Emerging Leaders Faculty

Adrianna is an Associate Professor of Health Systems Research and Policy and Co-Director of the Centre for Global Chronic Conditions at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. She uses mixed methods approaches from health systems and implementation research to improve access to treatment for non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in low-income and conflict-affected settings. Adrianna currently holds a UK Research and Innovation Future Research Leader Fellowship to work with KEMRI Wellcome Trust in Nairobi, to study implementation of fixed dose combinations for treatment of hypertension and cardiovascular disease in Kenya. She previously held a Wellcome Trust Fellowship to study the impact of medicine costs treatment adherence and risk of impoverishment in South Africa, Tanzania and Zimbabwe. Other work has included research on a new hypertension and diabetese care model in Kenya, implementation of the polypill for Syrian refugees in Lebanon, and mental health care utilisation among Syrian refugees. She has also worked with partners on NCD health systems research in Ukraine, the Republic of Georgia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Niger and India. Adrianna is Canadian. She has a SM from Harvard School of Public Health and a PhD from LSHTM.

Amitava Banerjee is Professor of Clinical Data Science at University College London, and honorary consultant cardiologist at University College London Hospitals and Barts Health NHS Trusts. He is a researcher, educator and clinician with interests spanning data science, cardiovascular disease, global health, training and evidence-based healthcare, and more recently risk associated with underlying chronic diseases during the COVID-19 pandemic. After qualifying from Oxford Medical School, he trained as a junior doctor in Oxford, Newcastle, Hull and London. His interest in preventive cardiology and evidence-based medicine led to a Masters in Public Health at Harvard (2004/05), an internship at the World Health Organisation (2005) and DPhil in epidemiology from Oxford (2010). He was clinical lecturer in cardiovascular medicine at the University of Birmingham, before moving to UCL in 2015. He works across two busy tertiary care settings with both inpatient and outpatient commitments. Although he is subspecialised in heart failure, he has ongoing practice in acute general cardiology and a keen interest in the diagnosis and management of atrial fibrillation. His clinical work very much informs his research and vice versa, whether in the evaluation of medical technology, study of cardiovascular disease in under-served populations, disease phenotypes in electronic health records or now COVID-19. He was an Emerging Leader in inaugural cohort in 2014, and has been Senior Advisor to the World Heart Federation Emerging Leaders Programme since 2018.

Borjana Pervan is a journalist and communications leader who likes to ask questions, seek solutions, and communicate reasons for action. While working as a broadcast and print reporter in her country of origin, Bulgaria, she uncovered a major international human trafficking ring.  Before joining the World Heart Federation, she worked in advertising and more recently led the global communications teams of two international organisations, aiming to improve the lives and livelihoods of millions of people. At WHF Borjana leads the effort to empower the global cardiovascular community to speak with a strong voice and inspire change.

Pablo Perel, from Argentina, is a cardiologist and epidemiologist, he is Professor of Clinical Epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (United Kingdom) . He is also the Senior Science Advisor of the World Heart Federation (Switzerland), and editor of the Global Heart Journal. He has authored over 200 peer reviewed publications and several book chapters. His main interest is cardiovascular implementation research in limited resources and humanitarian settings.

Garfield Weston Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine and Honorary Consultant Cardiologist, National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College London, MB ChB, MSc, FRCP, FRCPE, FFPHM, FESC
Professor Wood is a cardiologist committed to prevention of cardiovascular disease. He has contributed to international policy and guidelines on cardiovascular disease (CVD) prevention through the World Health Organization, World Heart Federation and the European Society of Cardiology. He was a founder and President of the European Association for Cardiovascular Prevention and Rehabilitation, a Board member of the European Society of Cardiology and in 2014 he was elected as President Elect of the World Heart Federation.
He is the principal investigator for the ASPIRE and EUROASPIRE studies across 26 European countries, evaluating standards of preventive cardiology practice in hospital and primary care. He led the EUROACTION and EUROACTION+ trials in preventive cardiology evaluating nurse-led models of preventive care in hospital and general practice across 8 European countries, and the principals of EUROACTION are now incorporated in the Imperial College NHS Cardiovascular Health programme for the NHS.
He is Course Director for the Imperial College Masters degree programme in Preventive Cardiology providing education and training for doctors, nurses and allied health professionals. He is Senior Editor of the European Society of Cardiology Textbook of Preventive Cardiology and also founded the European Journal of Cardiovascular Prevention and Rehabilitation (now European Journal of Preventive Cardiology) and served as the first Joint Editor in Chief.
He is married to Dr Catriona Jennings, a cardiovascular specialist nurse, and they have four adult children. He enjoys cooking for family and friends and also sailing, presently circumnavigating the UK in a Frances 26 sailing boat.

