Cureus Editorial Board

John A. Abraham is an Assistant Professor of Orthopedic Surgery and Radiation Oncology, Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, the Division Chief of Orthopedic Oncology at the Rothman Institute at Thomas Jefferson University and the Director of the Center for Musculoskeletal Oncology at Jefferson and Kimmel Cancer Center. He held prior academic positions at Harvard Medical School, at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the Dana Farber Cancer Center. Dr. Abraham attended Yale University School of Medicine, conducted his Internship in general surgery at Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital in Boston, followed by Residency (where he was the Administrative Chief Resident) and Fellowship (in Orthopedic Oncology) with the Harvard Combined Orthopedic Residency Program at Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Children’s Hospital. He has been invited as a lecturer numerous times, both nationally and internationally. Dr. Abraham has published over 40 original peer-reviewed articles, chapters, reviews, and abstracts, and has received honors and awards such as the Healthcare Champion Award from the North American Thrombosis Forum (NATF) for excellence in clinical care related to thrombosis, and the Partners in Excellence Award, for outstanding clinical care in orthopedics at Harvard Medical School. In 2011 he received the “Best Doctors” in America honor, and for the past two years, he has been rated as one of the “Top Doctors” in Philadelphia. Dr. Abraham is a Member or Fellow of several Professional and Scientific Societies, including the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons (AAOS), Musculoskeletal Tumor Society, Connective Tissue Oncology Society, and the Indo-American Cancer Association. He is an invited member of the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons (AAOS) /Orthopedic Research Society (ORS) Molecular Biology and Therapeutics in Musculoskeletal Oncology Symposium, (MSTS). Dr. Abraham is also highly involved as a Lecturer in a number of CME programs; he is a Member of the Admission Committees at HMS and Jefferson Hospital and the Quality Committee at the Rothman Institute. He is devoted to his teaching and clinical responsibilities as well as his clinical research pursuits. Dr. Abraham is an active licensed practitioner in both Pennsylvania and New Jersey. He is board certified in General Orthopedics and Orthopedic Oncology, specializing in musculoskeletal tumors.

Nader G. Abraham, Ph.D., DR.H.C., is currently the Vice Dean for Research at Marshall University Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine and the former chair of the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology at the University of Toledo. He is also a member of the faculty of Rockefeller University, NY and New York Medical College, NY. He is supported by 4 NIH grants, two of which are funded until 2015 and 2016. He is a former chairman of the International Society of Experimental Hematology, and has served as chair of The International Symposium on Treatments of Stem Cells, Leukemia and Cancer. He has lectured extensively throughout the world, and has authored or co-authored more than 300 peer-reviewed articles and more than 50 book chapters and reviews. He is editor of seven books and also serves on several NIH Study sections. The major focus of his laboratory is the investigation of the participation of the antioxidants, heme oxygenase, in the regulation of stem cells and vascular systems in human and animal models of hypertension, diabetes and metabolic syndrome. His laboratory has demonstrated that Heme oxygenase-1 is key in the protection of stem cell function and provides a defense system to the vascular endothelium. Increased heme oxygenase-1 expression and heme oxygenase activity improve adiposity and vascular function and ameliorate oxidative stress in the body. He and his colleagues are also investigating the effect of anti-diabetic drugs and insulin sensitizers such as pioglitzone and rosiglitazone on the development of cardiac vascular diseases (CVD).

William P. Adams, Jr., M.D. is an Associate Professor and Chief of Plastic Surgery at Parkland Health and Hospital Systems in the Department of Plastic Surgery at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, one of only three departments of plastic surgery in the country. He received his undergraduate degree from Princeton University and graduated in the top 10% of his class at Vanderbilt University Medical School. He completed his residency training in general surgery and plastic surgery in the nationally renowned residency training program at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas. During this time he also completed an additional year of fellowship in plastic and reconstructive surgery research. Dr. Adams has received numerous honors and awards including the Faculty of the Year Award in the Department of Plastic Surgery, the Kingston Registry of Who’s Who, the Clinician of the Year Award (Dept of Plastic Surgery) and the Teaching Award (Dept of Plastic Surgery). He is a member of the American Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, the Plastic Surgery Research Council, and the Texas Society of Plastic Surgeons. He is currently in private plastic surgery practice in Dallas, Texas, and is an international authority on breast augmentation/ enlargement, breast implants including cohesive gel implants and body contouring procedures. Dr. Adams has developed a new technique for use in clinical breast implant surgery that has made breast augmentation / enlargement and breast reconstruction safer for patients. He is also active in educating plastic surgeons around the country on the newest currently possible level of breast augmentation, including a redefined patient experience and 24-hour recovery. Dr. Adams is a renowned speaker and lecturer and has published numerous articles and chapters, as well as his recently published (2011) textbook, Breast Augmentation.

John R. Adler is the Dorothy & TK Chan Professor of Neurosurgery and Radiation Oncology (courtesy) at Stanford University. Dr. Adler’s scholarly interests center on translational research, and especially the development of new minimally invasive surgical approaches to a wide variety of intra and extra cranial disease. He is best known for his work in stereotactic radiosurgery. Dr. Adler is widely credited with creating the field of image-guided radiosurgery. His research has been instrumental to the treatment of tumors (& other lesions) involving the head & neck, spine, chest, abdomen and pelvis. Dr. Adler is an author of more than 180 peer reviewed publications and book chapters, and a named inventor on 8 United States patents. John has served, or continues to serve as an editor for 7 traditional peer reviewed medical journals. In 2009, Dr. Adler started the online peer reviewed medical journal and social network now known as cureus.com and currently serves as the journal’s CEO.

Tauseef Ahmed, M.D. FACP is a widely recognized expert in the specialty fields of Oncology and Hematology and a consistent “Top Doctors” selection by Castle Connolly. Dr. Ahmed has been raising standards of cancer practice and care for more than three decades. After basic training at King Edward Medical College in Pakistan and medical residency training at Sinai Hospital of Detroit, he completed fellowship training in medical oncology with a specialty in urologic cancers at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and prepared for his role as Stem Cell Transplant Program Director at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle. Dr. Ahmed co-founded and heads the Westchester Oncology and Hematology Group. His appointments include Professor of Medicine at New York Medical College, Medical Director of the Arlin Cancer Institute and Director of the Blood Cell Transplant and Collection Center programs at Westchester Medical Center. He is also an attending physician at other hospitals in Westchester including Hudson Valley Hospital Center, Phelps Memorial Hospital and St Johns Hospital, North. Dr. Ahmed has comprehensive oncology experience with special interests in management of Hodgkin’s and non-Hodgkin’s lymphomas, stem cell transplantation, urologic and breast cancers. A recognized clinical investigator and pioneer, Dr. Ahmed has developed many techniques and approaches that are today considered standards of care including the M-VAC regimen for bladder cancer, peripheral stem cell technology applications, stem cell storage techniques, tandem and non-myeloablative transplant conditioning regimens for hematologic malignancies and selected solid tumors. He is currently working on strategies for the use of stem cells in non-malignant settings and gene transfer applications designed to sustain long-term, disease-free survival in transplanted patients. Dr. Ahmed chairs the Westchester Medical Center’s Cancer Committee and serves as oncology advisor for patient care improvement initiatives there and in many other hospitals throughout Westchester. He also advises a number of national organizations which take advantage of his talent, creativity and extensive knowledge on a range of topics. Dr. Ahmed is in high demand as a lecturer in both national and international settings – not surprising since he has been awarded numerous research grants and has published over 150 papers, book chapters and abstracts on a variety of cancer-related topics. Dr. Ahmed is fluent in English, Urdu/Hindi, and Punjabi.

Anne Marie Albano is Associate Professor of Clinical Psychology in Psychiatry at Columbia University and Director of the Columbia University Clinic for Anxiety and Related Disorders. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Mississippi. Dr. Albano is a Founding Fellow of the Academy of Cognitive Therapy, a Beck Institute Scholar, and is Board Certified in Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology. In 2008, Dr. Albano received the Rosenberry Award for service to children, adolescents and families from the University of Colorado at Denver. Dr. Albano is Past President of the Society for Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology of the American Psychological Association and also past-president of the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies. She is past editor of Cognitive and Behavioral Practice and currently is an Associate Editor of the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology. She has published more than 90 articles and chapters and is the co-author of several cognitive behavioral treatment manuals and of the Anxiety Disorders Interview Schedule for Children, all published by Oxford University Press. Dr. Albano served as a Principal Investigator of a 6-site, National Institute of Mental Health-sponsored study entitled “Child/Adolescent Anxiety Multimodal Treatment Study” (CAMS) and also was a PI for the Treatments for Adolescents with Depression Study (TADS). Both trials examined the relative efficacy of CBT, medication, combination treatment, and pill placebo in youth. provide me insight into the administration, management and practical realities of large, multicenter projects. In addition to treatment development, Dr. Albano’s clinical research interests focus on assessing treatment fidelity, behavioral assessment and diagnostic reliability, and training and supervision of study clinicians. Her book, Helping Your Anxious Child, will be published in April 2013 by Avery/Penguin Press.

Dr. Alvarez obtained a bachelors of science in Pre-Med and Chemistry from the University of Dayton, Ohio (1974). He received his doctorate in Nutritional Biochemistry from Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ in 1979. Dr. Alvarez has been the recipient of more than 50 research grants and awards. Among them, The National Institute of Health Training Award to study dermal-epidermal interactions during wound repair and U. S. Army Medical Research and Development Command Award to study epidermal migration in partial thickness wounds and National Institute of Health grant to study Emotional Stress and Wound Healing. Dr. Alvarez served as a member of the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research, a panel for guideline development in the prevention and management of pressure ulcers. Dr. Alvarez is the Chairman of FRAIL (for the recognition of the adult immobilized life). FRAIL is a panel seeking solutions for skin related complications of adults with chronic illness. Dr. Alvarez also serves as a panel member of S.C.A.L.E. (an expert group to build a consensus proposal on Skin Changes at Life’s End. Dr. Alvarez has held faculty positions with the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Cornell University Medical College and Rockefeller University. Dr. Alvarez has authored over 90 peer- reviewed papers relating to wound care and has been principal investigator in more than 30 major clinical trials. Currently, Dr. Alvarez is the Director of the Center for Curative and Palliative Wound Care at Calvary Hospital, Bronx, NY, and has an academic appointment as Professor, Department of Medicine, New York Medical College, Valhala, NY.

Dr. Ashikari received his M.D. at the University of Pittsburgh in 1991 and completed his surgical residency at Albert Einstein/Montefiore Medical Center, Bronx, N.Y. in 1996. In 1999 Dr. Ashikari finished an accredited Surgical Oncology Fellowship at the University of Chicago. He is currently an active member in the Society of Surgical Oncology as well as New York Surgical Society and is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, F.A.C.S. He has been designated as one of America’s Top Surgeons by the Consumer Research Council of America for his contributions to Surgical Oncology as well as one of the Top Doctors in the New York Metropolitan Area for the last 5 years and has been enumerated as such in the most recent New York Magazine and Westchester Magazine. Dr. Ashikari has a background in tumor immunology with publications in both breast cancer and melanoma and is published in multiple peer-reviewed journals. He has a special interest in high risk screening of breast cancer patients and prophylactic surgery for risk reduction. He currently is involved in clinical research in nipple/areolar sparing mastectomies for high risk patients as well as clinical research involving intraoperative radiation during breast conservation surgery. Dr. Ashikari currently sees patients in the Dobbs Ferry Pavilion of the St. John’s Riverside Health System as well as in Hudson Valley Hospital as part of the nationally accredited Ashikari Comprehensive Breast Center. He specializes in cancer surgery with a multi-disciplinary approach in close cooperation with a team of medical oncologists, radiation oncologists, plastic surgeons, pathologists, and radiologists. He performs most cancer related surgeries including breast, melanoma, gastrointestinal, sarcoma, endocrine, hepatobiliary and pancreatic surgery.

Bruce S. Auerbach, MD, FACEP is an accomplished, board certified Emergency Medicine physician who has held a leadership position at Sturdy Memorial Hospital in Attleboro, Massachusetts since 1987. He is currently Vice President, Chief Medical Officer and Medical Director having moved into that role after 25 years as Vice President and Chief of Emergency and Ambulatory Services at Sturdy. While Dr. Auerbach spent most of his career at Sturdy Memorial Hospital, he also practiced at Newton-Wellesley Hospital in Newton, Massachusetts. He is an Senior Scientist at the Harvard School of Public Health, an assistant clinical professor of community medicine Tufts University School of Medicine, and an instructor in emergency medicine at University of Massachusetts Medical School. He is also a consultant for the Annals of Emergency Medicine. Since 2002 he has served on the board of directors for Coverys (formerly Promutual Group), the largest medical liability insurance company in Massachusetts. He is also vice chair of the state Department of Public Health’s emergency medical care advisory board. He has numerous professional appointments and has received many regional and national awards for his leadership and dedication in the field of Emergency Medicine. A past president of both the Massachusetts Medical Society and the Massachusetts Chapter of ACEP (American College of Emergency Physicians), Dr. Auerbach has received several honors and awards including ACEP’s James D. Mills Outstanding Contribution to Emergency Medicine award in 2009 and a “Hero of Emergency Medicine” recognition in 2008. Dr. Auerbach received his medical degree from Temple University School of Medicine and completed his residency training in Emergency Medicine at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center. He currently serves on the AMA-PCPI Executive Committee and the National Quality Forum Measures Application Partnership. He has published and lectured extensively in emergency medicine, emphasizing challenges, cost and readmission and medical error reduction in an emergency department setting.

