Speakers
Ross Bremner, MD, PhD
Ross Bremner, MD, PhD is the Executive Director of the Norton Thoracic Institute and the William Pilcher Chair for Thoracic Disease and Transplantation at Norton Thoracic Institute, Dignity Health St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center. He holds full professorships with Creighton Medical School – Phoenix Regional Campus and the University of Arizona College of Medicine Phoenix. The Norton Thoracic Institute has become one of the busiest lung transplant programs in the USA.
Dr. Bremner’s expertise includes benign and malignant esophageal disease, lung cancer and lung transplantation. He is a member of the International Society of Heart/Lung Transplantation (ISHLT), the Western Thoracic Surgical Association (WTSA), the General Thoracic Surgical Club (GTSC), the Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS), and the American Association for Thoracic Surgery (AATS).
Dr. Bremner received his medical degree from the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa. He completed his residency in general surgery and his fellowship in cardiothoracic surgery at the University of Southern California (USC).
Dr. Bremner’s research interests include lung and esophageal cancer, chronic rejection in lung transplantation, and he leads a number of initiatives in physician well-being. He enjoys spending time with his wife and two daughters and can sometimes be found hiking and biking in the mountains of Phoenix.
Dr. Ismail El-Hamamsy
Ismail El-Hamamsy is the Randall B. Griepp Professor of Cardiovascular Surgery at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and System Director of Aortic Surgery at the Mount Sinai Health System in New York. He completed his medical education and cardiac surgery training at the University of Montreal. This was followed by a 4-year fellowship in London under the mentorship of Sir Magdi Yacoub at Harefield Hospital. During this period, he completed a PhD on the pathophysiology of aortic valve disease at Imperial College London.
Dr. El-Hamamsy has a special interest in aortic valve and wall pathologies. His main surgical expertise focuses on complex aortic root reconstructive surgery, including aortic valve-sparing procedures, aortic valve repair and the Ross procedure. Since 2010, he has performed over 650 Ross procedures and 350 valve-sparing operations, and has helped multiple surgeons and centers in establishing successful Ross programs.
Dr. El-Hamamsy has authored >220 peer-reviewed papers and has given >150 guest lectures and professorships around the world. He is on the editorial board of several journals and is President-Elect of the Heart Valve Society.
Dr Bradley Taylor
Brad Taylor serves as the Joseph S. and Irene P. Mclaughlin Professor of Cardiothoracic Surgery and the Chief of Cardiac Surgery at University of Maryland School of Medicine and Medical Center and has been a leader in innovative approaches to cardiac surgery and health care delivery. Dr. Taylor received his medical degree and a degree in health administration from The Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia. After completing his General Surgery and Cardiothoracic Surgery Residency, he stayed as an Assistant Professor at the University of Pittsburg Medical Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He completed a minimally invasive cardiac surgery fellowship in Aalst, Belgium, in 2006. Since joining University of Maryland in 2012, he has led the transformation of the Division’s growth in research and clinical excellence. His teams have performed many innovative and groundbreaking procedures including but not limited to the world’s first xeno-heart transplantation and the first transfemoral endo-Bental repair of an acute type A aortic dissection.
Dr. Taylor is a leader in team development and in refining techniques in complex aortic surgery. As the Director of Aortic Surgery, Coronary Re-vascularization and Quality within the Division of Cardiac Surgery his responsibilities are to ensure superior quality of patient care services, further clinical excellence, promote clinical and basic science research, foster the professional and academic growth of the program and its members, develop the physicians of the future through resident and fellowship training, and to create an environment of patient safety. Dr. Taylor performs robotic-assisted coronary artery bypass grafting and hybrid revascularization of multi-vessel coronary artery disease. His clinical and research interest include robotic cardiac surgery, valvular heart disease, and endovascular and open repair of aortic pathology. He is a skilled endovascular surgeon with experience in complex ascending and arch branched endografts.
Dr. Taylor has co-authored over 100 peer reviewed articles and is an active member of the American Association of Thoracic Surgery (AATS), the Southern Thoracic Surgery Association (STSA) and the Society of Thoracic Surgery (STS) and as an examiner for the American Board of Thoracic Surgeons (ABTS).
