Program Overview

Invited Speakers

Focus (multi-disciplinary) sessions for World Congress

Care of the unwell neonate
1. Essential Elements of a successful neonatal program
2. Identifying the 'at risk' neonate
3. Toward better imaging to refine the operative plan
4. Is preoperative brain imaging indicated for all neonates?
5. The impact of prematurity and low birth weight in surgical decision making
6. Strategies to progress the most precarious neonates through intensive care
7. Consideration of long term outcomes - who to treat and for how long

Childhood Origins of Atherosclerosis
1. Childhood Origins of Atherosclerosis
2. Familial Hypercholesterolaemia
3. Obesity in Children
4. Salt, a neglected risk factor
5. How to detect arterial change in vivo
6. Screening for atherosclerosis in a hospital setting

Rheumatic Heart Disease
1. ARF: Global burden of RHD. Guidelines for diagnosis of ARF in high prevalence regions
2. Primary and secondary prophylaxis in Africa
3. Standardisation of echocardiographic criteria for RHD
4. School screening for RHD. Implications for vaccines
5. How Echocardiography assists in the timing of surgery and suitability for mitral valve repair
6. Outcomes after valve repair in rheumatic heart disease
7. Global approaches to decreasing morbidity and mortality from RHD

Hypoplastic Left Heart
1. The impact of fetal diagnosis of HLHS on outcome
2. Fetal intervention for HLHS
3. Convential surgical approaches based on single ventirical physiology
4. Feeding and nutrition after surgery for HLHS
5. Hybrid approaches to intervention
6. Opportunities for a two ventricle repair
7. Tailoring the management option in the individual patient
8. Outcomes late after surgery for HLHS

Cardiac Care in The Developing World
1. Setting Priorities. How can burden of disease data and economics help us?
2. What does it mean for a family in the developing world to have a child with CHD?
3. The Mission Model Or The Transfer of Knowledge Model?
4. Paediatric Cardiac Care in The Middle East. What more needs to be done?
5. Paediatric Cardiac Care in India. Where we've come from and where we're going?
6. What Do we need? The view from Papua New Guinea
7. Matching the Introduction of Cardiac Services in a developing country to its economic development
8. Putting It All Together. What do we need to do over the next five years?

Outcomes after surgery for congenital heart disease - looking beyond survival
1. Looking forward - expectations of survival
2. Looking backwards - lessons from the ACHD clinic
3. Assessing functional outcomes in the physical domain
4. The neurodevelopmental signature of congenital heart disease in children
5. Impact of periprocedural events on brain outcome - monitoring and treatments
6. Results of early intervention in children with neurodevelopmental problems
7. Surgical strategies to minimize morbidity in the operating room and intensive care

Forty Years of Fontan
1. Milestones in the Surgical Approach
2. Have the 10 Commandments doubled or halved?
3. Pathophysiology - concepts ventricular volume load vs. pulmonary artery growth
4. Evidence-Based Transcatheter interventions
5. Conduction and Rhythm Management
6. The Forty-year old Fontan Patient
7. When should we transplant?

Sudden Death in The Young
1. Spectrum of autopsy findings in sudden unexpected death in the young
2. The molecular autopsy
3. Sudden death in childhood Cardiomyopathies - lessons from the Australian Childhood Cardiomyopathy Study
4. Resuscitation
5. Debate-Mass infant ECG screening is a waste of health service resource
6. Adult CHD: evidence based data for ICD prescription
7. Preventing sudden death in young people- is there evidence that we can make a difference?

What the Physiologist Can Teach The Clinician....
1. Pump Function
2. Vascular Function
3. The Relationship Between The Heart and End-organ metabolism
4. The development of congenital heart disease
5. Pulmonary hypertension
6. Cardiomyopathy

What Molecular Science Can Teach The Clinician About...
1. The development of congenital heart disease
2. Pulmonary hypertension
3. Cardiomyopathy

Program Development and Improvement - New Initiatives
1. Developing Excellence
2. Fundraising for Excellence
3. Research Collaboration
4. Measuring Performance for Improvement
5. The clinician, researcher, administrator … Balancing competing demands
6. When Things Go Wrong
7. Transition to Adult Services

Program Development and Improvement - Doing Better
1. Measuring Performance for Improvement
2. The clinician, researcher, administrator … Balancing competing demands
3. When Things Go Wrong
4. Transition to Adult Services

Dr Zohair Al Halees

Dr Zohair Al Halees

Dr. Zohair Al Halees earns worldwide recognition as one of the leading cardiac surgeons, performing over twelve thousand major heart operations in both pediatric and adult patients in Saudi Arabia, in the Middle East, in the USA, Canada and other European countries as well as India, Pakistan and Iran.

Dr. Al Halees became the Chairman of the Department of Cardiovascular Diseases which in 2003, evolved into a King Faisal Heart Institute of the King Faisal Specialist Hospital & Research Centre in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. In August 2007, he became the Recipient of King Abdulaziz High Civilian Award, a medal of honor given by the King to selected Saudi civilians who advanced in their specific field and have made impact to the society. At present, being a Distinguished Senior Cardiac Surgeon, he takes part in several medical committees i.e. the KFSH International Advisory Panel - a governing council that takes strategic plans and actions for the betterment and future of the King Faisal Specialist Hospital.

Dr. Al Halees traveled extensively, having been invited as a guest speaker and session chairman to over 200 local and international conferences and symposiums, in addition to performing live transmission cases in the USA, Canada, Italy, India, Pakistan and other institutions within the Kingdom. He has pioneered several humanitarian cardiac surgical missions together with the KFSHRC team that serviced the needy children in Pakistan, Morocco, Sudan, Yemen, Syria and Iran.

Dr Bagrat Alekyan

B.G. Alekyan, Head of Endovascular Cardiology and Angiology Department.
He has been working as interventional cardiologist from 1975. During the years of activities he performed over 10 000 endovascular procedures.
He performs over 800 procedures per year: diagnostic and therapeutic interventions include:Coronary angiography and stenting in patients with ischemic heart disease, angiography, stenting and endografting for vascular pathology, heart angiography in congenital heart diseases, stenting, valvuloplasty, closure of septal defects and pathological commnunications, Rashkind procedure, etc..

Dr Mark Alexander

Dr. Alexander is a member of the arrhythmia service at Children's Hospital Boston. He attended Amherst College before medical school at Northwestern University and Boston University. Following initial pediatric training in Hawaii and general pediatric practice with the US Army he completed fellowship in Pediatric Cardiology and Electrophysiology at Children's Hospital. He directs the non-invasive electrophysiology program and co-directs the exercise lab. He has an active clinical practice that focuses on management of arrhythmias at all ages ranging from fetal to adults with congenital heart disease, syncope and exercise intolerance. Current research focuses on the risk assessment for ventricular arrhythmias in patients with congenital heart disease, pacemaker and cardiac device performance in the pediatric population and fetal arrhythmias and an systematic management approaches with pediatric syncope.

Dr Zahid Amin

Dr Zahid Amin

Dr. Zahid Amin, MD is Professor of Pediatrics and Director of Cardiac Catheterization and Hybrid Suites at the RUSH Center for Congenital and Structural Heart Disease, Chicago. He completed his pediatric cardiology fellowship at Northwestern University, Children's Memorial Hospital, Chicago, and University of California, San Francisco. He had the opportunity to work closely with Dr. Kurt Amplatz and helped in developing the Amplatzer muscular and perimembranous ventricular septal occluder devices.

He is one of the pioneers of hybrid approach for treatment of congenital lesions. He coined and pioneered the perventricular approach for closure of muscular ventricular septal defect and also extended the application to perimembranous defects. He also has extensive experience with animal research and has used robotic assistance to close perimembranous VSD.

He initiated perventricular placement of valves in animal model in 2001 and was the first to use the technique in a sheep model with successful results. This led to the placement of the first Edward's Sapien valve in the pulmonary by the team at the RUSH Center in 2008.

Dr. Amin;s current research interests involve use of covered stents for coarctation of the aorta, devices to maintain patency of ductus arteriosus and development of new devices. His particular research interests are focused on membranous VSD devices and left atrial appendage occluder.

On the clinical side, Dr. Amin is focused on causes of complications after interventional procedures, especially pertaining to intracardiac devices.

Prof Bob Anderson

Prof Bob Anderson

Bob Anderson is an outstanding speaker with a long track record of giving stimulating and thought provoking talks. He wrote his MD (1970) on the cardiac conduction system in animal hearts, and later expanded his interest into congenitally malformed hearts. He was the Joseph Levy Professor of Paediatric Cardiac Morphology at the Royal Brompton Hospital and later at the Hospital for Sick Children, Great Ormond Street, London. He is regarded internationally as one of the most prominent authorities on the pathology of the congenitally malformed heart.

Dr Dean Andropoulos

Dr. Andropoulos has been Chief of Anesthesiology at Texas Children's Hospital since 2004, and is Professor, Anesthesiology and Pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, U.S.A. He completed Pediatrics and Anesthesiology residencies at the University of California, San Francisco. From 1997 to 2008 he was the Director of the Arthur S. Keats Division of Pediatric Cardiovascular Anesthesiology at Texas Children's Hospital. He was the first President of the Congenital Cardiac Anesthesia Society from 2006-08. He is the Editor in Chief of the textbook, Anesthesia for Congenital Heart Disease, 2005, with second edition in preparation for 2010. He is co-editor of Gregory's Pediatric Anesthesia, 5th edition, to be published 2011. His research focuses on neonatal brain injury and protection before and after cardiac surgery.

Prof Paul Barach

Prof Paul Barach

Professor Barach has over 15 years experience in researching, teaching and applying human factors and system analysis in understanding healthcare provider communication and learning. He has been integrally involved as a clinician, educator, researcher and policy maker in enhancing healthcare improvement and patient safety policy. He is a board-certified Anesthesiologist, with fellowship training in Cardiac Anesthesia, Critical Care Medicine and human factors, at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School where he trained and practiced. He was recently recruited to direct the UNSW, NSW Injury Risk Management Research Centre
(IRMRC) as tenured Professor of Safety Science and Injury Prevention. His major research focus is on developing and extending theoretical work in the areas of injury prevention, patient safety and quality improvement, with a particular focus on patient transitions, resilience of teams and assessing the role of human factors in enabling safe patient care.

Professor Barach is currently primary principal investigator on an European Union USD 5 million research grant (2008-2011) entitled HANDOVER: Improving the Continuity of Patient Care Through Identification and Implementation of Novel Patient Handover Processes in Europe. He is also currently the lead researcher on Lead investigator on Pediatric Patient Safety in Cardiac Surgery, U.S./Netherlands Collaboration examining patient transitions and team resilience in pediatric cardiac surgery. He was the Principal Investigator for study entitled, Cardiac Surgery Human Factors study, funded by the American Heart Association; (Universities of Chicago, Miami, Harvard, Northwestern), for $300,000, from 2002-2006; and was the Principal Investigator on a major Team Training grant, funded by the Department of Defense, for $2 million, (USMARMD), 2004-2007.

Dr Robyn Barst

Dr Robyn Barst

Dr. Barst received her medical degree from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. She completed an internship and residency in pediatrics as well as fellowships in pediatric cardiology and pediatric pulmonary at Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons in New York.

Dr. Barst has focused much of her research on the pathogenesis and treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension. Currently, she is an investigator for studies on the genetic aspects of pulmonary arterial hypertension, the use of novel therapeutic modalities to treat pulmonary arterial hypertension including prostacyclin analogues, endothelin receptor antagonists, phosphodiesterase inhibitors, tyrosine kinase inhibitors and platelet derived growth factor inhibitors, and the role of pulmonary hypertension in outcomes in sickle cell disease and other hemolytic anemias. She is also a frequent presenter at various symposia on pulmonary vascular disorders and visiting professor for medical centers worldwide. In addition, she is an active contributor to the medical and scientific press and has published numerous articles in Circulation, New England Journal of Medicine, Chest, American Journal of Respiratory Critical Care Medicine, Journal of the American College of Cardiology and similar publications.

Dr. Barst is board certified in pediatrics and pediatric cardiology and is a Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics Section on Cardiology and Section on Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery, Fellow of the American Heart Association Council on Cardiovascular Disease in the Young and Council on Cardiopulmonary, Perioperative and Critical Care, Fellow of the American College of Chest Physicians, and Fellow of the American College of Cardiology. She is past Chairman of the American Heart Association (AHA) Council on Cardiovascular Disease in the Young. In addition, she is a member of the European Society of Cardiology Task Force for Primary Pulmonary Hypertension, a consultant to the Food and Drug Administration and to the European Regulatory Authorities (EMEA) as well as a consultant to the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) Division of Lung Diseases and Office of Rare Diseases. She is on the Medical Board of Lungenhochdruck, the Austrian PH and Patient-Self-Help Group, and is Chair of the International Pediatric PH (PePH) Association. She is a member of the Pulmonary Hypertension Association (PHA) and is past chair of the Scientific Leadership Committee of the PHA.

