Optimising percutaneous interventions to treat angina

Tommaso Gori is Professor for translational vascular medicine at the University Medical Center of Mainz, Germany where he also leads the Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory and the Clinical Study Center. He obtained his title of Dottore in Medicina e Chirurgia (MD equivalent) from the University of Siena, Italy, and his PhD from the University of Toronto, Canada. He has worked in Siena, Italy, Toronto, Canada and Mainz, Germany. Dr Gori was winner of 19 international awards, among which the American Heart Association – S.A. Levine Young Investigator Award and the Young Investigator Award of the American College of Cardiology, both in the year 2001. Dr Gori has authored 300 peer-reviewed papers in the fields of endothelial (dys)function, mechanisms of action and effects of organic nitrates, physiology of the coronary circulation, oxidative stress, ischemic preconditioning, microcirculation and hemorheology and interventional cardiology (h-index 38). Dr Gori´s areas of clinical expertise include structural, peripheral and coronary interventions and imaging modalities.

Prof Gianluca Campo is Associate Professor of the School of Cardiology of the University of Ferrara, and he is Head of Interventional Cardiology Section at the University Hospital of Ferrara (Ferrara, Italy). Prof Gianluca Campo is a skilled interventionalist with over 15 years of experience. He is author of over 200 PubMed indexed scientific articles (h-index 39) on topics that include complex PCI, ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction, reperfusion injury, intracoronary physiology. He participated as PI in many randomized clinical trials including PRODIGY, STRATEGY, MULTISTRATEGY, XIENCE 28, EXCEL, FAME II, FAVOR II and III trials. Gianluca Campo is the chairman of the ongoing FIRE trial.

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.

Tim van de Hoef, MD, PhD, FESC, is an interventional cardiology fellow at the Amsterdam UMC - VU Medical Center (Amsterdam, The Netherlands). He has been involved in intracoronary physiology research since 2010, and his research has covered the wide spectrum of intracoronary physiology assessed by means of invasive coronary pressure and flow measurements, ranging from functional stenosis severity appraisal to assessment of microvascular function in both stable coronary artery disease and acute coronary syndromes. He obtained a PhD (Cum Laude) in invasive coronary physiology in 2015. He has (co-)authored over 90 papers on the topic of coronary physiology, and his recent research has focused on the use of basal conditions for the assessment of epicardial stenosis severity, and the combined assessment of epicardial and microvascular disease to optimize diagnosis and risk-stratification in ischemic heart disease.