Dr John J. Atherton is a Sydney-born Australian cardiologist and clinician-scientist who has built his professional life in Brisbane, Queensland, where he currently serves as Director of Cardiology at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital. He practices adult cardiology with a focus on heart failure and advanced cardiovascular disease, and lives in Brisbane while maintaining academic appointments across multiple universities in Queensland.

Academic History

Dr Atherton earned his medical degree (MBBS) in Australia and completed specialist training in cardiology, achieving membership of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians (FRACP) and advanced fellowships in cardiology. His academic roles include Professor in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Queensland and Adjunct Professor in the Faculty of Health at the Queensland University of Technology.

He completed a PhD focused on symptom interventions and self-management in chronic cardiac…

Prof Petar Seferović is a Professor of Internal Medicine at Belgrade University, Belgrade, RS.

In 1990, he got his PhD from the School of Medicine, University of Belgrade.

Prof Seferović is the past President of the Heart failure Association of the ESC and has co-authored over 800 publications.

Prof John Cleland is a Professor of Cardiology at University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK.

In 1977, he qualified from the University of Glasgow, completed training at St. Mary's & Hammersmith Hospitals (London) and was awarded a Senior Fellowship by the British Heart Foundation.

His main interests include heart failure, extending from epidemiology & prevention, to Phase II-IV trials and guidelines. 

He founded the European Journal of Heart Failure and is Past-Chair of the ESC Working Group on heart failure and British Society for Heart Failure.

Academic History

Michael Böhm studied medicine from 1977 to 1984 at the Medical School of Hannover (MHH), Germany. During 1979–1981, he completed his doctoral thesis at the Centre for Toxicology and Pharmacology at MHH. He then spent time (1982) at the Tufts University, Boston, USA. Following that, from 1982–1984 he worked as a scientific assistant at the University Hospital Hamburg-Eppendorf (division of general pharmacology). From 1986 to 1993, he trained in internal medicine and cardiology at the Medizinische Klinik I, Klinikum Großhadern, of the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München. In 1993 he obtained his habilitation and became assistant professor of internal medicine/cardiology at the Universität zu Köln (University of Cologne). Between 1995 and 2000 he held a C3-Professorship there; in 2000 he was appointed to a C4-Professorship for Internal Medicine with focus on Cardiology/Angiology at the Saarland University, Homburg/Saar, Germany — at which time he became…

Prof Meg Jardine is Director of the NHMRC Clinical Trials Centre at University of Sydney, Camperdown, AU.

She is a member of the International Society of Nephrology Executive Committee (2023 – 2025), an Executive Committee member of the international nephrology guidelines body, KDIGO, and has contributed to Australian CARI guideline development.

Prof Jardine's research focusses on reducing the progression and complications of non-communicable diseases, particularly kidney disease, diabetes and cardiovascular disease, through randomised trials and epidemiological analyses.

Dr Daniël van Raalte is a Professor of Medicine at Amsterdam UMC, Amsterdam, NL.

His particular interest is in Clinical Diabetology and his top areas of expertise include Type 2 Diabetes (T2D), Diabetic Nephropathy, Wilson Disease, and Osmotic Diuresis.