Roger Blumenthal, MD, Professor, Division of Cardiology - Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
"Strategies to Improve Cardiovascular Risk Prediction"
Roger S. Blumenthal is a professor of medicine in the division of cardiology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He is director of the Johns Hopkins Ciccarone Center for the Prevention of Heart Disease. His principal clinical and research interests involve the optimal management of coronary atherosclerosis and cardiovascular disease risk factors such as abnormal cholesterol levels, high blood pressure, smoking, and diabetes. He served for four years as chairman of the American College of Cardiology's committee on prevention of cardiovascular disease and has been a longtime member of the national spokesperson panel of the American Heart Association.
Dr. Blumenthal has co-written more than 200 publications on various aspects of cardiovascular risk assessment as well as atherosclerotic vascular disease (hardening of the arteries) detection and management. He specializes in persons who have a family history of early heart disease as well as those adults who developed heart disease at a young age.
Clyde Yancy, MD, Medical Director - Baylor Heart and Vascular Institute
"New Insights into the Management of Patients with Heart Failure"
Dr. Yancy is medical director of the Baylor Heart and Vascular Institute at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas, Texas, and chief of Cardiothoracic Transplantation at Baylor University Medical Center. Dr. Yancy is board certified in internal medicine with a subspecialty in cardiovascular disease. He is a Fellow of the ACC, AHA, and ACP. He holds an associate editorship for the American Journal of Cardiology; associate editorial board for Congestive Heart Failure; and editorial board membership for The American Heart Journal and for Circulation. Dr. Yancy’s research interests include the broad areas of clinical congestive heart failure and heart transplantation. Recently, he has focused on the emerging role of registries in cardiovascular diseases, management of advanced heart failure with new drugs and devices, therapeutic uses of natriuretic peptides, and on heart failure in special populations, especially African Americans.
Dr. Patch Adams, Author of "Gesundheit & HouseCalls"; Social Activist, Founder and Director - The Gesundheit Institute
"Living Joyfully"
Patch Adams, M.D., is a nationally known speaker on wellness, laughter, and humor as well as on health care and health care systems. He approaches the issues of personal, community, and global health with “zestful exuberance,” according to Time Magazinehe believes that “the most revolutionary act one can commit in our world is to be happy.”
Dr. Adams is both a medical doctor and a clown...but he is also a social activist who has devoted 30 years to changing America's healthcare system, a system that he describes as expensive and elitist.
Peter Libby, MD, Chief of Cardiovascular Medicine - Brigham & Women's Hospital
"Inflammation in Atherothrombosis: Theory and Practice"
Peter Libby, MD, is the Chief of Cardiovascular Medicine at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts. He also serves as the Mallinckrodt Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Libby directs the D.W. Reynolds Cardiovascular Clinical Research Center at Harvard. His current major research focus is the role of inflammation in vascular diseases such as atherosclerosis. Dr. Libby has received numerous awards and recognitions for his research accomplishments. His areas of clinical expertise include general and preventive cardiology. An author and lecturer on cardiovascular medicine and atherosclerosis, Dr. Libby has published extensively in medical journals including Circulation, Journal of Clinical Investigation, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, New England Journal of Medicine, and Nature. He is Editor-in-Chief of the Eighth edition of Braunwald’s Heart Disease. Dr. Libby has also contributed the chapter on the pathogenesis, treatment, and prevention of atherosclerosis to Harrison’s Principles of Internal Medicine. He has held numerous visiting professorships and has been selected to deliver over 60 named or keynote lectures throughout the world.
