2019, he was elected as a corresponding member of the Latvian Academy of Sciences.

Prof.Andres Metspalu

Professor of Biotechnology, University of Tartu, Estonia

Prof. Andres Metspalu, (MD 1976 from University of Tartu and PhD in molecular biology in 1979) is the Head of the Estonian Biobank and professor of genomics and biobanking at Institute of Genomics and professor of biotechnology at Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of Tartu. He was a postdoc (IREX Fellow) at Colombia (1981) and Yale University (1982), 1985 EMBL as a FEBS fellow and 1987 MPI West Berlin as EMBO fellow. His main scientific interests are human genetics, genomics of complex diseases and population-based biobanks and application of the genomics based personal medicine and prevention in health care. He has published and co-authored over 600 scientific papers (PubMed) and his H-index is 158 (Google Scholar). In 1993 -1994 he was at Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, as a visiting faculty, in year 2000 at IARC, Lyon, France, as a recipient of the International VSS Award and in 2012 sabbatical at University of Lausanne working on human genetics and genomics. From 1996 to 2008 A. Metspalu was also the head and founder of the Mol. Diag. Center of the Tartu University Hospital. Metspalu is the past (2006) president of the European Society of the Human Genetics. 2010 he was elected to the Estonian Academy of Sciences. He is serving in several national and international committees (Board member of Mission for Cancer in Horizon Europe (until Dec.2021, EU 1+Million Genome, (member of the coordination group), SAB member in EATRIS and EIT Health Stockholm) and has received among other awards and honors the Order of the Estonian Red Cross 3rd Class. In 2002 he won the French Award "Prix de la Garantie Medicale et Chirurgicale" and in 2003 was made Chevalier of the "Ordre des Palmes Académiques". From 2010, he is Doctor Honoris Causa of Vilnius University. In 2017 he was awarded The Baltic Assembly Prize for Literature, the Arts and Science, in 2019 he received the “Estonian European of the Year” Award and in 2020 Estonian State Prize for the outstanding and innovating discovery. Finally, in 2020 he received the Estonian Research Council “Tiiu Silla nominal lifetime achievement award” for long-term systematic science and technology popularization.

Ass.Prof.Iveta Mintāle

Head doctor, P. Stradins Clinical University Hospital, Riga, Latvia

Iveta Mintale, MD, PhD. She is Assoc. Professor, University of Latvia, Cardiologist in P. Stradins Clinical University Hospital, Riga, Latvia, working as a Head doctor of Diagnostic and Outpatient Department in Latvian Centre of Cardiology, P. Stradins Clinical University Hospital. She is Vice-president of Latvian Society of Cardiology and National Guidelines Coordinator in ESC.
Her main research interests include CV prevention, especially primary prevention and healthy lifestyle.

Prof.Sergei Nazarenko

Professor of Practice, Department of Health Technologies, Tallinn University of Technology, Estonia

Sergei Nazarenko MD PhD is trained and educated in cardiology, molecular biology, diagnostic and therapeutic nuclear medicine. He is one of the facilitators of civil society in Estonia - since 1990's he has been active in founding and nurturing several national medical specialist organizations to achieve highest professional standards. Throughout his career he has been a mentor for young physicians, supervising and accelerating their professional growth and scientific research activities. He is a board member of Baltic Atherosclerosis Society. His professional work continues to be dedicated to empowering independence and sovereignty of Estonian health care system in the areas of hypertensiology, radiation safety, radiology, nuclear medicine and innovation. For three decades he has actively provided advice and expertise in clinical medicine and health care management in countries-in-transition and at the European level.

Alexander Parkhomenko, MD, PhD, FESC, FICA, Kyiv, Ukraine

Chair and Professor of Cardiology in the Emergency Cardiology Department at the National Scientific Centre “Institute of Cardiology, Clinical and Regenerative Medicine named after M.D.Strazhesko” in Kyiv, Ukraine.
Dr Alexander Parkhomenko is currently the Vice-President of the Ukrainian Association of Cardiology, Chair of the Acute Cardiovascular Care Association, Fellow of the European Society of Cardiology, International College of Angiology and an active international member of the American College of Cardiology and American Heart Association. He is also a member of French Society of Cardiology and ADA.

Dr.Parkhomenko completed his clinical and research training in clinical pharmacology, cardiology, electrophysiology at the Kyiv Medical Institute, Ukraine, Imperial College, London, University of Kaunas, Lithuania. He graduated in Medicine from the Kyiv Medical Institute (now National Medical University), Ukraine.

Dr. Parkhomenko has been involved in a number of clinical trials and published widely on a range of cardiovascular-related topics, including cardiovascular outcomes in patients with diabetes mellitus, CAD and PAD, acute coronary syndromes, heart failure, dyslipidemias. He has authored over 85 publications in international peer-reviewed journals, including JACC, Lancet, the New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, European Heart Journal, Circulation. As an active lecturer, he has presented at many national and international conferences such as the ACC and AHA Scientific Sessions, French Congress of Cardiology, European Congress of Cardiology, ACCA Congress, ESC HF Congress.

