Invited Speakers

Dr Sana Al-Khatib
Professor of Medicine at Duke University Medical Center

Dr. Sana M. Al-Khatib is a tenured Professor of Medicine at Duke University Medical Center, a board-certified clinical electrophysiologist and an experienced clinical researcher in cardiac arrhythmias.  As a graduate of the NIH-funded Clinical Research Training Program, she is one of a few electrophysiologists nationwide with expertise in quantitative research methods. Her clinical expertise is in sudden cardiac death prevention, atrial fibrillation and ventricular arrhythmias, and implantable cardiac devices.  Dr. Al-Khatib serves on multiple national committees including the Heart Rhythm Society Board of Trustees, the Heart Rhythm Society Health Policy committee, the Heart Rhythm Society Legislative subcommittee, the Heart Rhythm Society Program Planning committee, the American College of Cardiology ICD Registry Steering committee, and the National Quality Forum Cardiovascular Steering committee.

Professor Ben Freedman OAM
Deputy Director of Cardiovascular Research at Sydney’s Heart Research Institute, and Honorary Professor of Cardiology at the Charles Perkins Centre, University of Sydney

Ben Freedman is Deputy Director Cardiovascular Research at Sydney’s Heart Research Institute, Honorary Professor of Cardiology at the Charles Perkins Centre, University of Sydney, and former head of Department of Cardiology Concord Hospital. He is also Adjunct Professor at Monash University, Honorary Professorial Fellow University of Melbourne and Visiting Professor and Lui Che Woo Distinguished Professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.   He was Deputy Dean of Medicine at the University of Sydney between 2003-12. His major research interest is stroke prevention in atrial fibrillation. In 2015 he formed the AF-SCREEN International Collaboration with 5 others. It now has 180 members from 36 countries. He co-chaired the 2020 World Heart Federation’s AF-Roadmap update. In 2002 he was scientific chairman of the successful World Congress of Cardiology. In 2011 he was awarded the Order of Australia Medal for service to medicine as a clinician, educator and researcher.

Professor Peter Kistler
Head of electrophysiology at the Alfred Hospital and Head of Clinical Electrophysiology research at the Baker Heart Institute in Melbourne

Professor Peter Kistler is a clinician cardiologist and electrophysiologist and an international leader in the treatment of heart rhythm disorders. He is the Head of electrophysiology at the Alfred Hospital and Head of Clinical Electrophysiology research at the Baker Heart Institute in Melbourne. He is a Professor in the department of Medicine at the University of Melbourne and Monash Universities. Peter has made a substantial contribution to the field of atrial arrhythmias with 210 publications, 6467 citations and has supervised 15 PhD students. He was the senior author of the first randomized study defining the role of alcohol abstinence in atrial fibrillation published in NEJM in 2020. Peter was awarded the prestigious RT Hall Prize from CSANZ in 2020 for excellence in cardiac research. He is an invited speaker at the American Heart Association, Heart Rhythm Society (USA) and Asia-Pacific Heart Rhythm Society. He is the current Chair of the Cardiac Society Australia New Zealand AF ablation guidelines and was a member of the National Heart Foundation Heart Failure Guidelines 2018.

Professor Alistair Royse
Cardiothoracic Surgeon at the University of Melbourne and Royal Melbourne Hospital

Alistair is a cardiothoracic surgeon at the University of Melbourne and the Royal Melbourne Hospital and has an interesting arterial coronary surgery, pacing and clinical ultrasound. He was the Australian principal investigator for the LAAOS-III trial which randomised patients to receive surgical occlusion of the left atrial appendage has a concomitant procedure during other cardiac surgical operations.

At the University of Melbourne he maintains an active research program, and has more than 230 peer-reviewed publications. He is also the director of e-learning technologies and ultrasound education groups for the Melbourne Medical School, and has created a large online education platform which has delivered 19,000 courses in 2020.

Professor Prash Sanders
Director of the Centre for Heart Rhythm Disorders at the University of Adelaide, and Director of Cardiac Electrophysiology and Pacing at the Royal Adelaide Hospital

Professor Sanders is a clinical academic based at the University of Adelaide, Royal Adelaide Hospital and the South Australian Health and Medical Research Insititute. He is the Director of the Centre for Heart Rhythm Disorders at the University of Adelaide; Director of Cardiac Electrophysiology and Pacing at the Royal Adelaide Hospital; and the Group Leader for Heart Rhythm Disorders at SAHMRI.
Professor Sanders holds the Knapman – NHF Chair of Cardiology Research and is supported by a Practitioner Fellowship from the NHMRC.

Dr Deepak L. Bhatt
Executive Director of Interventional Cardiovascular Programs at Brigham and Women’s Hospital

Deepak L. Bhatt MD, MPH, is Executive Director of Interventional Cardiovascular Programs at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Bhatt has over 1600 publications and has been listed by the Web of Science as a Highly Cited Researcher. He is the Editor of the peer-reviewed Journal of Invasive Cardiology and Editor-in-Chief of the Harvard Heart Letter for patients. He received the Eugene Braunwald Teaching Award for Excellence in the Teaching of Clinical Cardiology from Brigham and Women’s Hospital in 2017, ACC’s Distinguished Mentor Award in 2018, and AHA’s Distinguished Scientist Award in 2019.

