After studying at the School of Medecine in Paris (1987-1992), Dr Alexandre Avran completed his training with a Scientific master’s degree in Clinical Physiology at the Paris-Sud University (1989-2001). He also obtained a master’s degree in Sports Medicine at the Marseille University (1999-2001).

He achieved a postdoctoral training in interventional cardiology at the Timone Hospital (1998-2002) and in interventional cardiology and clinical research at the Marseille Heart Institute (1997-1998). He spent the first 7 years of his career in Marseille at Marignane Hospital, then he was in charge of CTO Program in the department of Interventional Cardiology at the Arnault Tzanck Institute, in Saint-Laurent-du-Var (2016-2020).

He is currently an Interventional cardiologist at the Centre Hospitalier de Valenciennes, France.

He has been member of the EuroCTO Club for few years before becoming Board member since 2014. He performs more than 40 live cases in international congress (live operator at the New York CTO meeting in 2017 and 2018). He currently performs more than 300 CTO cases per year with 400 cases in 2017. He is a proctor for CTO in France, Europe and Middle East.

Dr Emmanouil Brilakis, MD, PhD, FACC, FAHA, FESC, FSCAI is Director of the Center for Complex Coronary Interventions at the Minneapolis Heart Institute.

Dr Brilakis graduated from Lycee Leonin de Patissia and received his medical degree from the National Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece. He trained in Internal Medicine, Cardiovascular Diseases and Interventional Cardiology at the Mayo Clinic. He also completed a Masters in Clinical Research at the Mayo Clinic and a PhD in Clinical Research at the National Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece. He served as director of the cardiac catheterization laboratories at VA North Texas Health Care System from 2004-2016.

He leads a large clinical trial group investigating in treatment of chronic total occlusions, prevention and treatment of saphenous vein graft disease, prevention and management of complications, intracoronary imaging, antiplatelet treatment optimization post coronary stenting, radiation safety in the catheterization laboratory, lipid lowering strategies, and implementation of novel technologies in healthcare.

He has also authored or co-authored over 600 manuscripts and has written the Manual of Percutaneous Coronary Interventions and the Manual of CTO Interventions.  He is lecturing and proctoring at several institutions in the United States and abroad.

Dr Stéphane CARLIER specialized in Cardiology at ULB in 1996. He obtained his PhD in Biomedical Engineering at the Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam in 2001. He has been Head of the Cardiology Department at UMONS since its creation in 2014 where he teaches Cardiology. He is also an interventional cardiologist at the Ambroise Paré UHC in Mons.

He directed the Intravascular Imaging Laboratory at the Cardiovascular Research Foundation and Columbia University in New York. He also gained experience in the biomedical industry as Medical Director Europe/Middle East, in charge of the first elution stent (Cypher). His work, published in more than 140 articles, demonstrates his expertise in the evaluation of coronary atheromatosis and its treatments.

He developed new diagnostic methods for unstable plaque by intracoronal imaging, as well as a new hypothesis of the mechanism of rupture of unstable plaques linked to microcalcifications, a hypothesis that has been tested and referenced more than 250 times to date.

After obtaining his Medical Degree in 1993, he specialized in Cradiology in 1999 from the University of Turin.

From 2005 to 2020 he was Director of Catheterization Laboratory and Interventional Cardiology Unit at San Giovanni Bosco Hospital, Turin. Since September 2020 he has been Interventional cardiologist at Maria Pia Hospital GVM Care & Research, Turin, Italy.

He is an expert in complex PCI, particularly in the treatment of Chronic Total Occlusion (Proctor in complex PCI with Rotational Atherectomy, Proctor in CTO IVUS-guided PCI with antegrade and retrograde approach).

He is an active member of EURO-CTO Club and he participates in many conventions around the world. In 2015 and 2016 he was Director of the International CTO Summit in Torino.

Dr. Garbo has authored and co-authored several publications on indexed journals.

Dr Hovasse is an Interventional cardiologist, installed at the Paris South Cardiovascular Institute since November 2007 where he practices complex angioplasties, percutaneous valve placement and cardiac sectional imaging (CT and MRI).

