Newswise — NEW YORK – November 11, 2016 – The Cardiovascular Research Foundation (CRF) announced that it will launch a new international journal focusing on the diagnosis and treatment of structural heart disease and the importance of the heart team in managing these disorders.

Structural Heart: The Journal of the Heart Team will publish its first issue in late Spring 2017 with submissions opening in early 2017. It will feature peer-reviewed clinical and experimental reports that focus on valvular heart disease, disorders related to the left atrial appendage, myocardial disease, congenital heart disease, and more. The journal will cover topics such as natural history and prognosis, diagnostic techniques and imaging, drug treatment, transcatheter interventions, mechanical support, cardiac surgery, and clinical trials. Regular features will include original research, clinical reviews and updates, highlights from symposia, editorial commentary, and letters. It will also publish consensus documents and white papers with recommendations on current topics in cardiovascular disease. The journal will be published by Taylor and Francis Group, LLC, part of Informa PLC, and a worldwide leader in the publication of scholarly journals, books, eBooks, text books and reference works.

"Research and treatments for structural heart disease have grown dramatically in recent years,” said Anthony N. DeMaria, MD, who will serve as the Editor in Chief of Structural Heart: The Journal of the Heart Team. “For so long, our focus was on atherosclerosis and disease of the blood vessels. Among an aging population, structural heart disease has become significantly more prevalent and critical to treat for healthcare professionals. This is an important opportunity as there is no other medical journal focused on this topic.”

Dr. DeMaria is the Judith and Jack White Chair in Cardiology and Founding Director of the Sulpizio Cardiovascular Center at the University of California, San Diego. He specializes in cardiac imaging techniques, particularly echocardiography. For 12 years, Dr. DeMaria served as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology (JACC). An author or co-author of over 700 articles in medical journals, Dr. DeMaria is also listed in the Best Doctors in America and by Good Housekeeping as one of the Best Heart Doctors in America. Dr. DeMaria is a Diplomate in the American Board of Internal Medicine and is board certified by the Subspecialty Board in Cardiovascular Disease. He is a past President of both the American College of Cardiology and American Society of Echocardiography. He has served as a member of the Subspecialty Board on Cardiovascular Disease of the American Board of Internal Medicine and Chair of the Diagnostic Radiology Study Section of the National Institutes of Health. He received his medical degree from Rutgers University, New Jersey College of Medicine and completed a medical residency at the United States Public Health Service Hospital in Staten Island, New York and cardiology fellowship training at the University of California, Davis.

“Our new journal will focus on the importance of the heart team in treating structural heart disease,” said Ori Ben-Yehuda, MD, who will serve as Deputy Editor of the journal. “By providing all members of the heart team with the latest research and information in this area, we hope to impact clinical practice and patient care.”

Dr. Ben-Yehuda is Executive Director of the CRF Clinical Trials Center (CTC). As Executive Director, Dr. Ben-Yehuda is responsible for all CTC activities including trial design, data management, biostatistical analyses, event adjudication, and safety reporting. In addition, he oversees CTC’s CRFiCOR, one of the world’s leading imaging core laboratories. Dr. Ben-Yehuda was previously Vice President, Cardiovascular Clinical Research at Gilead Sciences. Prior to that, he was Professor of Clinical Medicine at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) and the Director of the Coronary Care Unit at UCSD Medical Center. He also served as the Deputy Editor of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology (JACC) from 2002 through 2010. Dr. Ben-Yehuda received his medical degree from the Sackler School of Medicine at Tel Aviv University in Israel. He completed residencies in internal medicine at the Soroka Medical Center in Beer-Sheba, Israel and New York University Medical Center and Bellevue Hospital in New York. He also finished a cardiovascular medicine fellowship at the University of California, San Diego.

Glenn Collins will serve as Executive Managing Editor of the journal. He is the Director of Business Development for Origin Editorial, a provider of peer review management services and editorial consultations. Prior to joining Origin, Glenn was the Executive Editor of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology (JACC) family of journals for twelve years. Glenn started his publishing career in 1995 with John Wiley & Sons. He is a graduate of Cornell University.

To learn more about the journal, view an interview with Dr. Anthony DeMaria here.

About CRFThe Cardiovascular Research Foundation (CRF) is a nonprofit research and educational organization dedicated to helping doctors improve the survival and quality of life for people suffering from heart and vascular disease. For over 25 years, CRF has helped pioneer innovations in interventional cardiology.

The CRF Skirball Center for Innovation pioneers new treatments by testing devices and drug therapies by helping early stage ideas to move through preclinical development into human trials. The CRF Clinical Trials Center designs and conducts clinical trials that investigate innovative therapies. With a global reputation for excellence in training practitioners in advanced techniques and innovations, the CRF Center for Education conducts educational meetings, conferences and teaching symposia that shape the direction of research and new approaches to clinical practice in interventional cardiovascular medicine. For more information, visit www.crf.org. Follow the Structural Heart: The Journal of the Heart Team journal on Twitter @crfshj.

About Taylor & FrancisTaylor & Francis Group partners with researchers, scholarly societies, universities and libraries worldwide to bring knowledge to life. As one of the world’s leading publishers of scholarly journals, books, ebooks and reference works our content spans all areas of Humanities, Social Sciences, Behavioural Sciences, Science, and Technology and Medicine.

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