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WERKÖFÖRELÄSNING - KARDIOVASKULÄRA VÅRMÖTETS HÖGTIDSFÖRELÄSNING
Svenska Kardiovaskulära Vårmötet har allt sedan 2001 bjudit in prominenta gäster att föreläsa till minne av Lars Werkö. Föreläsningen hålls traditionsenligt i samband med invigningen av vårmötet under onsdagseftermiddagen.

Lars Werkö, 1918-2009, svensk överläkare och professor i medicin.

Lars Werkö var ikonen bortom all jämförelse inom svensk sjukvård, med uppåt 70 yrkesaktiva år bakom sig. Han verkade i många roller under en karriär med många toppar: som läkare, professor i akademin, forskningschef inom läkemedelsindustrin, förtroendevald till såväl fackliga som vetenskapliga specialuppdrag. Bland annat satt han som ledamot i WHO:s advisory panel on cardiovascular diseases och varit ordförande i Sveriges läkarförbund. Hans sista officiella uppdrag var som ordförande och chef för SBU mellan åren 1987 och 1997.

Därefter drog han sig tillbaka, 79 år gammal, och började en ny karriär som pensionär. Han skrev sina memoarer »Det gäller alltid livet« 2000 och fortsatte att engagera sig i sjukvårdsdebatten genom att publicera böcker och artiklar ända fram till sin död.

En hälsofråga som han drev med stor entusiasm var diskussionen kring »kolesterolmyten« och de kostråd som den gav upphov till. Han efterlyste också ytterligare utredning av eventuella effekter som statiner kunde ha, förutom förmågan att sänka blottfettsnivåer.

En viktig fråga för professionen ansåg han vara fortsatta diskussioner om vidareutbildning av läkarkåren.

Text hämtad från Dagens Medicin 

INBJUDNA WERKÖFÖRELÄSARE GENOM ÅREN

2024

Barbara Casadei is a British Heart Foundation (BHF) Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine at the University of Oxford and Honorary Consultant Cardiologist at the Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust where she leads the Cardiovascular Theme of the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Biomedical Research Centre and is Steering Committee Member of the BHF Centre for Research Excellence.  She graduated in Medicine (cum Laude & Medaglia Teresiana) at the University of Pavia, Italy and moved to Oxford in 1989 to undertake her clinical and research training. She was awarded the Joan and Richard Doll Fellowship at Green College in 1991, a DPhil in Cardiovascular Medicine in 1995, and a BHF Senior Research Fellowship in 2001.  
 
Professor Casadei is Fellow of the UK Academy of Medical Sciences, holds the highest honour of the British Cardiovascular Society (The Mackenzie Medal) and of the European Society of Cardiology (Gold Medal), and is Past President of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC, 2018-20). She co-founded EuroHeart (with Professors Lars Wallentin, Aldo Maggioni and Chris Gale) an initiative that supports the assessment and improvement of quality of cardiovascular care in Europe https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehz599, the Cardiovascular Patient Forum, and the Women in the ESC (WinESC).
 
Professor Casadei is chair of the Fondation Leducq Scientific Committee and Editorial Board member of Cardiovascular Research; Circulation; European Heart Journal; and Circulation Research. She has delivered numerous named lectures including, The William Harvey Lecture on Basic Science and Silver Medal of the ESC, 2013; The Thomas Lewis Lecture and Silver Medal of the British Cardiovascular Society, 2014; The William H Gaasch Lecture, University of Massachusetts, 2017; The Michael Sole Lecture, University of Toronto, 2019; The 4th Annual Gootter Foundation Lecture, Stanford University, US; The Robert Reneman Lecture, University of Maastricht, NL, and the Roman W. DeSanctis Lecture, Harvard Medical School, US in 2021; the ISHR Keith Reimer Distinguished Lecture in 2022; and the Gustav Nylin Lecture of the Swedish Cardiac Society in 2023.
 
She provides a clinical service at the John Radcliffe Hospital and leads a bench-to-bedside translational research programme, which spans from bench-based investigation in human tissue and cells to clinical trials.

2023

Massimo Piepoli, Milan, Italy

"Non pharmacological intervention in patients with heart failure: Exercise rehabilitation. Rational and evidences"

Prof. Massimo Piepoli holds the role of Director of the Cardiology Unit at the Policlinico San Donato Hospital (University of Milan), as well as being Affiliated at the Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, and the G. Monasterio Foundation, large Italian national reference centers, and at the Department of Preventive Cardiology, University of Wroclaw, Poland.

Graduated in Medicine and Surgery and specialized in Cardiology at the University of Pavia in 1987 and 1991 respectively, in 1996 he obtained the Philosophy Doctor Degree at Imperial College London.

Piepoli's research examines the pathophysiology of heart failure and the role of neuro-hormonal imbalance in the evolution of heart failure, as well as the mechanisms of cardiovascular disease, innovation in diagnostics and therapy. His research results (Scopus 2023: H index 115; Total citations 134,712; Documents cited 697) testify to the results of his clinical research methodology and attitude towards a multidisciplinary approach. Several research projects are based on international collaborative networks and have been able to attract funds that have ensured their pursuit and realization. He is the author of 351 articles in peer-reviewed journals (Pubmed), contributed to the drafting of 31 European guidelines, 53 position papers, 136 invited lectures to international conferences, publisher of 12 books.

Since 2017, winner of international selection, he has been appointed Editor in Chief de European Journal of Cardiovascular Prevention, which under his guidance has seen his IF grow from 3.3 to 8.5; he is also a member of the Editorial Board of the European Heart Journal, and of the European Journal of Heart Failure. From 2020 he was also elected to the board of the European Society of Cardiology with the role of Vice President.

2022

A. John Camm, London Storbritannien 

'Should we Consign Our Patients to Live with Atrial Fibrillation?'