Faisal Aziz, MD is an Assistant Professor of Vascular and Endovascular Surgery at the Penn State University College of Medicine. After receiving his medical degree from King Edward Medical College, Lahore, Pakistan in 2001, Dr. Aziz completed a two-year post-doctoral research fellowship in Vascular Surgery at Yale University. He completed his general surgery residency from New York Medical College, Valhalla, NY in 2009, and his vascular surgery fellowship from Jobst Vascular Institute in 2011. He is certified by American Board of Surgery (ABS) in the fields of General Surgery and Vascular Surgery. His clinical interests include endovascular management of peripheral arterial disease, cerebrovascular disease and aortic aneurysms. Dr. Aziz has numerous publications and book chapters and has presented his work at prestigious national and international meetings. He was awarded Vascular Surgery Servier Travelling Fellowship Award by American Venous Forum in 2011. He is an invited reviewer for the Journal of Vascular Surgery and Annals of Vascular Surgery. He is a member of Society for Vascular Surgery, Association for Academic Surgeons, American Venous Forum and Peripheral Vascular Surgery Society. He has interest in the non-invasive diagnostic modalities and is currently certified by the American Registry for Diagnostic Medical Sonography (ARDMS) as Registered Vascular Technologist (RVT) and Registered Physician Vascular Interpretation (RPVI) qualified. He is considered one of the rising stars in the field of vascular surgery and is a part of several ongoing research projects in vascular and endovascular surgery.

Alejandro Badia, MD, FACS is a hand and upper extremity surgeon at Badia Hand to Shoulder Center in Doral, Florida. Dr. Badia studied physiology at Cornell University and obtained his medical degree at NYU, where he also trained in orthopedics. A hand fellowship at Alleghany General Hospital in Pittsburgh was followed by an AO trauma fellowship in Freiburg, Germany. He runs an active international hand fellowship, serves on the editorial board of two hand journals, and organizes a yearly Miami meeting for surgeons /therapists that is devoted to upper limb arthroscopy and arthroplasty. This international meeting is held at the world renowned Miami Anatomical Research Center ( M.A.R.C. ), the worlds largest surgical cadaveric training lab which Dr. Badia co-founded in 2005. Dr. Badia is a founding member of the American Hand Institute, a think tank and medical device start-up company focused on minimally invasive solutions to hand, wrist and elbow pathology. In 2008, he completed the Badia Hand to Shoulder Center, a fully integrated clinical facility for the upper limb also encompassing the Surgery Center at Doral, Integra Rehabilitation and an MRI imaging facility. More recently, Dr. Badia inaugurated OrthoNOW, the first immediate orthopedic care center in south Florida which is staffed by surgeons from the International Orthopedic Group (IOG), a group of surgeons from lower extremity, upper limb and spine subspecialties who also treat elective orthopedic problems in international patients. Dr. Badia is the current worldwide president of the International Society for Sport Traumatology of the Hand (ISSPORTH), was named to 100 Latinos Miami, and was featured on the Hispanic Entrepreneur website. He is a member of multiple national orthopedic and medical societies (AAOS, ASSH, AAHS), honorary member of more than 10 international hand surgery and arthroscopy associations, and was recently honored professor at the prestigious Philadelphia Hand Course.

Dr. Barker recently joined ASU to plan and direct efforts in transformative knowledge networks – specifically directed toward addressing major problems in healthcare. The Transformative Healthcare Networks initiative (THN) will serve as a foundation for the development of new research models that leverage convergent knowledge, innovative teams and novel funding approaches to better prevent and treat acute and chronic diseases. She also serves as Co-Director of a major ASU initiative in complex adaptive systems research The Complex Adaptive System Initiative (CASI) serves as an organizing construct to approach understanding and solving multi-dimensional problems in the biological and social and sciences. Several initiatives are underway including a national effort in biomarker development and a new consortium focused on in silico molecularly-based medicine. Prior to joining ASU, Dr. Barker served as the Deputy Director of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and as Deputy Director for Strategic Scientific Initiatives for eight years – retiring in 2010. While Deputy, she developed and implemented multi/trans-disciplinary programs in strategic areas of cancer research and advanced technologies including: the Nanotechnology Alliance for Cancer; The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) – in collaboration with the National Human Genome Research Institute; and the Clinical Proteomics Technologies Initiative for Cancer. Dr. Barker also led the development of a network of trans-disciplinary centers (Physical Sciences- Oncology Centers – PS-OCs) that integrate the physical and biological sciences to better understand cancer across scales. All of these programs emphasize innovation, trans-disciplinary teams and convergence of scientific disciplines to enable progress against cancer. They also stress the synergy of large scale and individual initiated research, precompetitive research, public databases and clinical to more effectively detect prevent and treat cancer. Dr. Barker also led and collaborated on NCI’s development efforts in biospecimens and bioinformatics (the Cancer Human Biobank (caHUB) and the Cancer Bioinformatics Grid (caBIG, respectively) to support molecularly based personalized medicine. She was the founding co-chair of the NCI-FDA Interagency Task Force; founding co-chair of the Cancer Steering Committee of the FNIH Biomarker Consortium; and oversaw the NCI’s international cancer research programs, including pilot programs in Latin America and China. Dr. Barker has a long history in research and the leadership and management of research and development in the academic, non-profit and private sectors. She served as a senior scientist and subsequently as a senior executive at Battelle Memorial Institute for 18 years; and co-founded and served as the CEO of a public biotechnology drug development company. She has received a number of awards for her work in support of cancer research, cancer patients, professional and advocacy organizations and the ongoing national effort to prevent and cure cancer. Most recently she received the 2009 AACR Margaret Foti Award for Leadership and Extraordinary Achievements in Cancer Research, AACR 100th Anniversary Meeting. Also in 2009 Dr. Barker was named to the list of “The 100 People Changing America” by Rolling Stone Magazine. Her research interests include complex systems, experimental therapeutics and free-radical biochemistry in cancer etiology and treatment. Dr. Barker completed her M.A. and Ph.D. at the Ohio State University, where she trained in immunology and microbiology.

Marcelo J. Barrionuevo, M.D., is board certified in Obstetrics and Gynecology and sub-specialty certified in Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility. He is widely published in his field, and has over 15 years of experience in the diagnosis and treatment of infertility and reproductive medicine problems. He joined IVF Florida Reproductive Associates in July 1998 and has been a partner in the practice since 2005. Dr. Barrionuevo received his medical degree from the University of Buenos Aires, School of Medicine in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He completed his residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Sinai Hospital in Detroit, Michigan, and his fellowship in Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility at the University of South Florida, College of Medicine in Tampa, Florida, where he also served on the faculty. During his tenure he directed the Pediatric and Adolescent Reproductive Gynecology Interdisciplinary Unit, as well as served as coordinator of the International Exchange Program in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of South Florida, College of Medicine until joining IVF Florida Reproductive Associates. Dr. Barrionuevo is experienced in all areas of assisted reproductive technologies including in vitro fertilization, embryo transfer, intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD), superovulation, intrauterine inseminations, as well as advanced endoscopic surgery, microsurgical tubal anastomosis, treatment of ectopic pregnancy, treatment of pelvic endometriosis and pelvic adhesions, removal of uterine myomas with uterine preservation, and repair of developmental anomalies. His clinical interests include the diagnosis and treatment of primary and secondary infertility, fertility preservation options for cancer and non- cancer patients, recurrent miscarriages, polycystic ovarian syndrome, and hormone replacement therapy. After joining the practice as an infertility specialist, Dr. Barrionuevo, served as the President of The Florida Society of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility as well as President of the Fort Lauderdale Obstetrics and Gynecology Society. Currently he is a Voluntary Associate Clinical Professor at the University of Miami, Miller School of Medicine and is the Residency Program Site Director, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology of the South Broward Hospital District- Memorial Health System as well as the University of Miami, Miller School of Medicine. He has received numerous honors and awards for teaching and mentorship, community service, empathy and support as a clinician, as well as excellence in laparoscopic procedures.

After graduation from the University of California School of Medicine in San Diego in 1983, Dr. Baxter completed residency training programs in General Surgery and Plastic Surgery. He is certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery and is a Past President of the Washington Society of Plastic Surgeons and the Northwest Society of Plastic Surgeons. Dr. Baxter has pioneered several new techniques in the Seattle and the Pacific Northwest and has been recognized as a plastic surgery expert by regional and national media. Dr. Baxter has lectured on advanced plastic surgery techniques internationally and has a Certificate of Advanced Education in Cosmetic Surgery.

Alim Louis Benabid was born on May 2nd 1942, obtained his medical degree in 1970 and his Ph.D. in Physics in 1978. He is married and has two children. After a postdoctoral fellowship in the laboratory of Preclinical Neuropharmacology of Floyd Bloom, at the Salk Institute La Jolla California from 1979 to 1980, Alim Louis Benabid has been appointed Professor at Grenoble University, in Neurosurgery and Experimental Medicine until 1983, then in Neurosurgery and Biophysics. From1988 to 2007, he was the Director of the research laboratory INSERM unit 318, entitled Preclinical Neurosciences, and from 1989 to 2007, Head of the Neurosurgery Department at the University Hospital of Grenoble, Professor of Biophysics at Joseph Fourier University. Alim Louis Benabid is also Coordinator of the Claudio Munari Center for Surgery of Epilepsy and Movement Disorders, at Hospital Ni Guardia in Milan, Italy since 1998. He was also Staff consultant at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Ohio since 2000. Alim Louis Benabid has centred his scientific activity on the approach of neurosurgical pathologies, particularly brain tumours and movement disorders, namely Parkinson's disease. He developed in his hospital robotic stereotactic surgery which permits biopsies and therapeutics acts, aimed at functional targets. Activities of Alim Louis Benabid can be described under three themes: Neurosurgical robotics and brain imaging: in order to obtain a precise stereotactic tool, interventional robots have been designed. Experimental therapeutics in neuro-oncology: Alim Louis Benabid has developed surgical methods, particularly stereotactic, including application of robotics to approach functionally eloquent zones, implantation of radioactive isotopes, and particularly stereotactic biopsies of brain tumors for diagnostic and research purposes. From these biopsy samples, a brain tumor tissue bank has been elaborated. On the material of this Brain Tumour Bank, research on molecular biology is being conducted in his research unit. The occurrence of abnormal involuntary movements during the long-term dopaminergic treatment of Parkinsonian patients has required the return of functional neurosurgery. In order to diminish side effects. Alim Louis Benabid has designed a new method of stereotactic inhibition of surgical targets, initially limited to the thalamus and to the pallidum. The discovery in 1987 of the effects mimicking the lesion induced by electrical stimulation at high frequency has allowed a rebirth of this surgery and new therapeutic possibilities. The remarkable efficacy of this treatment, associated to its very low morbidity, has permitted to apply it to other targets, particularly the subthalamic nucleus, and to diminish the medical treatments. Currently his activity is oriented toward the understanding of mechanisms of action of deep brain stimulation at high frequency, the precise identification of the efficient targets and of the neuronal networks which are involved, as well as of possible long-term effects, particularly neuroprotective, which could be due to the long-term effects of the stimulation on the natural history of Parkinson's disease. He has recently joined the French Commission of Atomic Energy as a Scientific Adviser and is Chairman of the Board of the new Clinatec Institute which is devoted to the application of nanotechnologies to Neurosciences Alim Louis Benabid is a member of the Institut Universitaire de France, of the French Academy of Sciences, of the French Academy of Medicine and of the Royal Academy of Medicine of Belgium, and he received a Doctorate Honoris Causa from the University of Galway, Ireland, from the University of London, Ontario, Canada, and from McGill University, Montreal Quebec.

Alyson Berliner, MD, PhD is a physician trained in ophthalmology currently working in the biotech industry. She received her undergraduate degree from Columbia College in biopsychology, and went on to complete her MD/PhD at Columbia University in the MSTP program. Her graduate research involved the cloning and characterization of a novel gene, ERNI (Early Response to Neural Induction), implicated in the response to inductive signals involved in the early stages of neural development in the chick embryo. Other projects included the study of inductive signals involved in ocular development and lens induction. She continued with post-graduate training in general surgery and ophthalmology at Lenox Hill Hospital and Mt. Sinai in New York City. After training, Dr. Berliner began a career in Clinical Sciences at Bausch & Lomb in Rochester, NY, directing the clinical development of several ophthalmic products for several indications ranging from post-surgical ocular inflammation to retinal disease. Subsequently, she moved to Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. in Tarrytown, NY, where she was intimately involved with the development process ultimately leading to FDA approval of the anti-VEGF agent aflibercept, which is now approved for age-related macular degeneration and central retinal vein occlusion. At Regeneron, Dr. Berliner continues to be involved with scientific presentations, publications, and physician and patient education endeavors. She is currently overseeing ongoing studies in diabetic retinopathy, ensuring patient safety and data quality, while continuing to develop strategy and designing programs for other ocular indications.

