UM Surgeons and Cardiologists Play Major Role in Colombian Symposium

For the eighth consecutive year, Eduardo de Marchena, M.D., professor of medicine and surgery, director of the Interventional Cardiology Program and associate dean of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine and the International Medicine Institute (IMI), has co-directed and participated in the Structural Heart Latin American Symposium at Angiografia de Occidente in Cali, Colombia.

Eduardo de Marchena, M.D., second from left, with other symposium attendees.

The symposium, held April 26-28, is considered one of the most important in South America and attracted heart experts from the Miller School and throughout Latin America and Europe. De Marchena co-directed the symposium with his longtime collaborator Antonio Dager, M.D. who heads Angiografia de Occidente. Among the 350 attendees, there were 22 highly recognized interventional cardiologists and cardiothoracic surgeons, including 35 top experts from Colombia, who collaborated with the international faculty to present lectures and live cases.

“This has been an extremely successful conference in spreading knowledge of transcatheter therapies for valvular heart disease and other cardiac structural therapies throughout the region,” said de Marchena, who is also director of UM’s Interventional Cardiology Program and the International Structural Heart Interventional Training Program, and fosters international education, training and research through a network to help to strengthen clinical trials at Angiografia and throughout South America.

The IMI and Angiografia have been working together since 2008 under an education and training affiliation agreement. Since then, the IMI has bolstered Angiografia as one of the Centers for Excellence for Cardiovascular Disease in Latin America. An internationally renowned cardiologist and educator, de Marchena said Angiografia has emerged as a “premiere” leader in structural heart disease therapy in all of Latin America.

“The educational research affiliation allowed us to work collaboratively at developing research and clinical applications of new cardiovascular devices in Colombia,” said de Marchena. “As part of that mission we started education initiatives to train doctors in Colombia, its neighboring countries, northern and southern America, Central America and the Caribbean.”

In addition to UM and Angiografia, the structural heart training program has a site at Erasmus Medical Center in the Netherlands.

Nicolas A. Brozzi, M.D., and Amit Patel, M.D., second and third from left, with other symposium attendees in Cali.

UM faculty were well represented at the symposium and lectured on the following the topics:

• Eduardo de Marchena, M.D., Lectured on transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR/TAVI), a year in review; valvular degeneration in TAVI; and computerized tomography (CT) angio importance for transcatheter mitral valve replacement (TMVR) patient selection and advances in TMVR.

• Amit Patel, M.D., M.S., chief of cardiac surgery. Lectured on cellular and biological advances in cardiac pathology and advances in a new polymeric aortic valve.

• Nicolas A. Brozzi, M.D., associate professor of surgery. Lectured on the golden era for minimally invasive cardiac surgery, actual and future perspectives and left ventricular assist device in valvular disease.

• Carlos Alfonso, M.D., assistant professor of medicine. Lectured on coronary physiology and new devices in chronic total occlusion;

• Roger Carrillo, M.D., assistant professor of surgery. Lectured on laser lead extraction and mitral valve surgical complications.

• Giselle Baquero, M.D., an interventional cardiology fellow. Lectured on best cases of the Americas and selection process for percutaneous aortic valves.

Tags: Angiografia de Occidente, Eduardo de Marchena, International Medicine Institute, interventional cardiology, Miller School of Medicine, Structural Heart Latin American Symposium, University of Miami