Professor Camm is the British Heart Foundation emeritus professor of Clinical Cardiology at St. George’s University of London.
Professor Camm has a broad range of professional interests.  His major specialty is cardiac arrhythmias, atrial fibrillation and thromboembolism.
Professor Camm has given over 2000 lectures to national and international audiences, written more than 1450 peer review papers and over 350 book chapters.  He has authored (5) and edited (30) books. He is currently editor in chief of Clinical Cardiology, the European Heart Journal - Case Reports and ESC CardioMed.
Professor Camm is a Fellow of The Royal College of Physicians (London and Edinburgh and Glasgow).  He a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences, the American College of Cardiology, the American Heart Association, the Heart Rhythm Society (USA), the European Society of Cardiology, the European Heart Rhythm Association and the British Heart Rhythm Society.
Professor Camm has been awarded the Gold Medal of the European Society of Cardiology and the Mackenzie Medal of the British Cardiovascular Society.

2021

Elizabeth Dean, British Columbia, Canada

Digital föreläsning pga covid-19 pandemi
'Radical Health Care Reform at the Patient Level: Evidence Based and ‘Results Guaranteed’

Dr. Elizabeth Dean is Professor Emeritus, in the Department of Physical Therapy, Faculty of Medicine at the University of British Columbia, Canada. Her academic and clinical careers have spanned the “corners of the globe” with invitations to over 35 countries. She has convened four Physical Therapy Summits on Global Health with international teams. Dr. Dean has authored over 150 publications, multiple chapters, and is co-editor and contributing author with Dr. Donna Frownfelter, of ‘Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Physical Therapy: Evidence to Practice’ now going into its 6th edition as an electronic as well as print edition (In press). In 1997 and 1998, she served as the Senior Therapist for the Cardiovascular and Respiratory Team with the Kuwait Dalhousie Project in Kuwait and continues to collaborate with Kuwait University. In 2001, she was a resident Visiting Professor with the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. She holds Adjunct and Guest Professorships with the University of Iceland, Malardalen University in Sweden, and Manipal University in Bangalore, India, Her clinical practice focuses on maximizing people’s health particularly those with multi-morbidity. Dr. Dean has been committed to establishing health competencies as fundamental competencies in physical therapist practice worldwide.

2020

Vårmötet ställdes in pga covid-19 pandemi där Elizabeth Dean var inbjuden Werköföreläsare. Elizabeth blev inbjuden till 2021 års möte där hon höll ovan nämnda föreläsning.

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2019

Gösta Pettersson, Cleveland, USA

"Hjärtkirurgi - förebilder, patienter, ögonblick och lärdomar"

Gösta Pettersson är utbildad vid Göteborgs Universitet och på Sahlgrenska Sjukhuset i Göteborg och är svensk specialist i allmänkirurgi och thoraxkirurgi. Han disputerade 1979 på en avhandling om enterochromafina celler i tarmen (handledd av Håkan Ahlman och Annika Dahlström) och tillbringade omedelbart därefter ett år som research fellow vid University of Illinois in Chicago där han forskade på nedre esophagussphinktern. Han återvände till Göteborg och thorax på Sahlgrenska sjukhuset och blev anställd där som avdelningsläkare. Han var delaktig i uppstarten av hjärt- och lungtransplantationer i Göteborg.

1990 rekryterades han till Köpenhamn och utnämndes till professor vid Köpenhamns Universitet och chef för thoraxkirurgin på Rigshospitalet. Professor Pettersson uppgraderade och moderniserade snabbt hjärtkirurgin på vuxna och barn och startade på kort tid ett framgångsrikt hjärt- och lungtransplantationsprogram.

Verksamheten och resultaten i Köpenhamn väckte internationell uppmärksamhet och resulterade i att han fick erbjudande om anställning på Cleveland Clinic 1998. Efter att ha tagit nödvändiga examina startade han sin anställning på Cleveland Clinic 1999 och har just firat 20års jubileum som hjärtkirurg på Cleveland Clinic. På Cleveland Clinic fick han snabbt tillfälle att visa att han var en bred och mångfasetterad kirurg och han under olika perioder varit ansvarig och chef för lungtransplantationerna och för barnhjärtkirurgin.

Professor Pettersson är idag Professor of Surgery vid Case Western Reserve University, Vice Chairman for den thoraxkirurgiska avdelningen och ansvarig för kirurgin på vuxna med medfödd hjärtsjukdom. Han är också chef för centret för behandling av endokardit. Hans kirurgiska huvudintressen idag utöver kirurgi på vuxna med medfödd hjärtsjukdom är reoperationer i allmänhet, avancerad aortarotkirurgi inklusive kirurgi för endokardit och annat. Professor Pettersson har publicerat ett betydande antal vetenskapliga artiklar som spänner över större delen av hjärtkirurgin och är fortfarande aktiv i klinisk forskning med flera aktiva forskningslinjer. Endokardit är och har varit ett fokus for hans kliniska forskning och som en konsekvens av detta blev professor Pettersson inbjuden och ombedd att leda utarbetandet av AATS nya guidelines för behandling av endokardit. AATS’ new guidelines for treatment of infective endocarditis publicerades 2017.

Professor Pettersson har under sin tid på Cleveland Clinic fått flera utmärkelser, bl.a.: 2017 Teacher of Year Award av sina residents, 2013 blev han utvald till Master Clinician för Cleveland Clinic Medical Staff, 2010 fick han utmärkelse för ”passionate care” i form av the Bruce Hubbard Stewart Memorial Award for Humanistic Medicine på Cleveland Clinic.

Professor Pettersson är fortfarande kliniskt fullt aktiv och utför ett 8-10 hjärtoperationer per vecka, mera än hälften komplicerade reoperationer.

2018

Annika Rosengren, Göteborg

”Framtidens hjärtpatient – ny spelplan för kardiologin”

Annika Rosengren är professor i medicin vid Sahlgrenska Akademin, Göteborgs Universitet och är specialist i kardiologi och invärtesmedicin. Hon har hela tiden haft sin kliniska verksamhet på medicinkliniken på Östra sjukhuset i Göteborg som numera är en del av Sahlgrenska Universitetssjukhuset. Efter legitimationen disputerade hon inom den klassiska göteborgsepidemiologin på en avhandling som rörde sociala faktorer och risk för hjärtkärlsjukdom. Sedermera fick hon en rådsforskartjänst 50% finansierad av dåvarande Medicinska Forskningsrådet under sex år och 1999 en professur i epidemiologi. Sedan 2002 är hon professor i medicin.