Dr. Bisset is a Professor of Radiology at Baylor College of Medicine, as well as the Edward B. Singleton Chair of Radiology at Texas Children’s Hospital. His clinical experience is based in pediatric radiology. Dr. Bisset received his undergraduate Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Tennessee, and his medical degree from the University of South Florida College of Medicine. He completed a pediatric residency and pediatric cardiology fellowship at Children’s Hospital Medical Center in Cincinnati, Ohio, and a radiology residency and pediatric radiology fellowship at that same institution. After working for many years on the faculty at Children’s Hospital he relocated to Duke University Medical Center as the Chief of Pediatric Radiology. He also spent 12 years as the Vice-Chairman of Clinical Operations, followed by nearly 2 years as the Interim Chairman of the Duke Radiology Department. Dr. Bisset is board-certified in Pediatrics and Pediatric Cardiology by the American Board of Pediatrics. Through the American Board of Radiology, he is a board-certified diplomate, with additional subspecialty certification (CAQ) in Pediatric Radiology. He performs all aspects of pediatric imaging. From a research perspective, Dr. Bisset has authored or co-authored almost 200 manuscripts. His research focus has been on cross-sectional imaging with emphasis in MR imaging. Several accomplishments of which he is most proud include serving as a member of several boards: The Board of Directors of the Society for Pediatric Radiology, the American Board of Radiology, and the Board of Directors of the RSNA. Honors include receiving the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the University of South Florida, and being inducted as a Fellow of the American College of Radiology. He is currently serving as President of the Radiological Society of North America.

Dr. Alain Bitton [MD, FRCP (C)] is Associate Professor of Medicine at McGill University. He completed a clinical research fellowship in Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School from 1994-1996. He was the McGill Gastroenterology Residency Program Director from 1997-2007. Since 2009 he has been the Director of the Division of Gastroenterology at McGill University and the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC). His research is in the field of IBD and focuses on the identification of clinical, biologic, psychosocial and genetic predictors of relapse and disease course in IBD. He is the clinical director and co-founder of the Quebec IBD Genetics Consortium ( QIGC) . The QIGC is part of of the University of Montreal Genetic Research Center (GRC) which is one of the 6 GRCs making up the National Institute of Diabetes, Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK-NIH) IBD Genetics Consortium. Dr. Bitton is also leading the way for the creation of the McGill University IBD day center which will serve as an innovative multidisciplinary platform for the care of IBD patients. Dr. Bitton is the co-project leader of a Genome Canada/CIHR funded project to develop a tool that will predict which biologic agent a given individual with IBD will best respond to .

Mark S. Blumenkranz, M.D., is Professor and Chairman of the Byers Eye Institute and the Department of Ophthalmology at Stanford University. He received his Baccalaureate, Master of Medical Science in Biochemical Pharmacology, and M.D. degrees at Brown, a Residency in Ophthalmology at Stanford, and a fellowship in vitreoretinal diseases at the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute of the University of Miami. He completed the Executive Program at the Stanford Graduate School of Business in 2004 Dr. Blumenkranz is the author of more than 140 peer-reviewed publications and book chapters, and multiple patents in the area of vitreoretinal diseases, with special interests in ocular pharmacology and new microsurgical and laser techniques. He is currently, President of the Macula Society, and Immediate Past President of the Retina Society. a past President of the American University Professors of Ophthalmology (AUPO) and a Fellow of the Corporation of Brown University, where he serves as chairman of the Medical School Committee. Dr. Blumenkranz has a longstanding interest and expertise in university corporate technology transfer and early stage biomedical company development having either founded or served on the Boards of Directors of a number of successful medical drug and device companies including Peak Surgical, OIS, Midlabs and Oculex Pharmaceuticals over the past sixteen years in addition to being a co-founder and Director of OptiMedica Corporation, Avalanche Biotechnologies, Digisight Technologies and Vantage Surgical.

Philip D Bonomi, M.D., is a Professor of Medical Oncology at Rush University Medical Center. Dr. Bonomi received his medical degree from the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Chicago, and completed his Residency in Internal Medicine at the Geisinger Medical Center, and continued his education with a Fellowship in Medical Oncology at Rush University Medical Center. He is board certified in Internal Medicine and Medical Oncology. Dr. Bonomi's clinical expertise lies in Lung Cancer and Mesothelioma, while he also specializes in Breast Cancer, Colon Cancer, Glandular Cancer Adenocarcinoma, Local Neoplasm Recurrence, Asbestos-related Cancer; Metastatic Cancer; Squamous Cell Carcinoma, and Thymoma Dr. Bonomi is a member of numerous professional societies, including the American Society of Clinical Oncology, and has been the recipient of several awards and distinctions, such as America's Top Doctors, America's Top Doctors for Cancer, the Compassionate Doctor Recognition and the Patient's Choice Award. Dr. Bonomi is considered one of America's Leading Experts on Lung Neoplasm and Non-Small-Cell Lung Carcinoma. He has lectured widely both nationally and internationally, and pursues substantial research in the area of lung cancer, in which he has published extensively.

Dr. Brackmann attended college and medical school at the University of Illinois. He served in the United States Air Force in California and then completed his otolaryngology/head and neck residency at the University of Southern California, where he is Clinical Professor of Otolaryngology/Head and Neck Surgery and Neurological Surgery. He has spent his entire career at the House Ear Clinic specializing in Otology/Neurotology.

Dr. Christiane Bruns is a Professor of Surgery at the Department of Surgery, University of Munich Hospitals, Munich, Germany. She underwent an international education in surgical oncology and a postdoctoral fellowship at the Department of Cancer Biology (Prof. Dr. I. J. Fidler) University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center. Dr. Bruns is section head of oncologic surgery and co-director of the Comprehensive Cancer Center of the University of Munich Hospitals. She is an executive committee member of the international Society of Digestive Surgery (ISDS). She is also leading the German research network of general and visceral surgery of the German Society of Visceral Surgery. Her clinical and research work has been internationally and nationally recognized through publications, invited lectureships and ongoing research projects.

Lois E. Brustman, MD, FACOG, is director of the Residency Program in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and a faculty member in the Division of Maternal-Fetal Medicine, at St. Luke’s and Roosevelt hospitals in New York City. She is also an associate professor of clinical obstetrics and gynecology at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. She earned her medical degree from New York Medical College and received residency training in obstetrics and gynecology, and fellowship training in maternal-fetal medicine, at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. During her fellowship, she was director of the Medical Student Education Program and medical director for the Prematurity Prevention Program. During the 1990’s, she was director of Maternal-Fetal Medicine and Obstetrics, and associate director of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, at Our Lady of Mercy Medical Center, in the Bronx, New York. Concurrently, she was part of the Maternal-Fetal Medicine Division and an associate professor in obstetrics and gynecology at New York Medical College, in Valhalla, New York. She joined the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at St. Luke’s and Roosevelt hospitals in 2000, and has been director of the residency program since 2002. Dr. Brustman’s clinical expertise spans the full range of high-risk obstetrics, and she has particular interests in preconception counseling, diabetes in pregnancy, and prematurity. She has published articles in major journals regarding diagnosis and treatment of diabetes in pregnancy, screening and diagnosis of fetal abnormalities, and correlation of medical student test scores to performance in residency. In recent years, she has contributed to presentations at national meetings, including studies on twin-to-twin growth discordance, pregnancy outcome in gestational diabetes controlled with glyburide, predictors of diet success in treating gestational diabetes, and the relevance of gender to the predictive power of nuchal-translucency enlargement. Dr. Brustman sits on the Board of Directors of the New York Perinatal Society. Among other professional societies, she is a member of the New York Obstetric Society, Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine and the Society for Gynecologic Investigation.

Dr. Byrne is considered one of the leading facial plastic surgeons in the world for his expertise in aesthetic and reconstructive facial surgery, Dr. Patrick Byrne treats patients from across the globe. He is one of the few surgeons who elected to devote his entire practice exclusively to the face and is keenly aware of just how important the face is to ones’ image. Dr. Byrne completed medical school at the University of California, San Diego, and an internship in General Surgery at the University of California, San Francisco. He then completed a five year residency in Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at the University of California, San Diego. In Southern California he trained under several nationally recognized leaders in Facial Plastic Surgery, gaining expertise in facial cosmetic surgery, rhinoplasty, and reconstruction. This included a vast experience in the treatment of skin cancers of the face. He received numerous honors for his research and clinical work, included the Chairmans prize upon graduation. He was then awarded a prestigious fellowship position in the highly competitive Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery Fellowship program administered by the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery (AAFPRS). Dr. Byrne is board certified in facial plastic surgery by both the American Board of Otolaryngology and the American Board of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery and is a leading authority on nasal surgery (rhinoplasty), rejuvenation of the aging face (facelift, necklift, blepharoplasty, browlift, etc.), skin cancers, and the treatment of facial paralysis (facial reanimation). In addition to his clinical practice, Dr. Byrne serves as the Director, Division of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine (The department has been ranked the #1 otolaryngology program in the United States for 13 years in a row by US News and World Report), Associate Professor of Facial Plastic Surgery and Dermatology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Dr. Byrne also directs the Johns Hopkins Fellowship Program in Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery within the Department of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery. This highly selective and prestigious program receives applications from across the United States and accepts one surgeon per year for specialized training. Dr. Byrne is involved in numerous scholarly activities; Dr. Byrne’s research efforts focus on three areas: 1) Facial paralysis is a particular area of interest. He and his colleagues have investigated new ways to help the facial nerve regenerate, and have contributed new techniques to help restore facial symmetry and the ability to smile. 2) Reconstruction after cancer treatment – Dr. Byrne investigates cutting edge techniques to reconstruct the face after cancer treatment. 3) Rhinoplasty has led him to research the effects of various rhinoplasty maneuvers on the shape and function of the nose. Dr. Byrne is the founder and co-medical director of the Greater Baltimore Cleft Lip and Palate Team. This multidisciplinary team provides comprehensive care to children with congenital facial deformities. Selected by Johns Hopkins International as one of three international affiliate hospital medical directors, Dr. Byrne oversees the Johns Hopkins Hospital Punta Pacifica. This is a state of the art inpatient facility in an exclusive neighborhood of Panama City, Panama. For over 10 years, Dr. Byrne has volunteered his expertise overseas annually, performing volunteer surgery and medical relief in developing countries around the world. He has worked in Mexico, Kenya, China, Vietnam, Nicaragua and Ecuador. In sum, Dr. Byrne is a fulltime faculty member of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and a dedicated academic surgeon. He has written extensively on a variety of topics within facial plastic surgery, and is currently editing the most comprehensive surgical atlas ever created which is devoted entirely to this subspecialty. He has lectured extensively around the United States and internationally. His humanitarian efforts continue to lead him around the globe on volunteer surgical and relief efforts.

Dr. Ramon Cabreja has been recognized as one of “America’s Top Anesthesiologists” by the Consumers’ Research Council of America. He is a nationally and internationally recognized expert in Cardiovascular Anesthesia and Board Certified by the American Society of Anesthesia. Dr. Cabreja obtained his Medical Degree from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and trained in Anesthesia with a concentration in Cardiac Anesthesia at Mount Sinai Medical Center in NYC; he completed his general surgery residency at Montefiore Medical Center in NYC. Presently, Dr. Cabreja is the Chairman of the Governing Board of Managers, Medical Director and Chief of Anesthesia at The Surgery Center at Doral, where he is also a co-founder. Dr. Cabreja served as Director of Anesthesia at Florida Medical Center where more than 800 cardiac surgeries were performed annually. As Director of Cardiac Anesthesia at Aventura Hospital from 2004-2007, Dr. Ramon Cabreja guided the opening of the Cardiac Surgery program in 2006. From 1998-2002, Dr. Cabreja provided anesthesia for many professional athletes with the Miami Dolphins and Tampa Bay Buccaneers football teams. At the Surgery Center at Doral, Dr. Cabreja has developed advanced Anesthetic Blocks to provide safe and painless surgery for many patients. Anesthesiologists from throughout Latin America visit The Surgery Center at Doral to be trained in these advanced anesthetic procedures. His 25 years experience in caring for open-heart patients and professional athletes allows him to provide safe Anesthesia and often pain free surgery to patients. One of his main focuses is minimizing post-operative pain by utilizing pain pumps for 3 days after surgery. Dr. Cabreja is a Diplomat of the American Board of Anesthesiology and holds medical licenses in Florida, New York, Illinois and Connecticut. He is an often an invited speaker for both national and international medical media and academic Congresses.

Blair Calancie, Ph.D. was born in Edmonton, Alberta (Canada). He received his PhD at Simon Fraser University (Kinesiology, mentored by Parveen Bawa). He completed post-doctoral fellowships in Edmonton, Canada with Dick Stein and Uppsala, Sweden, with Karl-Erik Hagbarth. Dr. Calancie was a Professor of Neurological Surgery at the University of Miami/Miami Project to Cure Paralysis and he is currently a Professor of Neurosurgery at SUNY Upstate Medical University. His primary expertise is Clinical Neurophysiology, and his lab has two main areas of research interest: 1. Spinal cord injury: Dr. Calancie and colleagues have been working to develop a better understanding of how the human spinal cord changes after injury (‘plasticity’). This information has yielded the following: a). some nerves in the human spinal cord are able to grow and make new connections to other nerves. All of this takes place below the injury and does not provide any benefit to the patient. In fact it’s probably a contributor to a major problem after SCI: autonomic dysreflexia (which the lab is currently studying in detail). b). development of more sensitive tests to predict spontaneous, long-term recovery after injury, important for evaluating new treatments. c). data suggest that physical training, using techniques including exercise and magnetic brain stimulation, can help improve function even years after spinal cord injury in some persons. Dr. Calancie et al. also has an animal project currently underway to develop a surgical treatment for cauda equina injury. This type of injury accounts for up to 20% of all hospital admissions for spinal cord injury, yet it has received almost no research attention to date. 2. Intraoperative monitoring during surgery: This involves the testing of nerve and muscle function while a patient is having surgery to the brain and/or spinal cord. This testing is designed to prevent the patient from waking up worse than before surgery, by giving the surgeon early warning of anything that might be damaging nerves, before that damage becomes permanent. Testing can also be used to help distinguish between nerve and surrounding tissue, in cases where normal anatomy is lacking (e.g. around a tumor, or where there’s a large amount of scar tissue). Dr. Calancie's recent work – funded by an NIH/R01 grant – is designed to lower the incidence of improper placement of pedicle screws in the thoracic spine. Dr. Calancie has published widely in his field and presented his research findings at numerous conferences.