Louis Aronne, MD, Clinical Professor of Medicine - Weill Medical College of Cornell University
"Weight Related Cardiovascular Risk"
Dr. Louis Aronne has been involved in obesity research and treatment since 1986. A Clinical Professor of Medicine at Weill Medical College of Cornell University, Adjunct Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine at Columbia University, and an Assistant Attending Physician at the New York Presbyterian Hospital. He developed and is Director of the Comprehensive Weight Control Program, a multidisciplinary obesity research and treatment center. Dr. Aronne was chairman of the development committee for the Practical Guide to the Identification, Evaluation and Treatment of Overweight and Obesity in Adults, a joint publication of the National Institutes of Health, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, and is the former President of the North American Association for the Study of Obesity. Dr. Aronne is on the Executive Council of The National Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention’s MOVE (Management of Overweight and Obese Veterans Everywhere) Program. He is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Trinity College and a graduate of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
Lori Mosca, MD, Professor of Medicine, Director of Preventive Cardiology - New York-Presbyterian Hospital
"Quality CVD Preventive Care: Closing the Gender Gap"
Lori Mosca, M.D., M.P.H., Ph.D., is Professor of Medicine and Director of Preventive Cardiology at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center. Dr. Mosca founded and is Director of the Columbia Center for Heart Disease Prevention in midtown Manhattan. She is author of Heart to Heart: A Personal Plan for Creating a Heart-Healthy Family, published by HCI Books. Dr. Mosca received her medical degree from SUNY Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, and her Masters in Public Health and Ph.D. in Epidemiology from Columbia University. She completed a Residency in Internal Medicine at Syracuse and a Fellowship in Preventive Cardiology at Columbia University. Dr. Mosca’s area of clinical expertise is preventive cardiology with an emphasis on the management of lipid disorders. Her research focuses on novel methods for the early detection and prevention of cardiovascular disease. She is Principal Investigator of a National Institutes of Health (NIH) funded study to test the effectiveness of a family heart health screening and educational intervention. She currently holds an NIH Mid-Career Investigator Development Award in Applied Preventive Cardiology Research.
Richard Nesto, MD, Chairman, Dept. of Cardiovascular Medicine - Lahey Clinic Medical Center
"Reducing Cardiovascular Risk in Diabetes"
Dr. Richard W. Nesto is Chairman, Department of Cardiovascular Medicine at Lahey Clinic Medical Center in Burlington, Massachusetts, and Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, Boston. Previously, he was Director of Clinical Research in Cardiology and Co-Director of the Institute for Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. Dr. Nesto’s major interest involves heart disease in patients with diabetes mellitus. His contributions have lead to a wider appreciation that coronary artery disease has unique features and that treatment of coronary syndromes in these patients requires a specialized approach. He has conducted numerous studies evaluating the impact of diabetes on cardiac structure and function. He is a Co-principal Investigator of BARI-2D, an NIH trial evaluating various treatment strategies to improve survival in patients with diabetes and coronary artery disease.
Robert Eckel, MD, Professor of Medicine, Division of Cardiology - University of Colorado Denver
"Strategies to Optimize Diet and Nutrition"
Dr. Eckel received both his Bachelor of Sciences in Bacteriology (1969) and Medical Doctorate (1973) from the University of Cincinnati. He did his Housestaff training in Internal Medicine at the University of Wisconsin Hospitals (1974-1976) and from there traveled to Seattle for a senior fellowship in Endocrinology and Metabolism. Dr. Eckel was then appointed as Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine (1979) where he is now Professor of Medicine and holds the Charles A. Boettcher Endowed Chair in Atherosclerosis. In addition, Dr. Eckel has held a joint appointment in the Department of Biochemistry, Biophysics and Genetics (1989-1995), and now in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics. Dr. Eckel also has joint appointments in the School of Pharmacy, the Department of Integrative Physiology at the University of Colorado at Boulder, and in the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition at Colorado State University.
Nancy Houston Miller, RN, Associate Director - Stanford Cardiac Rehabilitation Program
"The Nurses Role in the Care of the Cardiometabolic Patient"
Nancy Houston Miller, RN, BSN, is the Associate Director of the Stanford Cardiac Rehabilitation Program and adjunct clinical assistant professor at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) School of Nursing. She attended the University of Washington School of Nursing where she obtained her Bachelor of Science Degree in Nursing. With over 25 years of experience, her primary responsibilities include directing major clinical research trials in prevention and cardiac rehabilitation as well as training nurses and other health care professionals in this field. Nancy is one of the developers of the MULTIFIT program, a case management system for managing patients with chronic cardiovascular diseases including hypertension, diabetes, heart failure and CAD. She has also served as the Director of Community Outreach under the Stanford Prevention Research Center where she was involved extensively in health promotion.