Forskningen har sträckt sig över breda fält, men med ett fokus på de stora variationer över tid och rum som sker kontinuerligt i hjärt-kärlsjukdomarnas utbredning, och på global hälsa. Annika Rosengren deltar sedan många år i stora globala forskarnätverk kring hjärt-kärlsjukdomar och diabetes som t ex INTERHEART, INTERSTROKE, och Prospective Urban Rural Epidemiologic study (PURE). I Sverige och andra västliga höginkomstländer minskar dödligheten i hjärt-kärlsjukdomar kraftigt, men sjukligheten i hjärtinfarkt, stroke, hjärtsvikt och förmaksflimmer är fortfarande hög. En ny stor nationell studie -  Swedish CardioPulmonary bioImage Study,  stött av Hjärt-Lungfonden - är ett världsunikt pågående forskningsprojekt inom hjärta, kärl och lunga, som utnyttjar modern bildteknik och svenska register för att ta fram ny kunskap om hjärt-kärlsjukdomar hos 30,000 deltagare från sex svenska universitetsorter. Annika Rosengren finns med i den nationella styrgruppen för detta projekt. De svenska registren är en fantastisk källa till kunskap. SIMSAM är en förkortning för Swedish Initiative for research on Microdata in the Social and Medical Sciences och utgör en satsning som stöds av Vetenskapsrådet. En av sex noder, GOthenburg CArdiovascular RegisTry Studies (GOCARTs), den enda som är specifikt inriktad på hjärt-kärlsjukdomar, leds av Annika Rosengren. Forskningen i GOCARTs har ett starkt kliniskt fokus med ett stort nätverk av forskare vid Sahlgrenska Universitetssjukhuset, och innefattar områden som medfödda hjärtsjukdomar, och hjärt-kärlsjukdomar hos unga, diabetes, hjärtsvikt, högt blodtryck, förmaksflimmer, med många samarbeten lokalt och nationellt. Annika Rosengren har publicerat mer än 350 vetenskapliga arbeten, många högt citerade, och fick European Society of Cardiology´s silvermedalj år 2010.

2017

Joseph Kisslo, Durham, USA

”Never be the smartest person in the room”

Trained in internal medicine, pediatric and adult cardiology, Dr. Kisslo was an early contributor to the development of echocardiographic methods in general and two‐dimensional echocardiography, in specific. He was the first person in the world to conduct both two‐dimensional as well as threedimensional echocardiographic examinations using real‐time, phased array systems. He collaborated with his colleagues at Duke to build and implement the world’s first phased array imaging device and he personally performed the world’s initial work in two‐dimensional and three‐dimensional echo. Phased array ultrasound imaging devices are now used globally as the most common type of ultrasound imaging system available. Current interests extend these principles into the fabrication of the very first, and to date the only, real‐time, high speed ultrasound scanner. He has published well over 250 original peer reviewed manuscripts and authored four books on echocardiography. He served as a founder and an early President of the American Society of Echocardiography as well as chairman or member of a multitude of committees of the American College of Cardiology and other organizations. Dr. Kisslo participated in the establishing of many standards of practice including organizing and chairing the ad hoc Committee for Continuing Quality Improvement in Echocardiography as well as serving as an initial member of Joint Commission on Accreditation of Sonography that established the original standards recognizing cardiac sonography as a legitimate allied health profession. Many of his trainees went on to become directors of echocardiographic laboratories in the US and internationally. Notably amongst accomplished former students are, Richard Schatz, MD (inventor of the coronary stent), Richard Stack, MD, (inventor of multiple intracoronary interventional devices and reperfusion catheters) and Chikiai Ohazam, PhD (inventor of Google Earth). Early in his career, Dr. Kisslo introduced routine echocardiography into the operating room, performing over 2,500 direct epicardial scans. As transesophageal echocardiography developed, he helped establish the first standards perioperative echocardiography. For over two decades, Dr. Kisslo was Medical Director Executive Producer of Echo in Context, the first live educational event ever to be broadcast around the world and the first live educational event ever to be live streamed to the internet. Echo in Context still remains as the largest continuing live medical educational ever held He has been Medical Director or Executive Producer of several other large educational broadcasts and has served as the Clinical Director of Telemedicine at Duke. With a complementary interest in computer applications, Dr. Kisslo also implemented the first fully digital cardiac medical imaging facility while Director of the Duke Echocardiography Laboratory. It currently boasts the largest such facility worldwide. Dr. Kisslo is the recipient of various national and international awards including Alpha Omega Alpha. He has been a lecturer, named lecturer or visiting professor at over 220 universities, schools of medicine or medical societies and was named as one of the first six Fellows of the American Society of Echocardiography in 2002. He was also amongst the first named to the European Society of Cardiology Echo Hall of Fame. He remains the only three time Inge Edler Lecturer at the University of Lund, Sweden, the institution where echocardiography began. In 2004, Dr. Kisslo led a team of investigative consultants in the analysis and identification of widespread misrepresentations of claims in the Phen‐Fen diet drug litigation. His work was the subject of numerous articles in the lay press, including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Forbes Magazine as well as other major publications. He’s served as a consultant to multiple medical device companies, NASA, the Department of Justice and multiple other entities. A native of Pennsylvania, he graduated from the University of Notre Dame and performed his first echocardiogram in 1966 while a medical student at Hahnemann University. After serving in the US Navy as a medical officer, he did an internal medicine residency, followed by a fellowship in pediatric cardiology at Yale University. He then completed a fellowship in adult cardiology at Duke University. He established the first echocardiography laboratories at both Yale and Duke. Dr. Kisslo is married and the father of four children and five grandchildren.

