Presidents

Antonio Raviele, MD, FEHRA, FESC, FHRS

Antonio Raviele is one of the Presidents of Venice Arrhythmias. Between 2008 and 2011 he was Chief of the Cardiology Division and Chief of the Cardiovascular Department of the Ospedale dell’Angelo of Mestre – Venice, Italy. He is now retired and works as cardiologist and arrhythmologist in his private office in Mestre-Venice.
He was the first to implant of transvenous defibrillator in ItalyAntonio Raviele has always played key roles within many of the most important cardiology associations and societies – such as ECAS, ESC and HRS – while also providing fundamental contributions as member of several task forces on related topics. He authored more than 200 peer-review publications on many aspects of cardiac arrhythmias, and was the editor of several books on arrhythmology. Besides, he’s a reviewer and member of the Editorial Board of some among the most renowned field journals, such as the JACC, EHJ, HR, JCE, Europace, PACE, JICE, JAF, JCM, GIC, etc. Dr. Raviele is also the President of ALFA– Aliance to Fight Atrial fibrillation – and President of the Scientific Committee of FIGHT AF! the awareness campaign against atrial fibrillation that very successfully debuted in 2011 – (to a highly gratifying success).

Apart from Venice Arrhythmias, he’s also been promoting, organizing and coordinating numerous other scientific meetings in the field of arrhythmology – and has been participating in many more as Invited Speaker and Chairperson, both on a national and on an international level.
Dr. Raviele is married with Mrs. Carmen: they have two children, Michele and Francesca, who has recently given them two adorable grandchildren, Edoardo and Carlotta.

Antonio Raviele is fond of literature and reading in general, music, visual arts and sport: he’s a huge fan of AC Milan, but also supports FC Unione Venezia. But above all, cinema is his greatest passion: a fascination that eventually gave birth – in 2011 – to HAB – HeArtBeats Venice Short Film Festival, the highly successful international event which took place in October 2011, after having been showcased during last year’s edition of the Venice Cinema Festival. Besides Dr. Raviele, HAB’s Jury featured many outstanding representatives from the cardiology, cinema and culture worlds – including Dr. Andrea Natale, Prof. A. John Camm, Prof. Douglas P. Zipes, as well as renowned film directors such as the great Krzysztof Zanussi, Rafal Wieczynski and Gennaro Nunziante, and novelist Nicolai Lilin – and, most of all, was presided by the greatest cinema maestro of our times, Mr. Francis Ford Coppola.

[Look at Antonio Raviele’s CV]
[Look at Antonio Raviele’s Scientific Publications]

 

Andrea Natale, MD, FACC, FHRS, FESC

Andrea Natale, MD, FACC, FHRS, FESC
Executive Medical Director of the Texas Cardiac Arrhythmia Institute at St. David’s Medical Center, Austin, Texas
HCA National Medical Director, Cardiology, Cardiac Electrophysiology.
Chair, Cardiac Electrophysiology Operations Council, 

Cardiac & Vascular Leadership Council.

Patients from around the world seek treatment from Dr. Natale. A undisputed leader in the field of electrophysiology, Dr. Natale is a dedicated clinician, academician and researcher.

Prior to his appointment as Executive Medical Director of the Texas Cardiovascular Arrhythmia Institute at St. David’s Medical Center, Dr. Natale was Section Head for the Department of Cardiac Pacing and Electrophysiology and as Medical Director for the Cleveland Clinic’s Center for Atrial Fibrillation. A member of task forces and international societies, he has a patent for a device used to treat Atrial Fibrillation.

Dr. Natale is a faculty member at prestigious universities and leading scientific and medical institutions. He has been an invited lecturer at more than 400 international conferences and the author, co-author or editor of more than 600 published articles and books on pacing and electrophysiology. In addition to serving on the editorial boards of numerous medical journals, he is the editor-in-chief of Journal of Atrial Fibrillation & EP, the first open access online managed by physicians for the physician.  Besides Venice Arrhythmias, he is the creator of EPLIVE, the first fully interactive meeting of his genre, where EP experts from the world over are invited to share their experience while observing live cases being performed in the state-of-the-art laboratories of TCAI in Austin, Texas. Such a successful formula that EPLIVE now counts with EPLive Milan, EPLive India, EPLive Colombia (Bogota’).

