Newswise — NEW YORK – October 12, 2017 – The Geoffrey O. Hartzler Master Clinical Operator Award will be presented to Alec Vahanian, MD, in a ceremony on October 31st at the 29th Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) conference in Denver, Colorado. TCT is the annual scientific symposium of the Cardiovascular Research Foundation (CRF). The award is given each year to a physician who has advanced the field of interventional cardiovascular medicine through technical excellence and innovation. TCT Directors, Martin B. Leon, MD, and Gregg W. Stone, MD, will present the award.

Dr. Alec Vahanian is widely acknowledged for his extensive knowledge and expertise in percutaneous valve interventions, antithrombotic treatments, and valvular heart disease, specifically the evaluation, surgical management, and transcatheter valve interventions of both the aortic and mitral valves. His group performed the first percutaneous mitral commissurotomy in Europe and has amassed more than 30 years of follow-up data in this area. They were among the first in France to perform transcatheter aortic valve replacement and transcatheter mitral valve repair, including the implantation of a TAVR valve in a failing valve prosthesis or surgical annuloplasty or severe mitral annular calcification using the transseptal route. Dr. Vahanian also participated in the first studies on thrombolysis and percutaneous coronary intervention during STEMI through the GUSTO trial study group.

“We are extremely honored to pay tribute to Dr. Alec Vahanian,” said Dr. Leon, CRF Founder and Co-Director of Medical Research and Education. “He has a remarkable devotion to patient care, an incredible work ethic, and a desire to continually improve and refine interventional procedures. Throughout his career, Alec has truly embraced innovation and international collaboration to help bring new, more effective ways to treat patients.”

Dr. Vahanian is known for applying an integrated approach to cardiology for the benefit of his colleagues and patients. In recent years, he has dedicated his efforts to building educational materials based on guidelines. He was the Chairman of the Guidelines Task Force on Valvular Heart Disease for the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) in 2007 and 2012, and was the Chairman of its Education Committee from 2012 through 2016. He is currently Chairman of the ESC’s European Observational Registry Program where he hopes to evaluate the quality of guidelines using registries with the aim of improving future guidelines.

“Alec is a premier technical and clinical operator with an extraordinary ability to take new technologies and find creative ways to advance and perfect interventional procedures. Patient care has always been his primary focus and he always strives to provide the best care for his patients. In addition, he has been instrumental in leading the European valve guidelines and documenting the practice of valve therapeutics across the European continent,” said Dr. Stone, Co-Director, Medical Research and Education at CRF.

Dr. Vahanian is currently Head of the Cardiology Department at Bichat-Claude Bernard Hospital in Paris and Professor of Cardiology at University Paris VII. A member of the board of the European Society of Cardiology and other professional organizations, he is also an associate editor of the European Heart Journal and a co-editor of EuroIntervention. In addition, he serves on the editorial board of various journals including the Archives of Cardiovascular Diseases, Current Cardiology Reports, JACC Intervention, F1000, Nature Clinical Reviews, Circulation (French Edition), BMJ Case Reports, and Structural Heart: The Journal of the Heart Team. He has authored more than 450 publications in top-tier medical journals, contributed to almost 50 books, and delivered nearly 600 lectures around the world.

Dr. Vahanian began his medical career soon after completing his medical education and cardiology residency in Paris. He became Chef de Clinique at University Paris VI in 1979, and Professor of Cardiology in 1988. He served as Head of Cardiology at Hospital Tenon from 1994 to 1999 and has been Head of Cardiology at Hospital Bichat since 1999.

The TCT Master Operator Award will be presented on Tuesday, October 31, 2017 at 9:45 AM MT in the Main Arena (Bellco Theater) of the Colorado Convention Center in Denver, Colorado.

About CRF and TCT

The Cardiovascular Research Foundation (CRF) is a nonprofit research and educational organization dedicated to helping doctors improve 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 and educated doctors on the latest treatments for heart disease.

Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) is the annual scientific symposium of CRF and the world’s premier educational meeting specializing in interventional cardiovascular medicine. Now in its 29th year, TCT features major medical research breakthroughs and gathers leading researchers and clinicians from around the world to present and discuss the latest evidence-based research in the field.

For more information, visit www.crf.org and www.tctconference.com.