Professor Derek Chew
Regional Head of Cardiology for the Adelaide Health Service (Southern Region), Head of the Flinders Clinical Trial Centre, and Chair of the Statewide Cardiology Clinical Network

Derek Chew is a clinical and interventional cardiologist as well as a clinical trialist and outcomes researcher in cardiovascular medicine. He has completed a Masters of Public Health at the Harvard School of Public Health in quantitative methods. He is a Senior Principal Research Fellow in Cardiovascular Outcomes Research, and is the Regional Head of Cardiology for the Adelaide Health Service (Southern Region). Derek is the Head of the Flinders Clinical Trial Centre, and Chair of the Statewide Cardiology Clinical Network. His clinical and research career is centred on the translation of current and future therapies and technologies in cardiology to improved patient outcomes in a clinically effective manner.

Professor Jason Kovacic
Chief Executive Director of the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute

Jason Kovacic graduated from The University of Melbourne Medical School in 1994, and then undertook residency and cardiology specialty training at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney. Jason then completed a PhD at the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute, before relocating to the USA, to the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland. At the NIH, Jason undertook a 2 year postdoctoral fellowship with the then Director of the NHLBI, Dr. Elizabeth Nabel. In 2009 Jason moved to Mount Sinai in New York. As a physician-scientist and investigator at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Jason established a cardiovascular research laboratory with a strong interest in the cellular, molecular and genetic mechanisms underlying cardiovascular disease. He also established a large clinical practice as an interventional and clinical cardiologist. Major career achievements include successful investigator-initiated clinical studies of cardiovascular progenitor cell therapy, molecular characterization of a novel vascular progenitor cell population, unravelling the pathobiology of fibromuscular dysplasia and spontaneous coronary artery dissection, numerous basic and translational studies on the biology and manifestations of atherosclerosis, and pioneering studies regarding the role of endothelial to mesenchymal transition (EndMT) in adult vascular biology and disease.

In early 2020 Jason was recruited to return Australia, and to take on the role of the Executive Director of the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute. In this role, he leads one of the world’s leading Cardiovascular Research Institutes. Jason has now established his research program at the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute, where he continues his focus on cardiac and vascular diseases, including fibromuscular dysplasia and spontaneous coronary artery dissection. Jason currently holds the positions of the Robert M. Graham Chair and Professor of Cardiovascular Research at University of New South Wales, and continues his appointment as Professor of Medicine (Cardiology) at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, USA.

Dr Sidney Lo
Clinical lead of the TAVI program at Liverpool Hospital

Recognised internationally as CTO-PCI expert and published papers on CTO-PCI. Director of the Asia Pacific CTO club, Dr Sidney Lo is currently elected NSW representative and secretary of interventional council of Cardiac society of Australia and New Zealand and member of the organising committee of the ANZET meeting annually. Appointed in 2018 as Associate Director of AICT-Asia PCR, he has served as Faculty at TCT, EuroPCr, CIT, summer-In-Seattle, CCT, TTT, Topic, ANZET, CSANZ, HK cardiac society, Taiwan cardiac society. Organising committee on Heart failure meetings 2003-2005. Highly experienced in PTMV, BAV, ASD/PFO closure procedures and clinical lead of the TAVI programme at Liverpool Hospital. He has started a distal radial access programme at Liverpool Hospital Sept 2018.  He has performed multiple live case demonstrations in high risk, complex PCI as well as CTO-PCI at local and international meetings.

Dr Dale Murdoch
Senior Staff Specialist at The Prince Charles Hospital

Dr Dale Murdoch BSc MBBS FRACP FCSANZ is a general and interventional cardiologist in Brisbane, Australia, with special interests in structural heart disease intervention, transcatheter heart valves and transformative technology in healthcare.

Dr Murdoch completed fellowships in interventional cardiology at The Prince Charles Hospital, Brisbane, Australia and St Paul’s Hospital, Vancouver Canada. Currently, he is focussed on clinical practice, research and education and performs a broad range of complex cardiac interventions including coronary stenting, mechanical circulatory support, TAVI, transcatheter mitral valve repair and replacement and PFO/ASD closure. He has authored 3 book chapters and over 40 peer-reviewed articles, and regularly presents at national and international scientific meetings.

Dr Murdoch is a senior staff specialist at The Prince Charles Hospital in Brisbane, Australia, visits St Vincent’s Private Hospital Northside and is a Senior Lecturer in Medicine at The University of Queensland.

Associate Professor Sarah Zaman
Academic Interventional Cardiologist at Westmead Hospital, Westmead Applied Research Centre, and University of Sydney

Associate Professor Sarah Zaman is an Academic Interventional Cardiologist at Westmead Hospital and the Westmead Applied Research Centre, University of Sydney, Australia. A/Prof Zaman has been recognized as a national leader in academic cardiology as recipient of the prestigious National Heart Foundation Future Leader Fellowship and NSW Elite Post-doctoral Grant. She has also been recognized internationally within interventional cardiology; having been selected world-wide to the United States, SCAI-ELM Fellowship. A/Prof Zaman has a PhD from the University of Sydney, targeting prevention of sudden cardiac death. She leads a Women’s Heart Disease Research Program at the University of Sydney and has more than $2 million in competitive grant funding. She is regularly invited faculty to national and international interventional scientific meetings and organizes the Australian/New Zealand Endovascular Therapies scientific sessions. A/Prof Sarah Zaman is an active advocate for women in cardiology, having co-founded the Women in Cardiology groups for Australia/New Zealand.