Dr. Natale’s greatest reward is restoring his patients to a life free of cardiac arrhythmia. He pioneered a circumferential ultrasound vein-ablation system to correct atrial fibrillation and performed the procedure on the world’s first five patients. He also developed some of the current catheter-based cures for atrial fibrillation, and was the first electrophysiologist in the USA to perform percutaneous epicardial radiofrequency ablation, which is a treatment for people who fail conventional ablation. He has authored milestone papers on pivotal projects, such as PABA and RAAFT.

An extraordinary researcher and mentor, Dr. Natale has been bestowed upon many awards as a testament to his generosity and dedication to his patients and young electrophysiologists in training, among which the recent Frist Humanitarian Award for his scientific commitment and leadership. Recently he has been honoured by the American College of Cardiology with an Award of Honor in Electrophysiology, and Distinguished Laureate of the American College of Cardiology Electrophysiology

[Look at Andrea Natale’s CV]
[Look at Andrea Natale’s Scientific Publications]

Sakis Themistoclakis, MD

Chief of Cardiology, Ospedale dell’Angelo, Venice-Mestre, Italy

Head, Cardiovascular Department, Azienda ULSS 3 Serenissima, Venice, Italy

Trained at the Cardiac Electrophysiology Section of the University of California – San Francisco (USA) under Dr. Melvin Scheinman and at Cardiac Electrophysiology Section of the Cleveland Clinic, (Cleveland, Oh, USA)  where he perfected the ICE-guided pulmonary vein antrum isolation under the mentorship of Dr.Natale, Dr. Themistoclakis has remained at the helm of the EP research activities conducted at Department of Cardiovascular Medicine of the new Ospedale Dell’Angelo in close cooperation with the Texas Cardiac Arrhythmias at St. David’s Medical Center, in Austin, Texas, USA, headed by Dr. Andrea Natale. In this framework, Dr. Themistoclakis conducted some pivotal studies such as the first-in-human study on atrial fibrillation with laser balloon under endoscopic guidance as well as the study on the discontinuation of oral anticoagulation after successful AF ablation even in patients at high thromboembolic risk.

From 1997 to 2000 he has been a member of RETAC (Committee of European Countries for the Treatment of Arrhythmias in Cardiology) supported by the European Union’s Leonardo da Vinci program.

From June 2018 to May 2021, he was the President of Regional Board and member of National Council of Italian Association of Hospital Cardiologists (ANMCO), Recently (June 2022), became President Elect of the Italian Society of Arrhythmology and Cardiac Pacing (AIAC).

A member of the following scientific societies: European Heart Rhythm Association (EHRA), European Society of Cardiology (ESC), Italian Federation of Cardiology (FIC), ANMCO and AIAC, Dr. Themistoclakis is also on the Editorial Board of the JAFIB (Journal of Atrial Fibrillation).

From 2002, he has been invited to serve as Course Director of several training courses on Intracardiac Echocardiography, and he has also been involved in international educational programs. His strong interest and dedication to Electrophysiology led him to develop and launch the atrial fibrillation ablation program for the Hospital S. Maria degli Angeli-Pordenone, followed by the Rovigo Hospital’s program of ablation of atrial fibrillation guided by intracardiac echocardiography.

Since 2001 he has been Vice-President of ALFA (ALliance to Fight Atrial fibrillation), the association which organized the 2011 National Awareness Campaign on atrial fibrillation Stop FA /Fight AF in Italy. Also, in 2001 he became a pivotal member of Venice Arrhythmias.

Over the years, he has been member of several scientific and organizational committees of various national and international meetings.

Dr. Themistoclakis has participated as Chairman and/or Speaker to several international meetings on cardiac arrhythmias and has authored or co-authored about 300 publications, among book chapters, international journals, and abstracts. He has been invited to serve as a reviewer for the Journal of American College of Cardiology, the European Journal of Internal Medicine, EP Europace, the Journal of Cardiovascular Electrophysiology, the Journal of Atrial Fibrillation, the Journal of Interventional Cardiac Electrophysiology and the Giornale Italiano di Cardiologia. He has been invited to serve as Abstract Grader for the Heart Rhythm Society, the European Society of Cardiology, the European Heart Rhythm Association, Italian Association of Hospital Cardiologists and Italian Association of Arrhythmology and Cardiac Pacing.

Dr Themistoclakis has also been as principal investigator or co-investigator in several clinical trials. He has also been the national coordinator or member of the Steering Committee of the EAST (Early treatment of Atrial fibrillation for Stroke prevention) trial, the RE-CIRCUIT trial, the AXAFA trial and the ENSURE in AF trial.

[Look at Sakis Themistoclakis’s Scientific Publications]