2016

Lynne Warner Stevenson, Boston, USA

”Taking the congestion out of heart failure”

Lynne Warner Stevenson was raised in a mathematical household with a large blackboard for solving problems, which had to begin with clear articulation of the question. She was in the third class of women at Princeton University, where she helped to launch the first women’s a cappella ensemble. Attending Stanford University School of Medicine, she watched cardiac transplants performed by Norman Shumway and managed by Sharon Hunt. During cardiology fellowship at University of California Los Angeles, she initiated the heart transplant program there in 1984 with Hillel Laks as surgeon. Much of her academic career can be traced back to two fundamental questions that she faced with the first patients referred for transplantation: 1) How can we relieve the congestion of heart failure and 2) How should decisions be approached with patients throughout the heart failure journey? We recognized the dominance of clinical congestion in patients waiting or rejected for heart transplantation, which challenged us to discover how and how far to relieve the severely elevated cardiac filling pressures. Our early work disproved the previous assumption that severely elevated filling pressures were necessary to support cardiac output from the failing heart. Tailoring therapy to lower filling pressures relieved congestion for many patients evaluated for cardiac transplantation, some of whom regained sufficient cardiac reserve to leave the transplant waiting list. The major mechanism through which unloading therapies decrease filling pressures and enhance forward cardiac output was reduction of secondary mitral regurgitation. Translation of these hemodynamic principles re-focused bedside clinical assessment according to wet/ dry and warm/cold, further refined by “matching and mismatching” for right and left-sided pressures. The ability to sustain relief of congestion after discharge was hindered by the inability to follow filling pressures out of the hospital. Over 20 years of investigation, including pioneering work by Dr. Braunschweig and colleagues at Karolinska, has finally resulted in an effective pre-emptive strategy of heart failure management aimed at “Optivolemia” as guided by ambulatory pulmonary artery pressure measurement. For heart failure patients with reduced ejection fraction and even more for heart failure with preserved ejection fraction, this strategy decreases all-cause hospitalizations as well as hospitalizations from heart failure and pulmonary disease. The new information opens a new window into ambulatory heart failure physiology and provides hope that earlier intervention to avoid pulmonary hypertension may postpone or even prevent the right heart failure that often heralds terminal disease. Dr. Stevenson is currently Director of the Cardiomyopathy and Heart Failure Program at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, where she has been for 23 years. She is an author on over 250 original research publications, and a key contributor to national guidelines addressing heart failure, cardiac transplantation, ventricular assist devices VAD, arrhythmia devices, and decision-making in advanced heart failure, particularly with regard to ICDs, transplantation, VADs, and end of life care. She has played leadership roles in NHLBI-sponsored studies for strategies in advanced heart failure, including REMATCH, ESCAPE, and more recently the National Heart Failure Network and the INTERMACS Registry of ventricular assist devices. Over 25 years before Heart Failure became an official specialty in the US, she established principles and training in this growing field, in which she has founded 2 active networks of NHLBI young investigators. Strong commitments for her remain training the next generation to sustain the spirit of challenge and the patient-doctor connection, and to ensure that care is individualized not only to hemodynamic and poly- “nomic” profiles, but also to individual goals for life and quality of life.  


2015

Åke Hjalmarsson, Göteborg

”Betablockad vid hjärtinfarkt och hjärtsvikt”

Åke Hjalmarson är Professor Emeritus i Kardiologi vid Sahlgrenska Akademien, Göteborgs Universitet och är specialist i kardiologi och invärtesmedicin. Han har sedan 1968 varit verksam på Kardiologkliniken, Sahlgrenska Universitetssjukhuset. Han är född i Skövde och avlade läkarexamen vid Göteborgs Universitet, blev leg läkare och disputerade i fysiologi 1968 och blev därefter docent i fysiologi och medicin. Han rekryterades av professor Lars Werkö till Medicinkliniken I vid Sahlgrenska sjukhuset. Han var Associate Professor in Physiology and Medicine vid Penn State University 1969 – 1970 och Visiting Professor in Cardiology vid University School of Medicine at San Diego 1987-1988. Han var professor i Kardiologi vid Sahlgrenska Universitetssjukhuset 1989 – 2003 och prefekt för Hjärtlunginstitutionen 1995 – 2003. Han initierade tillsammans med professor Per Björntorp inrättandet av ett Walleberglaboratorium för kardiovaskulär forskning vid Sahlgrenska sjukhuset med stöd från Wallenbergstiftelsen och Astra. Han hade konsultuppdrag för Hässle/Astra 1973 – 2003.

Åke Hjalmarson forskning har involverat kardioprotektion, betadrenerga mekanismer, autoantikroppar och kardiomyopati samt betablockad vid hjärtinfarkt och hjärtsvikt. Han byggde upp en stor forskningsgrupp med klinisk kardiologisk verksamhet och experimentell forskning vid Wallenberglaboratoriet. Gruppen var först i världen med att dokumentera de skyddande effekterna av Seloken vid akut hjärtinfarkt och vid hjärtsvikt. Tillsammans med sin doktorand Finn Waagstein, senare också professor, publicerades 1975 den första artikeln med gynnsamma effekter av betablockad vid kardiomyopati och hjärtsvikt. Detta skedde i en tid då betablockad ansågs strikt kontraindicerat vid hjärtsvikt. De hade tillsammans tidigare visat att alla komplikationer till akut ischemisk hjärtattack inkluderande smärta, ischemiska EKG-tecken, arytmier, frisättning av skademarkörer och även hjärtsvikt kunde begänsas av betablockad. Seloken har genom denna forskning fått godkänd indikation för behandling av akut hjärtinfarkt, långtidsbehandling efter infarkt och för hjärtsvikt.

Åke Hjalmarson har publicerat över 500 vetenskapliga arbeten och handlett mer än 30 doktorander till disputation. Han har varit Steering Committee Chairman för The Göteborg Metoprolol, MIAMI, MDC, MERIT-HF och CORONA trials. Han har tilldelats Erik Fernströms pris till lovande forskare och Hjärtlungfondens Lars Werköpris.


