Block 1: Evidence-practice gaps in PCI: why do they occur and how can we eliminate them to improve patient outcomes?

Dr Dejan Milasinovic is an interventional cardiologist at the Department of Cardiology, Clinical Center of Serbia. He is also an Assistant Professor at Faculty of Medicine, University of Belgrade. His main research interests focus in the fields of the invasive treatment of acute coronary syndromes and complex coronary interventions, with an emphasis on bifurcation PCI and intracoronary guidance. In 2016, Dr Milasinovic received the EuroPCR 2016 Best Abstract award, for a work on the timing of invasive coronary intervention in patients with non-ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction. He is a member of European Association of Percutaneous Cardiovascular Interventions (EAPCI) and has served as program committee member of the annual EuroPCR conference. Dr Milasinovic also serves on the editorial boards of EuroIntervention (editorial consultant) and PCRonline and is the Chair of the EAPCI Young committee.

Dr. Giulia Nardi is an Interventional Cardiology Fellow at Hospital Clinico San Carlos (Madrid). She graduated in Medicine and Surgery from the University of Florence (Italy), where she also completed her Cardiology training. She has a special interest in complex PCI, including CTOs and calcified lesions, and has hands-on experience in intravascular imaging and physiology. She is passionate about education and training, with active participation in international conferences and courses such as EuroPCR, GISE, JIM GISE, and Renew PCI, among others.

Professor Jacek Legutko is an interventional cardiologist with over 25 years of experience in the field. His main research interest is focused on primary PCI in acute myocardial infarction, intravascular imaging and physiology lesion assessment in the cathlab, as well as complex percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI). He has performed a series of studies in those areas and has participated in many clinical trials. Professor Legutko is a Course Director at the New Frontiers in Interventional Cardiology (NFIC), an international congress organized annually in Krakow, Poland since 1999. He has also served as a Faculty member, live case operator and facilitator for several interventional cardiology meetings including EuroPCR, PCR Africa, TCT, C3, CardioEgypt, and WCCI. Professor Legutko received several professional awards, including prestigious “Andreas Award” granted for his personal impute on the development of interventional cardiology in Poland.

Prof Javier Escaned is Head of Section (Interventional Cardiology Section) at Hospital Clinico San Carlos / Complutense University (Madrid, Spain). He trained in the United Kingdom as Specialist in Cardiology and obtained his PhD in The Netherlands. Author of >700 indexed scientific articles on interventional cardiology, imaging and physiology (h-index 100) and over 30 years of experience as PCI operator, he regularly lectures and performs live cases at major scientific and educational meetings. He is a recipient of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) Silver Medal and the Andreas Grüntzig Award for his contributions to the fiedl fo Interventional Cardiology. Main areas of expertise include complex PCI, intracoronary diagnostics and functional coronary angiography. His track record in coronary physiology comprises being investigator on pioneer FFR trials like DEFER (1998), collaborator with Justin Davies in the validation and clinical implementation of iFR, and developer of new tools for the assessment of coronary microcirculation. Editorial roles include Deputy Editor EHJ, Advisory Editor Eurointervention, editor of the textbooks “Coronary Stenosis: Imaging, Structure and Physiology” and “Physiological Assessment of Coronary Stenoses and the Microcirculation". Recent board positions include EAPCI board / Education Committee Chair, ESC WG Coronary Pathophysiology and Microcirculation, EuroCTO Board. Recent trials as Principal Investigator include ADVISE II, DEFINE FLAIR, SYNTAX II, PIONEER IV, Cerebral-Coronary-Connection (C3), DCR4Contrast, INOCA LongCovid and AID ANGIO. Additional interests are philosophy and music.