Dr. Cendán is a board-certified surgeon with a clinical focus on minimally invasive surgery. His special interests include bariatric and adrenal surgery as well as medical education and simulation research. Dr. Cendán began his medical career at the University of Florida (UF) where he also completed his surgical residency and Surgical Metabolism Laboratory experience. After completing his training, Dr. Cendán was engaged in private surgical practice for four years prior to returning to the academic environment. At the medical school he became active in medical education serving on the Admissions Committee and as a member of the Standardized Patient Center of which he eventually became Medical Director. While at UF he served as a member of the Curriculum Committee and Director of the surgical clerkship. While serving in these roles, Dr. Cendán was awarded multiple teaching and clinical excellence recognition awards. He served on the Medical Advisory Group formulating a revision of the medical curriculum and represented the school on the AAMC Faculty Forward Program. The University of Central Florida College of Medicine welcomed Dr. Cendán in July 2010. In his role as Assistant Dean for Simulation and Associate Professor of Surgery he has focused on developing clinical and simulation experiences that support the academic content in the modules and clerkships. He is responsible for identifying, implementing and coordinating the use of simulation technology for conducting and improving medical education. Dr. Cendán also provides the vision for simulation-based research for medical modeling for both medical education and healthcare improvement. Dr. Cendán is an active researcher and has recently been awarded an R01 grant by the National Library of Medicine; this grant is for the investigation of how medical students interact with, and learn from, interactive virtual patients demonstrating cranial nerve palsies.

Joe Y. Chang, M.D., Ph.D., is a Tenured Professor of Radiation Oncology, Clinical Section Chief of Thoracic Radiation Oncology, Director of Stereotactic Radiotherapy Program, MD Anderson Cancer Center. He is a world known expert in lung cancer particularly for stereotactic radiotherapy, proton therapy and image guided radiotherapy. Dr. Chang is co-chair of lung cancer expert panel of the American College of Radiology, Senior-associate editor of the Journal of Radiation Oncology, Biology and Physics and president of Sino-American Network of Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology. He serves as an editorial board member for several international journals and has published over 100 peer-reviewed articles and 18 book chapters. He is also co-editor for a several test books. He has served as principal investigator for several institutional, national and international clinical research studies.

Steven D. Chang is the Robert C. and Jeannette Powell Professor of Neurosurgery at Stanford University. His interests include surgical and radiosurgical treatment of tumors and vascular disease of the brain and spine. Dr. Chang received his MD from Stanford University and also completed his neurosurgical training at Stanford. He is an author of more than 250 peer reviewed publications and book chapters.

Adam Cheifetz graduated magna cum laude from Brown University before earning his M.D. from Cornell University Medical College. Dr. Cheifetz completed his internship and residency in Internal Medicine at Yale-New Haven Hospital and his fellowship in Gastroenterology at Yale University before serving as the Present-Levinson Fellow in Inflammatory Bowel Disease at the Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City. Dr. Cheifetz is currently the Director of the Center for Inflammatory Bowel Disease at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School. He specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, and other forms of inflammatory bowel diseases. He has been cited in Boston Magazine as one of Boston’s Top Doctors on numerous occasions. In addition to his clinical work, he is involved in multiple research projects relating to IBD and has published over 50 articles and chapters on the subject. Dr. Cheifetz is an active member of the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of America (CCFA) and currently serves as the Chairman of the New England chapter medical advisory committee. He is currently a section editor of Inflammatory Bowel Diseases and Contributing Associate Editor in Chief of the World Journal of Gastroenterology. Dr. Cheifetz is also actively involved with teaching and mentoring of medical students, residents, and fellows and runs a monthly inter-departmental Inflammatory Bowel Disease Conference. In addition, he is Director of the Harvard Medical School Gastroenterology Clerkship Elective at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

Jia-Jin Jason Chen, PhD, is currently a Distinguished Professor of Department of Biomedical Engineering, National Cheng Kung University (NCKU), Tainan, Taiwan. Dr. Chen received the B.S. degree from Chung Yuan Christian University, Chung- Li, Taiwan, in 1980, and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, in 1987 and 1990, respectively, all in biomedical engineering. Since 1997, he has been a professor at Department of Biomedical Engineering, NCKU. He was founding chairman of the undergraduate biomedical engineering program in 2011 after 22 years of graduate school only program at NCKU. Another important service work for Dr. Chen is his two-term committee member for Department of Industrial Technology (DoIT), Ministry of Economic Affairs, ROC. This position allowed Dr. Chen to oversee the grant proposals for medical device development in Taiwan. He also serves as Member of National Health Research Institute (NHRI, Taiwan), similar to NIH in USA, extramural research committee. Dr. Chen is currently the Executive Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Medical and Biological Engineering (JMBE), published by Taiwanese Biomedical Engineering Society. Dr. Chen has promoted the JMBE to be listed in Science Citation Index (SCI) in 2008 and ranked as one of the best regional journals on biomedical engineering with a rejection rate more than 70 %. Dr. Chen is pioneer for promoting neural engineering in Taiwan. His previous work on electrical stimulation cycling project has been focused on control strategy as well as brain mapping using near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) for investigating neural plasticity of stroke subjects. He recent works also involved in repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS), transcranial direct-current stimulation (tDCS) and optogenetic stimulation for rodent animals of parkinsonism. Dr. Chen has been very actively working on the implantable biomicrosystem for in-vivo dopamine sensing as well as microstimulation for bladder control in animal studies. His present research activities involve biomedical signal processing, neural engineering, neuromodulation, neural/neuronal interfaces, and implantable biomicrosystem.

Dr. Cheshier is an Assistant Professor of Neurosurgery and (by courtesy) Neurology at Stanford University School of Medicine. He went to medical school at Stanford where he also completed a Ph.D. in immunology. He performed his residency at Stanford Hospitals and Clinics and recently finished a fellowship in pediatric neurosurgery at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto Canada. He has recently joined the faculty at Lucille Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford. \r\n\r\nDr. Cheshier has a long history of research and has published extensively in multiple stem cell fields including, hematopoietic stem cells, central nervous system stem cells, and brain cancer stem cells. His laboratory focuses on the characterization of brain tumor stem cells and their immediate progenitors, as well as developing novel immune-therapies directed against these cells. He is a member of the Human Stem Cell Research Advisory Committee to the Department of Public Health and Governor of California.

Dr. Lawrence Chin grew up in Troy, Michigan and attended the University of Michigan for undergrad and med school graduating in 1987. He completed his neurosurgery residency at USC in 1994 and started at the University of Maryland where he became Professor of Neurosurgery and Radiation Oncology. In 2006 he became Professor and Chair of Neurosurgery at Boston University, and in 2011 became Professor and Chair of Neurosurgery at SUNY Upstate. His research interests are in stereotactic radiosurgery, brain tumor signal transduction, skull base surgery, and minimally invasive spine.

Dr. Nipun Choudhry received his Medical Degree from Pavlov Medical University in 2002, specializing in internal medicine, and a Masters in Philosophy in Hospital and Health Systems Management from Birla Institute of Technology & Sciences (BITS-Pilani). He presently serves as the Chief Academic Coordinator for the Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals and Associate Editor & Coordinator for Apollo Medicine Journal. Apollo Medicine Journal (AMJ) is a peer reviewed & Indexed Journal of Apollo group & is being published by Elsevier. He is responsible for editing and coordination of all articles in the Apollo Medicine Journal and also has numerous publications. He coordinate for all DNB programmes and Paramedical degree courses in Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals. Dr. Choudhry has received Diplomas in Hospital Administration and Hospital Quality and accreditation He is the author for a handbook on wellness & Lifestyle and is publishing a book “A Guide to Healthy Lifestyle & wellness”. He has been Health coach of many corporate executives and conducted workshops on Wellness & lifestyle.

Dr. Muhammad Choudhury was appointed Chairman of the Department of Urology at the New York Medical College in March 2001. He is also the Director of Urology and Chief of the Section of Uro-Oncology at Westchester Medical Center. Dr. Choudhury is a nationally renowned specialist in urologic cancers. He received his M.D. degree from Sylhet Medical College in Bangladesh and then came to the United States where he completed his surgical residency at the Mount Vernon Hospital in New York. He began his urology residency at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center and completed his training at the New York Medical College-affiliated hospitals. He went on to accept a coveted Fellowship in Urologic-Oncology at the Roswell Park Memorial Institute in Buffalo NY. Upon completion, he was invited by the Department Chairman, Dr. Joseph Addonizio, to join his practice group and the faculty of the New York Medical College. Over the next fifteen years, Dr. Choudhury rose rapidly through the ranks to become a full Professor of Urology at New York Medical College and Director of Urology at Westchester Medical Center. Dr. Choudhury is a member of numerous medical societies, including the American Medical Association, the American Urological Association and the New York Academy of Medicine. He has published extensively in his field, in both books and journals, and has presented widely. Dr. Choudhury has been instrumental in the training and guidance of numerous past and current urology residents. He is a talented and motivated leader, and a reputable clinician and surgeon.

Ram Chuttani, M.D., is the Director of Interventional Gastroenterology and Endoscopy at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. He is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. He attended Maulana Azad Medical College, India, in 1983. His internship and residency were at Norwalk Hospital, Yale University School of Medicine in Internal Medicine, where he finished in 1987. He did his fellowship at Boston’s Brigham and Women's Hospital in Gastroenterology. His clinical interests include Therapeutic Endoscopy and Colonoscopy, Colon Polyps and Cancer, Pancreatic Biliary Disease and ERCP, as well as Endoscopic Management of GERD and Barretts. His publication and presentation history is extensive.

Dr. Lee Cohen is Director of the Center for Women’s Mental Health at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and is the first incumbent of the Edmund and Carroll Carpenter Chair in Psychiatry in Women’s Mental Health at Harvard Medical School. He is a national and international leader in the field of women’s mental health and was among the founders of the field of Perinatal and Reproductive Psychiatry. His work spans the domains of research, teaching and clinical care in the area of treatment of mood and anxiety disorders with subspecialty interest in psychiatric disorders associated with female reproductive function. These include psychiatric disorders during pregnancy and the post-partum period, depression in midlife women and issues related to infertility and mental health . The research which he conducts and oversees has helped to inform the care of patients who suffer from psychiatric illness. Dr. Cohen received his undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and his medical degree from Albany Medical College. He completed his internship at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in Brighton, Massachusetts and his residency in psychiatry at MGH. After residency, Dr. Cohen completed a fellowship in psychopharmacology in the Clinical Psychopharmacology Unit with a specific emphasis in reproductive pharmacology, and then founded the Center for Women’s Mental Health at MGH. The program has expanded over the last two decades and now includes junior and senior faculty, research fellows, and residents from the psychiatry residency training program at the MGH. (See www.womensmentalhealth.org) Dr. Cohen has authored or coauthored more than 200 articles, abstracts , and book chapters. His articles have been published in leading medical journals, including American Journal of Psychiatry, Journal of the American Medical Association, and Archives of General Psychiatry. Dr. Cohen has been and continues to be the principal investigator on multiple grants funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and other funding agencies and has mentored numerous junior faculty who have become independent investigators. He has received many awards, including the Outstanding Achievement Award for Research from the Massachusetts Psychiatric Society and the Mentorship Award for Exceptional Mentorship of Women Faculty from the Department of Psychiatry at MGH. At the national level, he has served on the Advisory Council to the Office of Research in Women’s Health at the National Institute of Health. This office sets the agenda for research in women’s health across the NIH. Most recently, he was appointed by Governor Deval Patrick of Massachusetts to serve on the Special Committee Relative to Postpartum Depression which will set the standards for screening and treatment of postpartum depression for women in Massachusetts.

Joel L. Cohen, MD is the Director of AboutSkin Dermatology and DermSurgery in Englewood and Lone Tree, Colorado, and serves as an Associate Clinical Professor in the Department of Dermatology at the University of Colorado. He is Board Certified by the American Board of Dermatology, and is fellowship-trained in Mohs surgery and cosmetic dermatology. He recently was named a Top Dermatologist by US News and World Report. He has been voted by his peers as a 5280 Top Doc EIGHT times (in Dermatology and/or aesthetics). Dr. Cohen is an internationally recognized expert on skin cancer and aesthetics, and participates in many clinical trials. He has been invited to speak at numerous national and international aesthetic and dermatologic meetings (including the American Society of Plastic Surgery, American Academy of Dermatology, American Society of Dermatologic Surgery (ASDS), Ameican Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, IMCAS in Paris, and Harvard’s annual aesthetic course). In 2008, he was selected to serve as an instructor in dermatologic surgical and aesthetic procedures for the ASDS Preceptorship Program. In 2005, he was the recipient of the ASDS Public Service Award, and in 2007 he received the ASCDAS Distinguished Service Award. He has published more than 120 medical articles and book chapters. He is the co-author of the McGraw-Hill textbook “Regional Rejuvenation.” He is also the editor of an upcoming comprehensive book on botulinum toxins, and co-author of an upcoming book on reconstruction of skin cancer defects. He serves on the editorial staff for 9 journals, authors a regular “Surgical Pearls” column in The Dermatologist, and also is the Editor of Case Reports for Journal of Drugs in Dermatology. Dr. Cohen has been quoted in many national newspapers and magazines (including The New York Times, Marie Claire, MORE, Seventeen, Real Simple, Cooking Light, Glamour and Shape), and has made more than 55 appearances on Denver television stations--including a regular segment on ABC Denver. In October 2010, Dr. Cohen appeared on the Emmy Award–winning television show, “The Doctors” for a segment on Mohs surgery and skin cancer.