Among her editorial responsibilities, Dr. Barst serves as a Board member and Guest Editor of Circulation and an abstract reviewer for the Annual Scientific Sessions of the AHA and American Thoracic Society. She is a manuscript reviewer for over 25 professional journals. Professional accolades include the Scleroderma Foundation Research, Education, and Support Award; the Clinician-Scientist Award, AHA; the Clinical Investigator Award, NHLBI and the PHA Clinician Award.

Dr Maurice Beghetti

Maurice Beghetti, MD, heads the Paediatric Cardiology Unit at the University Hospital of Geneva, Switzerland.. Professor Beghetti has spent most of his professional career in Geneva, with a three-year fellowship at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Canada.. He is the past-president of the Swiss Paediatric Cardiology Society and the president of the Swiss Society for Pulmonary Hypertension. He is the treasurer of pediatric cardiovascular intensive care group. He is a member of the executive board and serves as the vice chair of the association for pediatric pulmonary hypertension that has generated the TOPP registry for tracking outcome and practice in pediatric pulmonary hypertension. He acts as a member of the editorial board of Cardiology in the Young and Pediatric research. He has authored numerous publications, book chapters and books in the field of pulmonary hypertension. Professor Beghetti's research interests are focussed on pulmonary hypertension and congenital heart defects in paediatric patients.

Dr Lee Benson

Dr Lee Benson

Dr. Benson graduated from the Chicago Medical School in 1974. His first 2 years of paediatric training took place at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto and in 1976 was a senior resident at St. Christopher's Hospital for Children in Philadelphia. He returned to Toronto for a cardiology fellowship at the Hospital for Sick Children in 1977. After completing his fellowship in 1979 he entered the graduate school program at UCLA Medical Center in Biophysics and was a research fellow for Dr. Bill Freedman. In 1980 he joined the clinical staff at UCLA Medical School and was the Co-Director of the Pediatric Cardiac Intensive Care Unit. In 1983 he joined the clinical staff at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto as the Director of the Variety Club Cardiac Catheterization Laboratories. In 2007, the laboratory facilities were redeveloped and the equipment enhanced as the Mitchell Goldhar Cardiac Diagnostic and Interventional Unit. Dr. Benson developed the interventional program in cardiac catheterization at the Hospital for Sick Children, which today is one of the largest programs in North America. He became a full professor of Pediatrics (Cardiology) in 1992, is author of over 350 original articles, numerous book chapters and several textbooks and has an international presence in both pediatric cardiology and interventional cardiology. In addition to his focus in interventional cardiology, a major interest is in the management of heart failure and cardiomyopathies in children.

Dr Desmond Bohn

Dr. Bohn graduated from the National University of Ireland (University College Dublin) in 1969 and following internship undertook postgraduate training in anaesthesia in Bristol between 1971 and 1975. He did a fellowship in paediatric critical care medicine at the Hospital for Sick Children between 1975 and 1976 and a further year of research with Dr. Charles Bryan in the Division of Respirology Physiology and was involved in the original research on high frequency oscillatory ventilation. He was appointed as a staff physician in the Department of Critical Care Medicine in 1980 where he has remained for the past 28 years. Dr. Bohn held the positions of Associate Chief and Research Director in the Department of Critical Care Medicine until 2001. He is also Medical Director of the Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) Programme at The Hospital for Sick Children. In 2001 he was appointed Chief of the Department of Critical Care Medicine. He is also currently president of the Pediatric Cardiac Intensive Care Society. He is the provincial lead for the Provincial Paediatric Critical Care Response Team Project and a member of the LIHN leadership group for critical care in the province of Ontario.

Dr. Bohn's area of research in the past has been in outcomes based research in children with multiorgan failure, and he has published in the areas of acute respiratory failure (ECMO high frequency ventilation and nitric oxide), traumatic and acquired brain injury, congenital diaphragmatic hernia, acute viral myocarditis and fluid therapy in critically ill patients. He has published over 145 papers in peer reviewed medical journals as well as multiple book chapters, serves on the editorial board of Pediatric Critical Care Medicine, and is a regular contributor to both national and international symposia

Dr Steve Bolsin

Stephen Bolsin, a Specialist Anaesthetist, Quality Expert and Medical Ethicist, works in Geelong, after leaving Bristol where he was the "whistleblower", informing the Department of Health about Bristol Royal Infirmary's high paediatric cardiac surgery mortality rates. The longest General Medical Council's Disciplinary Committee hearing ever found 2 paediatric cardiac surgeons and the CEO guilty of serious professional misconduct. One surgeon and the CEO were struck off the medical register. Clinical Governance, improved audit and re-accreditation followed.
A Public Inquiry in September 1998 reported in September 2001. The Kennedy Inquiry, the longest running Inquiry into the NHS in its history, made >200 recommendations. Bristol's lessons have wider applications in healthcare.

Dr Philipp Bonhoeffer

Philipp Bonhoeffer is a Consultant Paediatric Cardiologist, working as the Chief of Cardiology and Director of the Catheterisation Laboratory at Great Ormond Street Hospital. He is Professor of Cardiology at the Institute of Child Health, University College London.

Early in his career, Professor Bonhoeffer showed interest in the strategic organisation of cardiology in developing countries, specifically East Africa, where his interest in cardiovascular research led to the design of a cost-effective catheter (Multi-track system with double balloon) approach for the treatment of mitral stenosis. Similarly, he developed the Multi-track catheter, which is now routinely used for angiography in paediatric cardiology.

In 1999, he began a research programme with the aim of replacing a pulmonary heart valve without open-heart surgery. He performed the world's first human trans-catheter heart valve implantation in France in September 2000. In 2001 he joined Great Ormond Street Hospital in London.

Dr Tim Bradley

Dr Tim Bradley is a Paediatric Cardiologist and Staff Echocardiographer at SickKids, Associate Cardiologist at Toronto General Hospital and Assistant Professor of Paediatrics, University of Toronto, Canada. Director of the Marfan / Connective Tissue Disorders Clinic and Vascular Research Unit in the Labatt Family Heart Centre at SickKids, his research interests include Marfan syndrome and other connective tissue disorders which affect the cardiovascular system, aortic biomechanics, vascular functional assessment and detection of premature atherosclerosis in childhood.

Dr Craig Broberg

Dr Craig Broberg

Dr. Broberg currently serves as Director of the Adult Congenital Heart Disease Program at Oregon Health and Science University in Portland Oregon. He did his medical training at the University of California, San Francisco, University of Washington in Seattle, and Oregon Health and Sciences University in Portland, Oregon. He then completed a two year fellowship in Adult Congenital Heart Disease and Cardiac Magnetic Resonance at the Royal Brompton Hospital in London, England. Dr. Broberg's research interests are cyanotic heart disease, and myocardial dysfunction in ACHD, for which he holds an AHA Clinical Research Grant. He is a founding member of the Alliance for Adult Research in Congenital Cardiology (AARCC), and has served in various ACHD-related activities from the AHA, ACC, and ACHD.

Dr Elchanan Bruckheimer

Elchanan Bruckheimer, Director of Cardiac Catheterization at Schneider Children's Medical Center Israel, Medical School at University of London, Pediatrics at Shaare Zedek Hospital, Jerusalem, Pediatric Cardiology at Yale University [1994-1997].
The team at Schneider perform over 500 interventional procedures a year including transcatheter valve implantation, atrial and ventricular septal defect closure, aorta and pulmonary artery stenting, embolizations and valvuloplasties.
Dr Bruckheimer is the inventor of the Safeflo retrievable IVC filter which was recently approved by the FDA. He is the Principal Investigator for the Atrium Medical Advanta V12LD covered stent for coarctation trial.
Elchanan is married with 3 children and lives in Zichron Yaakov, Israel with numerous cats.

Dr Louise Calder

Louise Calder was born and educated in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
She attended medical school at the University of Alberta in Edmonton.
After internship, she received postgraduate training in paediatrics and paediatric cardiology at the Hospital for Sick children, Toronto, the University Hospital, Edmonton and the Montreal Children's Hospital. She subsequently studied cardiac morphology in the Cardiac Registry at the Children's Hospital Medical Center, Boston, USA.

She was appointed as a consultant paediatric cardiologist at Green Lane Hospital, Auckland, New Zealand in 1973. Her time has divided between clinical paediatric cardiology and the morphology of congenital heart disease.

Dr Qi-Ling Cao

Dr. Cao graduated from the College of Medicine, Shanghai Medical University in Shanghai, China in 1981 with a Bachelor's of Medicine degree. The next year (1982) he obtained his Medical Doctorate degree. Between 1981 and 1982, Dr. Cao completed a rotating internship at Shanghai Medical University followed by three years of residency and chief residency of Cardiovascular Surgery at Shanghai Medical University. Between 1985 and 1986, he was a Fellow in Cardiology in the Division of Cardiology at Shanghai Medical University. Dr. Cao then arrived to the United States where her continued his training as a Research scientist between 1990 and 1996 in cardiovascular imaging and hemodynamics at New England Medical Center. Prior to Dr. Cao's arrival to the United States, he held two academic positions, first as an instructor and subsequently as an Assistant Professor of Medicine and Cardiology at Shanghai Medical Centre. Between 1990 and 1996, Dr. Cao was an Instructor of Medicine and Cardiology at Tufts University in Boston followed by a promotion to Assistant Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics at Tufts University. From 1999 to his arrival at Rush University in 2007, Dr. Cao was Associate Professor at the University of Chicago. Furthermore, Dr. Cao has been for the past few years a Visiting Professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University in Shanghai, as well as Guest Professor at Shanghai Fudan University in Shanghai and Honorary Professor at Guangdong Provincial People's Hospital in Guangdong, China.

Dr Jonathon Carapetis

Dr Jonathon Carapetis

Professor Jonathan Carapetis holds separate qualifications as a medical practitioner (MBBS), specialist paediatric physician (FRACP Paediatrics), specialist infectious diseases physician (FRACP Infect Dis), and specialist public health physician (FAFPHM), as well as a PhD.

Between 1994-98 he conducted doctoral studies at the Menzies School of Health Research in Darwin into group A streptococcal diseases in the Aboriginal population, under the supervision of Bart Currie and John Mathews. This work translated into important public health interventions, including the establishment of Australia's first rheumatic heart disease control program in the Top End.

Rerturning to Melbourne in 1999, Professor Carapetis co-founded (with Prof Kim Mulholland) the Centre for International Child Health at the University of Melbourne Dept of Paediatrics. The Centre has since been recognised as the only Australian WHO Collaborating Centre in Child Health.
Professor Carapetis has been a Chief Investigator on grants worth more than $20 million since 2001, including three NIH grants, an NHMRC Centre for Clinical Research Excellence, and numerous NHMRC project grants. He was holder of an NHMRC Career Development Award and was granted the 2001 Australasian Society for Infectious Diseases / Glaxo SmithKline Award for Advanced Research in Infectious Diseases.

He is currently Director of the Menzies School of Health Research in Darwin. He has written numerous textbook chapters on rheumatic fever, has been an invited speaker at more than 30 national and international conferences, and has over 100 peer reviewed publications as well as numerous book chapters. Professor Carapetis' wide range of research interests includes group A streptococcal and pneumococcal diseases, other vaccine preventable diseases, vitamin D deficiency in refugees, and urinary tract infections in children. At Menzies, he is encouraging new directions for research, including the links between education and child health.

Dr John Cheatham

John P. Cheatham, MD, is Director of Cardiac Catheterization and Interventional Therapy and Co-Director of The Heart Center at Nationwide Children's Hospital, Columbus, Ohio. He holds the George H. Dunlap Endowed Chair in Interventional Cardiology. He is also a Professor of Pediatrics and Internal Medicine at The Ohio State University College of Medicine. After graduating from the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine, he completed his residency at Boston Children's Hospital, followed by a fellowship in Pediatric Cardiology at Texas Children's Hospital in Houston. Dr. Cheatham's area of expertise is transcatheter intervention and Hybrid therapy of newborns, children, and adults with complex congenital heart disease. He has pioneered several new techniques and devices in nonsurgical intervention, as well as being a world leader in developing new Hybrid therapies. Dr. Cheatham has been a principal investigator in numerous FDA sponsored clinical trials evaluating nonsurgical closure devices and stent therapy over the past two decades. Additionally, Dr. Cheatham designed the world's first Hybrid Cardiac Catheterization Suites and advanced imaging equipment at NCH, which allows the interventionalist & cardiothoracic surgeon to perform combined therapy in order to improve clinical outcomes in patients referred to The Heart Center. He serves as a consultant to various medical companies and proctors, or teaches, new transcatheter techniques and devices to other physicians around the world. Dr. Cheatham is Co-Director of the Columbus Children's Hospital International Program and has implemented a formal physician exchange program with two of the leading medical institutions in China. In cooperation with China Red Cross, he is also the Foreign Director of the International Training Center for treatment of CHD in poor children. Dr. Cheatham has authored more than 103 manuscripts, 14 book chapters, 280 national and international presentations, and is co-editing a book on "Complications in Percutaneous Interventions for Congenital and Structural Heart Disease." Recently, Dr. Cheatham was selected as one of the top 25 Innovators in Healthcare by Health Imaging & IT. In addition, he was honored as the recipient of the Career Achievement Award at the prestigious 2007 PICS & AICS conference, attended by interventional cardiologists from all over the world.