2014

Peter Sleight, Oxford, Storbritannien

”Reflex Cardiovascular Control in Man”

Baroreflex control of long term blood pressure It had earlier been proposed (by AC Guyton & others) that arterial baroreflex mechanisms were mainly involved in short term beat to beat blood pressure (BP) control, but not longer-term levels of pressure. At that time it was not known that the arterial baroreflexes had effects on sodium & water elimination via renal nerves, as well as the more easily demonstrated effects on heart rate, cardiac contractility, & peripheral vascular tone. 40 years or so later on a US surgeon, Terry Thrasher, showed that chronic change in pressure in the isolated carotid artery pressure in the dog caused nervously mediated renal sodium retention & thus sustained BP change. Interventions to control blood pressure 60 years ago RH Smithwick published a report on over 1000 patients which showed that it was possible to lower malignant hypertension in man by splanchnic denervation. However this was accompanied by severe postural hypotension, so it had only limited application to very severe hypertension. A later more physiologic surgical approach used chronic stimulation of the carotid sinus nerves (CSN) by an implantable device, & so avoided postural hypotension. Although this was initially successful, longer-term results were marred by damage to the carotid sinus nerve or its blood supply. New methods of CSN stimulation in man are now successful long term, by using stimulation of the receptors by electrodes applied to the adventitia of the sinus. An alternative (or perhaps additional) treatment is the use of renal denervation - effected by electrical denervation of the kidneys, applied by a catheter introduced percutaneously from the groin into each renal artery. Esler & colleagues in Melbourne showed impressive long lasting BP reduction in patients with drug resistant hypertension, & so this technique was rapidly taken up by cardiologists. However in the US the food & drug administration would not approve the method for clinical use without a blinded controlled randomised trial. In January 2014 G. Bakris, the chair of this study, announced to great astonishment that this trial (Symplicity-3) was negative! Preliminary results will be given at the American College of Cardiology meeting at the end of March 2014. So the jury is unexpectedly out, awaiting the full published details. Conclusion Hypertension treatments have multiplied over the last 40-50 years. But many patients fail to continue treatment long-term, due to side effects or cost. There are now potentially very practical physiological alternatives to drug treatment of human hypertension.


2013

Jane Somerville, London, Storbritannien

”50 years with cardiac surgeons”

Jane Somerville was born in London into an intellectual family. Her father was a theatre critic. Her mother worked for Vogue. During World War II, Dr. Somerville was sent to a boy’s school and she subsequently was accepted by Guy’s Medical School when it was only the third year that female students were admitted. Perhaps this background has partly caused Dr. Somerville to become one of the very rare who sees what is between and what is beyond. Places to discover and connect. As a medical student she had the opportunity to encounter Dr. Blalock who inspired her to turn her attention to the heart. Following a short detour into cardiac surgery she found her true vocation, and later on her husband Dr. Walter Somerville, in cardiology. Fascinated by congenital heart disease she soon recognized that following pediatric cardiac surgery there was an increasing group of adolescents and adults with congenital heart disease. Dr. Somerville thus just about singlehanded created the new medical concept GUCH - grown-up congenital heart. Not only seeing the call for collected knowledge and skills around these conditions she understood the special needs of the patients and created the first ward in the world dedicated to children and adolescents with congenital heart disease. Young doctors came from all over the globe to London to study for Dr. Somerville and she still goes around the world to teach. Her ex-fellows, called Unicorns, scattered around the planet, care for patients every day in her spirit. The Swedish Heart Association is an association aiming at unifying the different specialties around the heart, building knowledge always in the interest of the patients. Dr. Somerville was there long before.


2012

Salim Yusuf, Hamilton, Canada

”Will heart disease be a historical curiousity by 2050?”

Salim Yusuf, Professor of Medicine, McMaster University; Director, Population Health Research Institute, McMaster University and Hamilton Health Sciences; Vice-President of Research, Hamilton Health Sciences, Canada.

Salim Yusuf is a cardiologist and epidemiologist. After qualifying in medicine from St. John’s Medical College, Bangalore, India in 1976, he received a Rhodes Scholarship and obtained a DPhil from Oxford, during which he was involved (along with Richard Peto and Peter Sleight) in initiating the concept of large, simple trials, and meta-analysis. He subsequently coordinated the first ISIS trial, and served on the steering committee of all subsequent ISIS trials. In 1984, following clinical training in medicine and cardiology in the UK, he moved to the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, USA. There he applied these principles of large, simple trials to other areas that led to the SOLVD and DIG trials in heart failure. In 1992 he moved to McMaster University, and since then has established an international program of research in cardiovascular diseases and prevention. These studies have established the roles of ACE-inhibitors, dual antiplatelet therapies, novel antithrombotics and appropriate place of invasive interventions. His epidemiologic work involving the INTERHEART and INTERSTROKE studies in over 60 countries have identified that the majority of risks of both conditions are attributable to a few common risk factors. His ongoing study (PURE) involves communities in 19 countries and examines the impact of societal changes on a range of non-communicable diseases in about 400,000 people. He has also been a visiting professor at St. John’s Medical College in India for over the last twenty years, where he has collaborated in facilitating several projects and establishing a major research institute which coordinates a national network for clinical research.

He holds a Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario Research Chair, was a Senior Scientist of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, and has received the Lifetime Research Achievement award of the Canadian Cardiovascular Society, the 2001 Prix Galien Canada Research Award, the Lucian Award for Cardiovascular Research 2002, the Paul Wood Silver Medal of the British Cardiac Society 2003, the European Society of Cardiology gold medal in 2008, and the American Heart Association Clinical Research Award in 2008, in addition to over 30 other international and national awards for research. He was inducted into the Royal Society of Canada in 2005. He has published over 600 articles, and is among the top 10 cited clinician-scientists in the world, with several articles deemed to be citation classics. His interests include population health in developing countries, evaluation of affordable and widely practical therapies, as well as broader influences on health, such as the influence of environmental factors such as urbanization, economic development, social and cultural factors. His research collaboration involves 85 countries in all the inhabited continents of the world. He has trained numerous researchers who have made their independent impact.


