Professor Gianfranco Butera is a Consultant for Pediatric and GUCH Cardiology at the Policlinico San Donato IRCCS in Milan, Italy. He studied at the Catholic University of Rome, specialized in Pediatric Cardiology and completed his training at the Hopital Necker Enfants Malades in Paris, France with Prof Kachaner and Prof Bonhoeffer and obtained a postgraduate degree in Pediatric Cardiology from the Universitè Rénè Descartes, Paris V. He is a fellow of the GISE, SICP, AEPC, SCAI and COMET, and serves on the executive council of two charity associations. He has served as chairmen of the Working Group of interventional cardiology of the AEPC. He has been a visiting professor at various Universities including Harvard, Bordeaux and Padova, and his clinical and research interests are focused on interventional cardiology in children and adults with congenital heart diseases. In addition, Prof. Butera is a reviewer for 15 international journals and Case Report Editor for Cardiology in the Young. He has authored more than 180 papers in peer-reviewed journals and has edited books on interventional and fetal cardiology. With Springer he co-edited the book "Cardiac Catheterization for CHD" and a book on fetal and hybrid cardiac procedures. Prof. Massimo Chessa's main clinical focus is on management and intervention in pediatric and adults with congenital heart diseases; since his PhD he has been working as a Consultant in Congenital Heart Disease IRCCS- Policlinico San Donato Pediatric Cardiology Department and Adult with Congenital Heart Defect Unit, practicing more than 500 catheterizations per year (80% of which interventional). He is leader of the ACHD Program devoted to the adults with congenital heart defects, senior researcher and involved in many projects for International and Humanitarian Cooperation. He has been visiting fellow in France and in the UK, is President of AICCA (Italian GUCH Association www.aicca.it ). He has authored more than 150 publications in Peer Reviewed Journals, 8 Chapters in Books, has been editor of two volumes for Springer Verlag on Adult Congenital Heart Disease and The Right Ventricle in Adults with Tetralogy of Fallot, and his Editor of the Book Seried devoted to ACHD endorsed by the ESC and AEPC ACHD/GUCH Working Groups. Andreas Eicken MD, PhD, FESC is head of the catheterization laboratory for patients with congenital heart disease (newborns to adults) at the Department of Paediatric Cardiology and Congenital Heart Disease, German Heart Centre Munich. Dr John THOMSON is a Consultant Cardiologist accredited since 2004 in the practice of congenital heart disease (adult and pediatric) at Nuffield Health Hospitals in Leeds, UK. Areas of interest: Cardiology-congenital heart disease including Paediatric cardiology and adult congenital heart disease, Childrens cardiac, Cardiology in young adults, Structural and congenital transcatheter intervention (e.g. atrial septal defect and patent foramen ovale closure, valvuloplasty, coarctation stenting etc). In the field of research: thesis on neurological damage during the closure of atrial septal defects, 7 book chapters and 33 publications in peer reviewed journals.