Prof Yui-Fai Cheung

Dr Yiu-fai Cheung is a Clinical Professor of the Department of Paediatrics and Adolescent Medicine at The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China. He is a specialist in paediatric cardiology providing echocardiographic assessment of and transcatheter interventions for paediatric and adult congenital heart patients; a teacher responsible for teaching of paediatric cardiology to undergraduates, paediatric residents, and cardiology fellows; and a clinical researcher with special interest in arterial function in children and adolescents in health and disease, Kawasaki disease, ventricular function in congenital heart disease and after its surgical repair, and ventriculo-arterial interaction.

Ms Jude Clarke

Ms Clark is the Chief Paediatric Perfusionist at the Starship Children's Hospital in Auckland, New Zealand. Her duties are split between the Starship Hospital and the adjoining Auckland City Hospital where the adult surgery is performed.

Jude originally started perfusing in the early 1980s under the surgical team directed by Sir Brian Barratt-Boyes at Greenlane Hospital.

In December 2003 Greenlane Hospital shifted site and split the adult and children' services on to two different facilities. Jude has led the development of the stand alone children's perfusion team and her intent is to ensure a world class perfusion service with continuing development and improvement in the perfusion strategies, techniques and equipment being utilised. Ms Clark is a founding member of the Australasian Perfusion Society (now renamed ANZCP) and was the educational officer for 5 years.

Outside of work Jude is a running fanatic and enjoys all outdoors pursuits.

Dr Mitch Cohen

Dr. Mitchell Cohen is the current Section Chief of Pediatric Cardiology and the Director of Pediatric Electrophysiology and Pacing at Phoenix Children's Hospital. Dr. Cohen graduated from Temple University School of Medicine in 1991 and completed his pediatrics, pediatric cardiology and electrophysiology training at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and The University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. Dr. Cohen remained on faculty at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia as Director of Pacing for five years before relocating to Phoenix in 2002. Dr. Cohen is currently a Clinical Associate Professor of Pediatrics at The University of Arizona School of Medicine. Dr. Cohen is the Section Chief of Pediatric Cardiology at Phoenix Children's Hospital and is the Director of Electrophysiology & Pacing.

Dr. Cohen has performed over 1000 electrophysiology studies and radiofrequency ablations. He has also implanted more than 300 pacemaker/defibrillators in children and adolescents. He serves as a reviewer to PACE, Heart Rhythm, and the Annals of Thoracic Surgery. He has published over 50 articles/book chapters on pacemakers and arrhythmias in children and has lectured both nationally and internationally. Dr. Cohen is active in device driven research and its clinical application in the pediatric population. His current area of interest lies in ICD optimization in children and is the principal investigator evaluating T wave sensing in defibrillators in children. Dr. Cohen is on the Cardiovascular Disease in the Young ECG & Arrhythmia Committee of the American Heart Association. He is also a member of the American College of Cardiology, Heart Rhythm Society, Pediatric Electrophysiology Society, and Sudden Arrhythmia Death Syndrome Foundation.

Dr Andrew Cook

Andrew Cook is Director of the Cardiac Morphology Unit and Senior Lecturer at the Institute of Child Health UCL/ Great Ormond Street Hospital, London, UK.
He is a cardiac anatomist, with specific interests in fetal development and virtual strategies for teaching cardiac morphology.

Following his first degree at UCL, he started his research career in Fetal Cardiology at Guy's & St Hospital alongside Professor Lindsey Allan and Dr. Gurleen Sharland. He gained his PhD Thesis studying the development of the Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome in the fetus and this, together with the interaction between blood flow and gene expression, remains his specialist area of research. In 2000 he moved to UCL to become lecturer under Professor Robert Anderson whom he succeeded as head of the Unit in September 2007.

He now lectures extensively on all aspects of congenital heart disease from fetal life to adulthood emphasising clinico-anatomic correlations and is actively involved in developing e-learning strategies and virtual systems for teaching cardiac morphology (see www.cardiacmorphology.com). During this work and subsequent research posts he has written over 70 papers, 15 book chapters and co-authored 5 textbooks.

Ms Geraldine Cullen-Dean

Geraldine Cullen-Dean, RN, BScN, MN, is a Clinical Nurse Specialist with the Good 2 Go Transition Program at SickKids, Canada. Geraldine began her nursing career at SickKids in 1983 after graduating from the University of Toronto with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing. Geraldine completed a Master of Nursing in 2003. Her clinical focus while in graduate studies was in transition preparation from pediatric to adult health care.

Geraldine has worked primarily with children and adolescents with congenital heart conditions. Prior to her role with the Good 2 Go Program, she was a Clinical Research Nurse Manager for the Congenital Heart Surgeons' Society Data Center which follows patients throughout North America with cardiac disorders.

Dr Nigel Curtis

Nigel Curtis is Professor of Paediatric Infectious Diseases at the University of Melbourne and Head of Infectious Diseases at the Royal Children's Hospital Melbourne. He is also Leader of the Microbiology & Infectious Diseases Research Group at the Murdoch Children's Research Institute. He trained in Cambridge, London and Vancouver, and spent a recent sabbatical period in Cape Town, South Africa.

He has a wide range of clinical and laboratory research interests focusing on the immune response to infectious diseases. His PhD project investigated the role of superantigens in the pathogenesis of Kawasaki disease. Current research projects include host-pathogen interactions in severe staphylococcal and streptococcal disease, studies of the immune response to BCG vaccine, the immunodiagnosis of tuberculosis, and DNA microarray-based studies of gene expression in acute rheumatic fever.

Dr Joanna Dangel

Graduated at the Medical University of Warsaw. Fully trained pediatrician and pediatric cardiologist, with 10 years experience in the cath-lab in Children's Memorial Health Institute in Warsaw, Poland. Fellowships in Guy's Hospital in London, Royal Liverpool Children's Hospital, Boston Children Hospital. Organizer of the fetal cardiology service in Warsaw - as one of two pioneers in Poland - in early 90ties of XXth century. Since 2001 consultant in fetal and perinatal cardiology at the Medical University of Warsaw, 2nd Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. Head of the busy Fetal Cardiology Unit, in which about 2000 fetal echoes are performed every year, scanning about 250 fetal cardiac functional and structural abnormalities. Volunteer as a cardiology consultant in Warsaw Hospice for Children, in which perinatal hospice service was established for those families, who decided to be under the hospice care with their lethally ill fetuses and neonates.

Dr Barbara Deal

Dr. Deal, the Marvin E. Wodika Research Professor of Cardiology, is Division Head of Pediatric Cardiology and Professor of Pediatrics at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine. Dr. Deal's principal areas of interest include the surgical treatment of arrhythmias, arrhythmias in children with normal hearts and in those with repaired congenital heart disease, and the genetic basis of arrhythmias. Dr. Deal received her undergraduate degree from Duke University as an Angier B. Duke Scholar, her medical degree from Northwestern, and after pediatric training at Children's Memorial Hospital, her cardiology fellowship was at Boston Children's Hospital. Following advanced fellowships in electrophysiology at the University of Chicago and the University of Illinois as the Eleanor Pillsbury Scholar, and after heading the Echocardiography Laboratory at Cook County Children's Hospital for 4 years, she returned to Children's Memorial Hospital to head the electrophysiology program from 1990-2007. Since 1993, she has worked with Doctors Mavroudis and Backer to develop the Arrhythmia Surgery Program at Children's Memorial Hospital which now receives patients referred from around the world.

Prof John Deanfield

John Deanfield is British Heart Foundation Vandervell Professor of Cardiology at The Institute of Child Health, University College London, UK. He is also Consultant Cardiologist at The Heart Hospital and Great Ormond Street Hospital, London undertaking the management of patients with congenital heart disease.

Professor Deanfield serves on many international advisory boards and is a member of the editorial boards of several major cardiovascular journals. He has published numerous articles in leading medical and scientific journals such as New England Journal of Medicine, Circulation and Heart and has delivered several keynote lectures. His principal research interest is vascular medicine, particularly the role of the endothelium in atherosclerosis.

Dr Joe Dearani

Dr. Dearani received his Bachelor's degree in Biology/Spanish from Fordham University and then his Medical degree form Georgetown University. He began his General Surgery residency at Georgetown and then interrupted clinical training for 2 years of basic science research in cardiovascular surgery at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School. General surgical training was then completed at Georgetown. Postgraduate fellowship training in Thoracic and Cardiovascular surgery was taken at the Mayo Clinic followed by fellowship in congenital cardiac surgery and transplantation at Loma Linda University. Dr. Dearani joined the staff at the Mayo Clinic in
1996 where he is currently Professor of Surgery and the Program Director
for the Thoracic Surgery Residency.

Dr Jim DiNardo

Dr. DiNardo graduated from Dartmouth College and Dartmouth Medical School (with honors). He completed his anesthesia residency and fellowship in Cardiac Anesthesia at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston. He joined the faculty at Children's Hospital Boston in 1999. He currently serves as the Cardiac Anesthesia Fellowship Director. He spends approximately one third of this clinical time as an Attending in the Cardiac ICU.
Dr. DiNardo is certified in perioperative TEE and is the Chairman of the PTEeXAM Committee; he is also a Senior Examiner of the ABA and a member of the ABA/ASA Joint Council on In-Training Examination.
His major research interests are echocardiography and coagulation.
He is the author of a major textbook on cardiac anesthesia and of more than 80 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters.

He is an avid distance runner and enjoys the ease with which his 6 year-old daughter makes him look foolish with a soccer ball.

Dr Anne Dubin

Anne Dubin is the director of the pediatric arrhythmia service at Lucile Salter Packard Children's Hospital in Palo Alto, CA, and an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Stanford University. She received her medical training at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, followed by clinical training in pediatrics at Babies Hospital at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center, followed by fellowship in pediatric cardiology at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, and Yale University. Her research interests include arrhythmia management in pediatric heart failure, and resynchronization therapy as it pertains to the pediatric patient and the patient with congenital heart disease.

A/Prof Yves D'Udekem

Dr Yves d'Udekem is of Belgian origin. He graduated as MD from the Universite Catholique de Louvain, Brussels, Belgium. He qualified as a surgeon in 1993. His overseas experiences include a year in Baragwanath Hospital, Johannesburg, South Africa (trauma surgery), a year in Toronto General Hospital, Toronto, Canada (adult cardiac surgery) and one year in the Great Ormond Street Hospital, London, UK (paediatric heart surgery). From 1996 to 2003, he was staff surgeon in the Cliniques Universitaires St-Luc, Brussels, Belgium. His PhD completed in 2003 was entitled "The role of the pulmonary infundibulum in operated Fallot patients". In 2003, he became consultant cardiac surgeon in the Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne, Australia and in 2004 Associate Professor in the department of pediatrics of the University of Melbourne. His areas of expertise in the paediatric field are cardiac assist devices and valvular heart repair. His research focuses on the long-term consequences of paediatric heart interventions: Tetralogy of Fallot repair, palliation and repair of pulmonary atresia VSD and MAPCAs, and more recently the Fontan procedure.

Dr Jo Duflou

Jo DUFLOU is the chief forensic pathologist at the Department of Forensic Medicine at Glebe in Sydney, Australia. He has medical, forensic pathology and aviation medicine qualifications from South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom and has appointments at the Universities of Sydney and NSW, and the National Drug & Alcohol Research Centre. He has published numerous scientific papers on aspects of forensic medicine including the pathology of sudden death, toxicology, aviation pathology, HIV/AIDS pathology, motor vehicle trauma, autopsy techniques and quality assurance. His main area of interest at present is sudden natural death in young adults.

Dr Kirsten Finucane

Kirsten Finucane is the Chief Surgeon of the Paediatric and Congenital Cardiac Service at Starship Hospital in Auckland. She trained at Green Lane Hospital under the direction of Mr Alan Kerr, then in Birmingham Children's Hospital in the UK with Mr Bill Brawn. Kirsten returned to New Zealand in 1996 and has been busy developing the paediatric service into a specialised unit with the move from Green Lane to Starship in 2003. This unit performs around 320 bypasses per year including the full range of neonatal surgery, transplants and complex adult congenital cases. She has a special interest in valve repairs for rheumatic heart disease and in the causes and prevention of neurologic injury in cardiac patients.