2011

Göran K. Hansson, Stockhom

”Ateroskleros – från inflammation till infarkt”

Göran K. Hansson är professor i kardiovaskulär forskning vid Karolinska Institutet och verksam vid Institutionen för medicin och Centrum för molekylär medicin på Karolinska Universitetssjukhuset i Solna. Han är också Medicinska Nobelkommitténs sekreterare, föreståndare för Medicinska Nobelinstitutet, och vice ordförande i Nobelstiftelsens styrelse.

Göran Hansson är född i Lysekil, studerade medicin vid Göteborgs universitet, avlade läkarexamen 1977, och disputerade tre år senare i histologi. 1981-82 var han postdoktorsforskare vid University of Washington i Seattle, blev legitimerad läkare 1985 och var sedan verksam inom invärtes medicin och klinisk kemi vid Sahlgrenska sjukhuset. Han blev specialist 1989 och var sedan verksam som forskare och laboratorieläkare tills han 1994 blev professor i cellbiologi vid Göteborgs universitet. Redan året därpå utnämndes han till professor vid Karolinska Institutet och flyttade till Stockholm. 2008 var han visiting professor vid Harvard Medical School och Brigham and Women´s Hospital i Boston.

Göran Hanssons forskning behandlar inflammationens roll vid ateroskleros. I slutet av 1980-talet upptäckte han och hans medarbetare att aterosklerosplacken är säte för en inflammatorisk process, med aktiverade T-celler och cytokiner. Han visade att LDL utlöser ett cellulärt immunsvar när det samlas i artärväggen och att detta leder till inflammation, vilket har en avgörande betydelse för sjukdomens utveckling. Hansson upptäckte också att immunreaktionen under vissa omständigheter leder till skyddande immunsvar, något som haft stor betydelse för arbetet med att utveckla vaccin mot ateroskleros. Slutligen var det Hanssons grupp som upptäckte att immunosuppressiva läkemedel hämmar restenosutvecklingen efter kärlingrepp, en princip som idag används i läkemedelseluerande stents.

Göran Hansson leder en stor forskningsgrupp vid Centrum för molekylär medicin, har handlett 20 doktorander till disputation, och varit mentor för 15 postdoktorsforskare. Han är koordinator för Vetenskapsrådets Linnécentrum för forskning kring inflammation och kardiovaskulär sjukdom, och är ordförande i Louis-Jeantet-stiftelsens vetenskapliga råd. Han ingår i redaktionsrådet för tidskrifterna Circulation, Circulation Research, European Heart Journal och Journal of Internal Medicine, och har tidigare varit Consulting Editor for Journal of Clinical Investigation och European Editor för ATVB. Hansson är ledamot av Kgl Vetenskapsakademien och Academia Europaea, och har erhållit en rad utmärkelser,
bl.a. Anitschkow-priset från European Atherosclerosis Society, George Lyman Duff Memorial Award från American Heart Association, European Society of Cardiology´s silvermedalj,

Fernströmska priset till särskilt lovande forskare, och Hjärt-Lungfondens Lars Werkö-pris.


2010

Lars Rydén, Stockholm

”Cardiovascular disease prevention in Europe - challenges and possible solutions”

Lars Rydén, Professor Emeritus i Kardiologi vid Karolinska Institutet, är specialist i invärtes medicin och kardiologi. Hans forskning har fokuserat på hjärtrytmstörningar, pacemakerbehandling, hjärtsvikt och hjärt-kärlsjukdom i samband med diabetes. Professor Rydén, som publicerat mer än 500 vetenskapliga arbeten inom dessa ämnesområden, är hedersledamot av Royal College of Physicians i London och ett stort antal nationella hjärtläkarföreningar runt om i Europa, bland dem den svenska.

Professor Rydén var president i den Svenska Kardiologföreningen 1986–1990 och i European Society of Cardiology (ESC) 1998-2000 samt har varit styrelseledamot av World Heart Federation. Han var styrelseledamot i Hjärt-Lungfonden samt ordförande i dess vetenskapliga nämnd 1995–2005 och ordförande i SBU:s Alertråd 2004-2006. Professor Rydén ledde den arbetsgrupp, som 2007, på uppdrag av ESC samt European Association for the Study of Diabetes, publicerade internationella riktlinjer för diabetes, prediabetes och hjärtkärlsjukdom.

För närvarande leder han en arbetsgrupp, som på uppdrag av ESC och European Heart Network, arbetat fram en Europeisk hjärthälsotraktat i samarbete med EU Kommissionen samt WHO och arbetar med dess verkställighet runt om i Europa efter lanseringen i Europaparlamentet juni 2007.

Lars Rydén är en flitigt engagerad föreläsare inom och utom landet och har under 2009 inviterats att hålla den Europeiska hjärtläkarföreningens föreläsning i ”Population Sciences” samt den Holländska Kardiologföreningens Wenckebackföreläsning.


2009

John M Murkin, Ontario, Canada

”Neurological outcomes after cardiac surgery: What have we learned and where do we go from here?”

Dr. Murkin is Full Professor of Anesthesia-Academic, and Director of Cardiac Anesthesiology Research at University Hospital, University of Western Ontario, in London, Ontario, Canada. Since 1984 he has been involved in clinical studies assessing cerebral physiology during cardiopulmonary bypass. In the mid 1980’s his clinical studies of cerebral blood flow and cerebral metabolism during differing pH management strategies were seminal in establishing the primacy of alpha-stat during adult moderate hypothermic CPB, and in demonstrating the role of cerebral emboli in the genesis of postoperative neurological and cognitive impairment. His current investigations are assessing the role of cerebral oximetry in improving neurological and cognitive outcomes after cardiac surgery as well as studying the role of phenotype in susceptibility to end-organ injury after cardiac and vascular surgery. He has authored more than 125 peer-reviewed papers, 15 book chapters and 150 scientific abstracts. He is principal author of two Consensus Statements on parameters for cognitive testing after cardiac surgery as well as co-author on Consensus Statements involving neuroprotection and inflammation during CPB. He is founder of the international multidisciplinary meeting dealing with brain injury after cardiac surgery, Outcomes, now held annually.