Dike Ojji graduated in 1995 from Nigeria’s premier university, University of Ibadan, and subsequently had his postgraduate training in Internal Medicine and Cardiology at the University College Hospital, Ibadan and the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital, Brisbane, Australia. He joined the young College of Health Sciences of University of Abuja as a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Internal Medicine in 2014, and is also an Honorary Consultant Physician/Cardiologist, at University of Abuja Teaching Hospital, Gwagwalada, Abuja, Nigeria.  He is the Lead Investigator, Cardiovascular Research Unit, University of Abuja and University of Abuja Teaching Hospital, Abuja, Nigeria and the Co-Chair, Pan-African Society of Cardiology (PASCAR) Hypertension Task Force. His areas of interest include pharmacotherapy of hypertension especially in native Africans, spectrum of hypertensive heart disease, hypertensive heart failure, co-morbid risk factors in hypertension and echocardiography. He has over 67 manuscripts in PubMed central published in peer reviewed journals including those with high and very high impact factors like New England Journal of Medicine, American Heart Journal, European Journal Heart Failure, European Heart Journal, Journal Human Hypertension, Journal American Medical Association and the Lancet. Dike is a member of the 2014 Emerging Leaders cohort and Science Committee.

Professor D. Prabhakaran is a cardiologist and epidemiologist by training. He is an internationally renowned researcher and is Distinguished Professor, Public Health Foundation of India, Executive Director of Centre for Chronic Disease Control, New Delhi, India and Professor (Epidemiology) London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK. He heads the NIHR Centre for Global Health at PHFI. These centres conduct cutting edge research in the prevention of chronic diseases in India and the developing world.

His work spans from mechanistic research to understand the causes for increased propensity of cardiovascular diseases (CVD) among Indians, to developing solutions for CVD through translational research and human resource development. Prof. Prabhakaran is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, UK, Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, India, Fellow of the Indian National Science Academy and an Adjunct Professor at the Emory University. He is member of Executive Council of the International Society of Hypertension (ISH) and the International Society of CVD Epidemiology and Prevention (ISCEP). He has received funding from NHLBI, Wellcome Trust, European Commission and several other international and national funding bodies. He has mentored over 50 post-doctoral and doctoral students so far. He has authored several chapters and over 700 scholarly papers with an H index of 113. Listed as the topmost researcher in Medicine in India terms of publications for the years 2009-2014 by Scopus and Department of Science & Technology, Government of India. He is the lead editor of the Cardiovascular Disease Volume of the latest Disease Control Priorities Project. He is the lead editor of Tandon’s text book of Cardiology a comprehensive book on Cardiology for Indian Cardiologists and Fellows. In recognition of his work in Chronic Diseases and Global Health he was conferred an Honorary Doctor Of Science by the Glasgow University.

Prof Ellen Nolte has a background in public health, with a Masters degree (MPH) from the University of Bielefeld, Germany, and a PhD at the LSHTM. She previously led the two London offices of the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies at the LSHTM and the LSE, and before that, she led the Health and Healthcare Policy Programme at RAND Europe, Cambridge, where she also co-directed the Cambridge Centre for Health Services Research. She is co-editor of the Journal of Health Services Research and Policy.

Prof. Pinto graduated at Lisbon University Medical School in 1984. He did his Cardiology internship at Santa Maria University Hospital – CHLN, E.P.E. (Lisbon, Portugal), and Stanford University Medical School (CA, USA), where he was a Clinical Fellow. He was then Clinical Attending in the Echocardiography laboratory and underwent an Interventional Cardiology Fellowship at the same institution.

He is currently Full Professor of Cardiology, Head of the Cardiology Department and of the Heart and Vascular Department of Santa Maria University Hospital, CHULN E.P.E., immediate Past President of the World Heart Federation (WHF) (2021-2022). Recently he also finished his term as the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Lisbon (Lisbon, Portugal) (2015-2018)-(2018-2022).

National Coordinator of the Medical Schools Council (2018-2020) and President of the Executive Board of the Lisbon Academic Medical Centre (CAML) (2019-2021) and Director of Lisbon Cardiovascular Institute (ICVL) since 1999.

He was the President and founder of the European Association of Echocardiography (2002-04), a registered branch of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC), Chairman of the CPC (Congress Program Committee) of ESC (2008-10), Chair of the European Heart Agency(2016-2018) and ESC President (2014-16). He is immediate Past President of the World Heart Federation (WHF) (2021-2022), and integrates the Board of the European Heart for Children.