Dr Mark Galantowicz

Mark Galantowicz, MD, is the first recipient of the Murray D. Lincoln endowed Chair of Cardiothoracic Surgery. He is the Chief of Cardiothoracic Surgery and Co-Director of The Heart Center at Nationwide Children's Hospital. Dr. Galantowicz is also an Associate
Professor of Surgery at The Ohio State University College of Medicine. After receiving his undergraduate degree from the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Galantowicz was awarded the
Fulbright Scholarship to conduct molecular biology research at the University of Geneva, Switzerland. He received his medical degree from Cornell University Medical College and completed his surgical training, including fellowships in adult and pediatric cardiothoracic surgery, at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center.

Dr. Galantowicz joined Nationwide Children's Hospital in 2002 to head up the
Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery and where he also serves as the Surgical
Director of the Heart, Lung and Heart-Lung Transplantation Programs. His clinical
interests are in the areas of the surgical treatment and repair of newborns with
congenital heart defects and cardiopulmonary transplantation. In his tenure at
Nationwide Children's he completed the hospital's first successful heart, lung, and heart-lung transplants including some of the youngest and smallest patients in the world. His work has helped expand the hospital's Blood Conservation Program for congenital heart surgery, making The Heart Center an international treatment center for patients coming from all over the world. Additionally, he helped design the country's first Hybrid Congenital Cardiac Operating Suite, allowing the technology first developed in the Hybrid
Catheterization Suites to translate into a state-of-the-art operating suite.

His research interests focus on the development of innovative, less-invasive
strategies for the management of cardiopulmonary disease. Dr. Galantowicz has
authored several publications and presented to both national and international
audiences on his surgical and hybrid procedures to treat cardiac malformations
and congenital heart disease. His combined talent and expertise extends across borders as he performs life-saving operations on children with heart defects in developing countries.

Dr Marc Gewillig

Prof Marc Gewillig is pediatric cardiologist, head of the paediatric cardiac unit at the University Hospitals Leuven, Belgium. He wrote his PhD on the Fontan circulation in 1992, and has been working, lecturing and publishing on this subject ever since. He was AEPC scientific secretary 1997-2002. The last couple of years his main field of interest was interventional cardiology; he has become a recognised teacher - instructor in this field with several presentations - lectures - publications on established and new interventional techniques.

Mr Martin Gill

Martin Gill works in clinical perfusion at The Children's Hospital at Westmead. His background is in Neonatal Intensive Care nursing, moving from the UK to take up an appointment in Paediatric Intensive Care in 2002. In 2007, Martin began his clinical training in perfusion at The Children's Hospital at Westmead and is completing a Masters in Cardiovascular Perfusion at Swinburne University.

Martin has an interest in acute renal failure after cardiopulmonary bypass and measures to minimise its impact in the Paediatric Intensive Care environment.

Prof Adriana Gittenberger-de Groot

Adriana Gittenberger-de Groot PhD is professor of Anatomy and Embryology at the Leiden University Medical Center, the Netherlands. Her research specializes in human and animal models of congenital heart disease and cardiovascular development. Recent studies concentrated on the VEGF and PDGF in coronary vascular differentiation and the remodeling of the cardiac arterial and venous pole by addition of second heart field derived myocardial and vascular structures. Studies are underway focusing on gene-environment interactions and intra-uterine priming in both congenital and adult cardiovascular disease.

Dr Allan Goldman

Dr Allan Goldman trained as a doctor in South Africa, completed his paediatric intensive care specialisation in both London and Australia, becoming a Consultant at Great Ormond Street Hospital in 1998. In 2003 he was appointed Lead Consultant for the Cardiac Critical Care Unit and Director of the ECMO service at Great Ormond Street Hospital.

His research interests focus on the human factors aspect of team interfaces, mechanical support as a bridge to heart/lung recovery or transplantation, and inflammation associated with cardiac bypass.He is currently on sabbatical as a Fellow of The NHS Institute of Innovation and Improvement.

Dr Gil Gross

Dr. Gil Gross is a clinical and basic electrophysiologist who joined the attending staff of the Cardiology Division at The Hospital for Sick Children (Sick Kids) in 1999.
Dr. Gross obtained his M.D. degree at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, in 1984. After graduating from medical school, Dr. Gross completed a mixed internship at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. He then moved to Ottawa, where he completed his paediatric residency at the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO).
Dr. Gil Gross is a clinical and basic electrophysiologist who joined the attending staff of the Division of Cardiology at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) in 1999.

Dr. Gross obtained his MD at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, in 1984. After graduating from medical school, Dr. Gross completed a mixed internship at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. He then moved to Ottawa, where he completed his paediatric residency at the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO).

In 1990, Dr. Gross began a combined clinical and research fellowship in paediatric cardiology at Boston Children's Hospital and Harvard Medical School. After completing his core clinical training requirements, Dr. Gross spent a year in the ion channel laboratory of Dr. Diomedes Logothetis as the 1992-3 recipient of the Albert S. Hyman Fellowship in Cardiac Pacing and Electrophysiology awarded by the North American Society of Pacing and Electrophysiology (NASPE). Dr. Gross subsequently moved to Dr. Neil Castle's patch clamp electrophysiology and pharmacology laboratory in Anesthesia Research at Brigham & Women's Hospital, also in Boston. During his training there, Dr. Gross was supported by a fellowship from the Medical Research Council of Canada.

Upon completion of his training in 1996, Dr. Gross secured a junior faculty position at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg. He established an independent, grant-funded basic electrophysiology laboratory at the St. Boniface General Hospital Research Centre while providing clinical coverage at the Variety Children's Heart Centre, including six months as Acting Head of Paediatric Cardiology just prior to his relocation to SickKids in 1999.
Dr. Gross is married to an ER physician, Dr. Debra Kiez, and with their five children they enjoy travel including camping, canoeing and hiking. Dr. Gross is also an avid cyclist and jazz music fan.
Dr. Gross is spending the 2008-9 academic year as a visiting sabbatical scholar in the renowned stem cell research laboratory of Dr. Lior Gepstein at the Technion's Rappaport Institute in Haifa, Israel.

Dr Colleen Gruenwald

As Director of Cardiovascular Perfusion/ECLS Program within the Labatt Family Heart Centre at The Hospital for Sick Children (Sick Kids), and Project Investigator within the SickKids Research Institute, Colleen Gruenwald has shown an interest in exploring the complexities and interactions of the infant patient undergoing cardiopulmonary bypass for cardiac surgery. Colleen has demonstrated her commitment to the care of the pediatric cardiac patients through publication of the interdisciplinary team research in the areas of hemostasis/thrombosis and anticoagulation management and monitoring. Colleen has been fortunate to lead a team of dedicated individuals who share her interest in defining and meeting the challenges of clinical practice, education and research that contribute to excellence in patient care.

Prof Ian Hamilton-Craig

Professor Ian Hamilton-Craig, MB,BS (Adel), PhD (McMaster), FRACP, FCSANZ, FLS (Lond) is Professor of Preventive Cardiology and Internal Medicine, Griffith University School of Medicine, Southport, Queensland, Australia.

His interests include risk factor management, dyslipidaemia in children and genetic dyslipidaemias, particularly familial hypercholesterolaemia (FH).

Professor Hamilton-Craig is a member of the MEDPED-FH International Steering Committee, the Australian Atherosclerosis Society FH Committee, the Council for Genetic Cardiovascular Diseases of the Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand and the US National Lipid Association.

His books include Cholesterol Control, Men's Health, Bypass, State of the Heart, and Unclog Your Arteries (2009).

Prof Richard Harvey

Professor Harvey received his PhD in 1982 under supervision of the late JRE Wells from the Department of Biochemistry, University of Adelaide. After further training at Harvard University for 3 years and spending 10 years at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research in Melbourne, Professor Harvey joined the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute in 1998, where he is currently Co-Deputy Director and Head of the Developmental Biology Program. He holds the endowed Sir Peter Finley Professorship of Cardiac Research at the University of New South Wales. He has performed at the leading edge of developmental cardiology for many years (total career citations = 6,523; average journal IF = 10.32; average citation/publication = 74.12; compiled February 2007). His CV includes publications in Nature (3), Cell (5), Developmental Cell (1), Nature Genetics (1), Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (6), and Genes and Development (5). He has co-edited a book, "Heart Development", published by Academic Press and critically reviewed in Cell, New England Journal of Medicine, Nature Medicine and Trends in Genetics, with a second, "Heart Development and Regeneration", to be completed in 2008. In 2001, he received the Hazel Croke Research Award from the NHF, in 2004, the RT Hall Prize, the highest senior investigator award of the Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand, and in 2005, the Julian Wells Medal and Oration, conferred by the Executive Committee of the Lorne Genome Meeting. In 2007, he was elected as member of the Australian Academy of Science and also received the Evelyn Hall award of the National Heart Foundation. He is Research Director of the Cardiac Adult Stem Cell Laboratory of the Australian Stem Cell Centre, and is on the editorial boards of Developmental Cell, Developmental Biology, Developmental Dynamics and Trends in Cardiovascular Medicine, as well as a new Australian initiative, Stem Cell Research (co-editors Andrew Elephanty and Christine Mummary). Over the past 5 years, he has been invited to speak at 9 international and 22 national meetings and has given 4 international and 13 national invited seminars. Harvey was convener of the International Society of Developmental Biologists Congress in 2005, and has served as President of the Australian and New Zealand Society of Cell and Developmental Biology (2002-2004). He has served on NHMRC GRPs (2002, 2006) and is on the Executive Advisory Committees of the European Union Consortium "Heart Failure and Repair", ARC Centre for the Molecular Genetics of Development, and the New South Wales Stem Cell Network.

Dr Glennis Haworth

Professor of Developmental Cardiology, Institute of Child Health, University College, London

Honorary Consultant in Paediatric Cardiology, Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, London

Founder of the UK Pulmonary Hypertension Service for Children

Background:
Early specialisation in neonatal medicine and held a Fellowship in Fetal and Neonatal Medicine at Columbia University, New York. Trained in Paediatric Cardiology and specialised in Pulmonary Hypertension. Held a British Heart Foundation Chair in Developmental Cardiology and had a BHF funded research group working on pulmonary hypertension. Numerous national and international lectures and many publications.

Ms Patricia Hickey

Patricia is Vice President of Cardiovascular and Critical Care Services at Children's Hospital Boston. She has advanced her career in leadership positions in Children's Hospitals and is known internationally for her work in leadership development, patient safety and bridging nursing practice and health policy. She has disseminated cutting edge nursing knowledge in more than 30 publications and has presented numerous dynamic papers at national and international symposia. With a passion for fostering peace in nations through international health initiatives, Patricia is a long-standing senior volunteer consultant for Project HOPE and a board member of a non-profit organization for pediatric healthcare in Guatemala. Patricia's contributions have been recognized with several prestigious honors and awards. She is the 2009 recipient of the American Association of Critical Care Nurses (AACN) Circle of Excellence Award and she will be inducted as a Fellow in the American Academy of Nursing in November.

Dr Hedwig Hövels-Gürich

Hedwig H. Hövels-Gürich is working as a cardiologist for children and young adults with inborn cardiac diseases, as well as a scientist and academic teacher at the Department of Paediatric Cardiology of Children's Heart Centre, Aachen University of Technology, Germany.
Since 1995, her main area of expertise comprises long-term assessment of cardiological and psychomotor development and quality of life in children, adolescents and young adults after corrective surgery for congenital heart disease.
She is an active member of the German Society of Paediatric Cardiology and of the psychosocial working group of the Association for European Paediatric Cardiology.
She is married and mother of three children.

Dr Rodney Hunt

Rod Hunt is the Deputy Director of Neonatal Medicine at The Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne. His clinical interests centre around Neonatal Neurology and longer term neurodevelopment. He is currently involved in research projects that investigate mechanisms of brain injury in preterm and term newborn infants, through the use of advanced MRI techniques and the application of formal neuropsychological follow-up.

Dr Krishna Subramony Iyer

Dr. K.S. Iyer obtained his cardiac surgical training at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi and received advanced training in pediatric cardiac surgery at the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne, Australia. He has been exclusively practicing pediatric and congenital cardiac surgery since 1989.

He has operated upon over 7000 infants, children and adults with congenital heart disease. His areas of interest and expertise ares the arterial switch operation, Fontan operation, neonatal and infant cardiac surgery, conduit repairs and re-do pediatric heart surgery. He established the pediatric cardiac surgery department at the Escorts Heart Institute & Research Center in 1995 and today the department has internationally acceptable surgical outcomes despite the problems of late presentation, co-existing infections and malnutrition.

He has been actively involved in the growth of pediatric cardiac surgery both in India and in Asia. He has been President of the Pediatric Cardiac Society of India and was the Founder President of the Asia-Pacific Pediatric Cardiac Society.

Dr. Iyer has over a hundred scientific publications in national and international journals and textbooks. He has been the recipient of the Distinguished Service Award of the World Congress on Cardiology and Preventive Cardiology and has been named the Paul Harris Fellow of the Rotary International for contribution to humanitarian causes.