Christie Ballantyne, MD, Chief of Atherosclerosis and Vascular Medicine - Baylor College of Medicine
"Update on the Clinical Utility of Biomarkers in Primary Prevention"
Christie M. Ballantyne, M.D., is Director of the Center for Cardiovascular Disease Prevention, Methodist DeBakey Heart Center; Chief of the Section of Atherosclerosis and Vascular Medicine, Department of Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine; Director of the Maria and Alando J. Ballantyne, M.D., Atherosclerosis Laboratory; Professor of Medicine with a joint appointment in Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine; and Co-Director, Lipid Metabolism and Atherosclerosis Clinic, The Methodist Hospital, Houston, Texas. He received his Doctor of Medicine from Baylor College of Medicine, and his postgraduate training included an internal medicine residency at The University of Texas Southwestern Medical School, Dallas, Texas, a cardiology fellowship at Baylor College of Medicine, and an American Heart Association/Bugher Foundation Fellowship at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Institute for Molecular Genetics at Baylor. Dr. Ballantyne is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation, Fellow of the American College of Cardiology, and Fellow of the American College of Physicians. H
Gerald Fletcher, MD, Cardiovascular Specialist - The Mayo Clinic
"Implementation of Proper Exercise Prescriptions to Reduce Cardiovascular Disease Risk"
Gerald Fletcher is a professor of medicine, (Cardiovascular Diseases) Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, Mayo Clinic Florida, and an adjunct professor, College of Health at the University of North Florida. Dr. Fletcher practiced internal medicine with an emphasis on cardiology for more than 35 years. Currently, he serves in many positions, including as a Fellow of the American Heart Association (AHA) Council on Clinical Cardiology, Chair of the Florida Coalition for Promoting Physical Activity, and as an AHA representative to the AMA Section Council on Cardiovascular disease. Dr. Fletcher has held many prominent positions with prestigious organizations, including: President of the Armed Forces Epidemiological Board; Chair, National AHA Advocacy Coordinating Committee; member, National AHA Board of Directors; participant, WHO Collaborating Centre on Research for Stroke Prevention and Epidemiology; Chair, AHA Subcommittee on Cardiac Rehabilitation; and, President, AHA State of Georgia Affiliate. Dr. Fletcher is currently in a two-year term as Chair of the Council on Clinical Cardiology of the American Heart Association which is the largest of the scientific councils of AHA.
Barbara Fletcher, RN, Clinical Associate Professor - University of North Florida
"Impact of a Multi-Disciplinary Approach to Patient Care"
Ms. Barbara Fletcher R.N., M.S.N., F.A.A.N. is a Clinical Associate Professor for the Brooks College of Health School of Nursing. As a clinician and researcher in the field of cardiovascular nursing, she has conducted seminal studies and led multidisciplinary research projects in federally funded studies addressing cardiovascular risk factors. Ever an advocate for UNF students, Ms. Fletcher spearheaded an initiative in 2001 to establish the Patricia H. Foster Graduate Nurse Fellowship Endowment. Grants are awarded annually for students conducting research. Ms. Fletcher encouraged students to compete for the prestigious Cardiovascular Disease Prevention Award. In 2006, a UNF graduate nurse was among only seven award winners in the nation. In honor of her dedication to students, the Barbara Fletcher Contribution to Nursing Science Award is given to the graduate who demonstrates significant enhancement of knowledge through original research.
Benjamin Bluml, RPh, Vice President, Research - American Pharmacists Association Foundation
"Medication Compliance"
Ben Bluml has designed and directed practice-based research initiatives and wellness and disease management programs at the APhA Foundation since 1996, including innovative collaborative care programs Project ImPACT: Hyperlipidemia™, Project ImPACT: Osteoporosis™ and, more recently, Project ImPACT: Depression™. Mr. Bluml handled the software development, data collection and analysis that is critical to the success of the Patient Self-Management Program for Diabetes SM, and continues to do so for the Diabetes Ten City Challenge. He served as a member of the White House Roundtable on the National Pharmaceutical Supply Chain for the President’s Council on Year 2000 Conversion, and is a recognized expert in patient confidentiality systems, collaborative practice and in establishing practiced-based research networks. Mr. Bluml earned a B.S. in Pharmacy from the University of Missouri at Kansas City in 1984.
