2023 Cardiovascular Keynote

Carlo de Asmundis
Vrije Universiteit Brussel
Universitair Ziekenhuis Brussel

Carlo de Asmundis, M.D., Ph.D. is full professor in Cardiology at Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Chair of Heart Rhythm Management Center at Universitair Ziekenhuis Brussel and Director of Postgraduate program in Cardiac Electrophysiology and Pacing at Vrije Universiteit Brussel for cardiologist and biomedical engineers. Born and raised in Milan Italy, graduated medical school in University Vita-Salute San Raffaele Hospital, Milan. Residency in Cardiology in Universitaʻ degli Studi di Milano. Electrophysiology and Pacing training fellowship at the UZ Brussel, under the direction and mentoring of prof. P. Brugada; he also concluded is Ph.D in Cardiovascular Physiopathology in Universitaʻ degli Studi di Milano. His academic carrier consisted of basic and mainly clinical research with several original publication in cardiac physiopathology, cardiac electrophysiology, focus on Brugada Syndrome - channelopathies, ventricular and supraventricular arrhythmias, Neuro - cardiology. He has developed a new strategy for the treatment of IST/POTS . he developed together with is colleges a unique cardiac arrhythmias hybrid program.

Charles Berul
Children's National Heart Institute

Abstract: Pacemakers and implantable cardioverter defibrillators, like many other devices, are not specifically designed for use in small children. In this presentation, I will review the challenges and innovations to effectively utilize cardiac implantable electronic devices in pediatric patients.

Bio: Charles Berul, MD is division chief of Cardiology and co-director of the Children's National Heart Institute. He earned both his bachelor’s degree in Biology and master’s degree in Pharmacology from Bucknell University in 1984 and received his M.D. from University of Maryland in 1988. Dr. Berul completed Pediatrics residency at Yale, followed by fellowship in Pediatric Cardiology and Electrophysiology at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. He was the director of the Pacemaker and Defibrillator Program at Boston Children’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School until moving to lead the Children’s National Cardiology program in 2009. Dr. Berul is a tenured professor of Pediatrics and Bioengineering at George Washington University School of Medicine, and holds the endowed chair Van Metre Companies Professorship in Cardiology.

Dr. Berul is actively involved in key organizations such as the Heart Rhythm Society, the American Heart Association, American College of Cardiology, and Pediatric and Congenital EP Society (PACES), of which he was past president. He is currently an Associate Editor for Heart Rhythm Journal. Dr. Berul has mentored dozens of trainees and advocates for young investigators and clinician-scientists. Over the past 3 decades, his research focus and passion is to develop novel minimally-invasive approaches to the heart and improving methods for pediatric pacing and defibrillation. Dr. Berul has more than 300 publications and is an invited speaker nationally and internationally in the area of pediatric cardiac electrophysiology and miniaturized device development.

Paul A. Iaizzo, PhD FHRS ([email protected]) is a Professor is the Departments of Surgery, Integrative Biology & Physiology and the Carlson School of Management, at the University of Minnesota. He also serves on the graduate faculties in Biomedical Engineering, Neuroscience, Integrative Biology & Physiology, Biological Science, Bioinformatics and Computational Biology and Mechanical Engineering. He is the Director of the Malignant Hyperthermia Diagnostic Center and Medtronic Professor of Visible Heart® Research. Additionally, he is the Associate Director and Medtronic Chair of the Institute for Engineering in Medicine, also at the University of Minnesota. He earned both MS and PhD degrees (Focus: Physiology/Neurophysiology) from the University of Minnesota. His main research focus is translational systems physiology, where his research group does a broad range of studies. The Visible Heart® Laboratories are well known for their multimodal imaging techniques of functional cardiac anatomies and device testing within large mammalian hearts, including human: see the Atlas of Human Cardiac Anatomy (http://www.vhlab.umn.edu/atlas/). Other research areas include: cardiac pacing and ablation, muscle pathophysiology and biophysical properties, thermoregulation, black bear hibernation, 3D computational modeling and printing and educational uses of virtual reality. In 2002, he was acknowledged as a “Distinguished University Teaching Professor”. Since 1990, he has trained over 200 graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and medical students in his laboratories. Dr. Iaizzo, has authored more than 280 original articles, over 100 book chapters, edited 5 books, and is on numerous patents related to medical devices. In 2012, he was named to College of Fellows of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) for "outstanding contributions to research and education in translational systems physiology and cardiovascular engineering". In 2015 he was named a Fellow of the Heart Rhythm Society and in 2016 was made a Senior Fellow of IEEE.