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2015 Symposium

The 3rd Annual Cardiovascular Research Center Symposium was held October 2, 2015 on the campus of the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine.

The 2015 event will honor the late Kanu Chatterjee, MD, former member of the Abboud Cardiovascular Research Center, physician, and mentor to many leaders in cardiovascular research.

2015 Keynote Presentations

Mark E. Anderson, MD, PhD
Director, Department of Medicine
William Osler Professor of Medicine 
Professor of Medicine
Johns Hopkins University  

About Mark Anderson, MD, PhD

Mark Anderson is the William Osler Professor of Medicine, the director of the Department of Medicine in the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and physician-in-chief of The Johns Hopkins Hospital. A 1981 honors graduate in biology from Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, Dr. Anderson received his Ph.D. in physiology and his M.D. from the University of Minnesota. He then completed his internal medicine residency and fellowships in cardiology and clinical cardiac electrophysiology at Stanford before joining the faculty at Vanderbilt in 1996. In October 2005, he moved to the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine and in 2009 was named chairman and department executive officer of internal medicine. In 2012, he became director of the Cardiovascular Research Center.

An outstanding scientist, teacher and caregiver, Dr. Anderson has focused his research on the role of the protein CaMKII (Ca2+/calmodulin dependent kinase II) in heart failure and cardiac arrhythmias, a cause of sudden cardiac death. He has published more than 160 peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters and book reviews, and has been an invited speaker throughout the United States and in more than a dozen nations. 

Melvin Sheinman, MD
Walter H. Shorenstein Endowed Chair in Cardiology 
Professor of Medicine
University of California—San Francisco 

About Melvin Scheinman, MD

Dr. Melvin Scheinman is Professor of Medicine, Walter H. Shorenstein Endowed Chair in Cardiology, and one of the founding fathers of the field of cardiac electrophysiology. Dr. Melvin Scheinman is one of the founding pioneers of clinical cardiac electrophysiology. He grew up in Brooklyn, New York and took his undergraduate degree at Johns Hopkins University where he graduated first in his class. Postgraduate medical education included Albert Einstein College of Medicine, residency training at the University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill) and cardiology training at the University of California, San Francisco Medical Center.

Dr. Scheinman is best known as the first person to have performed catheter ablation in humans. This was done after extensive animal studies. Dr. Scheinman and his team used high-energy direct current shocks and were the first to ablate accessory pathways and used this technique to ablate the fast AV nodal pathway.

Dr. Scheinman and his colleagues were instrumental in the development of radiofrequency energy applications for a whole gamut of cardiac arrhythmias. More recently, Dr. Scheinman and his colleagues have developed techniques for modification of sinus node function in patients with inappropriate sinus tachycardia and for cure of patients with automatic junctional tachycardia.

Dr. Scheinman is also well known for his work in defining the role of electrophysiologic studies in determining need for pacemakers in patients with AV conduction disturbances. He was the first to initiate combined pacemaker and beta-blocker therapy for patients with the long QT syndrome. He was among the first to prove the efficacy of intravenous amiodarone therapy for patients with malignant ventricular tachycardia. Dr. Scheinman's current interest revolve about use of new antiarrhythmic agents (i.e., Ibutilide, Azimalide) and in defining the basic mechanisms of unusual forms of atrial flutter. Dr. Scheinman has made many contributions in the area of genetic causes of sudden death and heads theCardiac Arrhythmia Genomics Clinic at UCSF. This clinic is available for patients with genetic arrhythmia syndromes and focuses on direct patient care as well as numerous research projects.Dr. Scheinman works closely with Medical genetics Department.

Dr. Scheinman is a renowned teacher and was awarded the Henry Kaiser Award for Excellence in Teaching as well as the Teacher of the Year Award in 1973. He was also honored with the Paul Dudley White Award for Excellence in Teaching by the American Heart Association. Dr. Scheinman is director of an annual course on Advanced Clinical Electrophysiology and Ablation given at the American College of Cardiology, Heart House in Bethesda, Maryland. Dr. Scheinman is a superb clinician and among the busiest clinician on faculty. His opinion is sought for difficult clinical cases and his clinic is amongst the most active at our medical center.