Prof.Žaneta Petrulionienė

Vilnius University, Vilnius University Hospital Santaros Klinikos, Lithuania

Žaneta Petrulionienė is a Professor of Cardiology at Clinic of Cardiac and Vascular Diseases, Institute of Clinical Medicine, Medical Faculty of Vilnius University and Consulting Professor at Center of Cardiology and Angiology at Vilnius University Hospital Santaros Klinikos, Vilnius, Lithuania. Žaneta Petrulionienė has focused her efforts on primary and secondary CVD prevention, CVD epidemiology, morbidity and mortality trends, risk profile evaluations, lipidology, lipid-lowering pharmacology, nationwide heterozygous and homozygous familial hypercholesterolemia screening programmes and research. She is past President of Lithuanian Heart Association (LHA), currently - Head of LHA Vilnius branch, Board member and President Elect of Baltic Atherosclerosis Society (BAS). Member of organizing committee and one of the leaders of nationwide Primary Prevention Project - Lithuanian High Cardiovascular Risk Programme (LitHiR) since 2005. Together with colleagues she has founded first Preventive Cardiology Department in Lithuania and was the first head of the department.
Currently professor is taking part in the world-wide familial hypercholesterolemia projects: she is National Leader of International Project Global EAS FH Studies Collaboration, National Leader of International Project ScreenPro FH (Screening Project for Familial Hypercholesterolemia in Central, Southern and Eastern Europe), National leader of European Lipid Clinic Network of EAS and FH Europe. Professor is Nucleus member of the Primary Care and Risk Factor Management Section of the European Association of Preventive Cardiology (EAPC); served as Board member of International Atherosclerosis Society (IAS), now she is member of IAS regional Federation for Europe; Member of International Lipid expert Panel (ILEP), Professional Member of American Heart Association (AHA); Fellow of European Society of Cardiology (FESC); Project Evaluator at European Commission; Country leader and principal investigator of numerous international RCT in Preventive Cardiology. In 2017 by President H.E. Dalia Grybauskaite prof. Žaneta Petrulionienė for her efferts was awarded with the Order of the Lithuanian Grand Duke Gediminas.

Dr.Martin Serg

Clinical cardiologist, North Estonia Medical Centre, Confido Medical Centre, Tallinn, Estonia

Dr. Martin Serg is a clinical cardiologist at the North Estonia Medical Centre, Tallinn and a research fellow at the University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia. He has graduated from the University of Tartu, Faculty of Medicine (2008), thereafter defended a Doctoral Degree (2012) and received the profession of a cardiologist (2018). The doctor considers professional development very important and regularly participates in congresses of the field, as well as gives seminars himself. He is the secretary of the Baltic Atherosclerosis Society and member of the board of the Estonian Society of Cardiology prevention workgroup. He additionally belongs to the European Society of Cardiology, Estonian Junior Doctor’s Association, Estonian Hypertension Association and the European Atherosclerosis Society. On a daily basis he works in two roles – on the one hand as a researcher on possibilities for the prevention of coronary heart disease and on the other, as doctor treating patients who have already developed the disease.

Prof.Rimvydas Šlapikas

Prof. Rimvydas Šlapikas, Hospital of Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Kaunas Clinics

Prof. Rimvydas Šlapikas main research areas are dyslipidaemia, hypertension and cardiovascular disease prevention. The current field of his scientific research and interest is the assessment of the predictive value of novel biochemical markers and subclinical atherosclerosis in asymptomatic high-risk patients for future coronary events, targeting patients with the metabolic syndrome and severe familial hypercholesterolemia. He is an author and co-author of more than 100 scientific publications in national and international journals. Rimvydas Slapikas was acting as investigator, principle investigator or national coordinator in over 50 clinical trials and member of Steering Committee in 10 clinical trials.
Professor Rimvydas Slapikas is a Past President of Lithuanian Society of Cardiology, Board member and coordinator of cardiovascular prevention at Lithuanian Society of Cardiology. He has been an invited speaker and chairman in many international meetings including European Meetings on Hypertension and Dyslipidaemia, Nordic-Baltic Congresses of Cardiology, Baltic Atherosclerosis Congresses.

Prof.Kārlis Trušinskis

Professor in Cardiology, Latvian Center of Cardiology at Stradins Clinical University Hospital

Kārlis Trušinskis is an Assoc. Professor in Cardiology, working at the Latvian Center of Cardiology at Stradins Clinical University Hospital and Department of Internal Medicine at Riga Stradins University, Riga, Latvia. He is also the President of Latvian Society of Hypertension and Atherosclerosis. Professor Trušinskis gained his medical degree from the Latvian Academy of Medicine and undertook post-graduate studies in Interventional Cardiology at the San Donato Hospital, Milan, Italy, Glenfield University Hospital, Leicester, UK, and at Catharina Hospital, Eindhoven, Netherlands.