Optimizing Heart Failure Management: A High-Intensity, Patient-Centered Approach to Guideline-Directed Medical Therapy

Gianluigi Savarese is an Italian/Swedish cardiologist, currently Professor of Cardiology and Senior Lecturer at Karolinska Institutet (Department of Clinical Science and Education) where he is head of the Center for Heart Failure and Arrhythmia. He is also Senior Consultant for Heart Failure at the Southern Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden. Over the last few years, he has published >300 articles in top peer-reviewed journals. The major focus of his research is heart failure, with a particular interest in implementing use of guideline-recommended treatments, and phenotyping heart failure for improving clinical trial design. He is heavily involved in registry studies (Swedish Heart Failure Registry, ESC registries) and clinical trials, and he is expert in meta-analysis and big data analysis. He is Secretary of the Heart Failure Association, and he has served as board member and secretary of the Working Group on Cardiovascular Pharmacotherapy of the European Society of Cardiology. Among others, he is Deputy Editor of EHJ-Open, EHJ-CR, and Associate Editor of European Journal of Heart Failure.

Prof. Clara Saldarriaga is a Professor of Cardiology at the University of Antioquia and Head of the Cardiology Program at Pontificia Bolivariana University in Medellín, Colombia. She was the first woman to serve as President of the Colombian Society of Cardiology.

 

Her research focuses on heart failure, cardiovascular disease in women, and developing new care models for low- and middle-income countries. She is an experienced clinical trialist, serving as a principal investigator and Steering Committee member for multiple heart failure studies.

 

Beyond her research, Prof. Saldarriaga is passionate about mentoring early-career cardiologists, particularly women in the field. She actively collaborates with organizations like Women as One to support female professionals in cardiology.

 

She is also a member of the Lancet Commission for Cardiovascular Disease in Women and an Editorial Board member for Cardiac Failure Review.

Dr. Shelley Zieroth joined the Section of Cardiology at St. Boniface Hospital in Winnipeg in July 2006. She is currently a Professor in the College of Medicine, Max Rady Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Manitoba, as well as Director of the Heart Failure Clinics. She is also Head of the Medical Heart Failure Program for Cardiac Sciences Manitoba.

 

Dr. Zieroth attended medical school at the University of Manitoba and went on to train in Internal Medicine and Cardiology at the same center. She completed her Postdoctoral Clinical Fellowship, specializing in Advanced Heart Failure and Cardiac Transplant, at Toronto General Hospital.

 

Her research interests include heart failure and cardio-kidney-metabolic interactions.  She holds leadership positions in international clinical trials and has enrolled many patients in landmark clinical trials during the course of her career. She is also Associate Editor at JACC HF, European Journal of HF and the European Heart Journal.

 

She is a governor-elect for ACC representing Canada and Past President of the Federation of Medical Women of Canada. Other leadership roles include Past President of the Canadian Heart Failure Society, and she has been a longstanding contributor and now co-Chair of the Canadian Cardiovascular Society Heart Failure Guidelines.  She serves as Co-Chair of Canada’s largest annual heart failure meeting, HF Update.

Prof. Dr. Carsten Tschöpe is a leading cardiologist and researcher, specializing in heart failure, myocarditis, and cardiomyopathies. He heads the Clinical Cardiomyopathy Unit at the Deutsches Herzzentrum der Charité (DHZC) and the Translational Cardiovascular Unit at the Berlin Institute of Health (BIH) and BCRT. He is also a Professor of Medicine and Cardiology at Charité in Berlin.

 

With over 550 publications, Prof. Tschöpe is a pioneer in immunocardiology, focusing on the role of the immune system in heart failure and cardiac regeneration. He is a board member of the Heart Failure Association (HFA) and Chair of the ESC Working Group on Myocardial and Pericardial Diseases. His research explores innovative treatment strategies, including regenerative medicine and immunotherapies for cardiac repair.

 

He is recognized among the world’s top experts in myocarditis and has conducted over 50,000 heart biopsies, making him one of the most experienced interventional cardiologists in this field. Prof. Tschöpe also contributes to the development of cardiomyopathy programs in Europe, holding a guest professorship at the University of Wroclaw.