Dr Parvathi Iyer

Dr Parvathi U Iyer is currently Associate Director and Head, Pediatric Cardiac Intensive Care at the Escorts Heart Institute and Research Centre, New Delhi, India. She is a pioneer in this specialty in India and was closely involved in setting up the Pediatric program at the Escorts Heart Institute in 1995 - the first integrated pediatric cardiac program in India that incorporated an intensivist. It is currently one of the largest pediatric cardiac programs in India. She graduated from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi and trained in Pediatric and Neonatal Intensive care at the Royal Childrens' Hospital, Melbourne and Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Sydney. Her interests are related to local problems and include 1) Malnourished infants undergoing cardiac surgery 2) Late presentation of congenital heart disease 3) Noninvasive ventilation and 4) Quality control and audit. More recently, her interest has been focused on evolving low cost pediatric cardiac intensive care and has been actively involved in academic exchange between the different Asian countries.

Dr Thomas Jones

Dr. Tom Jones is a Professor of Pediatrics and Adjunct Professor of Medicine at the University of Washington School of Medicine and the Director of the Cardiac Catheterization Laboratories at Seattle Children's Hospital. He is a graduate of the Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, completed his Pediatrics Residency at the University of Washington and his Pediatric Cardiology Fellowship at the University of Colorado and the Denver Children's Hospital. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American College of Cardiology and the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions. Dr. Jones has been the Director of the Cardiac Catheterization Laboratories at the Seattle Children's Hospital since 1991. His work focuses on congenital and structural interventional cardiac catheterization. He has worked to pioneer several less invasive techniques to correct congenital heart conditions. He has participated as an investigator for most multicenter clinical trial in the U.S. evaluating devices and procedures designed for these patients. His research interests are now focusing on percutaneous heart valve implantation. He serves on numerous national committees and task forces promoting guidelines and practice standards for patients with congenital heart disease. Dr. Jones collaborates with emerging technology companies to develop and test new products designed to treat congenital and structural heart conditions.

Dr Amy Juraszek

Amy Juraszek received her MD from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, completed her pediatrics residency at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh and her pediatric cardiology fellowship at the Medical University of South Carolina. She studied cardiac pathology with the late Cora Lenox at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh and with Stella and Richard van Praagh in Boston. She has served as the Director of the Cardiac Registry at Children's Hospital Boston since 2003.

Dr Tom Karl

Dr. Tom R. Karl is currently a consultant pediatric cardiac surgeon in the Mater Children's Hospital, Brisbane, Australia. His cardiac training took place at Yale University (New Haven) and Great Ormond Street Hospital (London). Following training he held appointments at the Royal Children's Hospital (Melbourne), Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, and University of California (San Francisco). He has traveled extensively to provide and develop cardiac surgery in underserved areas of the world, as a team member of ICHF and with Ospedale San Donato (Milano). Karl's research interests include neurodevelopmental outcome studies and circulatory support in children.
He is a former associate editor of the Annals of Thoracic Surgery has been a World Congress Steering Committee for Toronto, Buenos Aires, and Cairns.

Dr Peter Karpawich

Peter Karpawich is a Pediatric Cardiologist and Professor of Pediatric Medicine, Wayne State University School of Medicine as well as Director of the Cardiac Electrophysiology and Pacemaker/ICD Programs at the Children's Hospital of Michigan in Detroit. His primary research interests have focused on cardiac pacemaker therapy delivery to children and patients with congenital cardiac defects. He is an internationally recognized lecturer in the fields of cardiac electrophysiology and pacemaker therapies and has served on multiple national and international cardiology committes and editorial boards. Peter has authored/co-authored over 200 combined textbooks, book chapters and scientific writings.

Dr Saibal Kar

Saibal Kar, MD, is an Interventional Cardiologist in the Cardiology Division of the Department of Medicine at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where he is also the Director of Interventional Cardiac Research. Dr. Kar has recently been promoted to Associate Professor at the David Geffen of School of Medicine at UCLA, California. He is an astute clinician and teacher; a skilled interventional cardiologist with a special expertise in Interventions of valvular and congenital heart disease; and a keen researcher focusing on development of newer devices and procedures.

Dr. Kar earned his medical degree from Nil Ratan Sircar Medical College in Calcutta, India. Following his internship, he completed his residency in Medicine and his fellowship in Cardiology at the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh, India. After serving for a short time as Assistant Professor at this institute, he began working as an Interventional Cardiology fellow at the Epworth Hospital in Melbourne, Australia. From this position, Dr. Kar came to the United States. He completed his Cardiology and Interventional Cardiology Fellowship in Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. In view of his academic merits and previous accomplishments, the American Board of Medicine gave special consideration to shorten his period of residency and fellowship. During this period he was recipient of the prestigious awards, Sherman Melinkoff Best Resident Teacher Award, and the Eliot Corday Outstanding Fellow awards.

Ms Ana Kennedy

I have been a nurse practitioner (NP) for 13 years both in the United States and in New Zealand, and it is a role I am extremely passionate about and find challenging and immensely rewarding. In 2005 I was the 15th NP registered in New Zealand and in 2008 I became the second person to be registered by the nursing council of New Zealand in two areas of practice, neonatal care and paediatric cardiac care. In 2006 I became the first paediatric NP at Starship Children's Health and I hope the success of my role in Paediatric and Congenital Cardiac Services (PCCS) provides the impetus to create more nurse practitioners roles within the children's hospital.

Prof Anne Keogh

Professor Anne Keogh MBBS MD FRACP is Joint Head of the Clinical Research Program in the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute in Sydney, Australia, and the Senior Cardiologist in Cardiac Transplantation. She completed her Medical Doctorate, University of New South Wales on "Clinical Aspects of Heart Transplantation" in 1989. Dr Keogh was awarded a Fullbright Scholarship in 1989 to work at Stanford University Hospital, Palo Alto, California.
She is currently Professor in Medicine at the University of New South Wales, Fellow of the Royal Australian College of Physicians, Assistant Editor of the Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation and reviews for an extensive number of international journals. Professor Keogh is a member and a Past President of the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation (ISHLT) as well as the Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand, Transplantation Society of Australia and New Zealand and an Honorary Member of the American Society of Transplant Physicians and the American Society of Transplant Surgeons. Her current research interests are cardiac failure, pulmonary arterial hypertension, heart transplantation, immunosuppression and alternatives to transplantation. She has published widely with more than 250 peer articles and 300 abstracts since 1984.

Dr Rob Kinsley

Dr Robin Kinsley is the founder and Director of the Walter Sisulu Paediatric Centre for Africa. Mr Nelson Mandela is it's patron. The Organisation's goals are 3 fold:The surgical treatment of children in Africa, the training of surgeons and cardiologists on the continent (to continue the work in their home countries) and to engage in the research of the very different pathologies and co morbidities that are encountered. The unit operates on about 800 children per year, approximately 25% without charge through donar funds.

Dr Joel Kirsh

After graduate training in Biomedical Engineering, Dr. Joel Kirsh finished roughly in the middle of his medical school class at the University of Toronto, then trained in Pediatrics and Pediatric Cardiology at the Hospital for Sick Children (Toronto), followed by a visiting Fellowship in Electrophysiology and Critical Care at Children's Hospital (Boston). He is currently Staff Cardiologist at the Hospital for Sick Children and Associate Professor of Paediatrics at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto.

Dr. Kirsh's professional interests include innovative catheter ablation methods (cryoablation), public access defibrillator programs, and the investigation of sudden unexplained deaths. He is the founder and medical director of Camp Oki, Canada's only summer camp for children with heart disease.

Dr Igor Konstantinov

Dr Konstantinov obtained MD in 1992 from the Military Medical Academy, St. Petersburg, Russia. He completed his training in Cardiothoracic Surgery in Europe and North America, including fellowships in paediatric and adult congenital cardiac surgery at the Mayo Clinic and the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. In 2004, he obtained PhD from the University of Toronto for the study in molecular mechanisms of the ischaemia-reperfusion injury. He is Clinical Professor of Surgery and Consultant Cardiothoracic Surgeon at the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne.

Dr Adrienne Kovacs

Dr. Adrienne Kovacs is a Clinical and Health Psychologist with the Toronto Congenital Cardiac Centre for Adults at the Peter Munk Cardiac Centre, University Health Network, in Toronto, Canada. She is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto. As a registered psychologist, Dr. Kovacs provides individual psychotherapy and group stress management to adults with cardiac conditions. Her research efforts are focused on the psychosocial and educational needs of adults with congenital heart disease.

Dr Krishna Kumar

Dr. Raman Krishna Kumar is presently at the Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences (AIMS), Cochin, India as professor and head of Pediatric Cardiology. He has helped establish AIMS as a leading pediatric cardiac program in the country today. His basic training was at the All India Institute in New Delhi and his pediatric cardiology fellowship training was at the Boston Children's Hospital. He practices both non-invasive and invasive cardiology and participates in intensive care. His primary research interests include epidemiology of pediatric heart disease and development of cost effective strategies for management of congenital heart disease in developing countries. He has been involved in educating pediatricians in India through numerous CME programs. He is one of the founder members of the pediatric cardiac society of India (PCSI) and has contributed substantially developing pediatric cardiology as a distinct specialty in India.

Dr Francois Lacour-Gayet

Dr. Lacour-Gayet is the Chairman of the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery at The Children's Hospital, Denver and the recipient of the Barton-Elliman Chair in Pediatric Cardiac Surgery. He is professor of Surgery at the University of Colorado School of medicine. He has been featured in more than 170 publications, performed cardiac surgeries in 21 countries, throughout Africa, Asia, and the Middle East and has served on surgical missions throughout the world. His department has received the Congenital Cardiac Fellowship Accreditation. He is pursuing active research projects on the Aristotle Score and a new artificial right ventricle for failing Fontan.

Dr Larry Latson

Larry Latson is a Professor of Pediatrics in the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine and Director of the Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory of the Center for Pediatric and Congenital Heart Diseases at the Cleveland Clinic. He trained at Baylor College of Medicine and is Board Certified in Pediatric Cardiology and Pediatric Critical Care. He has published numerous articles in the field of pediatric cardiology and adult congenital heart disease. He has wide-ranging interests in the field of interventional catheterization for congenital heart disease in patients ranging from the fetus to the elderly

A/Prof Ian LeGrice

My PhD research was a detailed investigation of the structure of ventricular myocardium in combination with computer modelling methods probing the relationship of that structure with electrical activation of the heart. My postdoctoral period was spent at the University of California, San Diego, investigating the relationship between myocardial structure and mechanical performance of the ventricular wall. Since my return from San Diego in 1994, I have taught and researched on the cardiovascular system. My research has continued to focus on the relationship between my cardiac structure and function in normal and diseased hearts. This work is carried out as part of a strong team of researchers in the Auckland Bioengineering Institute.

Dr Steve Lipshultz

Dr. Steven E. Lipshultz is Professor and Chairman of the Department of Pediatrics of the University of Miami Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine, as well as Professor of Public Health and Epidemiology and Professor of Medicine, and the Associate Executive Dean for Child Health also at the University of Miami School of Medicine. Dr. Lipshultz is the Chief of Staff of the Holtz Children's Hospital in Miami, Florida. He previously was at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry in Rochester, New York as a Professor of Pediatrics and of Oncology, and Associate Chair of Pediatrics for Planning. While in Rochester, Dr. Lipshultz was the Chief of the Division of Pediatric Cardiology at the University of Rochester Medical Center and at the Golisano Children's Hospital at Strong, as well as Director of the Children's Heart Center at Strong from 1996 to 2003. Dr. Lipshultz is a graduate of the Dartmouth Medical School. He completed a residency in pediatrics at Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital/Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine (Cleveland, OH) and a fellowship in pediatric cardiology at Children's Hospital/Harvard Medical School (Boston, MA), where he remained on faculty until 1997. His primary research interests are in the pediatric cardiomyopathies, especially those of genetic/metabolic, toxic (e.g., those associated with cancer and HIV therapy), or infections/inflammatory etiologies (e.g., viral and HIV) etiologies. Clinical research on determinants of outcome for children with cardiovascular disease has been a major focus of interest as well.

Dr James Lock

Dr. James Lock is Cardiologist-in-Chief, Chairman of the Department of Cardiology at Children's Hospital, and the Alexander S. Nadas Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Lock attended medical school at Stanford University, and pursued his pediatric residency and cardiology fellowship at the University of Minnesota. Thereafter, he trained in cardiovascular physiology for two years at the University of Toronto, Hospital for Sick Children. His original work on pulmonary vascular control served as the basis for awards and support from the American Heart Association (Established Investigator Award), the March of Dimes (Basil O'Connor Award), and National Institutes of Health (RO1 HL). Dr. Lock returned to Minnesota in 1980 and shifted his research focus to experimental interventional cardiology, providing most of the basic research in that field. In 1984, he joined Children's Hospital as Director of the Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory.