Dr. Steven Cohen is a plastic surgeon, inventor, author and entrepreneur. Dr. Cohen is recognized as one of the top plastic surgeons in the United States by U.S. News and World Report, Castle Connolly and Best Doctors, Inc. Dr. Cohen did his general surgery residency at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center in New York City and Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center in Hanover New Hampshire. He completed a fellowship in cardiac surgery at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. After extensive basic surgical training, Dr. Cohen completed his plastic surgery at the University of Pennsylvania and went on to do a fellowship in craniofacial and facial plastic surgery at UCLA under the mentorship of Dr. Henry Kawamoto. Dr. Cohen has been involved in the plastic surgery training program at the University of California, San Diego, where he serves as Clinical Professor and directs the Craniofacial Fellowship and co-directs the Aesthetic Surgery Fellowship. Dr. Cohen has authored over 150 publications in the medical literature and has been an invited surgeon and lecturer throughout the U.S., Europe and Asia. He has served on the editorial board of Plastic Reconstructive Surgery, the Annals of Plastic Surgery, the Cleft Palate-Craniofacial Journal and presently is on the editorial board of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery. Dr. Cohen inventions in distraction osteogenesis (marketed as the MID Distractor System by Stryker, Inc.) are the basis for most of the internal devices used throughout the world for children with severe craniofacial deformities. Dr. Cohen is a founder of LeonardoMD, a web based, fully integrated medical software, which was one of the earliest “cloud” computing companies in the medical space. In addition to his clinical practice in Aesthetic and Craniofacial Surgery, he provides consulting services for a number of biotechnology companies and concerns. Dr. Cohen is an artist whose works have been shown in galleries and are in a number of private collections. Dr. Cohen has had a long term interest in regenerative medicine, performing the first adipocyte derived stem cell fat transfers in the world in 2003. He recently founded the Cell Society along with Dr. Marc Hedrick of Cytori Therapeutics, to help educate the public as well as physicians and industry about new advances in cell therapy and regenerative medicine.

Bruce F. Cohen, M.D. is a board certified physician in Maternal-Fetal Medicine and Obstetrics & Gynecology a graduate of the Roxbury Latin School and Yale University. Dr. Cohen attended the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and performed his residency (OBGYN) at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and conducted his high risk obstetrical fellowship in Maternal-Fetal Medicine at the University of California, Irvine. Dr. Cohen is an Assistant Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Reproductive Biology at Harvard Medical School and was the Director of Maternal Services and Division Director of Maternal-Fetal Medicine (where he launched a new practice model for the division, creating a perinatal consultation and fetal assessment center) until he became the CEO and co-founder and the President of Boston Maternal Fetal Medicine in 2010. Professionally, he also holds positions as a Perinatologist and/or Obstetrical Supervisor at several Hospitals in the Boston area as well as Nantucket. Dr. Cohen has served on several high risk perinatology and obstetrical committees throughout Massachusetts and as a reviewer for the American Journnal of Obstetrics and Gynecology. He has been the Principal Investigator of projects including “Differential Gene Array Analysis of Placental Tissue, Maternal Serum and Cord Blood affected by IVGR,” and has authored and co-authored a number of peer-reviewed articles, book chapters and reviews. Dr. Cohen has been the recipient of numerous prestigious teaching awards at Harvard Medical School and is very involved in supervisory and training roles for Residents, Clinical and Research Fellows. Dr. Cohen specializes in multiple pregnancies, fetal testing and fetal anomalies, and devotes his clinical practice to the care of women with high risk pregnancies and working to forward the growth of the division of Maternal Fetal Medicine. Dr. Cohen is married with three children and is active in music, triathlons and writing.

Dr. Cooke is Professor and Associate Director of the Stanford Cardiovascular Institute. He trained in Cardiovascular Medicine at the Mayo Clinic and obtained a Ph.D. in physiology there. Subsequently, he was recruited to Harvard Medical School as an Assistant Professor of Medicine. In 1990, he was chosen to spearhead the Stanford program in Vascular Medicine. At Stanford University, Dr. Cooke directs a research program in vascular regeneration. This is a vertically integrated program from molecule to man focused on developing fundamental knowledge that will lead to new vascular therapies. Dr. Cooke has published over 350 manuscripts in vascular medicine. He has served as President of the Society for Vascular Medicine; as Director of the American Board of Vascular Medicine; as an Associate Editor of Vascular Medicine; and on committees of the American Heart Association, American College of Cardiology, and the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.

Dr. Robert J. Corona is the John B Bernard Henry Professor in Pathology and Chairman of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at Upstate Medical University. He is also Clinical Chief of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at University Hospital of Upstate Medical Center. Dr. Corona served as Vice President of Medical and Scientific Affairs and Chief Medical Officer at Welch Allyn, Inc. for the past 15 years. Prior to joining Welch Allyn, he was Physician Director of Medical Informatics, Laboratory Informatics and Telemedicine at SUNY Upstate Medical University. While at Upstate, he founded CareNet, a medical informatics and telemedicine program that won the Smithsonian Award for Innovation in Medicine. Dr. Corona is board certified in Anatomic Pathology, Neuropathology and Medical Management. He served on the New York State Board for Medicine for 10 years and now serves on the New York State Department of Health’s Board of Professional Medical Conduct. Dr. Corona is a recipient of the State University of New York President’s Award for Excellence in Teaching. He has published journal articles in the fields of Alzheimer ’s Disease and brain tumors and is a contributing author to a book chapter on Alzheimer’s Disease. Dr. Corona is a nationally recognized speaker on the use of information and communications technology in medicine and has won awards as best presenter at many conferences. He is the past recipient of the Computer Professional of the Year Award for the CNY region. He is the only physician to ever receive that award. After graduating from Ithaca College in 1982, Dr. Corona received his medical degree from NYCOM/ NYIT in Long Island, New York. He did a general medical internship at Southeastern Medical Center in Miami, Florida, and his residency and fellowship at SUNY Upstate Medical University. He did an additional fellowship at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology in Washington, DC. Dr. Corona also served as Chief Resident at SUNY Upstate Medical and as Co-Chairman of the Chief Resident's Association.

G. Rees Cosgrove, MD, FRCSC, is the Stoll Professor and Chair of the Department of Neurosurgery at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University and the Clinical Director of the Norman Prince Neurosciences Institute. As a leader in academic neurosurgery, he is a member of the executive committee of the World Society of Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery; past president of the American Society of Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery and an active member of the American Association of Neurosurgeons; the Congress of Neurological Surgeons; the American Academy of Neurological Surgery; and the Society of Neurological Surgeons. Dr. Cosgrove is the author of over 110 peer-reviewed publications, 165 abstracts and 56 book chapters. He has been an invited guest lecturer over 140 times and a visiting professor at 37 different academic institutions around the world. Dr. Cosgrove received his training at the Montreal Neurological Institute and has received a number of honors, including the Gold Medal in Surgery of Queen’s University, the Wilder Penfield Award of the Montreal Neurological Institute, the Daniel D. Federman Outstanding Clinical Educator Award of Harvard Medical School and an Honorary Litchfield Lectureship from Oxford University. He has been named as one of America’s Top Doctors for the past 10 years and listed in the Global Directory of Who’s Who and International Who’s Who.

Merit Cudkowicz, MD, MSc is the Chief of the MGH Neurology Service and the Julieanne Dorn Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Cudkowicz directs the Massachusetts General Hospital ALS Clinic and the Massachusetts General Hospital Neurological Clinical Research Institute. She is one of the founders and co-directors of the Northeast ALS Consortium (NEALS), a group of over 100 clinical sites in the United States and Canada dedicated to performing collaborative academic led clinical trials in ALS. Dr. Cudkowicz received the American Academy of Neurology 2009 Sheila Essay ALS award. As Prinicipal Investigator of the Clinical Coordination Center for the NINDS NeuroNEXT Neurology clinical trial network, she is leading 25 sites that conduct high impact phase II trials in Neurology. This network established an academic Central IRB let by MGH and a system for efficient study start-up. She is actively mentoring young neurologists in clinical investigation in ALS and related neurodegenerative disorders. Dr. Cudkowicz is on the medical advisory board for the Muscular Dystrophy Association and the Massachusetts Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Association. Dr. Cudkowicz’s research and clinical activities are dedicated to the study and treatment of patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

Gary H Danton, MD., PhD attended the University of Miami as an undergraduate where he obtained a BS studying psychobiology in 1996. He remained at the University of Miami as part of the combined MD, PhD program where he studied vascular consequences of photochemically induced thromboembolic stroke in a murine model and graduated with a PhD in Neuroscience in 2002. After completing his MD degree in 2004 he completed a medical internship at UM/Jackson Memorial Hospital in 2005 and a residency in Radiology in 2009 where he was chief resident. During his residency, he participated in implementation of Cerner electronic medical record system, Philips isite PACS, TeraRecon 3D, voice recognition and Primordial workflow tools and was recruited to join the faculty as an assistant clinical professor of Radiology and section chief of imaging informatics. In this role he worked on implementation of EPIC medical records systems, a second PACS implementation and his work is ongoing. He spent one year of clinical work in Pediatric Radiology developing expertise in CT of congenital heart disease before joining the ER/Trauma section. In 2010 he became the Program Director of the Radiology Residency and Medical Director of Radiology Services at Jackson Memorial Hospital. He has a number of publications in Radiology and Neuroscience and has given numerous presentations around the country.

Dr. Ivan David has been an attending surgeon in cardiothoracic surgery at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Paterson, NJ, St. Luke’s Hospital in New York, NY, and since May of 1989 at New Hanover Regional Medical Center in Wilmington, NC. He has also taught in the cardiac and surgery departments of Tel-Aviv University, Harvard Medical School and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. David is certified by the American Board of Surgery and the American Board of Thoracic Surgery, and is licensed by the states of North Carolina, New York, New Jersey and South Carolina . Quite literally, Dr. Ivan David has a world of experience. A native of Cluj, Romania, he emigrated to Israel in 1961. Dr. David earned his medical degree from the University of Padova in Italy, completed an internship and assistant cardiac surgery residency in Israel, and trained in many of the finest hospitals in America, including: St. Luke’s Hospital, NY, NY, where he completed his General Surgery residency (as assistant, senior and chief resident), a Fellowship in Cardiac Surgery, and obtained board certification in Cardiothoracic Surgery in 1985. Subsequently, Dr. David completed a Fellowship in Cardiac Pathology at Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Boston, MA, as well as a residency (where he was assistant and chief resident) in Cardiothoracic Surgery at the Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC. Dr. David initiated his clinical practices in Paterson, NewJersey and St Lukes Hospital in New York City. In 1989 he moved to Wilmington, North Carolina to join a newly started Cardiothoracic Surgery practice, Coastal Thoracic Surgical Associates. He is widely published in his field and has lectured and presented extensively nationally and internationally. Dr. David's clinical expertise is in adult cardiac surgery specifically Mitral valve surgery, arrhythmia surgery and arterial myocardial revascularization.

Alan Hersh DeCherney, M.D., is currently Head of the Program in Reproductive and Adult Endocrinology/Reproductive Biology and Medicine Branch of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) of the National Institutes of Health. He was the Director of the Division of Reproductive Endocrinology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA from 1996 to 2006 and Chair of the Department of OBGYN from ‘96 to ‘02. He is a Fellow of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists; Past President of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine; Past President of the Society for Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility, the Society of Reproductive Surgeons, and the Society of Assisted Reproductive Technology. He is a Member of the American Gynecological and Obstetrical Society and a Past President of the Society for Gynecologic Investigation.

Alberto de Hoyos, M.D. is an Associate Professor in Thoracic Surgery and Pulmonary Medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. He received his Medical Degree from Autonoma De Nuevo Leon University in Mexico, in 1982. He completed his residency at the University of Nevada Medical Center in 2000, and Northwestern Memorial Hospital in 2003. Dr. de Hoyos did his fellowship at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center in 2004. Dr. de Hoyos is board certified in Cardiothoracic Vascular Surgery. Dr. de Hoyos' clinical and research interests include: Airway/Esophageal Stenting; Brachytherapy; Bronchoscopy; Chest Wall Tumors; Emphysema (COPD); Esophageal Cancer; Esophageal Disorders; Tracheal Surgery; Esophageal Surgery; Esophagectomy; Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD); Lobectomy; Lung Cancer, Chest Wall/Mediastinal Tumors; Mesothelioma; Minimally Invasive Thoracic Surgery; Pleural Disease; Robotic Thoracic Surgery; Surgery; Sympathectomy/ Hyperhidrosis; Thoracic Oncology; Thymoma; Tracheal Surgery; Video-Assisted Thoracic Surgery; Radiofrequency Ablation - Tumors. He is extensively published in his field, is involved in numerous research collaborations, and has presented widely both nationally and internationally.

