Division of Cardiology, National Cheng Kung University Medical College, Tainan, Taiwan

Jyh-Hong Chen is currently a Professor of Cardiology at the National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan, where he previously held the positions of Chief of Cardiology, Chair of Medicine, Vice-Superintendent and Superintendent of the University Hospital. He gained his medical degree and PhD from the National Taiwan University, Taipei. His subsequent academic career has spanned nearly three decades and included Visiting Professorships at The Johns Hopkins University Medical School, Baltimore, MA, USA, and The William Harvey Research Institute, London, UK.

Professor Chen’s clinical research interests include: the pathogenesis of acute coronary syndrome; coronary artery disease; hypertension; stroke prevention. He has been National Coordinator or Co-Principal Investigator for several international, multicentre clinical trials, including Hypertension Optimal Treatment (HOT), ongoing telmisartan alone and in combination with ramipril global endpoint trial (ONTARGET), atrial fibrillation clopidogrel trial with irbesartan for prevention of vascular events (ACTIVE), randomised evaluation of long-term anticoagulation therapy (RE-LY), thiazolidinedione intervention with vitamin D evaluation (TIDE) and low-dose aspirin-related ulcer recurrence prevention (LAVENDER). He is a Fellow of the American College of Cardiology and reviewer for the American Journal of Cardiology, Catheterization and Cardiovascular Interventions, the Journal of the Formosan Medical Association and Circulation.

From 2010 to 2012, Professor Chen was elected as the President of Taiwan Society of Cardiology (TSOC) and led the publication of the Taiwanese guidelines on hypertension, heart failure and ST segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI).

The Zena and Michael A. Wiener Cardiovascular Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, USA

Jonathan Halperin is the Robert and Harriet Heibrunn Professor of Medicine at The Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York University and Director of Clinical Cardiology in the Zena and Michael A. Wierner Cardiovascular Institute at The Mount Sinai Medical Center.

Professor Halperin was awarded an MD from Boston University in 1975. He has previously served in various federal appointments which included the Cardiovascular and Renal Drugs Advisory Committee of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health where he was in the Data Safety Monitoring board for the clinical trial of aspirin and simvastatin in pulmonary arterial hypertension and in the clinical trial coordinating centre of the National Institutes of Health. He was the principal cardiologist who spearheaded the SPAF (Stroke Prevention in Atrial Fibrillation clinical trials). The trials were conducted in multiple centres where 3,600 patients and more than 100 investigators were involved. Currently, he is involved in several clinical trials with the objective of developing more effective drugs for the prevention of ischemia in a range of cardiovascular disease conditions.

Professor Halperin has authored a wide range of materials including over 100 peer-reviewed reports, books, chapters, guidelines and position statements, invited articles and reviews, clinical case reports, and abstracts. His numerous awards and honours include the Champion of Heart and Stroke, Master of the Society for Vascular Medicine, The Heart of New York Award, The Heart of New York Presidential Salute, Howard B. Sprague Research Fellowship Award, Samuel Bronfman Department of Medicine Teaching Excellence, Samuel Bronfman Department of Medicine Grand Rounds Award, Cardiology Fellows Society of Greater New York, The Simon Dack Award, The Jacobi Medallion, The Solomon R. Berson Memorial Award, John R. Murray Award, The University Hospital Chair and the Roland Jackson Memorial Medical Scholarship.

Dr. Raymond Wong is Honorary Clinical Associate Professor and Head of the Division of Haematology at the Department of Medicine & Therapeutics of the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He is also Consultant in the Department of Medicine and Therapeutics at the Prince of Wales Hospital, Hong Kong.

Dr. Wong received his medical degree from the Chinese University of Hong Kong and completed his training at Prince of Wales Hospital, Hong Kong in Haematology and Haematological Oncology, Internal Medicine and Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics. Dr. Wong undertook his Blood and Marrow Transplantation Fellowship training at the MD Anderson Cancer Center, Texas, USA and gained a Doctor of Medicine at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Dr. Wong has broad research interests with a special focus on the biological and therapeutic aspects of leukaemias, autoimmune haematological diseases, stem cell transplantation, bleeding and thrombosis. He served as the Chairman of the Hong Kong Association of Blood Transfusion and Haematology from 2004 to 2005. Dr. Wong is the author or co-author of over 100 peer-reviewed articles, published in international journals such as Blood, Circulation, JAMA and the New England Journal of Medicine.

Ganesananthan Shanmuganathan is currently Consultant Physician and Gastroenterologist at Pantai Hospital Kuala Lumpur, Bangsar, Kuala Lumpur.

Dr. Ganes graduated from the National University of Malaysia (UKM) in 1989 with a degree in medicine. He obtained his postgraduate medical diploma; Membership of the Royal Colleges of Physicians (MRCP) in 1993 and was subsequently appointed Head of Medicine at the Teluk Intan Hospital from 1994 to 1995. He embarked on his Fellowship in Gastroenterology (Ministry of Health, Adelaide and Melbourne) from 1996 to 1998. In 2002, Dr. Ganes was appointed Head of Gastroenterology at Kuala Lumpur Hospital, the largest public hospital in Malaysia.

He is a senior trainer in the field of Gastroenterology and Gastrointestinal (GI) Endoscopy. He was the first Malaysian to receive the Takeda Science Foundation Award and has received numerous awards for his medical services. Dr. Ganes opted for early retirement from public service in 2009 and was subsequently appointed Consultant Gastroenterologist with Pantai Hospital Kuala Lumpur.

He performs a whole array of diagnostic (OGDS, Colonoscopy, Capsule Endoscopy, Clinical Manometry and ambulatory pH study) and therapeutic endoscopic procedures, including ERCP, PEG tube placement, enteroscopy, stenting for benign and malignant strictures, polypectectomy and mucosal resection. He has a keen interest in endoscopic management of GI bleeding and has an impressive list of peer-reviewed publications and presentations at both local and international meetings.

Dr Ganes is honorary lecturer at the National University of Malaysia (UKM) and member of the Malaysian Society of Gastroenterology and Hepatology (MSGH), American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) and American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ASGE).

Kenneth Butcher is an Associate Professor of Neurology at the University of Alberta. He completed his PhD concurrently with his MD at the University of Western Ontario. His thesis was based on the autonomic effects of stroke. Following his Neurology residency at the University of Alberta, Dr. Butcher travelled to Australia where he completed a post-doctoral fellowship in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and advanced computed tomography (CT) imaging of acute stroke. In 2006, he returned to Alberta and took up his current faculty position. His major clinical and research interests are in acute stroke care. He recently designed and led a multicentre, randomised, trial of blood pressure reduction in acute intracerebral haemorrhage patients.

His active research projects include MRI studies and CT perfusion studies, aimed at extending the time window for stroke thrombolysis. He is also assessing the utility of using novel oral anticoagulants acutely after minor stroke and transient ischemic attack. Dr. Butcher has over 100 peer-reviewed publications. He has Personnel Awards and Grantsin-Aid funding from the Alberta Heritage Innovates Health Solutions, Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada. Dr. Butcher holds a Canada Research Chair in Cerebrovascular Disease and the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Alberta, Northwest Territories (NWT) and Nunavut Professorship in Stroke Medicine.