Dr. Lock has invented several cardiac catheterization devices, and has developed numerous nonsurgical procedures to improve care for children with complex heart disease. In September 1999, the CardioSEAL device developed by Dr. Lock and others became the first septal occlusion device to receive FDA approval for use inside the human heart. He is the president of Boston Children's Heart Foundation, the president of the Aldo Castaneda Foundation, and serves on the Board of Directors of the Children's Hospital, Children's Hospital Trust, and NMT Medical of Boston

During his research career, Dr. Lock has trained numerous academic physicians in cardiopulmonary physiology, experimental interventional cardiology, and clinical interventional cardiology. The earliest trainees are now becoming directors of pediatric cardiology divisions, cardiac catheterization laboratories, and intensive care units. He has authored several hundred peer-review manuscripts and two books, and serves on the editorial boards of Circulation, the American Journal of Cardiology and the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

Dr Leo Lopez

Leo Lopez is currently the Director of Pediatric Cardiac Noninvasive Imaging at the Children's Hospital at Montefiore in New York City and Associate Professor of Clinical Pediatrics at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He obtained his BA in Biophysics at the Johns Hopkins University and his MD at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. He trained as a pediatric resident and pediatric cardiology fellow at the Children's Hospital in Boston. Leo recently moved to New York City from Miami where he served as the Director of Noninvasive Imaging at the Congenital Heart Institute at Miami Children's Hospital and Arnold Palmer Children's Hospital in Orlando for nine years.

Dr Graeme MacLaren

Graeme MacLaren is the Director of Cardiothoracic Intensive Care at the National University Hospital of Singapore. He also works as a paediatric intensivist there and at the Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne, Australia. He is Assistant Professor of Surgery and Paediatrics at the National University of Singapore. His interests include cardiac intensive care in all age groups, extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, and nosocomial sepsis.

Dr Audrey Marshall

Audrey Marshall, M.D., 40, Associate Cardiologist, Children's Hospital Boston, Boston, MA, (617) 355-6529. Audrey has been a practicing physician for the past 14 years, and completed her training in pediatric cardiology in 2000. Her clinical role is based in the cardiac catheterization lab, where she performs nearly 200 therapeutic interventional procedures each year on children with congenital heart disease. She is also one of the founding members of the Boston Fetal Cardiac Interventional Program. Her current research activity is focused in two areas: the use of implantable devices in structural heart disease, and the development of equipment and techniques for fetal cardiac interventions. Her responsibilities also involve teaching individual trainees at all levels, from medical students to fellows in interventional pediatric catheterization. She regularly presents in hospital and department-based courses in cardiology, and lectures internationally on fetal cardiac catheterization. Audrey is an Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School, serves on the American College of Cardiology Women in Cardiology Committee, and on the Board of Directors of the Boston Children's Heart Foundation, the Ali Fund, and ACS Telescada. She has received numerous awards in the past including the CIMIT Johnson & Johnson Young Clinician Research Award, the NIH National Research Scholarship Award, and the American Medical Women's Association Scholarship Citation. Audrey has an M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania, and a B.A. summa cum laude from Yale University.

Dr Gerard Martin

Dr. Martin has been in practice at Children's National Medical Center since 1986. He earned his bachelor's degree in biology from Syracuse University in New York. He received his doctorate of medicine from SUNY-Upstate Medical Center. Dr. Martin completed both his internship in pediatrics and his residency at Rhode Island Hospital in Providence. After his residency, he was a research fellow in Pediatric Cardiology at the Cardiovascular Research Institute in San Francisco. He also has served as Chief of the Division of Cardiology, and the director of the Echocardiography Program and Cardiology Fellowship Training Program. Dr. Martin is a fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American College of Cardiology, and a member of the Society for Pediatric Research and the American Heart Association's Council on Cardiovascular Disease in the Young. He also serves on the American Board of Pediatrics sub-board in pediatric cardiology and is a member of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute's Cardiology Data and Safety Monitoring Board. Dr. Martin has more than 60 publications in the field of pediatric cardiology. He is an invited speaker nationally and internationally and is an acknowledged expert in the area of pediatric echocardiography and fetal cardiology. Additionally, Dr. Martin has been a volunteer on medical missions to third world countries.

Prof Thomas Marwick

Tom Marwick completed his medical degree at the University of Melbourne in 1981 and trained in Medicine and Cardiology in Brisbane and Sydney. After an Imaging Fellowship at the Cleveland Clinic, he undertook a PhD at the University of Louvain, Belgium. He held academic posts at the University of Louvain, Imperial College, London and Cleveland Clinic Foundation, USA, before returning to Australia as the Professor of Medicine at the Princess Alexandra Hospital, Brisbane in 1998. He is a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians, the Royal College of Physicians of London, the American College of Cardiology and the European Society of Cardiology. He has authored about 400 papers, 36 book chapters and 6 books in the field of cardiac imaging and particularly echocardiography. Dr Marwick is an Associate Editor of JACC-Imaging, and currently on the editorial boards of JACC, Circulation, American Journal of Medicine, Heart, American Heart Journal and the European Journal of Echocardiography. He has been an invited speaker at many major international Cardiology meetings over the last 10 years. With the support of the National Health and Medical Research Council, National Heart Foundation and other sources, he has established a significant Australian research group in the field of cardiac imaging.

Prof Bongani Mayosi

Bongani Mayosi is the Physician-in-Chief at Groote Schuur Hospital and Professor and Head of the Department of Medicine at the University of Cape Town. He qualified in medicine from the University of KwaZulu-Natal, and specialized in internal medicine and cardiology in Cape Town. He was the Nuffield Oxford Medical Fellow in Cardiovascular Medicine at the University of Oxford from 1998 to 2001. His research interests include the genetics of heart muscle disease (cardiomyopathy and cardiac hypertrophy), treatment of tuberculous pericarditis and the prevention of rheumatic fever. He is the President of the South African Heart Association.

Dr Roger Mee

Born 1944, Quetta, Pakistan. Educated in New Zealand. Graduated M.B.,Ch.B. in 1968 from Otago University, N.Z. Attained FRACS 1973. Cardiothoracic and vascular training at Green Lane Hospital, N.Z., 1974 to mid-1976. Chief resident, cardiothoracic surgery, Harvard Hospital Group, Boston, for one year. Then appointed to Peter Bent Brigham Hospital as staff surgeon, 1977-1978. Recruited to direct paediatric and congenital heart surgery, Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne, 1979, growing that service from 200 to 750 operations per year by 1987. Introduced ECMO and Paediatric VAD and established the National Paediatric and Heart/lung Transplant Centre 1988, based at R.C.H. Attained whole service, early surgical mortality of less than 2.5% by 1992, and less than 2% for neonatal biventricular repair by 1984. Recruited in 1993 to create facilities and a full service paediatric and congenital heart centre including transplantation at the Cleveland Clinic, Ohio. This new centre grew from 70 to 575 operations per year by 2000, with more than 50% of referrals from interstate or overseas. Appointed to the newly endowed Ronald and Helen Ross Chair of Paediatric and Congenital Heart Surgery 2004. The new centre achieved a 12.5 year average early mortality of 1.7%. Over the 26 years, these two services were assisted by many highly talented overseas fellows, many of whom have gone on to be leaders in this field.

Ms Kathy Mussatto

Ms Kathy Mussatto

PhD, RN, Research Manager, Herma Heart Center

Kathy Mussatto graduated from the College of Nursing at Northern Michigan University in 1986 and completed her doctor of philosophy in nursing at the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee in 2009. She has spent her nursing career in general pediatrics and pediatric critical care at the University of Michigan, University of Virginia, Medical Center Hospital of Vermont, and Children's Hospital of Wisconsin. She has been employed by the Herma Heart Center at Children's Hospital of Wisconsin since 1994 in the roles of cardiovascular nurse clinician, outcomes research coordinator and, since 2004, research manager.

Kathy's research interests include psychosocial outcomes for children and families living with pediatric heart disease including quality of life, neurodevelopment, child and family adjustment, parenting stress, and impact on healthy siblings. She actively works with several research teams and has collaborated on multiple projects with investigators from Children's Hospital of Wisconsin and elsewhere. She has authored more than 30 peer-reviewed papers, 6 book chapters and has delivered several invited lectures at national nursing and congenital heart disease conferences.

Kathy is passionate about promoting interdisciplinary research to improve outcomes for children
and families living with pediatric heart disease. She also loves to kayak, read, garden, and travel.

Dr Bruce Neal

Bruce Neal is a Senior Director at The George Institute for International Health, Professor of Medicine at the University of Sydney and Chair of the Australian Division of World Action on Salt and Health . Bruce completed his medical training at Bristol University in the UK in 1990 and spent four years in clinical posts. Prior to taking up his position at the Institute in 1999, he spent four years working as an epidemiologist at the Clinical Trials Research Unit in Auckland, New Zealand, where he completed his PhD in Medicine. Bruce directs a program of cardiovascular research at the Institute and is supported in his work by a Program Grant from the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia . Central to this program is his work on the effects of salt on ill health and he is a strong advocate for the development and implementation of national salt reduction programs in Australia and overseas. Bruce is a Fellow of the UK Royal College of Physicians and the American Heart Association . He is also a member of the Executive Council of the High Blood Pressure Research Council of Australia and the council of the International Society of Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology and Prevention.

Ms Fiona Newall

Fiona completed her undergraduate nursing training at Curtin University in Western Australia. In 1998, Fiona moved to Victoria and commenced working in the field of paediatric thrombosis and anticoagulation. Fiona established a nurse-coordinated anticoagulation service at the Royal Children's Hospital, the only one of its kind in Australia. She has extensive clinical research experience and has over 30 publications in peer-reviewed journals. Fiona has a Masters of Nursing by Research from the University of Melbourne, and is about to complete her PhD thesis, exploring the pharmacokinetics and monitoring of unfractionated heparin therapy in children, Fiona continues to work one day a week in her role of Anticoagulation Nurse Consultant at RCH.

Ms Pat O'Brien

A graduate of the University of Virginia, Pat has been an advanced practice nurse in pediatric cardiovascular nursing since 1982, first at UCLA and then at Children's Hospital, Boston since 1987. Currently, she is a nurse practitioner in pediatric cardiology in a collaborative practice with two cardiologists managing regional referrals for patients with congenital heart disease. She is a past president of the Society of Pediatric Cardiovascular Nurses (SPCN), a fellow in the American Heart Association and a member of the Pediatric Cardiovascular Nursing Committee of the AHA. She has published journal articles and book chapters on a variety of topics. She is an experienced speaker at national and international conferences. Professional interests include care of patients with single ventricle anatomy, feeding issues in infants with heart disease, developmental outcomes and anticoagulation management.

Dr Erwin Oechslin

Dr. Erwin Oechslin is the Director of the Toronto Congenital Cardiac Centre for Adults at the University Health Network, Toronto General Hospital. Dr. Oechslin's interests are patient-centred care, long-term outcome in congenital heart disease (CHD), and education. His research interests include long-term outcome and imaging in CHD, cyanotic congenital heart disease, non-compaction of the left ventricular myocardium, among others.

Dr. Oechslin graduated from the University of Zurich, Switzerland. After completion of his training in Internal Medicine and Adult Cardiology, he received additional training in Pediatric Cardiology at the Hospital for Sick Children in Zurich and completed a two year fellowship at the Toronto Congenital Cardiac Centre for Adults under the leadership of Dr. Gary Webb. After his return to Zurich in 1998, he established an Adult Congenital Heart Disease Program at the University Hospital in Zurich. In February 2006, he moved his practice to Toronto to take his current position as Director of the Toronto Congenital Cardiac Centre for Adults. He became an Associate Professor of the University of Toronto and a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada.

Dr. Oechslin was/is President of National and International Organizations: 2002-2004 President of the WG on Grown-Up Congenital Heart Disease of the European Society of Cardiology; 2004-2006 President of the Swiss WATCH (Working Group of Adults and Teenagers with Congenital Heart Disease), 2009- present President of the CACH Network (Canadian Adult Congenital Heart Disease Network). He was also Treasurer of the International Society for Adult Congenital Heart Disease (2002-2004).

Dr David Overman

Dr. Overman is a native of Minnesota. After receiving a Bachelor of Science at Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon, Dr. Overman attended medical school at The University of Minnesota. He completed a general surgery residency at Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis and then a thoracic surgery residency as well as a vascular surgery fellowship at Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center in Chicago, Illinois. Dr. Overman also completed a pediatric cardiac surgery fellowship at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Ontario Canada. He joined the Children's Heart Clinic in 1996 and currently serves as the President of the practice.
Dr. Overman is board certified in cardiothoracic surgery and general surgery. He is Chief of the Division of Cardiovascular Surgery, Cardiac liaison for the ECMO Program, and Director of Perfusion Services at Children's Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota. He served on the Board of Directors of Children's Hospitals and Clinics and is currently on several clinical committees.
Dr. Overman is a member of the Congenital Heart Surgeons' Society, Society of Thoracic Surgeons, Midwest Pediatric Cardiology Society, Twin Cities Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgical Society, Minneapolis Surgical Society, University of Toronto Surgical Alumni Society, Rush Surgical Society, and the Hitchcock Surgical Society. He is also a member of the American Medical Association, the Minnesota Medical Association and the Hennepin County Medical Society. He is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons and the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Dr Alejandro Peirone

Assistant Professor in Pediatric Cardiology Departament of Pediatric Cardiology Children´s Hospital of Cordoba Argentina.
Former Interventional and Pediatric Cardiology Fellow at The Hospital for Sick Children, University of Toronto, Canada.
Chief Pediatric Cardiology Section, Hospital Privado of Cordoba.