He is a Fellow of the European Society of Cardiology (FESC), American College of Cardiology (FACC), American Society of Angiology (FASA), Society for Cardiac Angiography and Interventions (FSCAI) and the American Society of Echocardiography (FASE) and Honorary Member of several international societies, including Societé Française de Cardiologie, Sociedad Colombiana de Cardiologia, American Society of Echocardiography, Societá Italiana de Ecografia Cardiovascular, Hungarian Society of Cardiology, Japanese Circulation Society, Sociedad Peruana de Cardiologia, Romanian Academy of Medical Sciences, Romanian Society of Cardiology, Russian Society of Cardiology, and Slovakian Society of Cardiology. Appointed by acclamation (29 November 2018) as Honorary Member of the National Academy of Medicine of Brazil. He is the Honorary President of the International Committee for Education and Cooperation of the Italian Society of Medical Science (SISMED). Honorary Member of the Brazilian Society of Cardiology(Nov 2020) and Dante Pazzanese Medal(Nov. 2020).

He was the Editor in Chief of the Portuguese Journal of Cardiology (1999-2015), and is currently Consulting Editor and Member of the Advisory and Editorial of Board of several international peer-reviewed journals, and Expert Reviewer for the European Commission. Prof. Pinto has published over 600 indexed articles and has presented over 1500 lectures/chairmanships at national and mostly international meetings.

Prof Harry Hemingway is a clinician scientist with over 25 years of leadership in using rapidly changing patient and population data resources for research. Harry has contributed to establishing, growing and critically evaluating the field of data science for health nationally and internationally. In recognition of his contribution to advancing medical science and translating developments into benefits for patients and wider society, Harry was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2019. Harry’s aim is to mobilize insights gained from increasing scale and detail of data for health and healthcare within a framework of public trust. He seeks to execute science and innovation, develop tools and infrastructure and develop new careers, disciplines and talent in data science for health. Harry is currently Professor of Clinical Epidemiology and Institute Director at the UCL Institute of Health Informatics. Since 2018, Harry is also Research Director at Health Data Research UK (HDR UK) London, bringing together 5 London universities (UCL, Imperial College London, Kings College London, Queen Mary University London and London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine) in partnerships for data science for health.

Jean-Luc Eiselé has worked in the field of medical association management for almost 20 years. He was trained as a biochemist working at the Biozentrum in Basel and the Pasteur Institute in Paris. In 1999, he joined the European Respiratory Society as Scientific Affairs Manager in charge of the Annual Congress and was offered to develop the educational activities, in particular the online portfolio. In 2001 he was nominated Deputy Executive Director and in 2007 ERS Executive Director. In 2011, he was appointed by FDI World Dental Federation as Executive Director, developing in particular its advocacy work and launching successfully the World Oral Health Day. He joined the World Heart Federation (WHF) as Chief Executive Officer in May 2017, strengthening the business model, the focus on communication and advocacy and membership engagement.

Prof Karen Sliwa is Director of the Hatter Institute for Cardiovascular Research in Africa, Professor in the Division of Cardiology, Department of Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences University of Cape Town, and Past President of the World Heart Federation (2019-2020). Karen Sliwa is widely recognized as a world expert in cardiovascular disease, with a particular interest in reducing mortality in women with cardiovascular disease in maternity. She has contributed to better understanding on the pathophysiology, treatment options and awareness of peripartum cardiomyopathy (PPCM), a global disease particularly prevalent in African populations. She leads several inter-Africa research projects, which have had a major impact for creating knowledge about CVDs common in Africa, leading to changes in policy. Her considerable experience in setting up simple, cost-effective registries and web-based data entry platforms have had a major impact on planning several innovative research projects and has facilitated the training of physicians from several African countries, including Mozambique, Nigeria, Cameroon, Uganda and Tanzania. Her translational research from bed-to-bench-to-bedside population studies have led to a much better understanding of CVDs in pregnant women and subsequently to improved patient care.  Professor Sliwa leads several high-profile special interest groups including a dedicated EORP Working Group on PPCM of the Heart Failure Association of European Society of Cardiology. Over her distinguished career she has served in many notable roles, including that of Chair of the South African Heart Failure Association, President of the South African Heart Association (2014-2016), President of the World Heart Federation (2019-2020), and Vice President, Southern Region of the Pan African Society of Cardiology (2016-2021). She holds numerous awards such as the German Cardiac Society Paul Morawitz Award for Exceptional Cardiovascular Research (2013), an Honorary Doctorate University Diderot-Sorbonne, Paris, France (2017), European Society of Cardiology Geoffrey Rose Award for Population Sciences (2019) and the South African Medical Research Council Gold Award (2021). She has authored more than 350 publications, trained more then 30 post graduate students, and her papers are highly cited (72,270 citations; h-index of 84, i10-index 239; accessed Feb 2021).

