Ikonomidis Ignatios

Dr Ignatios Ikonomidis is Professor of Cardiology in the 2nd Cardiology Department, Attikon Hospital, Medical School of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece (elected to full professor on the 28/8/2020 from the post of associate professor).

He is the Head of the Echocardiography and the Laboratory of Preventive Cardiology of the 2nd Cardiology Department, and he runs the Clinic of Cardiometabolic disease and Smoking Cessation. He works in the field of non-invasive cardiovascular imaging. He has a national and worldwide reputation and is regarded as one of the leading experts in the field echocardiography and inflammation in CV diseases. As a result, he is a member of the accreditation committee for cardiac ultrasound for European Association of Cardiovascular Imaging Certification and Greek Health Authorities and member of the IRT committee of EACVI. He is a fellow of the European Society of Cardiology and Heart Failure Association member of the of the Basic Cardiovascular Sciences Council of the American Heart Association and nucleus member of HFA Study group on Valvular Heart Disease.

He is the current president of the board of International Association on Smoking Control and Harm Reduction (SCOHRE). He was a nucleus member of the ESC WG of Aorta and Peripheral Vascular Diseases (2014) and participated in all activities and educational training programs of the WG. He is the first author of a recent consensus document of HFA, EACVI and ESC WG of Aorta and Peripheral Arterial Diseases on the role of ventricular –arterial coupling in cardiac diseases (Eur J Heart Fail 2019). He was also the president of the Greek WG of Aorta & Peripheral Vascular Diseases (2018-2020).

He has published novel work about the effects of medically-assisted smoking cessation and novel smoking products on cardiovascular function. He has a particular interest on vascular imaging and investigated the effects of aortic function on cardiac function especially after therapeutic interventions with several publication on the topic of aortic stiffness, carotid atherosclerosis and aortic aneurysms. He has published over 250 original papers referenced in PUBMED with high number of citations and contributed to several medical textbooks.

Current employment and nature of responsibilities:

• Professor of Cardiology, Athens Medical School, NKUA
• Director, Echocardiography Department, 2nd Cardiology Dept, Attikon Hospital
• Director, Preventive Cardiology and Vascular Imaging Laboratory
• Director, Smoking Cessation Clinic and Clinic of Cardiometabolic Diseases
• Responsible for the training of the medical students in Cardiology
• Supervisor of 10 PhD thesis, Athens Medical School, NKUA (6 completed)
• Head of the committee of the examination for the transesophageal and stress echocardiography of the Ministry of Health, Greece

Dr Ikonomidis is the President of the 4th Scientific Summit’s Organising Committee.

Richter Dimitri

Dr. Dimitri Richter MD, FESC, FAHA is the Head of Cardiac Department, Euroclinic Hospital, Athens, Greece. He has a special interest in lipid treatment, coronary artery disease prevention and smoking prevention – harm reduction.

He acted as President of the Hellenic Lipidology Society (2013-2017), President of Institute of Thrombosis Research (2018-2020), Member of the Board of the Hellenic Heart Foundation since 2009, President WG Epidemiology and Prevention – Hellenic Heart Society (2008-2009), President of the Council of Clinical Practice of ESC (2018-2020).

He is Editor in chief of “Heart and Vessels”, the official publication of the Hellenic Heart Foundation since 2010.

He was a Member of Committee of Practice Guidelines of the ESC (2016-2020).

He is an author of various papers in international peer-reviewed journals with an IF of > 400.

Barbouni Anastasia

Anastasia Barbouni was born in Athens. She studied Medicine at the University of Athens, Greece. She is Paediatrician specialised in Paediatric Intensive Care. She holds a Master of Public Health (MPH) from the National School of Public Health and Doctorate (PhD) from the University of Athens in the field of Epidemiology. Her research interests cover the epidemiology of chronic diseases, nutrition and the development of prevention and intervention programs, and efforts for the control of smoking habit in Greece. She has published in Greek and international journals and has co-authored books and educational material within Greek and European programs.

Since 2016 she has been elected Professor of Public Health at the Department of Public Health of the National School of Public Health, Athens, Greece (as of 7th May 2019 the National School of Public Health was merged with the University of West Attica).

She was member of National Nutrition Committee, National Vaccination Committee and since 2004 is representative of Greece to the Council of Europe (CDSP – Public Health Committee).

Farsalinos Konstantinos

Konstantinos Farsalinos, MD, MPH is a physician and senior researcher at the University of Patras and the School of Public Health-University of West Attica in Greece. His field of expertise is Public Health. He has been conducting laboratory, clinical and epidemiological research on smoking, tobacco harm reduction and e-cigarettes as principal investigator since 2011.

He authored the first systematic review on e-cigarette safety/risk profile, published in 2014. Additionally, he has performed research and published studies on heated tobacco products. His findings have been presented in major international scientific congresses and his studies were used in preparing the regulatory framework on e-cigarettes by the European Union.

As of mid-2021, he has published more than 90 studies and articles in international peer-reviewed scientific journals about smoking, tobacco harm reduction and alternative-to-smoking nicotine products. He was the handling editor and author of a book titled “Analytical assessment of e-cigarettes”, published by Elsevier in 2017.

In November 2020, he was declared a Highly Cited Researcher 2019 by the Web of Science, a list of researchers (6200 scientists out of 9 million examined) with the highest impact in global science in 21 scientific fields in the past decade. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he has published more than 8 studies about the COVID-19, including the association between smoking, nicotine and COVID-19.