Science Committee

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.

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.

Fernando Lanas Zanetti, MD. FACC, FESC, FSIAC. Cardiologist. Professor of Medicine. Universidad de La Frontera, Chile. MSc Clinical Epidemiology Pennsylvania University. Ph.D. Research Methodology Universidad Autonoma de Barcelona. Past President, Chilean Society of Cardiology and Chilean Society of Hypertension. Past Vice President InterAmerican Society of Cardiology. WHF Science Committee member. Chilean Academy of Medicine member.

Dr Almahmeed is a Consultant Cardiologist at the Heart and Vascular Institute in Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi. He is also a Clinical Assistant Professor at the UAE University and has an Adjunct Staff position at Cleveland Clinic, Ohio. Dr Almahmeed completed his undergraduate medical training at the medical school in the University of Southampton, England. He continued his post graduate studies in Internal Medicine and Cardiology at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. This was followed by a fellowship in Echocardiography at the same institution. He received his Fellowship of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada in Internal Medicine in 1994 and in Cardiology in 1995. Subsequently he became a Fellow of the American College of Chest Physicians (1996), Fellow of the American College of Physicians (1998), Fellow of the American College of Cardiology (1998) and Fellow of the European Society of Cardiology in 2004. He is a foundation member of the Gulf Heart Association and the Emirates Cardiac Society. Under his leadership in the Emirates Cardiac Society, the Society won the bid to host the World Congress of Cardiology in Dubai in 2012, the World Tobacco or Health Congress in Abu Dhabi in 2015, the Asia Pacific Congress of Cardiology in Abu Dhabi in 2015 and World Congress of Pediatric Cardiology in 2016. He also established an annual meeting for the Emirates Cardiac Society in UAE. In 2000, he initiated World Heart Day in the UAE. Today it is celebrated by many institutions across the country. During his tenure as Deputy Chief Medical Officer, he was chair of the Quality steering committee. Under his leadership SKMC was one of the first hospitals in Abu Dhabi to receive Joint Commission International Accreditation in 2008. In 2013, he initiated the first Cardiology Fellowship Program in the UAE. As Chair of the CME committee, at the Health Authority, he established mandatory CME hours for health care professionals and also established a system for CME accreditation. Dr Almahmeed’s research interests include Coronary Artery Disease prevention in the developing countries, Hypertension, Dyslipidemia, and Registries on Acute Coronary Syndromes, Heart Failure and Atrial Fibrillation. He was the national coordinator for the Inter-Heart Study. He is on the steering committee of the Gulf Race, Gulf Coast, Gulf Care and Gulf Safe Registries. He has over 100 publications to his credit, and is currently the national coordinator for a number of Multi-Center Trials including Elixa, Examine and Garfield Trials. Dr Almahmeed’s expertise is in non-invasive Cardiology/Echocardiography and Heart Disease in Pregnancy.

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. Sanne Peters is a Senior Lecturer in Epidemiology at Imperial College London, UK and an Associate Professor in Epidemiology and Global Health at the Utrecht University, the Netherlands. Her research focuses on sex differences in the etiology, diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis of chronic disease including cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and dementia. Using large databases and innovative methodologies, she aims to reliably quantify where those differences exist and to identify the underlying genetic, biological, or behavioral factors. Another important part of her research aims at ensuring that sex and gender, as well as other aspects of diversity, are routinely considered and equally represented in research and innovation. Her research has been supported by several prestigious grants and fellowships, including a 1-year Niels Stensen Fellowship (2012), a 4-year strategic skills development fellowship from the UK Medical Research Council (2017) and 5-year Vidi fellowship from the Dutch Research Council (2021). She is a World Heart Federation Emerging Leader and am currently member of its science committee. She is Speciality Chief Editor for ‘Sex and Gender Differences in Disease’ in the Frontiers in Global Women’s Health journal and Associate Editor at BMJ Global Health. She is Nucleus Member of the Population Science and Public Health Section of the European Association of Preventive Cardiology.

Dr Yang Zhao is currently a multimorbidity epidemiologist and working as a Senior Research Fellow at Digital Health and Stroke Program and Acting Head of China Women Health and Diabetes Program at The George Institute for Global Health (China office). He was also an Honorary Research Fellow at The University of Melbourne in Australia. His research focuses on cardiovascular disease (CVD) epidemiology, multimorbidity, stroke, brain health, digital health interventions, implementation science, health system and policy. He finished his PhD degree in Epidemiology and Public Health Service from The University of Melbourne in Australia in 2019.

Mariachiara Di Cesare is a Professor in Population Studies and Global Health at Director of the Institute of Public Health and Wellbeing at the University of Essex. She has interdisciplinary work experience in both academia and international organisations. Her research in population health uses and integrates concepts, data and methods from demography, epidemiology, statistics, and social science. Her work has focused on the epidemiology and public health of obesity and undernutrition, the role of early nutrition on child development, whether, and how much, changes in metabolic risk factors have contributed to the decline in cardiovascular mortality, and the extent of within and between countries inequalities in non-communicable diseases mortality and associated risk factors. Her research on global trends in obesity is used by the World Health Organisation (Global Health Observatory) as official estimates. In 2018 she led the successful application to the WHO Essential Medicine List for the inclusion of non-vitamin K anticoagulants for the treatment of atrial fibrillation to prevent stroke. She is acting as scientific advisor for the development of the World Heart Observatory.