Dr. Murkin is a founding member and past President of the Cardiovascular and Thoracic Section of the Canadian Anesthesiologists’ Society. In addition, he is a founding member of the Society for Intravenous Anesthesia. Dr. Murkin also serves on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Cardiothoracic and Vascular Anesthesia and on the Editorial Boards of Cardiovascular Engineering and Heart Surgery Forum. A past recipient of the Dean’s Award for Excellence, for the past two decades he has been continuously grant funded by the Medical Research Council of Canada/Canadian Institute for Health Research or the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada, in addition to receiving numerous industry-based study grants.


2008

Lars Wallentin, Uppsala

”Akut kranskärlssjukdom – ett tillstånd med oanade möjligheter”

Lars Wallentin, MD, PhD, innehar sedan 1991 den första professoren i kardiologi i Uppsala. Han bildade och var verksamhetschef för hjärtkliniken 1991 - 1999 och grundade och var också chef för Thoraxcentrum vid Akademiska sjukhuset i Uppsala 1994 – 1995 och dess bitr. chef 1995 - 1999. Sedan 1992 är han ledare för det Nationella Kvalitetsregistret vid akut hjärtsjukvård (RIK-HIA). Under 2001 grundlade hand och tillträdde som föreståndare för Uppsala Clinical Research Center (UCR). Under 2002 bildade han och blev den första ordföranden för det första nationella kvalitetsregistret för hjärtkärlsjukvård som är ansvarigt för c:a 20 nationella hälsovårdsregister nationellt och internationellt. Professor Wallentin var ordförande för Svenska Cardiologföreningen 1998 to 1999 och initierade och var den första ordföranden för Svenska Hjärtförbundet 2000 – 2002. Han är också sedan 18 år ledamot och sedan 3 år ordförande för Socialstyrelsens Faktagrupp för Nationella Riktlinjer för Hjärtsjukdomar.

Professor Wallentins viktigaste vetenskapliga insatser avser akut kranskärlssjukdom inom vilket område han utvecklat en rad nya koncept om sjukdomstillståndet och dess orsaker, diagnos, riskstratifiering och blodproppshämmande och interventionella behandlingar. Under de senaste 20 åren har professor Wallentin varit koordinator för många nationella och internationella behandlingsprövningar av nya metoder för diagnostik och behandling. För närvarande leder han globala internationella studier omfattande mer än 60 000 patienter avseende nya behandlingar och genetiska och biokemiska indikatorer för att vägleda behandlingen vid olika hjärtsjukdomar. Professor Wallentin har publicerat mer än 300 originalartiklar i internationella vetenskapliga tidskrifter. Han är redaktör för den första svenska läroboken om Akut Kranskärlssjukdom och har dessutom skrivit ett antal nationella och internationella lärobokskapitel. Professor Wallentin har fått flera forskningspriser och är medlem av Svenska Kungliga Vetenskapsakademin.


2007

Francis Wells, Cambridge, Storbritannien

”The Mathematical Heart: Why we should take Leonardo da Vinci seriously in the 21st Century.”

Francis Wells är vid sidan om läkaryrket en välkänd Leonardo da Vinci kännare och föreläser om konstnärens tidiga insikter om hjärtats anatomi och fysiologi.

After gaining the gold medal and an honours B.Sc degree in the basic medical sciences in London University, I completed my medical education at Charing Cross Hospital. My higher surgical education was gained in a series of surgical rotations based in Cambridge University for my General surgery and Transplantation experience and then the National heart, Bromton and London Chest hospitals for my cardiac surgical training.

Following this I was fortunate enough to be awarded the Senior Research fellowship at the University of Alabama in Birmingham, Alabama with one of the great pioneers of Cardiac Surgery, Dr. John Kirklin; my work being assisted by a Fulbright Scholarship. From this I produced work for a Masters degree in Surgery, awarded by the University of London. This work was also recognised for a Hunterian Professorship by the Royal College of Surgeons, London.

Prior to leaving for my year in Alabama I had been appointed proleptically to a Consultant position at Papworth Hospital in Cambridge where I work as a consultant Cardiothoracic surgeon and specialise in Heart valve reconstrution, and intrathoracic surgical oncology (Lung Cancer etc.) I have a teaching and research role and have published many papers and several books.

My interest in “the Arts” is long-standing in both music and Art. I have played the piano from an early age and painted and drawn with much enthusiasm and little talent for as long as I can remember. My interest in both the Renaissance and the act of drawing are long standing. The accuracy and Beauty of the drawings of Leonardo da Vinci are of particular interest and fascination. The work to be presented is extracted highlights from the culmination of many years of private study; work that has only seen the light of day since my great good fortune in meeting and associating with Professor Martin Kemp (the accepted international expert in Leonardo scholarship.


2006

Charles Higgins, San Francisco, USA

Charles B. Higgins is a graduate of Jefferson Medical College and underwent subspeciality residency, research and fellowship training at the University of California, Los Angeles, University of California, San Diego, and Stanford Medical Centers. He has been actively involved in laboratory research for approximately 21 years involving cardiovascular physiology and pharmacology, cardiac imaging, especially magnetic resonance imaging. He has conducted clinical and laboratory research on cardiovascular application of MRI since 1983 at the University of California Medical Center in San Francisco. He was awarded the Distinguished Scientific Achievement Award of the American Heart Association in 1990, the Outstanding Researcher Award of the RSNA in 2000, and the Outstanding Alumnus of Jefferson Medical College in 2001. He has also delivered 36 titled lectureships in the United States and outside of the United States. He is or has been a member of the editorial boards of 14 scientific journals and is currently a member of the editorial boards of Circulation, the American Journal of Cardiology, and the Journal of American College of Cardiology. Dr. Higgins is an Associate Editor of the Journal of Magnetic Resonance Imaging, and Associate Editor of the Journal of Cardiovascular MR. Doctor Higgins was the director of a NIH-funded research-training grant in cardiac imaging for nearly twenty years. More than 100 research fellows have worked under his supervision at UCSF.


