24^th Annual SA Heart^® Congress 2024

Adjunct Professor in the Department of Paediatrics, C.H. Baragwanath Academic Hospital, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.

Head of Paediatric Cardiology, C.H. Baragwanath Academic Hospital. Attended the University of Witwatersrand Medical School, specialized in Paediatrics within the University of the Witwatersrand Hospital Complex, and completed a one year fellowship in Interventional Cardiology at the Gasthuisberg University Hospital, Leuven, Belgium in 1999. Her clinical work focuses on the investigation and treatment of children with all forms of congenital and acquired heart disease with special interest in Interventional Cardiology, and Echocardiography, and training of Paediatric Cardiologists for South Africa. Fifty publications achieved to date.

Prof Ruchika Meel is a general cardiologist at Sandton Medi-Clinic and an Associate Professor at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. She has an interest in clinical cardiology and cardiovascular imaging. She has a passionate interest in research with to date 1 book publication, four book chapters and 47 research articles and over 60 congress presentations. Her Masters of Medicine research dissertation, awarded cum laude was entitled “Time to fibrinolytics for acute myocardial infarction and reasons for delays at Steve Biko Academic Hospital, Pretoria”.  Her PhD thesis was an investigation of myocardial mechanics in chronic rheumatic mitral regurgitation. She is currently involved in research projects related to aortic aneurysms. She is actively involved in supervising and teaching MMED students, undergraduate and postgraduate medical students. She is a Fellow of European Society of Cardiology and European Association of Cardiovascular imaging. She is an executive member of the Cardiac Imaging Society of South Africa and education committee. She has received multiple awards for conference presentations and was the recipient of Carnegie doctoral and post-doctoral awards. She was awarded the prestigious TH Bothwell research prize in Internal Medicine at the University of the Witwatersrand school of clinical medicine annual awards ceremony. She has recently been appointed as the Editor-in-Chief of the South African Heart Association Journal.

Dr Vijay Mammen is a Paediatric Cardiologist at Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital in Soweto, Johannesburg. He is also a lecturer in the Department of Paediatrics and Child Health at Wits University.

He completed his undergraduate and postgraduate training at Wits University. He also completed his fellowship in Paediatric Cardiology in 2019 at Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital. He has a keen interest in all aspects of Paediatric Cardiology, including interventional cardiology.

Rabia Johnson, is a National Research Foundation (NRF) C2 rated scientist that has received her Ph.D. at Stellenbosch University (SU) in 2007 and completed a BA Honours in Business Management at the University of Lincoln in 2021. She is a Chief Specialist Scientist and Co-Deputy Director at Biomedical Research and Innovation Platform/ South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC).

She also holds an extraordinary Senior Lecturer position within the Division of Medical Physiology, Department of Biomedical Science, Stellenbosch University. She is affiliated with the hypertension consortium and has been appointed as an NRF Rating Specialist Committee Member, for the next 5 years, on the Biochemistry, Molecular, and Cell Biology (BIOC) panel. She won the SAMRC Silver Merit Award in 2020 for her contribution to health research. In 2023 she won the Forbes Woman in Africa Academic Excellence award.

Her main research niche is centered around diabetes and hypertension as cardiovascular insults. Her research group focuses on identifying novel cardioprotective therapies and on understanding the pathophysiology of diabetes-induced cardiovascular dysfunction. The importance of her field of research lies in the ability to identify novel biomarkers that can be used for the development of diagnostic and therapeutic interventions and monitoring of treatment response of diseases. She also investigates the role of pharmacogenomics in uncontrolled hypertension.

She has published > 80 articles in peer review journals, has an h-index of 25 (Scopus), and her publications have received at least 1900 citations (Scopus). To date, she has built both local and international collaborations and graduated both MSc and Ph.D. students.

Dr Sandrine Lecour is a Full Professor at the University of Cape Town, Deputy Director of the Cape Heart Institute, University of Cape Town and leader of the Cardioprotection Group. Her research group focuses on the delineation of novel cardioprotective signalling pathways, including high density lipoproteins, sphingolipids, and melatonin. Over the past few years, part of her research has focused on the delineation of the Survivor Activating Factor Enhancement (SAFE) pathway, which is triggered by the immune system. She has published over 130 papers in peer-reviewed journals (H index = 47). She is on the Editorial Board of many peer-reviewed journals, including Journal of Molecular and Cellular in Cardiology and Basic Research in Cardiology. Prof Sandrine Lecour is a Fellow of the European Society of Cardiology , B NRF researcher and she has been a Committee Member of the European Society of Cardiology Working Group on Cellular Biology of the Heart (2011–21) and the Treasurer of the International Society for Heart Research, European section (2016-2022). As the co-founder and the President of the South African Society for Cardiovascular Research (SASCAR) (2009–16), she constantly strives to promote the research and training of students in the cardiovascular field in South Africa.

Dr Blanche Cupido is a consultant adult interventional cardiologist who has a special interest in Congenital Heart Disease, Cardiac Imaging and Valvular Heart Disease.

Dr Cupido completed her undergraduate medical degree at UCT in 2001 and subsequently specialised in internal medicine (2009) and cardiology (2013). In 2016, she completed her fellowship in Adult Congenital Heart Disease in Leeds, UK and Certificate in Advanced Heart Failure Management from the University of Zurich and the ESC Academy.

Dr Cupido currently works at Groote Schuur Hospital and UCT Private Academic Hospital as the Head of Echocardiography and the Clinical Lead for Adult Congenital Heart Disease. In 2020, she was elected as one of the Inaugural winners of the Women as One Escalator award. She is a Fellow to the American College of Cardiology and a Fellow to the European Society of Cardiology.

Dr Cupido serves on the executive board of Young Hearts Africa, an organisation to improve capacity of surgical access to children and adults with congenital heart disease. She is involved internationally in the field of Adult Congenital Heart Disease, and serves on the executive of the International Society of Adult Congenital Heart Disease (ISACHD). She has recently been appointed as the Associate Editor- in-Chief for the CHiP (Congenital Heart International Professionals) Network.

Dr Cupido is involved with education at undergraduate, postgraduate, regional, national and international level and has recently been elected as a TAU (Teaching Advancements in Universities) Fellow.

Dr Cupido is the immediate past-president of SA Heart.

Prof Pecoraro is a cardiologist pursuing an academic career in South Africa.  My career objectives are to contribute to the accessibility of advanced health care for all people of South Africa, and to improve the outcome of patients through locally relevant research. My special interests include echocardiography, the management of acute coronary syndromes and infective endocarditis.

Nqoba Tsabedze is an Associate Professor in the School of Clinical Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of the Witwatersrand. He is the Academic and Clinical Head of the Division of Cardiology of the University of the Witwatersrand and the Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital, respectively. He is an executive committee member of the South African Heart Association and the South African Hypertension Society. The President of the Heart Failure Society of South Africa (HEFSSA). He was admitted as a fellow of the European Society of cardiology in 2022. He is passionate about teaching and training both undergraduate and postgraduate students.