Mihai Gheorghiade, MD, FACC

Mihai Gheorghiade, MD, is currently Professor of Medicine and Surgery, Associate Chief of the Division of Cardiology, Chief of the Cardiology Clinical Service, and Director of the Telemetry Unit at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. He obtained his medical degree, Magna Cum Laude, from the University of Rome in 1972 and did his training in internal medicine and cardiology at Brown University. Subsequently, he moved to Virginia, where he became Chief of Cardiology at the Salem VA and Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Virginia. Then, he became Chief of the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit at the Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, Michigan and Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine at the University of Michigan. From there, he moved to his current position in Chicago. Dr. Gheorghiade was a visiting professor at the major universities in the United States and abroad and received numerous awards for teaching from both medical students and residents.

Dr. Gheorghiade is a member of many national and international committees and serves on the editorial board of many journals including the American Heart Journal, The American Journal of Cardiology, and the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. Dr. Gheorghiade served as a guest editor on numerous occasions for the American Journal of Cardiology, American Heart Journal, and American Journal of Medicine. He was or is presently serving as chairman of the steering committee for many heart failure trials including OPTIME, ACTIV, IMPACT, PRESERVD, STEP-CHF, URGENT, and HORIZON. He is also co-chair of the ongoing, international EVEREST trial and was a member of the steering committee of RADIANCE, FIRST, CARS, RITZ 4, EPHESUS, OPTIMIZE-HF, and IMPROVE-HF. Dr. Gheorghiade is the author of more than 300 publications. He served as the chairman/co-chairman of numerous international and national meetings. At present, his research interests are related to the pathophysiology, prognosis, and management of hospitalized patients with heart failure and the roles of vasopressin antagonist in heart failure.

Clyde W. Yancy, MD, FACC, FAHA, FACP

Clyde W. Yancy, MD, is Medical Director, Baylor Heart and Vascular Institute at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas, Texas and Chief of Cardiothoracic Transplantation at Baylor University Medical Center, Dallas, Texas.

Dr. Yancy is a native of Louisiana and earned a medical degree from Tulane University School of Medicine in New Orleans. He completed an internship and residency in internal medicine at Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas.  He completed his fellowship in cardiology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas. He received his initial faculty appointment in 1989 and held a position on the faculty at UT Southwestern Medical Center for 17 years where he ascended to the rank of Professor of Medicine. Concurrently he was holder of the Carl Westcott Distinguished Chair in Medical Research, Associate Dean for Clinical Affairs and Medical Director of the Heart Failure/Heart Transplant Program.

Dr. Yancy is board certified in internal medicine with a subspecialty in cardiovascular disease.  He is a Fellow of the American College of Cardiology, a Fellow of the American Heart Association and a Fellow of the American College of Physicians. He is also a member of several other medical societies, including the International Society of Heart and Lung Transplantation, the American Society of Hypertension, Heart Failure Society of America and the Association of Black Cardiologists. He currently serves on the executive committee of the Heart Failure Society of America, and is a past chair the Council of Clinical Cardiology’s Heart Failure and Transplantation Sub-Committee of the AHA.  Dr. Yancy has served two terms on the national Board of Directors for the AHA and was recognized as the AHA National Physician of the Year in 2003.  He also sits on the ACC/AHA Guideline Writing Committee for chronic heart failure; has held consulting positions with the CDC and the Veteran’s Affairs Medical Centers; is currently a consultant with the National Institutes of Health and is a voting member of the FDA’s cardiovascular device panel.

Dr. Yancy is broadly published in the area of heart failure, with well more than 100 abstracts, manuscripts, editorials and book chapters to his credit. He has an established presence in web-based educational media and is a national spokesperson for the AHA.  He holds several editorial positions including an associate editorship for the American Journal of Cardiology and Congestive Heart Failure; editorial board membership for The American Heart Journal; and an invited guest editor role for Circulation.  He is a reviewer for all of the major cardiovascular journals.

Dr. Yancy research interests include the broad areas of clinical congestive heart failure and heart transplantation.  He is published in the areas of: exercise pathophysiology in congestive heart failure and heart transplant recipients; the use of inotropes, vasodilators and beta blockers in congestive heart failure; skeletal muscle dysfunction in congestive heart failure; appropriate candidate selection for cardiac transplantation; and the impact of alternative immunosuppressive regimens after cardiac 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. As well, he is involved in ongoing efforts to identify and correct disparate health care in special populations.