Mark is a Professor of Medicine and Co-Director of the Global Health Center at Washington University in St. Louis. He also has a secondary appointment as a Conjoint Faculty at The George Institute for Global Health, University of New South Wales in Australia. He is a practicing cardiologist, researcher, and educator and have more than a decade of experience in global cardiovascular epidemiology, clinical trials, implementation research, and health policy research and training. Mark’s research seeks to improve global cardiovascular health and health care in low- and middle-income countries and to bring lessons learned back to the United States.

Martin Cowie is Professor of Cardiology and Chair of Cardiology at Imperial College London, and Honorary Consultant Cardiologist at the Royal Brompton and Harefield NHS Foundation Trust. He is a Non-Executive Director of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), and a Trustee of the Atrial Fibrillation Association. Professor Cowie’s research interests focus on health technology assessment and delivery of efficient and effective care for patients with cardiovascular disease, with a particular focus on diagnostics, drugs, or devices. Professor Cowie is a founding member and past-Chairman of the British Society for Heart Failure, in addition to being a Fellow of the American College of Cardiology and the European Society of Cardiology (ESC). He chairs the Digital Health Committee of the ESC. Professor Cowie was shortlisted for the NHS Digital Champion (Leadership) Award in 2017, and was awarded the MacKenzie Medal by the British Cardiovascular Society in 2019.

Prof Metin Avkiran was appointed as BHF Associate Medical Director for Research in 2016, on secondment from King’s College London. At King’s, he is Professor of Molecular Cardiology and served as Deputy Head of the Cardiovascular Division and on the steering committee of the BHF Centre of Research Excellence from 2004 to 2016. His laboratory’s research focuses on investigating the molecular signalling mechanisms that regulate cardiac function in health and disease. Professor Avkiran has previously served as Chairman of the British Society for Cardiovascular Research and President of the International Society for Heart Research.

Dr Natalie Banner is the Lead for Understanding Patient Data (UPD), an initiative hosted at the Wellcome Trust to support better conversations about how patient data is used for care and research. UPD works with patients, charities and health professionals to champion responsible uses of data, feeding into policy development, creating accessible resources and horizon scanning for emerging issues that may affect public confidence in the use of health data. Natalie formerly led Wellcome’s policy work on GDPR and data protection, seeking to ensure UK legislation and regulation creates a supportive, trustworthy environment for health research using patient and health-related data. In 2018 she was named in BioBeat’s “50 Movers and Shakers in BioBusiness”. Prior to joining Wellcome, Natalie was a postdoctoral research fellow in philosophy at King’s College London.

Prof Salim Yusuf, D. Phil, FRCPC is a Distinguished University Professor of Medicine at McMaster University, Director of the Population Health Research Institute, and is Chief Scientist at Hamilton Health Sciences. He holds a Heart and Stroke Foundation Research Chair, was a Senior Scientist of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (1999-2004), and has received (among others) the Lifetime Research Achievement Award of the Canadian Cardiovascular Society, the Paul Wood Silver Medal of the British Cardiac Society, the European Society of Cardiology gold medal, the American Heart Association Clinical Research Award,the Canada Gairdner award and over 35 other international and national awards for research, induction into the Royal Society of Canada and Canadian Medical Hall of Fame, and appointment as an Officer of the Order of Canada. He has led over 50 major international studies in over 100 countries and several of these have changed medical practice. He has published over 1000 articles in refereed journals, was the second most cited researcher in the world for 2011, is in the top 0.01%of scientists and has the 15th highest H factor in history.  He is the Past President of the World Heart Federation, where he initiated the  Emerging Leaders programme, which has now trained about 150 people from all inhabited continents of the world.

Sarah Kraus completed her undergraduate medical training at the University of Cape Town. She returned to Cape Town to do specialist training in Internal Medicine at Groote Schuur Hospital, graduating as a Fellow of the College of Physicians of South Africa in 2013.  In 2014, she was awarded the Helen and Morris Mauerberger Scholarship to do her PhD at the University of Cape Town. Her clinical and research interests are focused on the clinical diagnosis and management of cardiomyopathy, myocarditis and heart failure in the African setting, cardiogenetics with focus on the genetic cardiomyopathies, and cardiovascular magnetic imaging in cardiomyopathy and myocarditis. She is affiliated with the Molecular Genetic Laboratory at the Hatter Institute, University of Cape Town, where she worked in the field of cardiogenetics research. Sarah is a 2017 World Heart Federation Emerging Leader and is currently doing a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Oxford.