2005

Serena Tonstad, Oslo, Norge

”Integrating all the risk factors into our practice of preventive medicin”

Serena Tonstad is a head physician at the Department of Preventive Medicin at Ullevål University Hospital and professor of clinical nutrition at the University of Oslo. She was educated at Loma Linda University Hospital in California where she also received her speciality in Preventive Medicin. She earned a doctorate while working at the Lipid Clinic at the National Hospital in Oslo on the topic of treating familial hypercholestorolemia in children. She is interested in an integrated approach to prevention of cardiovascular disease and has over 120 publications in the fields of lipids, nutrition, smoking cessation and cardiovascular epidemiology. She has led the Norwegian Association for the Study of Obesity from 1999 - 2005 and enjoys lecturing on preventive cardiology for physicians, other professions and the public.


2004

Paul Sergeant, Leuven, Belgium

Paul T. Sergeant, MD PhD, Full Professor in Surgery at the KU. Leuven Belgium, Chef of Clinic in cardiac surgery at the Gasthuisberg University Hospital, Leuven Belgium. Dr Sergeant received an international medical and surgical training at the University of Gent (Belgium), at the University of Aarhus (Denmark), at Petah Tikva (Israel), at the University of Milwaukee (USA) and at Antonius Nieuwegein (Netherlands). He became, after his military service, a staff surgeon in cardiothoracic surgery at Gasthuisberg University Hospital in 1980. His medical expertise covers all aspects of adult cardiac surgery but focuses on coronary surgery; his academic expertise on the use of mathematical modeling in medicine with specific interest on very long term mathematical predictions. This work was developed over twenty years in collaboration with the University of Alamaba (prof Kirklin and Blackstone). His Ph D thesis in 1988 was titled "Hazard Analysis in CABG". His academic mission is the development and stimulation of mathematical modeling in medicine. He is an international medical quality auditor. He has also a business management degree. He is the author of more than 150 peer-reviewed manuscripts and has given more than 700 lectures. He has been associate editor of many international cardiological and cardio-surgical Journals (currently the EACTS Interactive Journal). Dr Sergeant was a co-founder of CTSNet worldwide in collaboration with Bob Replogle, Tom Ferguson and Peter Greene. He later stayed on the CTSNet Board for fifteen years including the responsibility of Treasurer and President. He has been active within different committees of the EACTS, as EACTS information officer, as member of the EACTS Council and President of the EACTS. His clinical activities focus on off-pump coronary artery surgery and has organized 450 three-day individualized seminars attended by more than 1000 international surgeons and anesthetists. Recently Dr Sergeant has focused his non-clinical activities on all aspects of the creation and distribution of knowledge and skills. He organizes contests in the creation and distribution of low fidelity simulators, and also simulation courses worldwide on a monthly basis. He is a honorary member of the Indian and the Brazilian cardio-thoracic surgical societies. He is currently launching a project on distant technical learning.


2003

Rory Collins, London Storbritannien

”Cholestorol-lowering trials in their epidemiological contex”

Rory Collins qualified in medicine at St Thomas's Hospital Medical School, University of London, in 1981 and obtained BSc in statistics from George Washington University, Washington DC in 1977 and MSc in statistics from the University of Oxford in 1983. In 1981 he joined the University of Oxford's Clinical Trial Service Unit, under Professor Richard Peto, and Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, under Professor Peter Sleight, primarily to coordinate large-scale clinical trials of the treatment of heart attacks with Professor Salim Yusuf. In 1985 he became co-director of the ClinicalTrial Service Unit and was awarded a British Heart Foundation Senior Research Fellowship. In 1996 he was appointed Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology at the University of Oxford, supported by the British Heart Foundation. Professor Collins' work has been in the establishment of large-scale randomised controlled trials of the treatment of heart attacks, of other vascular disease, and of cancer, whilealso being closely involved in developing approaches to the combination of results from related randomised controlled trials ("systematic overviews" or "meta-analyses") that allow the more reliable assessment of treatment effects.


2002

Stephen Westaby, Oxford, Storbritannien

”Artificial Hearts: Science, Fiction or Fact”

Stephen Westaby, of Oxford Heart Centre, is a well known cardiac surgeon who has engaged himself in a wide spread range of activities throughout the years. Thoracic trauma, valve surgery, inflammatory response to extracorpo real circulation and cerebral complications from cardiac surgery are some areas in which Mr Westaby has been scientifically active. He has also written a prestigious book about the history of cardiac surgery. He has during recent years mainly focused on heart failure, and has been particularly active in the development of mechanical assist devices for permanent use. He is one of the leading clinicians in the introduction of the Jarvik 2000 pump.


2001

Eugene Braunwald, New York, USA

”Congestive heart failure: a half century perspective”

Dr Eugene Braunwald är det 20.e århundradets störste hjärtläkare efter oförlikneliga insatser inom forskning, utbildning och utveckling av hjärtsjukvården under de senaste 30 åren. Fram till 1995 innehade han under 24 år the Hersey Professor of Theoretical and Practical Medicine samtidigt som han var chef för Department of Internal Medicine vid Harvard Medical School. Hans publikationslista omfattar idag mer än 1000 vetenskapliga artiklar i medicinska tidskrifter. Sedan 1967 är han en av huvudredaktörerna för den allmänt använda referensboken Harrison´s ”Principles of Internal Medicine”. Själv startade han 1980 utgivningen av dagens standardverk inom cardiologin Braunwald´s ”Heart Disease,A textbook of Cardiovascular Medicine” vilket fortfarande kommer ut i ny upplaga vart tredje år med honom själv som författare till c:a 40 %av innehållet. Sedan 1884 är dr Braunwald ledare för TIMI-gruppen med en världsomspännande nätverk av 850 sjukhus som genomfört en serie megastudier som dramatiskt förbättrat behandlingen vid akut kranskärlssjukdom. Dr Braunwald har erhållit ett stort antal utmärkelser, priser och hederstitlar över hela världen för sin enastående insatser inom cardiologin.