Prof. Dr. Mustafa ŞIRLAK
Since the 2000, Prof. Dr. Mustafa ŞIRLAK (Cardiovascular Surgeon) has specialized in this field by turning to endovascular treatments besides cardiac surgery. He is particularly interested in the endovascular treatment of aortic aneurysm and venous diseases. He is one of the first physicians to treat pulmonary embolism with EKOS in Turkey, and he is actively treating DVT and PE by using Angiojet and EKOS. Currently he is the head of the National Vascular and Endovascular Surgery Society in Turkey.
Prof. Slobodan Micovic
Slobodan Micovic was born on 20.06.1966. in Belgrade, Republic of Serbia (former Yugoslavia), where he graduated primary and high school. He was enrolled at the Medical School University of Belgrade in 1984/85 and graduated in December of 1991. having an average score of 9.50 (out of 10). He got employed at the Institute of Cardiovascular Disease-Clinical Center of Serbia on January 01st, 1994.
His training in General Surgery started in July of 1994, after which he passed the state exam with highest grade in 1998. After being employed at Dedinje Cardiovascular Institute in December of 1998, he was fully educated in all areas of cardiovascular diagnostics and surgery, spending a certain length of time at all Departments of the Institute. He spent one year (2001/2002) as a fellow in the hospital St Luc Brussels, Belgium (Prof G.ElKhoury) and two years as an overseas fellow (2003/2005) in the Royal Melbourne hospital, Melbourne Australia (Prof James Tatoulis). In the year 2021, he was appointed director of cardiac surgery clinic at Dedinje Cardiovascular Institute.
Since the year 2019 he has held the position of Associate Profesor at Medical School University of Belgrade. As an assistant he had experience with more than 4000 various cardiovascular procedures, mainly those of open heart procedures. Since the year 2000, he has performed more than 4000 various open heart procedures. Fields of interest: CABG with arterial grafts, aortic valve reconstructive surgery , MICS aortic and mitral surgery, complex ascending aorta procedures with DHCA, LV reconstructive procedures, OPCAB, GUCH, redo procedures. He is actively involved in clinical research and teaching activities, having been named author and coauthor of 66 publications. His scientific work has been cited 219 times (h-index 8). Since 2019 he is the president of Euro-Asian Bridge society, and since 2021 he was named President of Serbian Association of Cardiovascular Surgeons.
Prof Gloria Faerber
Gloria Faerber started her surgical training in Freiburg (Chairman: Friedhelm Beyersdorf) and Leipzig (Chairman: Friedrich Mohr). In 2010, she was board certified in cardiac surgery and promoted to Assistant Professor in the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery at the University of Jena (Chairman: Torsten Doenst). Throughout her career, she actively pursues basic and clinical research focusing on minimally invasive surgery and heart failure. Currently, Gloria Faerber is the Vice-Chairman of the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery at the University Hospital of Jena, Germany. She is leading the program for minimally invasive valve surgery and heart failure surgery including mechanical circulatory support and transplant.
Dr Adriana Marais
Dr Adriana Marais is on a mission. In 2019 she left her position as Head of Innovation at SAP Africa to found Proudly Human, towards her vision of a future we can be proud of, whatever planet we are on. She has visited Antarctica, Norway, deserts in the US, Middle East and Africa, the Aquarius Reef Base underwater habitat and submarine naval bases on
location scouts for Proudly Human’s Off-World Project. She has drawn on her extensive global network to create Proudly Human teams of advisors, technology partners and community members for the Off-World Project. The Project is a series of off-grid habitat on experiments in the most extreme environments on the planet, in preparation for life on the Moon, Mars and beyond, as well as a more sustainable future here on Earth. Adriana has a background in theoretical physics, her award-winning PhD and postdoctoral work in quantum biology focused on photosynthesis and the origins of the building blocks of life in space. She is currently developing a blockchain-based economic system for extreme and resource constrained environments towards a second PhD. Adriana is a Research Fellow at Stellenbosch University, South Africa; Director at the Foundation for Space Development Africa, developing Africa’s first mission to the Moon, the Africa2Moon Project; Scientific Moderator on Space Resources with the Geneva Science and Diplomacy Anticipator; Global Chair of Science, Technology & Innovation at Tod’Aérs Aeronautics & Space Research; a member of the South African Government task team on the 4th Industrial Revolution; and Faculty at the Singularity University and Duke Corporate Education.