Dr Ivan Rebeyka

Dr. Rebeyka graduated from the University of Saskatchewan in 1979. Following surgical residency training in General Surgery at the University of Saskatchewan and Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery at the University of Toronto, he was a Heart Foundation Research Fellow at the Banting Institute in Toronto and an RS McLaughlin Fellow in Cardiovascular Research at the Medical College of Virginia. He was a staff cardiovascular surgeon at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto and a Research Scholar of the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario from 1989 through 1996, when he joined the staff at the University of Alberta.

Dr. Rebeyka=s major clinical interest is congenital cardiovascular surgery. His research grants are in the areas of neonatal myocardial protection, fetal cardiac surgery and pulmonary vascular development.

Prof Andrew Redington

Prof Andrew Redington

Dr Redington's research interests include ventricular function, integrated physiology of congenital heart disease, and the pathophysiology of late postoperative functional decline. Currently he heads a Leducq Transatlantic Research Network of Excellence investigating the biology of remote ischemic preconditioning. He has written more than 250 peer reviewed publications, more than 20 book chapters, and has co-edited seven textbooks. He is the editor of the congenital heart disease section of Current Medical Literature, and serves on the editorial boards of the Cardiology in the Young and Heart and Vessels.

Dr Redington graduated from the University of London in 1981. He obtained his MRCP (UK) in Internal Medicine in 1984. In 1986 he was awarded a British Heart Foundation Research Scholarship and subsequently received his Doctorate of Medicine in 1988 (UK). He was appointed Consultant Paediatric Cardiologist at the Royal Brompton Hospital, London in 1990, became a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians (UK) in 1994, and became a full professor in the University of London in
1995. In 1998, he transferred his clinical practice and research team to Great Ormond Street Hospital in London. He moved to Canada in August 2001, to take the position of Head of Cardiology at The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto.

Dr David Rosenthal

David Rosenthal is the director of the Pediatric Advanced Therapies Program at Lucile Salter Packard Children's Hospital in Palo Alto, CA, and an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Stanford University. He received his medical training at Albert Einstein School of Medicine, followed by clinical training in pediatrics at Babies Hospital at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center, followed by pediatric fellowship training at Yale University. His research interests include advanced pediatric heart failure therapies, specifically ventricular assist device therapy and its ramifications. He also is interested in the management of right ventricular heart failure, and the development of therapies for this disease state.

Dr Lewis Rubin

Lewis Rubin, MD, FACP, FCCP, FAHA, FRCP, is Professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of California in San Diego, USA. Professor Rubin earned his medical degree from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York, and completed a residency and fellowship (1975-1979) at Duke University Medical School. He has since had a distinguished career, being involved in the basic and clinical investigation of pulmonary vascular diseases for almost 30 years.
He is co-author of nearly 200 peer-reviewed publications, more than 60 book chapters, and editor of five books on pulmonary circulation. Professor Rubin is the Senior Consulting Editor for the Journal of the American College of Cardiology and serves on the editorial boards of the Annals of Internal Medicine and the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine; he is also on the review boards of over 20 additional scientific journals. He has served as the Principal Investigator/Steering Committee Chair for the pivotal trials of epoprostenol, treprostinil and bosentan, and on the Steering Committee for the pivotal trials of iloprost, sildenafil and ambrisentan in pulmonary hypertension. He has received numerous honours and awards, including being named an Honorary Fellow by the Royal College of Physicians, United Kingdom.

Dr Carlos Ruiz

A highly experienced cardiac and peripheral interventionalist, Dr. Ruiz is internationally celebrated for his pioneering work in percutaneous mitral valvulopasty, and for continued groundbreaking developments in the field of structural heart interventions including percutaneous aortic and pulmonary valve replacement and mitral valve repair. Dr. Ruiz leaved his position as Chairman of Pediatric Cardiology at the University of Illinois to become Director of the Structural and Congenital Heart Disease program and the newly developed Neuro-Vascular Interventional clinic of the Interventional Cardiology Department at Lenox Hill Hospital of New York. Dr. Ruiz is a Fellow of the American College of Cardiology (FACC), the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions (FSCAI) and the European Society of Cardiology (FESC).

Dr Ricardo Samson

Dr. Ricardo Samson is Chief of the Cardiology Section and Professor of Pediatrics at The University of Arizona. He attended medical school at the University of Michigan, completed residency at The University of Arizona and fellowships in pediatric cardiology at the University of Iowa and pediatric electrophysiology at Northwestern University. Dr. Samson's research interests have focused on resuscitation and, in particular, ventricular fibrillation and defibrillation in pediatric patients. He has served on the Pediatric Resuscitation committee of the American Heart Association and has helped to formulate guidelines for Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS).

Mr Geoff Sartori

Geoff Sartori was appointed Principal Safety Adviser for the Qantas Group in December 2008, having previously held the role of Group General Manager of Group Safety since 2003, a role which was responsible for providing world class Safety Management Systems including all aspects of safety, quality, compliance and risk to the Qantas Group. In addition, his responsibilities covered providing assurance to the Qantas Board, CEO and Executive Management that the Safety Management Systems of all group businesses were managed to a level that meets best practice.

Geoff has held numerous roles in Operational and Safety Management. Between 1996 and 1999, he was the Flight Standards Manager on the Boeing 767 prior to commencing in Qantas Safety.

Captain Sartori joined TAA in Melbourne in 1970 and in his early career held a variety of management roles in the Flight Operations divisions of TAA which later became Australian Airlines. Geoff has been a Check Airman on Douglas DC9, Boeing 727, Boeing 737 Airbus A300 and Boeing 767.

He is involved in industry groups, such as the IATA Safety Group, Flight Safety Foundation International Advisory Committee, the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines and has been involved in projects such as the Fatigue Risk Project out of the Centre for Sleep Research Centre at the University of South Australia.

Geoff has an Advanced Master of Business Administration Degree from the University of Queensland, is a qualified Lead Auditor and has completed the Cranfield University Accident Investigation Course. Geoff has also completed a Diploma course from the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Dr Ehrenfried Schindler

Dr. Ehrenfried Schindler is Head of the Department of Pediatric Anesthesiology and Medical Director of the Asklepios Klinik Sankt Augustin, Germany. Sankt Augustin is one of the biggest pediatric hospitals in Germany with all surgical and non-surgical faculties according to pediatrics. Affiliated to the children´s hospital is the German Congenital Cardiac Centre which is one of the outstanding pediatric cardiac surgical departments in Germany too. The main interest of Dr. Schindler is pediatric cardiac anesthesiology. He has been invited lecturer and visiting doctor all over the world. He has published more than 70 original articles, some book chapters and is ad-hoc reviewer in two major peer-reviewed journals.
Dr. Schindler received his training in the faculty of anesthesiology at the University of Giessen, where he found his love to cardiac anesthesiology nearly 20 years ago. He has four children, all boys which is hobby enough.

Dr Lara Shekerdemian

Lara Shekerdemian is the Director of Intensive Care at The Royal Children's Hospital Melbourne, Australia; and Associate Professor, Department of Paediatrics, University of Melbourne. Lara trained in the UK and Toronto, and was a Consultant at Great Ormond Street Hospital, London before coming to Melbourne in 2001. Her clinical and research interests are in brain injury in infants with congenital heart disease, peri-operative manipulation of the circulation, and extracorporeal support.

Dr Horst Sievert

Dr. Horst Sievert is the Director of the CardioVascular Center Frankfurt, Sankt Katharinen, and the Department of Internal Medicine, Cardiology and Vascular Medicine of the Sankt Katharinen Hospital in Frankfurt, Germany. He is also an Associate Professor of Internal Medicine/Cardiology at the University of Frankfurt and works part-time at the Washington Hospital Center in Washington DC, USA.

Dr. Sievert received his medical degree at the University Frankfurt, Germany. After training in internal medicine, nephrology and intensive care medicine, he completed a fellowship in cardiology and vascular medicine under the direction of Dr. Martin Kaltenbach. He became Director of the Department of Interventional Cardiology and Angiology of the Heart Center Rotenburg in 1990, Senior Consultant at the Bethanien Hospital in Frankfurt in 1993 and Director of the CardioVascular Center Frankfurt, Sankt Katharinen in 2003.

He has been the PI of a number of clinical trials and has authored more than 140 manuscripts and 600 abstracts in peer reviewed journals, 80 books and book contributions. He has also delivered more than 800 invited lectures around the world. Dr. Sievert has personally performed more than 25,000 PCIs and 8,000 peripheral angioplasties. However, his activity in the cath lab is focused on highly specialized non-coronary interventions for patients with congenital, structural and valvular heart disease including percutaneous valve implantation and valve repair as well as peripheral diseases like carotid disease or aortic aneurysms among other conditions. Dr Sievert was the first to close the left atrial appendage percutaneously. He has the largest experience worldwide in catheter closure of heart defects in adults and gets referrals from all over the world.

Dr Candice Silversides

Dr. Candice Silversides is an adult Cardiologist who specializes in adult congenital heart disease, pregnancy and heart disease and echocardiography. She has a Master of Science in Epidemiology from the Harvard School of Public Health. She is director of research at the Toronto Congenital Cardiac Centre for Adults (Toronto General Hospital, Toronto, Canada) and works as a consultant in the Pregnancy and Heart Disease Program (University Health Network and Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto, Canada). She is vice president of the Canadian Adult Congenital Heart Network and medical advisor to the Canadian Congenital Heart Alliance. Her research interests include congenital heart disease and pregnancy and heart disease.

Prof Pippa Simpson

Pippa M. Simpson is a Professor of Pediatrics at the Medical College of Wisconsin with an adjunct appointment in the Department of Biostatistics. Dr. Simpson is a Biostatistician at the MCW CTSI (Clinical Translational Science Institute). She is the Director of Quantitative Health Sciences, which is a pediatric biostatistical group that supports all research on the pediatric campus.
Through her over 20 years of experience doing research consulting, she has actively helped faculty and fellows learn to develop research proposals and worked with them in a mentorship role, as well as providing a consulting service. With her MSC in Computing Science, Dr. Simpson also provides data management help. She has extensive experience and publications (over 119) covering bench, animal clinical community and outcomes studies. She has collaborated and assisted in the design and analysis of studies in asthma and allergy, as well as other fields such as community interventions, pharmacogenetics, gen expression, genetics, cardiology, and gastroenterology.

Dr Jon Skinner

Jon Skinner is paediatric cardiologist at the Green Lane Children's Heart Unit at Starship hospital, Auckland, New Zealand, and honorary associate Professor at Auckland University department of child health. He runs the arrhythmia service for children and adults with congenital heart disease for New Zealand. He chairs the Cure Kids sponsored "CIDG"- cardiac inherited Diseases Group (www.CIDG.org), and TRAGADY- the Trans Tasman Response Against sudden Death in the young. These are multidisciplinary teams of clinicians and scientists aiming to reduce sudden death in the young. He has authored 60 peer reviewed scientific articles, one text book and five chapters.

Ms Felicity Sloman

Felicity Sloman R.N., Grad Dip Ad Hlth has spent the past four years focusing on assisting hospitals in Melbourne and Toronto to develop solutions to issues related to the Transition. At the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne she facilitated a project (2004-2007) to develop efficient and effective pathways out of paediatric services and into adult health services for young adults with chronic health conditions, including cardiac conditions. Her most recent position at Bloorview Kids Rehab, Toronto, focused not only on the transfer process but also the long term preparation of the young adult and their family, essential for a smooth transition. This model is known as the LIFEspan model and Felicity returned to Australia in 2008 to implement this model here.

Ms Heather Spinetto

Heather completed the Royal Children's Hospital paediatric course 29 years ago and since that time has worked in paediatric cardiology in both Australia and New Zealand. She has seen many changes over the years in both surgical innovations and also in nursing management of these babies and children.
She now works as a Nurse Specialist in the Paediatric Cardiac Service at Starship Children's Hospital in Auckland, New Zealand being the link between families and Health professionals with this national service.
Special interests include the Fetal service; following these mothers through the pregnancy, ward and into the community, and the home monitoring INR programme for over 200 children throughout New Zealand.