Dr. Daniel Del Vecchio is a Massachusetts native. He attended Yale University where he graduated summa cum laude. He returned to Boston and attended Harvard Medical School, where he earned his MD degree in 1984. He completed training in general and in plastic surgery at Mass General Hospital and achieved Board Certification in both general surgery and in plastic surgery. He received additional fellowship training in cosmetic surgery at the University of Pennsylvania. Since completing his cosmetic surgery training over a decade ago, Dr. Del Vecchio has continued to remain in an academic environment and to educate others in the field of cosmetic surgery. He has published extensively in the plastic surgery literature, has written chapters in major plastic surgery textbooks, and has spoken at national meetings on the subject of cosmetic surgery. Dr. Del Vecchio has also been involved in the training of surgical residents at Tufts New England Medical Center, where he was an Assistant Professor of Surgery, and at Harvard’s Massachusetts General Hospital where he is currently a member of the Consulting Staff in the Division of Plastic Surgery and a distinguished member of the American Board of Plastic Surgery (ABPS). Dr. Daniel Del Vecchio is unique among Boston cosmetic surgeons. Besides obtaining undergraduate and medical education at Yale and Harvard, Dr. Del Vecchio earned an MBA from Columbia Business School in New York City. At Columbia, he was trained in providing superior customer service to better serve his Boston cosmetic surgery practice. He is the founder of Back Bay Plastic Surgery, a highly acclaimed cosmetic surgery practice with a true dedication to customer service.

Dr. DeMichele is an Associate Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology at the University of Pennsylvania and Senior Scholar in the Center for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics. She co-leads the Breast Cancer Research Program of the Abramson Cancer Center and directs the Doris Duke Clinical Research Fellowship Program at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. DeMichele earned a B.S. in Biochemistry from Brown University, an M.D. from Washington University School of Medicine (as a Four Schools Physician/Scientist Scholar) and a Masters Degree in Clinical Epidemiology from the University of Pennsylvania. She received her clinical training in Internal Medicine and Hematology/Oncology at the University of Pennsylvania, and joined the faculty in 2000 as a breast cancer oncologist and molecular epidemiologist whose research focuses on identifying markers of outcome, response to therapy and development of targeted therapeutics. She is currently the PI of numerous clinical trials and epidemiologic studies, including Chair of Trial Operations for the I-SPY2 Trial, a multicenter clinical trial in which targeted therapeutics are tested in the context of molecular and MRI imaging response profiles in patients receiving neoadjuvant therapy for locally-advanced breast cancer, and her work has been funded through the NCI and other charitable foundations. In addition, she directs Penn’s Breast Cancer Survivorship Program, a multidisciplinary clinical research program at the Abramson Cancer Center, where she and her colleagues are performing studies of bone loss, ovarian dysfunction, hot flashes, lymphedema, depression/distress and physical activity in breast cancer survivors. She is a past recipient of a Young Investigator Award from the American Society of Clinical Oncology, a Clinical Research Training Grant from the American Cancer Society and a Patient-Oriented Career Development Award from the NIH. Dr. DeMichele has served on the American Board of Internal Medicine Oncology Subspecialty Board, the Editorial Board of the Journal of Clinical Oncology and is currently Chair of the Medical Advisory Board of the Expedition Inspiration Fund for Breast Cancer Research.

Dr. De Salles has surgically treated over one thousand patients with functional diseases of the brain and more than 8,000 patients with brain or spine tumors using the most advanced techniques of surgery, radiation and imaging during his 30 years of academic neurosurgery. His dedication to techniques of minimally or no invasion of the human body to handle serious illness is well described on his five books, including this science fiction and over two hundred scientific articles, editorials and book chapters. His experience extends to neurological disorders such as Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, major depression, epilepsy, neuropathic pain, headaches, brain tumors, brain injury and vascular diseases of the brain. Dr. De Salles is a world renowned expert in Functional Neurosurgery and Radiosurgery. He is the Head of the Stereotactic Surgery section; Co-Director of the Stereotactic Radiosurgery program at the UCLA School of Medicine, and Co-Director of the Epilepsy Surgery Program at the West Los Angeles Veteran Administration Hospital. Dr. De Salles serves as the Assistant Chief of Neurosurgery for the West Los Angeles Veterans Administration at the Wadsworth Medical Center and he is a member of the Pain Management Group at the UCLA School of Medicine. Dr. De Salles is a Professor in the Departments of Neurosurgery and Radiation Oncology at the UCLA School of Medicine since 1990. He received a PhD in Physiology and Biophysics from the Virginia Commonwealth University, and specialized in stereotactic neurosurgery at Harvard University while working at the Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. De Salles honed his functional neurosurgery expertise at Umeå University, in Sweden. Dr. De Salles is a member of several distinguished professional societies such as the American Medical Association, Congress of Neurological Surgeons, the Massachusetts Medical Society, the International Stereotactic Radiosurgery Society, the World Society for Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery, the American Society for Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery, the Western Society of Neurosurgery, honorary member of the Brazilian Society for Stereotaxis and Functional Neurosurgery and of the Brazilian Radiosurgery Society. Dr. De Salles lectured in five continents of the world and dedicated large part of his youth working with communities in need in his home country, Brazil where he experienced firsthand surgery for aggressive behavior.

Dr. Barry E. DiBernardo is recognized as a leader in plastic surgery and has been named one of the best plastic surgeons in America from the New York City metropolitan region. He is the Medical Director of New Jersey Plastic Surgery® in Montclair, NJ, immediate past President of the New Jersey Society of Plastic Surgeons (2005-2006), an Associate Clinical Professor in Plastic and Reconstructive surgery at the University of Medicine & Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ), and Chief of the Aesthetic Surgery Program at Mountainside Hospital. Dr. DiBernardo is a member of both the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery and the American Society of Plastic Surgeon. He has been on the Editorial Board and has served as a reviewer for a number of top Plastic Surgery journals. Dr. DiBernardo is a widely published author and an internationally renowned presenter, committed to providing his patients with the most advanced surgical and non-surgical options making him a sought after expert by the local, regional and national media. He is listed among the top doctors chosen by their peers in Hemispheres Magazine, New Jersey Monthly, NJ Life, and the Castle Connolly Guide. A 1984 graduate from Cornell University Medical College, Dr. DiBernardo received the school’s Charles H. Horn Prize for outstanding leadership and service to the medical community. He spent five years as a general surgeon at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami Beach, Florida, before embarking on a two-year residency in Plastic Surgery at the Montefiore Medical Center, Albert Einstein College of Medicine in N.Y. In 1991, Dr. DiBernardo began his work in private practice. Also in 1991, he received the Leo M. Davidoff Award for teaching distinction at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and, a year later, the American Society of Plastic & Reconstructive Surgeons’ National Scientific Exhibit Award, in Washington D.C. Dr. DiBernardo is certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery, and is the Certified International Instructor for multiple laser and light based systems as well as skin care modalities. His hospital appointments include University Hospital at the University of Medicine & Dentistry of New Jersey in Newark; Mountainside Hospital, Montclair; and Clara Maass Medical Center, Belleville, NJ. Dr. Barry DiBernardo was named among one of New Jersey’s best doctors in the 2010 Top Docs issue of New Jersey Magazine, where 647 New Jersey doctors were chosen from among 20,000 doctors in 57 specialties.

David Dilts, PhD, MBA, CMA, management scientist, serves as Director of Strategy Alignment for the Knight Cancer Institute, Professor of Management and co-director of the Center for Management Research in Healthcare (cMRHc.org) all at the Oregon Health & Science University. Prior to taking this position he was the sole joint Professor between the Owen Graduate School of Management and the School of Engineering at Vanderbilt University. He has researched and consulted in multiple industries (including oncology, optometry, automotive, capital equipment, floral, and sports, particularly world-class track & field athletes), for a diverse set of products (from the Trident II D-5 Fleet Ballistic Missile to single-use cameras) and services (from opening of clinical trials to the impact of quality certification on firm stock prices to critical success factors for business incubation). In his current position he is responsible for aligning all the diverse pieces of a major cancer institute for strategic and research excellent. His work has been published in over 200 articles, editorials, conference papers and presentations, book chapters, books and monographs, and his research has been supported at nearly $20 million for the past decade. His work has appeared in Nature Medicine, Clinical Cancer Research, Science Translational Medicine, Journal of Operations Management, Journal of Clinical Oncology, and Health Economics. His work has resulted in numerous awards, most recently a 2011 National Institutes of Health Award of Merit.

Dr. Drossman received his M.D. degree at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and obtained his medical residency at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine and NYU – Bellevue Medical Center. He subspecialized in psychosocial (psychosomatic) medicine at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and in Gastroenterology at the University of North Carolina. In 2012, Dr. Drossman founded the Drossman Center for the Education and Practice of Integrated, LLC care as an entity to help train physicians in relationship centered biopsychosocial care with emphasis on communication skills and enhancing the patient doctor relationship. Some focus is on the care of difficult to diagnose and manage patients with functional gastrointestinal disorders such as IBS. Dr. Drossman also established Drossman Consulting, LLC to consult in the health care field including: academic programs in medicine, psychiatry and digestive diseases, Federal (NIH) or pharmaceutical grants as a mentor or consultant, gastrointestinal medical practices, pharmaceutical advisory boards, as health care foundations, medico legal groups, on-profit health care and educational and media companies. Dr. Drossman is currently an Adjunct Professor of Medicine and Psychiatry at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine where he was on staff from 1977 through 2011. He was founder and co-director of the UNC Center for Functional Gastrointestinal and Motility Disorders (since 1993). He was founder, past chair (1989-1993) and newsletter editor of the Functional Brain-Gut Research Group of the AGA, Chair (since 1989) of the Rome Committees (Rome I II and III) and President of the Board of the Rome Foundation (since 2004), past Chair of the Functional GI American Digestive Health Foundation’s Digestive Health Initiative (1999-2001) and of the Motility and Nerve-Gut Section of the AGA Council (2003-2005). He is Past-President of the American Psychosomatic Society (1997), a Fellow of the American College of Physicians, a Master of the American College of Gastroenterology, and is on the Board of Directors and Chair of the Scientific Advisory Board of the International Foundation for Functional GI Disorders (IFFGD). He has served on two committees of the Institute of Medicine Committee on Gulf War and Health, has been an Ad Hoc member of NIH- NCCAM Advisory board, and is on the NIH-National Commission on Digestive Diseases. Dr. Drossman has written over 500 articles and book chapters, has published two books, a GI Procedure Manual, and textbook of Functional GI disorders (Rome I, II, III), and serves on six editorial and advisory boards in Gastroenterology, psychosomatic medicine, behavioral medicine, and patient health. He served 5-years as Associate Editor of the journal Gastroenterology and was the Gastroenterology Section Editor of the Merck Manual for 17 years. Dr. Drossman’s research relates to the clinical, epidemiological, psychosocial and treatment aspects of gastrointestinal disorders. He has developed and validated several assessment measures (e.g., illness severity and quality of life questionnaires for IBD and IBS, and an abuse severity scale) for clinical research, is involved in psychosocial outcomes research, and has also studied brain imaging in IBS and abuse. He was principal investigator on several NIH sponsored research grants with over $15,000,000 in funding. This included a multi-center grant for treatment (antidepressant and cognitive-behavioral treatment) of the functional bowel disorders. He also consults with regulatory and pharmaceutical agencies regarding the design and evaluation of treatment trials. He is a recipient of the Janssen Award for Clinical Research (1999), the American Psychosomatic Society President’s Award (2003), the AGA Joseph B. Kirsner – Fiterman Award in Clinical Research (2005) the AGA Mentors Research Scholar Award (2007) and has received several “Who’s Who”, “Patient Choice” and “Best Doctors” citations over the past 15 years. His educational and clinical interests relate to the psychosocial and behavioral aspects of patient care. He has produced numerous articles and videotapes on the biopsychosocial aspects of medical care, medical interviewing and the patient-doctor relationship, and received second prize at the 1997 AMA International Film Festival. As a Charter Fellow of the American Academy of Communication in Health Care, he facilitates workshops to develop clinical skills in physician-patient communication. He received the AGA Distinguished Educator Award (2004), was identified as a “Best Gastroenterologist” in Men’s Health (2007) and in Woman’s Health (2008) and is featured as one of 12 gastroenterologists in a book “Best Gastroenterology Practices” (2007).

Dr. Quan-Yang Duh is Professor of Surgery, Section Chief of Endocrine Surgery, at the University of California, San Francisco. He is also Attending Surgeon at the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Dr. Duh graduated from Yale University, New Haven, CT with a B.S. and summa cum laude in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry. He completed his surgical internship, residency and postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California, in San Francisco He is board certified by the American Board of Surgery. Dr. Duh is recognized internationally and nationally as an expert endocrine surgeon and advance laparoscopic surgeon. He specializes in the treatment of endocrine cancers and tumors, including those from the thyroid, parathyroid, pancreas and adrenal glands. He is an expert minimally invasive surgeon and performed laparoscopic adrenalectomy and laparoscopic hernia repair, and minimally invasive surgery for parathyroid and thyroid gland, as well as other complex laparoscopic and minimally invasive surgery. Dr. Duh’s research in endocrine cancer involved oncogenesis, genetic alteration and redifferentiation treatment of thyroid cancer and adrenal tumors. His clinical research involved patients with adrenal diseases (aldosteronoma, pheochromocytoma, Cushing, incidentaloma and adrenal metastasis), and minimally invasive parathyroid and thyroid operations. Dr. Duh has developed and actively teaches several new techniques for advance laparoscopic surgery. He has authored or co-authored more than 300 articles and textbook chapters on topics of endocrine surgery and laparoscopic surgery. Dr. Duh is Past President of American Association of Endocrine Surgeons, the Northern California Chapter of the American College of Surgeons and the San Francisco Surgical Society.

