Keynote Speakers

Cardiogenic Shock is a Team Sport: No One
Should Be Left out
Dr. Baran, serves as Section Head of Advanced Heart Failure, Transplant and Mechanical Circulatory Support (MCS) at Cleveland Clinic Weston Hospital. Prior to joining Cleveland Clinic, Dr. Baran was System Director for Advanced Heart Failure, Transplant, and Mechanical Circulatory Support at Sentara Heart Hospital in Norfolk, Virginia. As a clinical researcher, Dr. Baran is largely focused on transplant immunosuppression and the management of cardiogenic shock including device therapies. He led the team that created the SCAI Shock classification system, which is used worldwide to describe the severity of cardiogenic shock. His research consists of co-authoring more than 120 peer-reviewed articles, publishing 150 abstracts, and conducting more than 125 lectures/presentations.

Dr. Brooks is a Clinician-Scientist and Emergency Physician in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Queen’s University. Dr. Brooks conducts research in the areas of cardiac arrest and resuscitation. His research is focused around methods of improving bystander resuscitation for victims of out of hospital cardiac arrest. Dr. Brooks has a special interest in innovative methods to improve public access defibrillation and led an international task force in the development of a scientific statement from the International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation. He is the principal investigator of a randomized controlled trial involving a crowdsourcing mobile device application for basic life support during out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. The Neighbours Saving Neighbours study is a pilot program measuring the feasibility of a volunteer community first responder program for cardiac arrest in neighbourhoods at risk for prolonged ambulance response time.

Early Recognition of Pulmonary Embolism: How Many Are We Missing?
Dr. Toma, is an interventional cardiologist currently serving as director of interventional cardiology for the Heart and Vascular Institute and director of the Interventional Fellowship at UPMC. He is an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. He currently leads the Chronic Total Occlusion Program as well as the Pulmonary Vascular Interventional Program at UPMC Presbyterian Hospital. Additional interests include intracoronary imaging and mechanical circulatory support. Dr. Toma has had an extensive amount of publications and presentations over his career, has several invention patents, and serves as a clinical study leader at local and national levels.