Speakers


Professor Vanessa Ferreira



Professor Vanessa Ferreira is British Heart Foundation Associate Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine, Deputy Director of the Oxford Centre for Clinical Magnetic Resonance Research (OCMR) and Honorary Consultant Cardiologist at the University of Oxford. She obtained her Bachelor of Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Doctor of Medicine at the University of British Columbia (Vancouver, Canada). She subsequently obtained a Doctor of Philosophy in Cardiovascular Medicine at the University of Oxford. She was a board member of the Society for Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance and serves on multiple SCMR committees.  Prof Ferreira has expertise in quantitative CMR techniques, particularly T1-mapping

Professor Ernesta Meintjes



Ernesta Meintjes is the South African Research Chair in Brain Imaging and Professor in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Cape Town. Meintjes initiated MRI research at UCT in 2001 – work that led to the establishment of the Cape Universities Brain Imaging Centre in 2007, with subsequent expansion in 2015 to the Cape Universities Body Imaging Centre, of which she is the founding director. Meintjes has authored/co-authored more than 120 peer-reviewed journal papers and more than 220 conference papers. She has successfully mentored 17 postdoctoral fellows, graduated 23 PhD and 24 masters students, and is currently supervising/co-supervising 7 PhD and 4 masters students.


Professor Matthias G. Friedrich




Matthias G. Friedrich earned his MD at the Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen/Nuernberg, Germany. He completed his training as an internist and cardiologist at the Charité University Medicine Center, Humboldt University in Berlin.

After appointments with the University of Calgary and the Université de Montréal/Montreal Heart Institute, he joined the Departments of Medicine and Diagnostic Radiology as a Full Professor, and also acts as Chief of Cardiovascular Imaging and Scientific Director of the Courtois Cardiovascular Signature Program at the McGill University Health Centre. He also has an appointment with the Department of Medicine at Heidelberg University in Germany.

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Anders Barasa



Anders Barasa MD PhD is a consultant cardiologist and heart failure specialist based in Copenhagen (Rigshospitalet-Glostrup). He is the current Clinical Lead for Heart Failure and CMR imaging Fellow at Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen. He is an active member of the PASCAR Imaging and Heart Failure Task forces.


Gaby Captur


 

Dr. Gaby Captur is a senior clinical lecturer and Cardiometabolic Programme co-lead at the MRC Unit for Lifelong Health and Ageing at UCL and consultant cardiologist in inherited heart muscle conditions at the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust. Her research focuses on the use of CMR in epidemiological studies and on the study of rare inherited cardiomyopathies. She developed the T1 and T2 mapping CMR phantoms for quality assurance and more recently invented a CMR-safe electrode vest permitting high-throughput CMR-ECGI (high-resolution ECG imaging) for personalized electromechanical simulations of the human heart at scale.



Pheletso Letuka


 

I was born and raised in Maseru, Lesotho. I joined UCT in 2016 to do an honours degree in Medical Physiology, from there a Master’s degree (MSc) in Medicine and now a Phd in Medicine (research). My main research interests are centred around resistant uncontrolled hypertension within the Sub-Saharan region. Currently, I am working on a study that explores the microbiome-immune-system connection in the pathophysiology of resistant uncontrolled hypertension and the onset of uncontrolled hypertension in COVID-19, under the supervision of Professor Ntobeko Ntusi. I am passionate about health equity, science communication and representation in STEM.



Andrew Powell


 

Dr. Andrew Powell is a Senior Associate in Cardiology at Boston Children’s Hospital, and Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. He graduated from Harvard Medical School in 1992 followed by a residency in pediatrics and fellowship in pediatric cardiology, both at Boston Children’s Hospital. Afterward, he joined the staff there in the Department of Cardiology, where he is currently the Chief of the Cardiac Imaging Division. Dr. Powell specializes in cardiac magnetic resonance imaging and echocardiography. His research has focused on the development of quantitative MRI methods to guide therapy and predict outcomes of congenital and pediatric heart disease.



Olukayode Aremu


 

Olukayode Aremu holds an MSc degree in Physiological Sciences, where he explored the antihypertensive and antioxidant properties, and cardiovascular benefits of some selected medicinal plants in hypertension using different rat models. Furthering into clinical research, he is characterising the phenotypes of inflammation, fibrosis and remodeling in patients diagnosed with rheumatic heart disease (RHD), using multiparametric cardiovascular magnetic resonance and autophagy markers, to better understand the inflammatory pathway in the autoimmune involvement in the pathogenesis of RHD, and to corroborate his keen interest to discontinue the existence of high mortality and debilitating conditions associated with RHD.


