Nordic-Baltic Congress of Cardiology 2015 Tallinn

Keynote Speakers

Panos Vardas

Professor Panos E. Vardas, MD, PhD, the immediate Past President of the European Society of Cardiology , is Head of the Cardiology Department at Heraklion University Hospital, Crete, Greece. His career started at the University of Athens, where he obtained his Medical Degree and his MD Thesis. During the same period, he specialized in Internal Medicine and Cardiology in the clinics of the same University.

In 1985 he started working at the Westminster Hospital in London, Cardiology Department, where he stayed until 1989, focusing on Clinical Electrophysiology and Cardiac Rhythm Management Devices. In 1993 he obtained his PhD in Clinical Electrophysiology from the Charing Cross & Westminster Medical School.

In Greece, Prof. Vardas has held major academic positions, such as:
- President of the Hellenic Cardiovascular Society (2007- )
- Dean of the Medical Faculty School at the University of Crete (2003-2007)
- Editor of the Hellenic Journal of Cardiology (2002- )
- President of the Hellenic Cardiological Society (1999-2001)

In Europe, Prof. Vardas has been elected to significant scientific positions, the most important of which are:
- President of the European Society of Cardiology (2012- )
- President of the European Heart Rhythm Association (2009-2011)
- Chairman of the Review Committee for the 2010 and 2012 Guidelines on Atrial Fibrillation

Chairman of the European Working Group of Pacing and Electrophysiology (2002-2003). Prof. Vardas has participated as an author in more than 400 publications included in the MedLine as well as in a considerable number of chapters of well-known medical books, the Text Book of the ESC being one of them. He has been a fervent contributor to the activities of the European Society of Cardiology for twenty years.

Jeroen Bax

Professor Jeroen Bax, MD, PhD. Professor of Cardiology, the President Elect of the European Society of Cardiology is Director of non-invasive imaging in Leiden, The Netherlands.

He holds several positions in national and international scientific organizations, and was President of the ESC Congress program committee for 2007-2008 and the ESC Cardiology Guidelines chair for 2010-2012. Jeroen Bax focuses on clinical cardiology, heart failure, cardiac resynchronization therapy, and the application of all different imaging modalities to these clinical fields.

He serves on many editorial boards of different journals, including associate editor for Heart and the Journal of the American College of Cardiology

Dan Atar

Professor Dan Atar, MD, PhD, FESC, FACC, FAHA, the Vice-Precident of the ESC and the Professor of Cardiology and Head of Research in Division of Medicine, Oslo University of Hospital.

Professor Dan Atar holds several positions in national and international scientific organizations – he is Vice-Precident of the ESC, Previous Chairman of Working Group Pharmacotherapy under the ESC, Member of the CPC (Congress Program Committee under ESC), Member of the Guideline Writing Committee for "ESC 2012 STEMI Guideline" and for the "ESC/AHA/ACC/WHF Global Definition of MI" Guideline. In Norway he is Treasurer and member of the Board: NCS (Norwegian Society of Cardiology) and Member of the Steering Committee of the CHFR (Center for Heart Failure Research, Oslo) .
His main academic research interests are - "Prevention of reperfusion in STEMI" and „Troponin“.

For education and employment he has been also Board-certified specialist in Cardiology and Internal Medicine from Denmark and Switzerland, and Visiting Associate Professor of Cardiology at The Johns Hopkins Unversity, Baltimore, MD, USA.

Irina Chazova

Professor Irina Chazova, MD, PhD is the President of the Russian Medical Society on Arterial Hypertension (RMSAH), Board Member of the Russian Society of Cardiology (RSC), corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Medical Science and Director of the Institute of Clinical Cardiology of the Russian Cardiology Scientific and Production Complex.

Margus Viigimaa

Professor Margus Viigimaa, MD, PhD, FESC, the President of Estonian Society of Cardiology is Head of the Heart Health Centre, North Estonia Medical Centre and Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine, Tallinn University of Technology.

His main research fields are hypertension, dyslipidemia and cardiovascular prevention. M. Viigimaa has published more than 240 original scientific papers. He is member of the editorial board of the journals Blood Pressure, Journal of System Hypertension, Romanian Journal of Cardiology, Russian Journal of Cardiology, Journal of Cardiology and Therapy.

Prof. Viigimaa is President of the Estonian Society of Cardiology, Past President of the Baltic Atherosclerosis Society, Vice president of the Estonian Society of Hypertension. Honorary member of the Swedish Society of Hypertension, Hungarian Society of Hypertension, Bulgarian Hypertension League. Director of Estonian WHO CINDI Programme, Chairman of the Estonian CVD Prevention Programme, Member of the Board of the Estonian Heart Strategy.
M. Viigimaa has been an invited speaker and chairman on numerous international meetings including European Meetings on Hypertension, ESC Congresses, World Congress of Angiology, Nordic-Baltic Hypertension Meetings, Baltic Atherosclerosis Congresses, Nordic-Baltic Cardiology Congresses etc.