Christopher DeFilippi, M.D., Associate Professor of Medicine - University of Maryland Medical Center
"Dynamic Cardiovascular Risk Assessment in the Elderly: The Role of Amino Terminal pro-B-type Natriuretic Peptide Testing"
Dr. deFilippi's special interests include caring for patients with concomitant kidney disease and cardiovascular disease. He oversees the cardiac evaluation program of patients who are being considered for kidney transplant. He has clinical expertise in echocardiography and diagnostic cardiac catheterization being actively involved with both at the University. Dr. deFilippi has an active clinical research program in collaboration with cardiologists, nephrologists, emergency medicine physicians and clinical chemists throughout the country evaluating how blood tests can be best used to identify patients with kidney disease may best benefit from further heart tests or treatments. He is board certified in cardiovascular diseases. Currently Dr deFilippi is conducting several multi-center studies to establish novel uses for several established blood based cardiac biomarkers and evaluating the utility of several new cardiac markers. The focus is on those with underlying renal disease and identifying significant coronary disease in asymptomatic, but potentially higher-risk populations such as the elderly.
Dr. Larry Kaskel, M.D., Founder and Medical Director - Heart Attack Prevention Center
"Improved Patient Outcomes And Enhanced Revenue With Therapeutic Lifestyle Changes"
Dr. Larry Kaskel is a graduate of the Rush Medical College in Chicago and completed his internal medicine internship and residency at Rush-Presbyterian St. Luke's Medical Center. Dr. Kaskel is dual board certified in both internal medicine and clinical lipidology. He was one of the earliest certified lipidologists in the nation. In the early 1990's, he participated in clinical trials testing cholesterol medicines alongside Dr. Michael Davidson, a leading expert on cholesterol treatment and management. Dr. Kaskel is on the staff of Lake Forest Hospital and is the founder and medical director of the Heart Attack Prevention Center in Lake County, Illinois. He is married with two young children
Dr. Alice (Ali) Domar, Executive Director - Domar Center for Mind/Body Health
"The Mind-Body Connection and Cardiovascular Risk"
Alice D. Domar, PhD, is a pioneer in the application of mind/body medicine to women's health issues. She not only established the first Mind/Body Center for Women's Health, but also conducts ongoing ground-breaking research in the field. Her research focuses on the relationship between stress and different women's health conditions, and creating innovative programs to help women decrease physical and psychological symptoms. The founder and director of the Mind/Body Center for Women's Health at Boston IVF, Dr. Domar has earned an international reputation as one of the country's top women's health experts. She has conducted research on infertility, breast cancer, menopausal symptoms, ovarian cancer, and premenstrual syndrome.
Dr. David Judge, Director - CIMIT Ambulatory Practice of the Future Project
"Clinical Systems Innovation to Improve Patient Care"
David C. Judge, MD, heads the CIMIT Ambulatory Practice of the Future Project. Dr. Judge holds the academic title of Instructor in Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and is the Assistant Medical Director of the Bulfinch Medical Group at MGH. A strong interest in improvement and innovation in delivery of care has led Dr. Judge to be actively involved in efforts to bring important operational and systems innovations to ambulatory medicine. Dr. Judge received his BA from Brown University, his medical degree from the University of Massachusetts, and performed his residency in internal medicine at Columbia Presbyterian in New York.
Dr. Jorge Plutzky, Associate Professor of Medicine - Harvard Medical School
"Lipid Update"
Jorge Plutzky, MD, is a preventive cardiologist who is board certified in internal medicine and in the subspecialty of cardiovascular disease. He is the Director of the Vascular Disease Prevention Program, which includes the Lipid/Prevention Clinic and BWH/Partners Premature Atherosclerosis Center, all at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a major teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School. Dr. Plutzky is an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. He also directs a basic science laboratory that investigates mechanisms contributing to the development of atherosclerosis in patients with various metabolic disorders, including diabetes. This work focuses on the transcriptional regulation of vascular responses through nuclear receptors like PPARs. Dr. Plutzky's expertise in the intersection of PPARs, dyslipidemia, atherosclerosis, and diabetes is widely renowned as evident in his role as one of four co-chairs of the International Lorenzini PPAR meeting; and is a member of the scientific organizing committee for the Annual World Congress on the Insulin Resistance Syndrome.