Sanjeev Dutta, MD is Associate Professor of Surgery and the Harman Endowed Faculty Scholar at Stanford University School of Medicine. He is an attending neonatal, thoraco-abdominal, and oncologic surgeon at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford. He is an internationally recognized leader in minimally invasive surgery, and has pioneered Stealth Surgery, a surgical approach that leaves no visible scarring. He is co-founder of MISTRAL, an NIH funded collaborative laboratory with SRI International that is focused on the research and development of medical technologies. Dr. Dutta consults with a variety of industry leaders on future trends and design needs of new medical technologies. Dr. Dutta obtained an MD degree from the University of Calgary and an MA in Educational Psychology from the University of Illinois. He completed a general surgical residency at Dalhousie University, a fellowship in laparoendoscopic surgery at McMaster University, and a fellowship in pediatric surgery at the University of Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children. He is completing an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Dr. Eibl-Lindner is an internationally expert on experimental ophthalmology and serves besides her active clinical work as head of the molecular and cell biology research unit at the University Eye Hospital Munich. Her clinical expertise comprises ocular traumatology, anterior segment surgery, Ru 106 brachytherapy and stereotactic radiosurgery for uveal melanoma, plastic surgery of the eylid and lacrimal duct and intravitreal/intracameral drug application. Dr. Eibl-Lindner is the recipient of important awards such as the Research Award for Innovative Basic Science in Ophthalmology and the Glaucoma Research Award of the German Society of Ophthalmology. She is active member of several editorial boards and regularly publishes in her field.

Yoram Elitsur MD joined the Department of Pediatrics at Marshall University in 1990. He attended medical school at Haddasha Medical School in Jerusalem, Israel where he also completed his pediatric residency training. He did his pediatric Gastroenterology fellowship at Children's Hospital of Buffalo and a further research fellowship at Wayne State University, where he stayed on as an attending for several years. Here at Marshall, he is a professor of Pediatrics (1994), has served as Chief of the Division of Pediatric Gastroenterology (1990), and as Associate Chair of Research (1999). Dr. Elitsur has had a long and distinguished career in clinical research. He has authored more than 110 articles and has received 20 external grants. He is a member of the Society for Pediatric Research (SPR). He is a regular reviewer for more than a dozen academic journals. More than 50 of Yoram's publications are co-authored with pediatric housestaff or medical students. His primary clinical and research interests focus on Helicobacter pylori, inflammatory bowel, celiac disease, and eosinophilic esophagitis. Dr Elitsur is fluent in Hebrew, English, and partially Arabic. He is a Board-certified pediatrician, with subspecialty certification in Pediatric Gastroenterology and a member of the American Gastroenterological Association, the Society of Pediatric Research and the North American Society for Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition.

Dieter R. Enzman, MD, is currently the Leo C. Rigler Chair and Professor, Department of. Radiological Sciences at UCLA Medical Center. Dr. Enzman has been in this position since 2001. Dr. Enzman obtained his medical degree at Stanford University in 1972. He completed his internship and residency at Stanford University Medical Center in the Department of Radiology. He completed a neuroradiology fellowship at the University of California in San Francisco, and is certified by the American Board of Radiology. He has published and presented extensively within his field.

Dr. Laura Esserman, M.D., M.B.A is a surgeon and breast cancer oncology specialist practicing at the UCSF Carol Franc Buck Breast Care Center where she has also held the position of Director since 1996. She co-leads the Breast Oncology Program, the largest of the UCSF Helen Diller Comprehensive Cancer Center's multidisciplinary programs. The program is comprised of 69 faculty members who represent 16 academic specialties and is internationally recognized and well-established with major initiatives in epidemiology, genetics, biology, therapeutics, and clinical cancer care. She is a professor of Surgery & Radiology at UCSF and Associate Director of the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center where she founded the program in Translational Informatics. As part of this program, her research has focused on bioinformatics, medical and clinical informatics, systems integration, and clinical care delivery. She has worked at UCSF to develop interdisciplinary teams of clinicians and researchers to bring the best care to patients and find the best platform to integrate translational research and improve the delivery of breast cancer care. In 2005, she received the NCI SPORE Investigator of the Year Award, an internationally recognized honor and designation. She is the Principle Investigator of the I-SPY TRIAL program, a multi-site neoadjuvant clinical trial that has evolved into a model for translational research and innovation in clinical trial design. Dr. Esserman has recently launched a University of California-wide breast cancer initiative called the Athena Breast Health Network, a project designed to follow 400,000 women from screening through treatment and outcomes, incorporating the latest in molecular testing and web-based tools into the course of care. Dr. Esserman is nationally and internationally known as a leader in the field of breast cancer and has published over 150 articles in peer-reviewed journals covering all aspects of breast health including information systems, immunology, decision making, health policy and the use of imaging. She speaks extensively at public and private forums within the U.S. and internationally. Overall, Dr. Esserman's research and writing tends to focus on the goal of giving patients better access to accurate information so that they can become partners in their health care. She is a member of President Obama’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) Working Group on Advancing Innovation in Drug Development and Evaluation, which is studying how the federal government can best support science-based innovation in the process of drug development and regulatory evaluation. Dr. Esserman received her Bachelor's degree in History of Science from Harvard University and completed her M.D. at Stanford University. She completed her surgery residency and oncology fellowship at Stanford University Medical Center. After her training, she joined the faculty at Stanford and received a Hartford fellowship to attend Stanford Business School where she received her M.B.A. in 1993. She then joined the faculty at the University of California, San Francisco.

Dr. Mark I. Evans is President of the Fetal Medicine Foundation of America, Professor of Obstetrics & Gynecology at Mt. Sinai School of Medicine, President of the International Fetal Medicine and Surgery Society Foundation, and President of Comprehensive Genetics, PLLC. Dr. Evans was born in Brooklyn, graduated with a Bachelor of Science Magna cum laude with special honors from Tufts University and has his medical degree from SUNY Downstate with distinction in research. He did his Obstetrics & Gynecology residency at the University of Chicago and Genetics fellowship at the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Evans spent 17 years at Wayne State University in Detroit becoming the Charlotte B. Failing Professor, Distinguished Professor, and Chairman of Obstetrics & Gynecology, Professor of Molecular Medicine and Genetics, and Professor of Pathology. Before returning to his native New York, he was also Professor and Chairman of Obstetrics & Gynecology at MCP Hahnemann University in Philadelphia. Dr. Evans has been a pioneer in the development of many advances in obstetrics including for prenatal diagnosis: chorionic villus sampling, screening techniques for chromosome abnormalities, and in utero fetal muscle biopsy for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy: He developed the nation’s largest AFP program for Metpath/Corning/Quest, and in conjunction with the Fetal Medicine Foundation has helped develop nuchal translucency screening and training worldwide. In fetal therapy Dr. Evans developed the method for the first prevention of a birth defect preventing genital masculinization in congenital adrenal hyperplasia, and was part of the team that did the first open fetal surgery for diaphragmatic hernia and fetoscopic umbilical cord ligation to treat TRAP sequence anomalies. He performed the first successful in utero stem cell transplant to cure a baby with SCIDS – the “bubble babies.” Dr. Evans has been the acknowledged leader in the development and publishing for the fetal reduction procedure through which the outcomes of multiple pregnancies have been dramatically improved over the last twenty years. Dr. Evans has over 1100 scientific publications including 30 text books. He has had multiple NIH grants including being a principal investigator for the search for fetal cells in maternal blood. He has received numerous national and international honors including receiving the President’s Award for Achievement from the Society for Gynecologic Investigation, and being elected President of the International Fetal Medicine and Surgery Society twice. He has received awards from Planned Parenthood and the National Organization for Women for his work in defending women’s rights. Dr. Evans has appeared on numerous national news programs such as all three American network news shows, Larry King, specials on Discover, PBS, and foreign networks to explain new technologies and is regularly quoted for his own work and to comment on advances by the New York Times, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal. He has been in Who’s Who in America for many years, and was named by The Best Doctors for Women as one of the top 40 Obstetricians in the United States. Dr. Evans is Past President of the Central Association of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

Dr. Facciuto is an Associate Professor of Surgery at the Department of Surgery, Mount Sinai School of Medicine. He currently holds the professional appointment of Surgical Director, Living Donor Liver Transplant at Mount Sinai Medical Center, New York, NY. His primary area of interest is liver surgery. He has been actively involved in research protocols such as “Stereotactic radiation therapy for hepatocellular carcinoma”, “Application of Circulating microparticles in the study of hepatocellular carcinoma tumor growth and activity”, “Recurrence in Hepatocellular Carcinoma Patients Undergoing Liver Transplantation”, “Impact of locoregional therapy for Hepatocellular Carcinoma”, to mention a few. His current research interest has been focused on intrahepatic bile duct cancer, and identifying prognostic factors of outcome after liver transplantation. Additionally, he has been studying and reporting on radiologic liver volumes estimation for living liver donation. He has published more than 40 manuscripts in peer reviewed journals and has presented in National and International Meetings.

Francis A. Farraye, M.D., MSc, Clinical Director, Section of Gastroenterology and Co-Director, Center for Digestive Disorders, Professor of Medicine, Boston University School of Medicine Dr. Farraye received his medical doctorate from Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. He completed an internal medicine residency and gastroenterology fellowship at the Beth Israel Hospital in Boston. Dr. Farraye received a Masters Degree in Epidemiology from the Harvard School of Public Health. Dr. Farraye's clinical interests are in the care of patients with inflammatory bowel disease and the management of colon polyps and colorectal cancer. He is currently investigating C. difficile infection in IBD patients, the management and diagnosis of dysplasia and cancer in patients with IBD; pouchitis after ileal pouch anal anastomosis; vaccinations in patients with IBD; and the role of hyperplastic polyps as an alternative pathway to the development of colorectal cancer. A frequent speaker and invited lecturer on topics on the diagnosis and management of inflammatory bowel disease, Dr. Farraye has authored or co-authored over 300 original scientific manuscripts, chapters, reviews, and abstracts. He is an associate editor for Therapy for Digestive Disorders. He is the series editor for the text Curbside Consultations in Gastroenterology and co-wrote the text, Curbside Consultation in Inflammatory Bowel Disease and Gastrointestinal Emergencies. His newest books for patients are Questions and Answers about Ulcerative Colitis and Questions and Answers about Crohn’s Disease. Dr. Farraye is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians, American Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, American Gastroenterological Association and the American College of Gastroenterology. He has served on numerous committees and currently is a member of the ACG Board of Trustees, CCFA Professional Education Committee and the Chapter Medical Advisory Committee for the New England CCFA where he was past chairman. The New England CCFA named Dr. Farraye Humanitarian of the Year in 2003. In 2009, the ACG awarded Dr Farraye the William Carey Award for service to the college. Dr. Farraye was recognized as a "Top Doctor" in Gastroenterology by Boston Magazine and U.S. News and World Report in 2010, 2011 and 2012.

Dr. Fava obtained his medical degree from the University of Padova School of Medicine where he also completed his residency training in endocrinology. He completed his residency training in psychiatry at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) in 1988 and he has been Director of the MGH Depression Clinical and Research Program (DCRP) since 1990. Under Dr. Fava's direction, the DCRP has become one of the most highly regarded depression programs in the world, conducting research projects in a variety of areas, including pharmacotherapy of resistant depression, neuroimaging, genetics, neurophysiology, neuroendocrinology, novel pharmacotherapies, alternative medicine, and psychotherapy. Dr. Fava has successfully obtained funding for his program, as principal or co-principal investigator, from the National Institute of Health and industry for a total of more than $50,000,000 in the past 22 years. Dr. Fava has authored or co-authored more than 500 original articles published in medical journals with international circulation. He has also edited eight books, and published more than 50 chapters and 500 abstracts. Dr. Fava is also a well-known national and international speaker, having given more than 200 presentations at national and international meetings. He is currently Executive Vice Chair for the MGH Department of Psychiatry, Executive Director, MGH Clinical Trials Network and Institute, Director, MGH Depression Clinical and Research Program (DCRP) and Slater Family Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Fava is also the Editor-in-Chief of the Massachusetts General Hospital's Mind, Mood & Memory newsletter.