Andrejs Ērglis

Andrejs Ērglis, MD, PhD, FESC, FACC, the President of Latvian Society of Cardiology is Professor of Medicine at the University of Latvia and Chief of Latvian Centre of Cardiology at Pauls Stradins Clinical University Hospital. Currently he is Director of Institute of Cardiology, University of Latvia.

He obtained his medical degree in Riga Medical Institute in 1989, the specialization in cardiology and radiology in 1990. He continued his training in interventional cardiology in the USA, Australia, the Netherlands, Italy, Germany and France.

He has published about 300 articles in Baltic and international peer-reviewed journals. He is investigator and member of the Steering Committees in several international multicentre trials.
His major fields of scientific interest are cutting balloon interventions, left main and other complex lesion interventions, structural heart diseases. Since 2005 he is President of Latvian Society of Cardiology. He is Fellow of the ACC and the ESC.

Frieder Braunscweig

Professor Frieder Braunschweig, MD, PhD, the President of Swedish Society of Cardiology, is Associate Professor of cardiology, consultant, Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden. He is a Vice-Chairperson for Health Economics at European Heart Rhytm Association (EHRA).

Prof. Frieder Braunschweig graduated from Heidelberg University Medical School and received his basic clinical training at City Hospital in Karlsruhe, Germany. 1998 he joined the Karolinska University Hospital in Stockholm and specialized in internal medicine and cardiology. In 2002 he was appointed a consultant cardiologist and works in the fields of electrophysiology and heart failure. Prof. Braunschweig completed a doctoral thesis in radiation biology at the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg and received a PhD degree in cardiovascular medicine from the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm. has been working for many years in the field of pacing, electrophysiology and heart failure. He has been primary investigator, steering committee member and investigator in a large number of device trials and has chaired an EHRA expert consensus on the management of patients receiving ICD shocks.

Thorarinn Gudnason

Dr Thorarinn Gudnason, MD, PhD, FESC, FACC, President of Iceland Society of Cardiology, is consultant cardiologist Landspitali University Hospital, Reykjavik, and President of the Icelandic Society of Cardiology.

He graduated with a medical degree from the University of Iceland, in 1991 and did his his training in internal medicine, cardiology and iinterventional cardiology at Sahlgrenska University Hospital in Göteborg, Sweden from 1995-2001. He was a consultant cardiologist at Sahlgrenska from 2001-2004. He studied health care management at Göteborg University from 1996 to 1999, and completed his PhD on endothelial function and endothelial tPA release in humans at the University of Göteborg in 2004. His main research fields since have been in acute coronary syndrome and interventional cardiology, type D personality and effects of smoking on cardiovascular health. He has also participated in the development of registry based randomised clinical trials.

Christian Gerdes

Professor Christian Gerdes, MD, PhD, the President of the Danish Society of Cardiology. He is consultant in cardiology and electrophysiology, Department of Cardiology, Aarhus University Hospital, Denmark.

Mikko Pietilä

Mikko Pietilä, MD, PhD, is the current President of the Finnish Cardiac Society. He works as a cardiologist and medical specialist in Department of Internal Medicine, Cardiology, Turku University Hospital. His therapeutic areas are cardiology and medical imaging – PET, invasive cardiology

Germanas Marinskis

Professor Germanas Marinskis, MD, PhD, the president of Lithuanian Society of Cardiology is Head of Department of Cardiac Arrhythmias and Invasive Cardiology, at Vilnius University Hospital. His therapeutic area over the years has been clinical electrophysiology – arrhytmia treatment and pacing.

Prof. Marinskis is managing editor of the journal Seminars in Cardiovascular Medicine, board member of Lithuanian Heart Association, lecturer for the extramural Core curriculum courses on Cardiac Arrhythmias organized by the European Heart House (ASC).

Pekka Raatikainen

Professor Pekka Raatikainen, MD, PhD, FESC, ex-President of the Finnish Cardiac Society and currently the Vice-Chairman of the Working Group of Arrhytmias and Pacing, Finnish Cardiac Society. He is professor of cardiology in the Heart Center of Tampere University Hospital and during his presidency of the FCS, has been actively involved in the work of the ESC and the European Heart Rhythm Association (EHRA). In addition, he is responsible for the training of medical students as well as cardiology and electrophysiology Fellows.

Terje K. Steigen

Professor Terje K. Steigen, MD, PhD, FESC, President of the Norwegian Society of Cardiology is Associate Professor in University Hospital of Northern Norway, Tromsø, Norway. Prof. Steigen has long history of clinical research and he is author and co-author for various publications and articles, mainly on the field of coronary angioplasty and angiography.