Science Committee

Thomas A. Gaziano M.D., M.Sc. is an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School in the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH). He is Director of Global Health and Economic Evaluations within Cardiovascular Innovations at BWH where he evaluates prevention programs in clinical services. He is currently a principal or co-principal investigator on three NIH-funded grants in Argentina and South Africa, the main focus of which are the implementation of effective cardiovascular therapies or policies in low-income settings. His Harvard CVD PREDICT model is used to evaluate health outcomes, financial impacts, and the cost-effectiveness of CVD intervention strategies. He serves on the Board of the World Heart Federation.

Augustine Odili is a Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine in the department of Internal Medicine, Faculty of Clinical Sciences, College of Health Sciences, University of Abuja and Consultant Cardiologist University of Abuja Teaching Hospital, Gwagwalada, Abuja. He was formerly the Deputy Dean Faculty of Clinical Sciences and Pioneer Director of Research and Innovation Directorate. He currently serves in the University Research Council, the apex research governing body of University.
Augustine graduated from the prestigious College of Medicine, University of Nigeria, Enugu Campus with a distinction in Medical Physiology. He had his postgraduate training at the Jos University Teaching Hospital under the National Postgraduate Medical College of Nigeria from where he graduated in 2006 with two awards viz:- the Best Part II and the Best Overall Candidate in Internal Medicine. In addition, he holds a Ph.D in Cardiovascular Epidemiology from the University of Leuven, Belgium. He won various scholarships through which he acquired further training in Clinical Cardiology and Cardiovascular Epidemiology. These include the Royal College of Physicians Visiting Fellowship to St. Thomas Hospital, London, the Coimbra Group Scholarship for Young African Scholars to University of Leuven, Belgium; International Fellowship on Cardiovascular Epidemiology and Prevention at Hydrabad, India and the World Heart Federation Salim Yusuf Emerging Leaders Fellowship at Cape town South Africa. In 2016, he won the Wellcome Trust UK Seed Award in Science.
Augustine’s research interest is focused on hypertension epidemiology and understanding the circulatory system dysfunction in diabetes mellitus. He is the principal investigator of various research projects including: REMAH (REmoving the MAsk on Hypertension), NIPREGH (Nigerian Population Research on Environment Gene and Health), HERALD ( Heart of an African Living with Diabetes) and NSS (Nigerian Salt Survey). He established the Circulatory Health Research Laboratory (CHRL) at the University of Abuja Teaching Hospital for training and research in cardiovascular health. The research agenda of CHRL spans from basic through clinical science to epidemiology and implementation science with an overarching goal of creating solutions to problems challenging the human circulatory system.
Augustine initiated the Community Action Against Non-Communicable Diseases (COMAAND); a community-based intervention project set to address the epidemic of non-communicable diseases in sub-Saharan Africa. COMAAND project is currently being piloted In conjunction with the Society for Public Health and Social Development (SPHSD) and the African Field Epidemiology Network (AFENET) in three communities of Anambra state, Nigeria.
He is a member of the editorial board of Journal of Hypertension, Journal of Clinical Hypertension and the Nigerian Journal of Cardiology (NJC). He is a reviewer for Hypertension, Blood Pressure Monitoring, Blood Pressure, Journal of Hypertension and BMC Cardiovascular Disorders. He is currently the Secretary General of Nigerian Cardiac Society, Vice President of the Nigerian Hypertension Society and President Society for Public Health and Social Development. He is the chair of the International Society of Hypertension African Regional Advisory Group. He is a fellow of the American College of Cardiology, the European Society of Cardiology and the Nigerian Cardiac Society.

Dr Zhao is currently a young multimorbidity epidemiologist and working as a Senior Research Fellow at Digital Health & Stroke Program and Acting Head of China Women Health & Diabetes at The George Institute for Global Health (George Institute). He was also an Honorary Research Fellow at the WHO Collaborating Centre for Implementation Research and Prevention and Control of NCDs. His research focuses on cardiovascular disease (CVD) epidemiology, multimorbidity, stroke, digital interventions, Implementation Science and Health System Policy. He finished his PhD degree in Epidemiology and Public Health Service from The University of Melbourne in Australia in 2019.

Amitava Banerjee is associate professor in 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.