Professor Kate Steinbeck

Director of the Metabolism & Obesity Services at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital.Specific clinical expertise in child and adolescent obesity, Prader-Willi syndrome and other genetic obesity syndromes and hypothalamic obesity. Research areas include the management of child and adolescent obesity, and appetite control and co-morbidity management in the Prader-Willi syndrome. A member of the Metabolism & Obesity Clinical Trials Centre with expertise in clinical trials of anti-obesity agents.
Past president of the Australasian Society for the Study of Obesity and on a number of Committees for the International Association for the Study of Obesity. Member of the NH&MRC Working Party that produced Clinical Guidelines for the Management of Obesity and Overweight.
Paediatric Associate Editor of the International Journal of Obesity and Associate Editor for the International Journal of Pediatric Obesity. On the Executive of the Australian Child and Adolescent Obesity Research Network.

Prof Avraham Steinberg

Rabbi Professor Avraham Steinberg is currently the Director of the Medical Ethics Unit and Senior Pediatric Neurologist and at the Shaare Zedek Medical Center, Jerusalem, Israel & Director of Yad Harav Herzog Institute, and head of the editorial board of the Talmudic Encyclopedia.
He was born in 1947, in a displaced persons camp in Hof, Germany. With his parents he came to Israel at the age of 2 years.
Rabbi Prof. Steinberg studied in a Rabbinic Academy (Merkas Harav Yeshivah) in Jerusalem. He went on to study medicine in the Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical School and trained as a pediatrician in Jerusalem. He continued as a fellow in pediatric neurology in New York.
He served in the Israeli air force as a physician.
Rabbi Prof. Steinberg was the first director of the Schlesinger Institute for Medico-Halakhic Research at Shaare Zedek Medical Center, and the founder and first editor of the quarterly "Assia" devoted to issues in medicine and halakha. He is one of the founders of the Israeli Society of Medicine and Law and the Israeli Society of Medical Ethics.
He is Clinical Associate Professor in Medical ethics at the Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical School, and served as the Director of the Medical Ethics Center of the Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical School.
Prof. Steinberg published numerous articles and books in the fields of Jewish medical ethics, general medical ethics, pediatric neurology and the history of medicine.
His major work is the 7-volume Encyclopedia of Jewish Law and Medicine (in
Hebrew) for which he received the most prestigious Israel Prize in 1999.
This work was translated into English by Prof. Fred Rosner - "Encyclopedia of Jewish Medical Ethics".

Rabbi Prof. Steinberg serves as an advisor in medical issues to the most prominent and authoritative Rabbis.
He also serves as a chairman or member in many public committees, such as the Dying Patient Act, The Respiratory-Brain Death Act, Organ Transplantation Act and others.

Dr Elizabeth Stephenson

Dr. Elizabeth Stephenson received her MD from Columbia University in New York, and did her medical residency and fellowships at Children's Hospital, Boston, in association with Harvard Medical School. Dr. Stephenson holds the position of staff cardiologist at The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto in 2003, and is an assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of Toronto. She continued her education by taking a master's degree in Clinical Epidemiology at the University of Toronto, which she completed in 2007. She currently holds positions in the Cardiology department, with the Research Ethics Board, and at the Research Institute. Dr. Stephenson's clinical activities are focused in electrophysiology and pacing, with research interests specifically in cardiac resynchronization therapy and defibrillator therapy.

Dr Neil Street

Full time staff specialist anaesthetist at CHW which is located in western Sydney. CHW delivers approximately 14,000 general anaestheic per year for all surgical specialties including approximately 450 to 500 cardiac procedures. I have been involved with the cardiac service since the hospital moved to Westmead some 14 years ago. I am also the head of the Malignant Hyperthermia testing and information unit based with CHW that services the population of New south Wales and Queensland. My anaesthesia time - interests, is split between cardiothoracic surgery, spinal surgery and malignant hyperthermia testing.

Dr Graham Stuart

Dr Graham Stuart is a Consultant Cardiologist at the Bristol Congenital Heart Centre and Bristol Heart Institute, England. He is Director of the Congenital Heart Arrhythmia and Electrophysiology Service ( children and adults with congenital heart disease). Dr Stuart's main clinical and research interests include the cardiac genetic conditions, heart disease in pregnancy and sports cardiology. Dr Stuart is a member of the Executive Board of the Arrhythmia Alliance. He is also Medical Director of Sports Cardiology UK which specialises in the cardiovascular evaluation of the recreational and elite athlete.

Dr Sarah Tabbutt

Dr Tabbutt received her PhD from the University of California, Berkeley. She did her medical and pediatric training at the University of California, San Diego. She completed fellowships in Cardiology and Critical Care Medicine at Boston Children's Hospital and then joined the faculty at the University of Pennsylvania where she was the director of the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia from 2002 through 2008. Her interests are clinical trials and outcomes of infants following neonatal heart surgery, with a special interest in patients with hypoplastic left heart syndrome.

Ms Mary Tallon

RN - Richmond Hospital Dublin 1983. RM - Princess Alexandra Hospital, Harlow, Essex 1985. Post Graduate Paediatric nursing National Children's Hospital, Dublin 1988. Bachelor of Nursing Degree ECU, Perth WA. Roles, included Registered Nurse and Midwife and Clinical Nurse Specialist for Cardiology Neurology in the paediatric setting.

Appointed Cardiac Liaison Nurse in August 1998 reclassified to Clinical Nurse Consultant 2004. Central to the family centered care role is the development of a parental knowledge and understanding promoting healthy parental choices long term. Supporting families through the diagnostic and possible surgical process is integral, along with the maintenance of a surgical database that allows ongoing evaluation of the service. A commitment to nursing education includes contribution at graduate and postgraduate level for registered nurses in the Paediatric, Neonatal, Intensive Care and Midwifery environment.

Research and presentations to date include a review of the rheumatic fever experience at PMH, (3rd World Conference for Paediatric Cardiology and Cardiothoracic surgery in Toronto 2001), a commitment to bereavement care with the initiation of a biannual family gathering for bereaved families in honour and memory of children who have lost their battle with heart disease (4th World Conference for Paediatric Cardiology and Cardiothoracic surgery Buenos Aires 2005) and as at West Australian Neonatal Annual Conference - Keynote address - "Together in isolation: A review of paediatric cardiothoracic surgery Western Australia 1986-2005" Convention Centre Perth, April 2006.

Dr Andrew Taylor

Dr. Andrew Taylor is a Reader & Honorary Consultant in Cardiovascular Imaging. His research interests are cardiovascular MR and CT, congenital heart disease, cardiac physiology, cardiovascular modelling. His methods include Computational modeling, Computerised tomography, Image analysis, Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), MRI and his education interests are training in cardiovascular imaging.

Dr Jeff Towbin

Jeffrey A. Towbin, M.D. is Executive Co-Director of the Heart Institute and Professor and Chief of Pediatric Cardiology at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center and the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. Dr. Towbin's clinical expertise is in Pediatric Cardiomyopathy and Heart Failure, Clinical Cardiovascular Genetics, and Cardiac Transplantation with research interests including the genetic basis and mechanisms responsible for cardiomyopathies, arrhythmia disorders and congenital heart disease, as well as the causes and mechanisms for inflammatory heart disease. He has published over 350 peer-reviewed manuscripts, over 70 book chapters, has edited two books, and is well funded. Based on his work, Dr. Towbin has received many awards and honors.

Ms Rebecca Tracey

Rebecca Tracey is a Clinical Nurse Consultant in the ICU Liaison nurse program at the Royal Children's Hospital (RCH), Melbourne. She has worked at the RCH for the last ten years holding various roles; some of which include Paediatric Emergency Transport Nurse and ECLS specialist. Throughout this time Rebecca has completed Postgraduate diplomas in Advanced Clinical Nursing- Child health and Paediatric Critical Care. She is currently completing her Masters in Public Health, Program Evaluation.

Dr James Tweddell

I am currently Professor of Surgery (Cardiothoracic) and Pediatrics, as well as Chief of the Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery, at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee.
My research has focused on the care of the neonate before and after complex congenital heart surgery. My colleagues and I at the Children's Hospital of Wisconsin have strived to develop reliable and reproducible evidence based perioperative management strategies to improve survival and developmental outcomes. Our work has included the use of novel monitoring techniques such as continuous venous oximetry and near infrared spectroscopy to assess oxygen delivery during the perioperative period in the high-risk neonate. In addition we have developed a home monitoring program to limit mortality of these same high-risk infants during the early months of life.

Dr Gerald Tulzer

Graduated from University of Vienna, Austria,1983, training in general medicine and pediatrics at Children's Hospital of Linz, Austria until 1989.
1989 - 1991: Training in Pediatric Cardiology at the CHOP - Phildadelphia" University of Pennsylvania, USA
1993 Head of the Department of Pediatric Cardiology at the Children's Hospital of Linz,
1995 Head of the Children's Heart Centre Linz, Austria.
1994 Ph.D. degree (Habilitation) at the University of Vienna
1998-2002: Secretary of the Fetal Cardiology Working Group within AEPC (Association of European Pediatric Cardiologists)
2003 - 2007: President of the Fetal Cardiology Working Group with AEPC
2006 - 2008: Member of the AEPC Council

Prof Pascal R. Vouhe M.D.

Prof Pascal R. Vouhe M.D.

Prof. Vouhe is a pediatric cardiac surgeon at Hospital Necker for Sick Children (Hôpital Necker Enfants-Malades) in Paris. He has been a leading figure in Europe, in the field of surgery for congenital heart disease, over the past twenty years and is a member of council of the European Association of Cardio-thoracic Surgeons and of the Francis Fontan Prize committee.

He is the author / co-author of several hundred papers over the past three decades.

Dr Paul Weinberg

Paul M. Weinberg, M.D. is Professor of Pediatrics and Pediatric Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. He is a senior physician and Director of the Pediatric Cardiology Fellowship Program. An expert on the morphology of congenital heart disease, he is frequently sought as a lecturer in the U.S. and internationally and has contributed to major pediatric cardiology texts. He graduated from Jefferson Medical College and did his pediatric residency and cardiology fellowship at CHOP under the tutelage of Dr. William Rashkind. He also completed a fellowship in cardiac pathology at Boston Children's Hospital and Harvard Medical School under the mentorship of Drs. Richard and Stella Van Praagh. Dr. Weinberg is the recipient of the Blockley-Osler Award (1998) for bedside teaching, CHOP Faculty Teacher of the Year (1999), Jefferson Medical College Alumni Achievement Award (2003), and the Robert Dunning Dripps Graduate Medical Education Award (2009) from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. Since 2003 Dr. Weinberg has been one of two cardiac morphologists on the Nomenclature Working Group of the International Nomenclature Committee for Paediatric and Congenital Heart Disease.

Dr Gil Wernovsky

Dr Gil Wernovsky

Dr. Gil Wernovsky is the Director of Program Development at The Cardiac Center at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, and the Medical Director of the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit. Dr. Wernovsky's clinical interests are primarily in inpatient care; particularly of newborns and infants with critical congenital heart disease. He has been an invited lecturer and visiting professor throughout the world, has co-edited four textbooks, and published nearly 200 chapters and articles in peer-reviewed journals.

Dr. Wernovsky's undergraduate degrees were in Anthropology and Music, from Brandeis University in 1978. While in college, he was a member of the "Live Music Band" whose 3 year career included touring throughout New England and was the opening act for George Benson in 1977. He has performed solo piano works on NPR in Boston, and has kept music as an important part of his life
since the age of 7.

Dr. Wernovsky received his medical training at the Pennsylvania State University, and his Pediatric training at the New York Hospital. He completed additional training in pediatric cardiology and critical care medicine at Boston Children's Hospital, and has been on the faculty at the University Of Pennsylvania School Of Medicine and a member of the pediatric cardiology division at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia since 1995.

Dr Trevor Williams

Present position: Clinical Director of The Department of Allergy, Immunology and Respiratory Medicine, The Alfred Hospital and Honorary Professor at Monash University in Melbourne.

Trevor Williams is a Melbourne trained Respiratory Physician who was a Clinical Research Fellow for the Toronto Lung Transplant Program. Upon his return to Melbourne he helped establish The Alfred Hospital Lung Transplant Program, which in the ensuing 18 years has performed over 650 lung transplant procedures. His main clinical research interests are in the area of severe lung diseases including lung transplantation- particularly immunopathology of chronic rejection, pulmonary hypertension, exercise limitation in severe lung disease and development of novel bronchoscopic approaches to emphysema. He has been a principal investigator on several Phase 1, 2 and 3 clinical trials of pharmacological and non pharmacological therapies for COPD. He serves as a reviewer for all major international respiratory medicine journals. His work has produced over 150 peer review publications, book chapters or reviews.

Dr Evan Zahn

Dr. Zahn currently serves as Director of Cardiology for the Congenital Heart Institute at Miami Children's and Arnold Palmer Children's Hospitals and Head of the Catheterization and Interventional program at Miami Children's Hospital. Dr. Zahn earned his medical degree at New York Medical College where he graduated with honors and completed his pediatric training at the University of Colorado, Denver. He received his pediatric cardiology and interventional catheterization training at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. Under Dr. Zahn's guidance, MCH has become a world recognized leader in the field of pediatric interventional cardiology and is credited with assisting in the development and implementation of several innovative approaches for the treatment of congenital heart disease.