Fausto J. Pinto, MD, Ph.D
FESC, FACC, FSCAI, FASE
Prof. Fausto Pinto graduated at Lisbon University Medical School in 1984. He did his Cardiology internship at Santa Maria University Hospital – CHLN, E.P.E. (Lisbon, Portugal), and Stanford University Medical School (CA, USA), where he was a Research Fellow and then Clinical Attending in the Echocardiography laboratory. He was also awarded with an Interventional Cardiology Fellowship at the same institution. He obtained his PhD at Lisbon University Medical School, in December 1993, and his Aggregation in 1997 by the same University.
He is currently full Professor of Cardiology (since 2010) and he was Dean of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Lisbon (2015-2022). He is also the Head of the Cardiology Department (since 2014) and of the Heart and Vessels Department (since 2016) of Santa Maria University Hospital, CHULN E.P.E.. Additionally, he was the President of the Medical Schools Council (2018-2020) and is still President of the Executive Board of the Lisbon Academic Medical Centre (CAML) (2019-2021). He was the President of the Associação para Investigação e Desenvolvimento da Faculdade de Medicina between 2003 and 2015.
He is the President of the World Heart Federation (WHF) (2021-2022), and Director of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) (2014-16), the only Portuguese to have been elected to these leadership positions in Cardiovascular Medicine. He was Chairman of the ESC Echocardiography Working Group (2000-2002 as Vice-Chairman) and after he was the President and founder of the European Association of Echocardiography (2003-04). He was elected Councillor of the ESC Board (2004-06), ESC Board Member (2007-2010), ESC Vice-President (2010-2012) and ESC President (2012-2014). He has held various positions in different scientific institutions, being an honorary member or fellow of several of them, including Fellow of the American College of Cardiology (FACC), Gold Medalist and Fellow of the ESC (FESC), The Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions (FSCAI), American Society of Angiology (FASA), Honorary Fellow of the American Society of Echocardiography (FASE), Societé Française de Cardiologie, Sociedade Romena de Cardiologia, Romanian Academy of Medical Sciences, Società Italiana di Ecografia Cardiovascolare (SIEC), Sociedad Colombiana de Cardiologia, Academia Nacional de Medicina do Brasil, Hungarian Society of Cardiology. Japanese Circulation Society, Sociedad Peruana de Cardiologia, Romanian Society of Cardiology, Russian Society of Cardiology, Slovakian Society of Cardiology, Ukranian Society of Cardiology. He was awarded several prizes and distinctions, including, more recently, in 2019, the International Service Award of the American College of Cardiology (ACC). He is Doctor Honoris Causa of the Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungria.
He was the Editor in Chief of the Portuguese Journal of Cardiology (1999-2015), and is currently Consulting Editor and Member of the Advisory and Editorial of Board of several international peer-reviewed journals.
Prof. Pinto has participated in several national and international studies, including the FP7 and Horizon 2020 European Programmes, as National Coordinator of several of these studies. He has published over 500 indexed articles (h=51) and has presented over 1500 lectures/chairmanships at national and mostly international meetings.
Dulce Brito, MD, Ph.D
FESC
Prof. Dulce Brito received her MD from Lisbon University Medical School in 1982. Her residency and fellowship training in internal medicine, emergency medicine and cardiology were mostly attended at Santa Maria University Hospital, CHLN (Lisbon, Portugal). After obtaining her Doctoral degree (PhD.) in 2007, at the same Faculty, in the area of Cardiomyopathies, Dulce Brito was appointed to her current position as Invited Professor of Cardiology at Lisbon University Medical School.
Prof. Dulce Brito is Cardiology Consultant at the Cardiology Department at Santa Maria University Hospital, Head of the Cardiomyopathies Unit, coordinator of the Inpatient Cardiology Unit, and coordinator of the Heart Failure Programme.
She is a Researcher of the Cardiovascular Centre of the University of Lisbon (CCUL) and a Research Group Leader in the area of heart failure and cardiomyopathies. To the present, she has participated in 20 international therapeutic investigational clinical trials, most as local PI (Principal Investigator). At the Portuguese Society of Cardiology (SPC), she was General-secretary (2007-2009), Chair of the Working Group (WG) on Myocardial and Pericardial Diseases (2009-2013), vice-President (2013-2015), Chair of the Congress Program Committee of SPC (2015), member of the Nucleous of the WG of Heart Failure (2015-2019), and Associate Editor of the Portuguese Journal of Cardiology (2019-). At the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) she was elected Fellow (FESC) in 2008, member of the Nucleous of the National Societies-Heart Failure Association (HFA) of the ESC (2011-2014), and member of the ESC congress programme committee (2014-2016).
Dulce Brito has published over 100 scientific original papers, and over 150 conference proceedings (published abstracts), and has presented over 300 lectures/chairpersonships at national and international meetings.
Cristina Valente, PharmD
Cristina has PharmD from the University of Lisbon. Additionally, she attended 3 years in Medicine at Universidade Nova de Lisboa. Cristina is currently Clinical Research Local Study Manager na Astrazeneca Portugal.
In September 2019, Cristina joined Takeda Portugal as Patient Advocacy Group Manager & Clinical Operations Manager, where she was responsible for the coordination of services related to patient care, access to research and communication of evidence and support patient organizations related to the diseases that Takeda is involved. Supports Medical Affairs in the planning and execution of local research, namely, Real World Evidence (RWE) and Investigator Initiated Studies (IIS).
During 6 years, Cristina was a Clinical Research Associate in the pharmaceutical industry where she was responsible for the monitoring of several phase IIa, IIb and III trials in psychiatry, neurology, oncology and in cardiovascular diseases. Later in 2013, and during 5 years, Cristina was Clinical Operations Manager and CRO Manager at Servier where she was responsible for the management of several phase IIa, IIb and III trials in cardiovascular diseases, osteoarthrosis, diabetic kidney disease and oncology. Since April 2017 Cristina worked as Clinical Operations Country Study Manager and Study Start-up Specialist at Roche, being responsible for the implementation of several phase II and III clinical trials in prostate and breast cancer.
Cristina joined the CETERA team as an External Consultant, participating in training programs.
Ricardo M. Fernandes, MD, Ph.D
Ricardo is a consultant pediatrician, assistant professor and clinical researcher in clinical pharmacology and pediatrics, working at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Lisbon, and Centro Hospitalar Lisboa Norte. His research background includes clinical epidemiology, clinical trial methodology, clinimetrics and synthesis research, with training and fellowships in the Netherlands and Canada, and his clinical research interests focus on pediatric respiratory disease.
His research background includes clinical epidemiology, clinical trial methodology, outcome measurement and synthesis research, with training and fellowships in the Netherlands and Canada. His main clinical research interests are pediatric respiratory disease, allergy and emergency medicine, and his favored methodological topics include research on outcomes and measurement, clinical trial design, meta-analysis, knowledge translation, and clinical pharmacology, particularly in pediatrics.
Ricardo has been actively involved in international research collaborations such as the StaR Child Health initiative on improving clinical trial research in pediatrics, the PERN (Pediatric Emergency Research Networks) worldwide academic clinical research network and the COMET initiative (Core Outcome Measures in Effectiveness Trials). He served as Group Chair at the European Respiratory Society, and Co-Director of the Cochrane Child Health Field.
He is the project lead for STAND4Kids, the portuguese National Hub for the c4c Conect4Children IMI2 project, a pan-european clinical trial network. Ricardo is also a Co-lead of conect4children Work package 7, a member of the Network Infrastructure Office, and a Co-coordinator of the National Hub Forum.
You can follow him on ResearchGate and on Twitter (@DonDonRic).