Dr Justin Davies is a board member of Monaco Cardio at the Princess Grace Hospital, Monaco, and an interventional cardiologist with over 15 years of experience as a leading educator in the field. His clinical and academic career was established at Hammersmith Hospital, Imperial College London, where he built an international reputation for innovation in cardiovascular medicine. Over the course of his career, he has successfully mentored 15 PhD students, published more than 500 peer-reviewed papers — including landmark studies in the New England Journal of Medicine and The Lancet — and holds 20 patents in cardiovascular medicine and technology. He was the co-principal investigator of the DEFINE-FLAIR study, which helped establish iFR (Instantaneous Wave-Free Ratio), a diagnostic technique he invented, as a globally adopted standard in coronary physiology. His work reflects a unique blend of scientific innovation, academic leadership, and clinical excellence. In addition to his research and academic commitments, Justin is CEO of Cerebria AI, where he leads the development of next-generation AI-powered cardiovascular imaging and physiology tools. Under his leadership, Cerebria AI is advancing cutting-edge solutions that integrate artificial intelligence with frontline cardiology to enhance clinical decision-making and patient outcomes. Combining deep clinical expertise with entrepreneurial vision, he continues to guide international ventures through funding, regulatory pathways, and commercialization, while remaining committed to transforming cardiovascular care on a global scale.

Dr Kambis Mashayekhi is Head of the Department of Internal Medicine and Cardiology in Heart Center Lahr in Germany. Dr. Mashayekhi is performing over 350 CTO-PCI’s per year and is an world-renowned CTO and complex PCI specialist. Dr. Mashayekhi is the head of the CTO working group from the German Society of cardiology and the Co-Director of MLCTO and EuroCTO course. He is the new EuroCTO president elect for 2023.

Dr Rasa Ordiené is an experienced interventional cardiologist with a strong educational and professional background. She completed her PhD at the Lithuania University of Health Sciences and specialized in cardiology during her medical residency. Her medical training includes a master's degree in medicine from Kaunas University of Medicine and a postgraduate medical internship at Kaunas 3rd Clinical Hospital. Since 2014, Dr. Ordiené has been working as a cardiologist in the Interventional Cardiology Department at the Hospital of Lithuania University of Health Sciences Kaunas Clinics. She also completed a fellowship in cardiothoracic and echocardiography at Hammersmith Hospital in London in 2014.

Dr Tim Schäufele is an interventional cardiologist with special interest in CTOs, coronary physiology and calcified lesions. He is owner of Kardiologie-Innenstad Bern private practice and Interventional Cardiologist at Lindenhofspital Bern. Prior to this, he served as Head of Cathlab and Interventional Cardiology at Robert-Bosch-Krankenhaus Stuttgart, after serving as a Research Fellow in Cardiac Magnetic Imaging at the Department of Cardiology University Heidelberg. Dr Schäufele is a Co-Founding Member of Transradial Workingroup German Cardiac Society, a Board Member of the Interventional Working Group of the German Cardiac Society, and a Full Member EuroCTO Club.

Prof. Ulf Landmesser is Director of the Department of Cardiology, Angiology and Intensive Care Medicine at Campus Benjamin Franklin, Deutsches Herzzentrum der Charité, and serves as a Board Member of the Deutsches Herzzentrum der Charité in Berlin. He is also Director of the Friede Springer Cardiovascular Prevention Center and Full Professor of Cardiology at Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin. He has held senior academic and clinical positions in Zurich and London, and has been a Board Member of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) since 2024. He will served as Conference President of the German Cardiac Society (DGK) Annual Meeting 2025. Prof. Landmesser has played a leading role in national and international cardiovascular societies, serving on the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) Board, the ESC Clinical Practice Guidelines Committee, and as President of the 2025 Annual Meeting of the German Cardiac Society (DGK). He has also contributed to multiple ESC/EAS guideline task forces. Since 2008 Prof. Landmesser serves as Deputy Editor of the European Heart Journal, the leading cardiovascular journal in Europe. Professor Landmesser has a particular research interest in translational and clinical development of novel therapeutic and management strategies for prevention and treat-ment of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. A highly cited researcher in the field of cardiovascular medicine, Prof. Landmesser has received numerous awards, including the Georg Friedrich Götz Prize of the University of Zurich and the Jan Brod Prize of Hannover Medical School. His work focuses on atherosclerosis, cardiovascular prevention, and interventional cardiology, and he has consistently been recognized among the world’s Highly Cited Researchers (top 1%).