Morné Kahts


 

Morné Kahts is a research medical officer at the University of Cape Town. Initially having studied jazz composition, he completed his Bachelor of Music (Honours) followed by a Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery through the University of Cape Town. He completed his medical internship at Groote Schuur Hospital and subsequently worked as a paediatric medical officer at Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital, where he completed his Diploma in Child Health through the Colleges of Medicine of South Africa. He is currently involved with the post-processing of cardiac MRIs for the Cape Town Adolescent Antiretroviral Cohort study.


Kevin Steel


 

Dr. Kevin Steel is an American cardiologist located near Seattle, Washington.  He received his cardiac imaging training at Brigham and Women’s Hospital prior to building a cardiac MRI service for the United States military. After 20 years of military service, he moved into a hospital-based practice where he developed an active MRI program, performing over 600 scans annually.  Dr. Steel’s research focus has been on stress MRI where he has published multiple articles and developed registries for the Society of Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance.  He speaks frequently at the annual SCMR meeting on stress MRI, focusing his latest efforts on the CMR board review course.


Theodoros Karamitsos


 

Theodoros Karamitsos is Associate Professor of Cardiology at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece. He studied Medicine in Aristotle University and completed training in Cardiology at AHEPA Hospital in 2005. In 2006 he joined the University of Oxford Centre for Clinical Magnetic Resonance Research and achieved level III competence in Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance (CMR). Over the past 15 years, he has been devoted to the development and application of CMR particularly pertaining to stress perfusion-oxygenation techniques, tissue characterisation and cardiomyopathy imaging. He has served as President of the working group on cardiovascular imaging techniques of the Hellenic Cardiological Society (2016-2018). Other interests include non-invasive cardiology with a primary focus on heart failure


Victor A. Ferrari


 

Victor A. Ferrari, MD, MSCMR, FACC, FAHA, FASE, FRCP (Lond., Hon.) is a Professor of Medicine and Radiology at the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) School of Medicine, the inaugural Chair of the Penn Cardiovascular Imaging Council, the immediate past Director of CMR for the Penn Cardiovascular Institute, and past UPenn Echocardiography Laboratory Director. He is a Founding Member and Past President of SCMR, and the Inaugural Chair of the Certification Board for CMR. He is a Past Chair of the ISMRM’s Cardiac MR Study Group, was an AHA Cardiac Imaging Committee member, is Past Chair of the ACC’s Imaging Council, and is a past ACC Board of Governors member. His research interests include ventricular function assessment, atherosclerotic plaque and high field imaging, and imaging of rodent models of cardiac diseases.  


Sulaiman Moosa


 

Associate Professor Sulaiman Moosa is the Head of Division: Radiology, Department of Radiation Medicine at Groote Schur Hospital, and the University of Cape Town as from 01 November 2020. He was born and raised in District Six, Cape Town. After completing his undergraduate MBChB training at the University of Cape Town he worked as a general practitioner in Mitchell’s Plain, Cape Town. During this period, he obtained his M Phil in Maternal and Child Health at the University of Cape Town and BSc Honours in Clinical Pharmacology cum laude at the University of Stellenbosch. He trained as a radiologist at Groote Schuur Hospital and completed his Fellowship in Radiology with the College of Medicine of South Africa in 2005.

 His research and teaching interest is in Cardiac Magnetic Resonance imaging and focusses on training specialists in this modality, as well as participating in local and international workshops and congresses. He is very involved in imaging service delivery improvements projects at Groote Schuur Hospital and pursue ways to improve patient access to cross-sectional imaging, especially in under-resourced environments. He is co-opted to the board of the College of Radiology and contributes as a College examiner.

 


Mark Westwood


 

Dr Mark Westwood is a Consultant Cardiologist at Barts Heart Centre, St Bartholomew’s Hospital, London. He previous worked at the London Chest Hospital where he set up the CMR service which became one of the UK’s largest CMR services with a particular emphasis on the use of stress perfusion for coronary artery disease. He is currently part of the CMR team at St Bartholomew’s, one of Europe’s largest CMR Services. He has a strong interest in training and education and is currently the Vice President of the UK Cardiology SAC, the national representative body in charge of training of all cardiology trainees in the UK. He also holds several positions of responsibility in cardiology both nationally and internationally.

 

 

 

From:

Lydia Brown <

lydia.brown@uct.ac.za