Welcome to International Symposium on Left Atrial Appendage 2018

A world recognized leader in the field of electrophysiology, Dr. Natale is a dedicated clinician, academician and researcher. Prior to the establishment of Texas Cardiovascular Arrhythmia Institute at St. David’s Medical Center, Dr. Natale was a member of the Cardiovascular Medicine Department at the Cleveland Clinic from 1999 to 2007, serving most recently as Section Head for the Department of Cardiac Pacing and Electrophysiology and as Medical Director for the Cleveland Clinic’s Center for Atrial Fibrillation. In addition to serving on the editorial boards of numerous medical journals, he is editor-in-chief of the Journal of Atrial Fibrillation. A forefront researcher, Dr. Natale focuses on innovative advances in the treatment of atrial fibrillation. His goal is to benefit patient care through technologies such as robotic devices and specialized ablation catheters.

An astute clinician and teacher, Dr. Kar is a skilled interventional cardiologist with a special expertise in valvuloplasty and congenital heart disease. His research interests are focused on coronary restenosis, device development and the advancement of percutaneous techniques in the treatment of congenital and valvular heart diseases. Involved in both clinical and experimental research, Dr. Kar’s clinical work has included publishing data on different aspects of angioplasty for the treatment of acute myocardial infarction. In the experimental lab, he has done original work on newer drug-eluting stents for the prevention of restenosis of coronary stents, and he recently developed a new drug-eluting stent, which is being used in a clinical trial in Germany.

Director of the Cardiac Arrhythmia Service and professor of medicine at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City.

Dr. Reddy has certifications in cardiac electrophysiology and cardiovascular disease. At Mount Sinai, he leads a team of physician-scientists in cutting-edge clinical and translational research aimed at developing therapies for cardiac arrhythmias and ventricular tachycardias and understanding the role of imaging modalities to guide cardiac electrophysiology procedures. Dr. Reddy’s team has conducted many “first-in-man” studies of novel technologies, including the first use of a balloon cryoablation catheter to treat atrial fibrillation (AF) and the first use of an endoscopic balloon ablation catheter to visually guide ablation of AF. In 2003, he led the team that performed the first image-guided therapy procedures in cardiac electrophysiology, using 3-dimensional images of the heart to guide catheter ablation of AF.  Most notable among Dr. Reddy’s numerous published articles, is the report from SMASH-VT (Substrate Mapping and Ablation in Sinus Rhythm to Halt Ventricular Tachycardia), a seminal multicenter clinical trial on ventricular tachycardia ablation, examining the use of prophylactic catheter ablation to prevent shocks in patients receiving defibrillators. Dr. Reddy has or is currently serving as the Principle Investigator for many clinical studies.

Dr. Reddy has received several honors, including being named the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust Professor of Medicine in Cardiac Electrophysiology in 2009 and among the Best Doctors in Boston in 2007. He has received the Center for Minimally Invasive Therapy Fellowship and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Scholarship and is a member of the Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Society.

Most recently director of cardiac electrophysiology and associate professor of medicine at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine in Florida, Dr. Reddy also has served as director of the Experimental Electrophysiology Laboratory at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and as an instructor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.

After earning his MD from the University of Michigan Medical School in Ann Arbor, Dr. Reddy completed a residency in internal medicine at Yale-New Haven Hospital in Connecticut and fellowships in electrophysiology at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, and in cardiovascular disease at the University of Chicago Hospitals in Illinois.

Dr. Holmes is currently a Professor of Medicine at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and a consultant in the Division of Cardiovascular Diseases and the Department of Internal Medicine at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. Dr. Holmes has also been named the Edward W. and Betty Knight Scripps Professor in Cardiovascular Medicine in Honor of Dr. George M. Gura, Jr.  In April 2011, he was named President of the American College of Cardiology in New Orleans at the annual meeting.  He was awarded an Honorary Fellowship of the Royal College of Physicians in Ireland in November 2011. 

His special areas of interest include Acute Coronary Syndromes, Interventional Cardiology, Restenosis, Vascular Biology, Risk Outcomes Analysis, and Telemedicine.  In addition, he is involved in the development of new catheter design and new approaches for treatment of a wide variety of patients with coronary artery disease and vein graft disease.  Finally, he is involved in the development of continued application of percutaneous coronary intervention technology to non-coronary vascular beds.