He is specialized in cardiac Imaging, Interventional Cardiology Coronarography, stents, coronary angioplasty, percutaneous valves, Percutaneous Aortic Valve Implantation (TAVI), left atrial closure and septal alcoholization.

He actively participates in many CTO courses as an expert operator.

He also practices at Hôpital Privé Jacques Cartier.

Dr. Kambis Mashayekhi finished his medical school in 2003 in Austria. Between 2004 and 2008 he was trained in interventional cardiology at the Heart Centre in Bad Neustadt. From 2009 to 2016 he was the Senior head physician and Deputy Senior Consultant at the Helios Vogtland Clinic in Plauen, Germany. In 2012 he became the Lead for the Chronic Total Occlusion (CTO) and cardiac magnetic resonance imaging program in Plauen.

In 2013, with at the age of 36 years, Dr. Mashayekhi became the youngest EuroCTO Club member. Dr. Mashayekhi is actually performing over 350 CTO percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI) per year and is a world renowned CTO specialist.

From 2016-2022, he was Deputy Senior Consultant at the University of the Interventional Cardiology Department at the Heartcenter Freibrug – Bad Krozingen and as the Director of the Chronic Total Occlusion (CTO) and Complex Higher-risk and Indicated Procedures (CHIP) Program responsible for over 500 CTO procedures at his center.

He is currently Director of the Department for Internal Medecine and Cardiology at MediClin Heartcenter Lahr.

Dr. Stéphane Rinfret received a complementary training in cardiology at Montreal University in 1997 and a clinical training in interventional cardiology at the Heart Institute of Montreal and the Center Hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal (CHUM) in 1998 and 1999. He also completed postdoctoral training in interventional cardiology, health services and economic research in 2001 at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Clinical Research.

He graduated in clinical epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health in 2001. He spent the first 7 years of his career at the CHUM and from 2008 and worked for 7 years at the University Institute of Cardiology and Pulmonology (IUCPQ). From 2016 to 2021, he was Associate professor of medicine at McGill University. He was Professor of medicine at Emory University since 2021.

He is now Professor of medicine at Georgia Heart Institute Gainesville, Georgia, USA, since 2024.

He is also a world-renowned coronary surgeon performing more than 300 percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI) per year.

Dr Tammam completed his General Cardiology training at the National Heart institute, Cairo – Egypt. He Completed his Fellowship period at the Hemodynamic and Interventional Cardiology Department of Pasteur Institute, Toulouse (2008-2009) as Award of EAPCI grant. Dr.Tammam received his training of TRI and CTO in South Korea and Japan. He obtained his Master’s Degree from Saint Etienne University, France. He obtained PhD in Tokai University, Japan.

He is Associate Consultant Interventional Cardiologist and Director of the Invasive cardiology Department at the International Medical Center, Jeddah, KSA. He is also Assistant Professor of cardiology in Tokai University, Japan.

His main areas of interest are complex coronary intervention and chronic total occlusion. He has been actively involved in many new technologies and devices in the field of interventional cardiology. He is the founder of IMC live CTO summit course in Jeddah, KSA.

After being trained in Japan (Shiga University, School of Medicine) and US (Brigham and Women’s Hospital and New England Deaconess Hospital in Boston), Dr Yamane obtained a Cardiovascular and Interventional Cardiology specialization.

Masahisa Yamane MD, FACC, who is currently the Director Of Cardiovascular Division, Sekishinkai Saitama Hospital, Japan and an attending physician of St Luke’s International Hospital, Tokyo, Japan, is widely known as a leading specialist in CTO-PCI.

He is a visiting professor of Cardiovascular Medicine at OLV Cardiovascular Center Belgium and at the Belgrade School of Medicine, Serbia. He equally took part in a large amount of meetings such as TCT, PCR, EuroCTO Club, CTO Summit in New York and Turin and many more. He is also a supervisory board member of CTO Club and CTT in Japan.