Key Dates
6 May 2008
Notification of Acceptances
26 May 2008
Early Registration Cut-off Date
9 June 2008
Late breaking Abstract Submission Date
2 July 2008
Pre & Post Congress Tours
2 July 2008
Social Program Bookings
2 July 2008
Congress Day Tours
9 July 2008
Accommodation Bookings
9 July 2008
Accommodation Deposit deadline
9-10 August 2008
Postgraduate Weekend Courses
10-14 August 2008
Congress Opens
With thanks to
Dr Robert S.D. Higgins, M.D., M.S.H.A.
Robert S.D. Higgins, M.D., M.S.H.A., is surgical director of the heart failure and cardiac transplant program and professor and chair of the department of cardiovascular and thoracic surgery at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago.
Dr. Higgins is vice president of the OPTN/UNOS board of directors and chair of the OPTN/UNOS membership and professional standards committee (MPSC) as well as its policy compliance subcommittee and its living donor policy advisory work group. He also is a member of the OPTN/UNOS patient affairs committee. He also has served on the OPTN/SRTR data working group, OPTN/UNOS thoracic organ transplantation committee and as chair of his region's review board (heart).
He served as program organizer for the "Diversity and Disparity in Solid Organ Transplantation" conference sponsored by the American Society of Transplantation (AST), and he is chair of the AST's minority affairs committee. He is a member of the editorial board for Transplant Living (transplantliving.org). He has also served on the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Advisory Committee on Transplantation (ACOT).
Dr. Higgins earned his medical degree at the Yale University School of Medicine in New Haven and a master of science degree in health administration at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond.
Prof JOHN WALLWORK
JOHN WALLWORK, Bsc, MBChB, FRCS(E), FRCS, FRCP(E), FRCP(London), FMedSci, MA
Professor of Cardiothoracic Surgery at Papworth Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Cambridge.
John Wallwork qualified at Edinburgh University and trained in cardiothoracic surgery at Edinburgh, Glasgow, London and Adelaide in South Australia. Before being appointed as a Consultant at Papworth Hospital he was Chief Resident at Stanford University Hospital in California for nearly 2 years, where he first became involved in heart and heart-lung transplantation and has played a major role in the development of heart-lung transplantation at Papworth Hospital. He was Director of the Transplant Service from 1989 to 2006, chaired the UK Transplant Cardiothoracic Advisory Group from 1994 to 2006 and was Medical Director of Papworth Hospital from 1997 to 2002. On 1st October 2002 the University of Cambridge awarded him an honorary Chair in Cardiothoracic Surgery.
His major interests include all adult cardiac surgery and cardiothoracic transplantation. In 1984 and 1986 respectively he performed the UK'S first successful heart-lung transplant and, with Professor Sir Roy Calne, the world's first heart-lung and liver transplant. Current research projects include:
- Right heart failure - evaluation of left ventricular assist devices for long-term mobilisation and heart failure
- Improving the quality of donor organs to expand the donor pool
- Stem cell development in the treatment of emphysema
- Transplantation for young adults with heart failure who have survived congenital heart problems
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