Program Chair - Deepak L. Bhatt, MD, FACC, FSCAI, FESC, FACP, FCCP, FAHA

Associate Director, Cardiovascular Coordinating Center
Staff, Cardiac, Peripheral, and Carotid Intervention
Associate Professor of Medicine, Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, Cleveland Clinic

After graduating as valedictorian from the Boston Latin School, Dr. Bhatt obtained his undergraduate science degree as a National Merit Scholar at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, while also serving as a research associate at Harvard Medical School. He received his medical doctorate from Cornell University. His internship and residency in internal medicine were performed at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. His cardiovascular training was completed at the Cleveland Clinic. He also completed fellowships in interventional cardiology and cerebral and peripheral vascular intervention, as well as serving as chief interventional fellow at the Cleveland Clinic, where he is currently on staff as an interventional cardiologist and is Associate Professor of Medicine.

Dr. Bhatt served for many years as the Director of the Interventional Cardiology Fellowship and as Associate Director of the Cardiovascular Medicine Fellowship. Dr. Bhatt was listed in Best Doctors in America in 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008. His research interests include preventive cardiology, as well as the optimal management of patients with acute coronary syndromes. He also has research interests in advanced techniques in cardiac, cerebral, and peripheral intervention. He has authored or co-authored over 200 articles, including in Circulation Research, Journal of the American Medical Association, Lancet, Nature Reviews Drug Discovery, and New England Journal of Medicine. He is on the editorial boards of Acute Coronary Syndromes, American Heart Journal, Cardiosource (Associate Editor, Clinical Trials), CCI, Circulation, Indian Heart Journal, Journal of the American College of Cardiology (named an Elite Reviewer in 2004, 2005, and 2006), and Journal of Thrombosis and Thrombolysis, and is Section Editor of Adjunctive Therapy for the Journal of Invasive Cardiology. He is the editor of Essential Concepts in Cardiovascular Intervention and Guide to Peripheral and Cerebrovascular Intervention, as well as co-editor of the Handbook of Acute Coronary Syndromes. He is the international principal investigator for the CHARISMA and CRESCENDO trials and co-principal investigator of the CHAMPION and LANCELOT trials. He serves as the co-chair of the REACH registry. He is also on the steering committees of ARCHIPELAGO, APPRAISE, ATLAS ACS-TIMI 46, CRUSADE, and SEPIA-PCI.

Dr. Bhatt has been a visiting lecturer at a number of institutions, including Baylor College of Medicine, Boston University, Emory University, Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard, Penn State, University of Alabama, University of Massachusetts, University of North Carolina, University of Pennsylvania, University of Virginia, and Yale. He has also lectured internationally, including at the Brazilian Society of Cardiology, French Society of Cardiology, Japanese Society of Thrombosis and Hemostasis, Italian Society of Cardiology, Indonesian Heart Association, McGill University, McMaster University, Montreal Heart Institute, and Swiss Cardiac Society. He has been interviewed extensively by news agencies such as CBS, CNN, FOX, NBC, the New York Times, NPR, and the Wall Street Journal on topics ranging from premature coronary artery disease to the role of inflammation and genetics in heart attacks. Dr. Bhatt serves as Associate Director of the Cleveland Clinic Cardiovascular Coordinating Center.

Cindy L. Grines, MD, FACC

Director, Cardiac Cath Laboratories, Director, Interventional Cardiology Fellowship Program, William Beaumont Hospital

Dr. Grines attended Ohio State University at Columbus where she graduated Cum Laude from the School of Medicine. Her Internship and Residency were completed at the Ohio State University Hospitals, after which she returned to Michigan to complete a Fellowship in Cardiology at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. She then spent 3 years as an Assistant Professor of Medicine and the Director of Interventional Cardiology at the University of Kentucky in Lexington. In 1990 she was recruited as the Director of the Cardiac Catheterization Laboratories at William Beaumont Hospital. Dr. Grines is currently the Vice Chief of Academic Affairs and Director of the Interventional Cardiology Fellowship Program in the Division of Cardiology at William Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, Michigan.

Dr. Grines is board certified in Internal Medicine, Cardiovascular Disease and Interventional Cardiology. She is widely acclaimed for her research in acute myocardial infarction and has revolutionized the management of heart attack patients. She is one of only a few women who have been invited by the American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology to be a member of its planning board. Additionally, Dr. Grines is listed in The Best Doctors in America, participated in several national committees of the American Heart Association, American College of Cardiology, American Board of Internal Medicine, American College of Physicians, American Medical Association, Veteran Affairs (VA), National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) as well as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Dr. Grines initiated the first PAMI study, PAMI I, in 1989. Since that time she has designed and completed 7 additional PAMI studies. These high profile international studies have brought primary angioplasty to the forefront as a leading reperfusion strategy. Dr. Grines has earned worldwide recognition and respect as a leading Interventional Cardiologist and Researcher. She has participated in numerous clinical research trials, and has written over 400 publications.

Dr. Grines has authored numerous book chapters and hundreds of medical journal articles regarding cardiac catheterization, angioplasty, acute myocardial infarction, chemical intervention to break down arterial blockage and gene therapy. She is the only female in the country who is an Editor of a cardiology scientific journal, which is the Journal of Interventional Cardiology. In addition, she participates on the editorial boards of several scientific medical journals, has co-edited medical handbooks and lectures extensively throughout the United States and abroad.

Peter B. Berger, MD

Associate Chief Research Officer
Director, Geisinger Center for Clinical Studies

Peter B. Berger, M.D. is currently the Associate Chief Research Officer at Geisinger Clinic and Director of the Center for Clinical Studies, and is responsible for clinical research throughout the 3 hospital 40 clinic Geisinger Health System. He is also an interventional cardiologist at Geisinger. Prior to joining Geisinger in the summer of 2006, he was a Professor of Medicine and the Director of Interventional Cardiology at the Duke University Medical Center. He was also Co-Director of Cardiovascular Device Research at the Duke Clinical Research Institute.
Prior to Duke, Dr. Berger was a Professor of Medicine in the Division of Cardiology at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine for 14 years. He has served on (and chaired) the American Heart Association Committee on Diagnostic and Interventional Catheterization, and on the Cardiac Catheterization and Interventional Cardiology Committees of the American College of Cardiology and the Society of Cardiac Angiography and Intervention. Dr. Berger is a member of the American Board of Internal Medicine and in that capacity helps write the interventional cardiology board exam. Dr. Berger received his medical degree from the New York University Medical School and did his residency and fellowship at Boston City Hospital and Boston University Medical Center.

Dr. Berger has served on the steering committees of many of the cardiology trials that have shaped clinical practice in the last 20 years. Dr. Berger has authored more than 200 original articles and 13 editorials, published 36 commentaries on clinical trials as the former Director of Clinical Trials for MD Consult, authored or co-authored 17 book chapters, edited 2 books, authored 11 invited publications, developed 10 educational tapes, and given over 200 educational lectures in the US and abroad.

Lastly, during the past 2 years, Dr. Berger hosted a nationally televised cath lab conference that was seen live via the GE TiP-TV hospital network or via cathlabconference.org each week by as many as 5000 viewers. The conferences are archived and can be viewed at any time at cathlabconference.org or on theheart.