Dr. Richard G. Fessler serves as Professor and Vice Chair of Neurosurgery at the Feinberg School of Medicine of Northwestern University. Prior to assuming this position he was the John Harper Seeley Professor and Chief of Neurosurgery at the University of Chicago Hospitals and Clinics. He previously founded and directed the Institute for Spine Care at the Chicago Institute of Neurosurgery and Neuroresearch (CINN) and was Professor of Neurological Surgery at Rush Medical College in Chicago, after serving as Director of Clinical Services and Education at the University of Florida Brain Institute. Additionally, at the University of Florida, he held the Dunspaugh-Dalton Chair of Brain and Spinal Surgery and served as Professor in the Department of Neurological Surgery. Dr. Fessler completed his Medical Doctorate with honors, and Surgical and Neurosurgical residencies at the University of Chicago. In addition to surgical training, Dr. Fessler completed a Doctorate of Philosophy in Pharmacology and Physiology, and a Masters of Science in Psychology. Continuing education after earning doctoral degrees, Dr. Fessler held research Fellowships at the University of Chicago Medical Center in Neurological Surgery and Psychiatry. The Chicago Surgical Society honored Dr. Fessler with the Excellence in Surgical Research award. Dr. Fessler is internationally known for his contributions to endoscopic and microendoscopic surgical developments. He has developed many of the current minimally invasive surgical techniques, including “minimally invasive decompression of lumbar stenosis”, “minimally invasive microendoscopic posterior cervical discectomy”, “minimally invasive decompression of cervical stenosis”, “unilateral transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion”, “minimally invasive correction of scoliosis”, and has contributed to the development of many more. The Kambin Foundation awarded Dr. Fessler their annual research award for his research in the field of minimally invasive spinal surgery Dr. Fessler is also well known for his pioneering research into human embryonic spinal cord transplantation for the treatment of spinal cord injury. He was co-principal investigator on the first human transplant study to evaluate the safety and efficacy of human embryonic spinal cord transplantation for the treatment of syringomyelia, and is the only physician in the United States to have performed these procedures. Currently he is lead clinical investigator on the first “stem cell” transplantation trial for the treatment of human spinal cord injury. Routinely listed in “Best Doctors of America”, Dr. Fessler is also listed in the Consumer Research Council of America “Guide to America’s Top Surgeons”, and “Who’s Who”. Dr. Fessler is a member of the Academy of Neurological Surgery, Congress of Neurological Surgeons, American Association of Neurological Surgeons, Neurosurgical Society of America, Joint Section on Disorders of the Spine and Peripheral Nerves, American Surgical Association, American College of Surgeons, Society of Neurological Surgeons, and the Society of Minimally Invasive Spine Surgery. He has held leadership positions for several of these professional organizations, and has been a course director or faculty member for several hundred courses sponsored by these groups. For the Federal Government, Dr. Fessler is currently on Advisory Committees for the FDA and HHS. Dr. Fessler has written seventeen books and contributed over 135 articles to peer-reviewed journals, and 130 book chapters to medical texts. Dr. Fessler lends his expertise to several editorial boards. He is frequently invited for speaking engagements and visiting professorships worldwide. In addition to all of the above accomplishments, Dr. Fessler served as a Medical Specialist and Flight Surgeon for NASA/Space Shuttle.

Michael S. Fisher, MD is a Dermatologist at Atlanta Center for Dermatologic Diseases. He received his medical degree from the Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia, and completed his residency in Dermatology and Internship in Internal Medicine at Emory University. Prior to earning his medical degree, Dr. Fisher received a Masters of Science degree in Zoology (Brigham Young University, Utah) and his Doctoral degree in Experimental Pathology (University of Utah). He is a Diplomate of the National Board of Medical Examiners and a Diplomate of the American Board of Dermatology. Dr. Fisher has held numerous academic appointments. He is an experienced scientific investigator who was instrumental in the development of a completely novel area of medical research: the role of immunological factors in the induction of skincancer by ultraviolet (UV) radiation. He was the first scientist to demonstrate that UV irradiation of mice brought about a systemic alteration that was immunologic in nature. He devised a series of elegantly-designed experiments showing the ability of highly antigenic tumors to grow progressively in UV-irradiated mice through the occurrence of specific suppressor lymphocytes induced due to UV exposure. He also expanded this line of research into tumor biology, focusing on the role of the carcinogen in tumor progression and collaborated on a possible definitive study in the area of DNA repair -photoreactivation (PR) of UV-mediated damage in mouse skin. Together with colleagues, he demonstrated the susceptibility of UV-irradiated mice to challenge with UV-induced tumors represents a selective unresponsiveness unattributable to a generalized deficiency in the immune response to tumor-specific antigens or to weak transplantation antigens. Dr. Fisher is an active lecturer and speaker at nationwide conferences. He is well published in his research field. Furthermore, Dr. Fisher is a member of many professional societies (e.g., American Academy of Dermatology, the American Society for Dermatologic Surgery, the American Society for Laser Medicine and Surgery, and the Georgia Society of Dermatologists); he is on the advisory boards of multiple pharmaceutical companies, and he has been the recipient of several prestigious honors and awards throughout his career. Dr. Fisher is also highly active in the community, and teaches several courses not only to physicians throughout the Atlanta area, but also commits his time to teaching Wilderness First Aid and CPR for the Boy Scouts of America.

Dr. Fisher is Maslah Saul MD Professor of Neurology and Director of the Stanford Epilepsy Center. He has won research awards from the Klingenstein Foundation, the Epilepsy Foundation of America and the National Institutes of Health. His peers named him to be listed 1996-2011 in Best Doctors in America. He was given the Ambassador Award from the International League Against Epilepsy, the 2005 AES Service Award and the 2006 Annual Research Award (clinical). Dr. Fisher is Past-President of the American Epilepsy Society, and has served on the Board of the International League Against Epilepsy and as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal, Epilepsia. He currently is Editor-in-Chief of the website epilepsy.com.

David A. Fishman, MD is a Professor and Fellowship Director in the Division of Gynecologic Oncology, Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Medicine. Prior to joining the faculty of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, he was was Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and Director of Gynecologic Oncology at New York University Medical School. An internationally recognized gynecologic oncologist, Dr. Fishman is especially noted for his innovative research on the regulation of ovarian metastasis and in developing new methods for the detection of early stage ovarian carcinoma. He established The National Ovarian Cancer Early Detection Program in 1999 with a grant from the National Cancer Institute and philanthropic support. He is currently the Director of this program. Dr. Fishman received his medical degree from Texas Tech School of Medicine and completed his residency and fellowship in Obstetrics and Gynecology and Gynecologic Oncology at the Yale University School of Medicine. Dr. Fishman has authored over 230 scientific papers, abstracts, and book chapters and several books on gynecologic malignancies. His research has received awards from the National Institutes of Health, National Cancer Institute, Society of Gynecologic Oncologists, Gynecologic Cancer Foundation, American Cancer Society, the Society for Gynecologic Investigation, Berlex Foundation and multiple philanthropic agencies. He serves as an editor for three journals and ad hoc reviewer for 43 medical and scientific journals and is a member of national and international cancer institute study sections from the National Cancer Institute and Centers for Disease Control to the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. His membership in many medical and honor societies and patient advocacy groups include the American Gynecologic and Obstetrical Society, Society for Gynecologic Investigation, AOA, the Society of Gynecologic Oncologists and the National Ovarian Cancer Coalition. He frequently lectures worldwide on women's cancers and early detection techniques. Dr. Fishman has been named a Castle-Connolly/New York Magazine Top doctor and a New York Times Magazine Super Doctor for the past several years.

Steven L. Flamm, MD is a Professor of Medicine and Surgery with the Division of Hepatology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, Illinois. He serves as the Chief of Transplantation Hepatology and Medical Director of Liver Transplantation. Dr. Flamm received his MD degree from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. He completed both a clinical fellowship in gastroenterology and a research fellowship in gastroenterology and hepatology at Beth Israel Hospital, Harvard Medical School. He then went on for further specialized training, completing a clinical fellowship in hepatology and liver transplantation at The Deaconess Hospital, Harvard Medical School. Dr. Flamm is a member of the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) and the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD). He has served as the Region 7 Representative to the UNOS Liver and Intestine Committee and on the Publication and Practice Guidelines Committees of the AASLD. Dr. Flamm has published widely in the field of hepatic diseases and has spoken both nationally and internationally on many other liver-related topics including viral hepatitis, autoimmune hepatitis, hepatic encephalopathy, and liver transplantation. He has an active clinical research program for patients with many different chronic liver diseases including chronic viral hepatitis (HBV and HCV) and hepatic encephalopathy.

Graduating with his medical degree from New York Medical College in 1981, Dr. Fleisher completed his surgical internship and residency at St. Luke’s/Roosevelt Hospital in New York City where he served as chief resident. He completed is fellowship in cardiovascular and thoracic surgery at the University of British Columbia before returning to St. Luke’s as an Assistant Attending Surgeon in 1989. Since 1990, Dr. Fleisher has held the position of Attending Surgeon in the Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery sections of the Department of Surgery at Westchester Medical Center. In addition to his two decades of clinical service, he has also held esteemed academic positions, including that of Visiting Clinical Fellow at Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons from 1981 to 1986, and his current position as Associate Professor of Surgery at New York Medical College. Dr. Fleisher is currently the President and Medical Director of Premier Vein Centers of Westchester. Dr. Fleisher is a Diplomate of the American College of Phlebology (the premier association for physicians and allied health professionals working in the field of phlebology), and has earned both RPVI (Registered Physicians in Vascular Interpretation) and RVT (Registered Vascular Technician) certifications awarded by the American Registry for Diagnostic Medical Sonography (ARDMS). These ARDMS credentials represent the highest level of competence in the medical-imaging modality of sonography (ultrasound) testing in the field of phlebology. Contributing to the advancement of medical science in addition to outstanding clinical service, Dr. Fleisher has also published over two dozen peer-reviewed articles and presented numerous papers at national meetings. Dr. Fleisher is a member of numerous county, state and national health organizations and has been recognized by the American Lung Association of Westchester with the Sir William Osler, MD Humanitarian Award in 2004. A passionate philanthropist, he tirelessly supports many local and national charities. In 2003, he created the “Mend a Broken Heart Foundation” to support pediatric heart surgery patients.

Dr. Flint is a Neurointensivist and Stroke Specialist in clinical practice at Kaiser Permanente in Redwood City, California. He is co-founder and CMO of image32 ( www.image32.com ), a disruptive cloud-based startup company that allows doctors and patients to easily share medical imaging studies and get second opinions. Dr. Flint's clinical research efforts focus on practical questions related to the care of patients with stroke and neurological critical illness -- recent work has focused on the benefits of statin use early in stroke and on the THRIVE score, a clinical outcome prediction score for ischemic stroke patients. Dr. Flint attended medical school and graduate school at Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York. His Ph.D. and postdoctoral research work were on the embryonic and postnatal development of the cerebral cortex, and he helped to discover that radial glial cells are a type of pluripotent stem cell that generates both neurons and glia in the developing neocortex. After Neurology residency at the Neurological Institute of New York (also at Columbia), he did a clinical fellowship at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) in Critical Care Medicine, Neurocritical Care, and Stroke.

Dr. Raja M. Flores is the Chief of the Division of Thoracic Surgery, Ames Professor of Cardiothoracic Surgery at The Mount Sinai Medical Center. Dr. Flores’ is a recognized leader in the field of Thoracic Surgery for his pioneering efforts in the treatment of mesothelioma. He has established VATS lobectomy, a minimally invasive approach using three small incisions, as the gold standard in the surgical treatment of lung cancer. He published two sentinel studies validating its oncological effectiveness by demonstrating equivalent survival and recurrence rates with fewer complications and shorter hospital stays when compared to standard thoracotomy. Dr. Flores implemented the current program for this procedure at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. He was a lead investigator in a multicenter trial of neoadjuvant alimta/cisplatin, extrapleural pneumonectomy, and high-dose radiation which is designed to improve outcomes. Dr. Flores currently has one of the largest VATS lobectomy experiences in the world. He is in the process of publishing, and has presented this data at the 90th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Thoracic Surgery. Dr. Flores’ additional research interests are based on numerous past projects relating to the multimodality management of malignant pleural mesothelioma, as well as innovative surgical techniques in minimally invasive thoracic surgery for lung cancer. He has led a number of major studies, including clinical trials of neoadjuvant gemcitabine and cisplatin followed by extrapleural pneumonectomy and high dose radiation. After earning an undergraduate degree in biochemistry from New York University, Dr. Flores attended the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, receiving his Medical Degree in 1992. He then spent five years at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center pursuing his General Surgery Internship and General Surgery Residency. He then completed a Thoracic Oncology Clinical Research Fellowship at Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Dana Faber Cancer Institute/CALGB in Boston, and his Cardiothoracic Surgery Residency at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School. He also received a Masters in Biostatistics from Columbia University. Dr. Flores is a member of numerous medical and surgical societies, has published and lectured extensively in his field, and serves on several editorial boards.

Dr. Thomas J. Fogarty is an internationally recognized cardiovascular surgeon, inventor, entrepreneur, and vintner. He has been involved with a wide spectrum of innovations in business and technology. Dr. Fogarty has served as founder/co-founder, and Chairman/Board Member of over 33 various business and research companies, based on medical devices designed and developed by Fogarty Engineering, Inc. During the past 40 years, he has acquired over 100 surgical patents, including the “industry standard” Fogarty balloon catheter and the widely used Aneurx Stent Graft that replaces open surgery aortic aneurysm. Dr. Fogarty is the recipient of countless awards and honors; most significantly, he is the recipient of the Jacobson Innovation Award of the American College of Surgeons, the 2000 Lemelson-MIT prize for Invention and Innovation and was inducted into the Inventors Hall of Fame in December 2001.

Dr. Kevin Foley is a tenured professor in the Department of Neurosurgery at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center in Memphis, Tennessee. He also holds academic appointments in the University of Tennessee Department of Biomedical Engineering and the Uniformed Services University for the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland. Dr. Foley received his medical degree and completed his neurosurgical residency at the University of California, Los Angeles. Following residency, Dr. Foley spent seven years serving in the United States Army Medical Corps. After his final assignment as chief of neurosurgery and director of the neurosurgical residency program at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. He left the military to enter private practice and pursue an academic career. In addition to a full-time spine surgery practice, Dr. Foley is actively involved in research in minimally invasive spine surgery, image-guided spinal navigation, and spinal biomechanics. He has authored over 26 book chapters and more than 90 journal publications, has lectured at more than 300 scientific meetings and educational workshops, and has been a visiting professor and invited lecturer at several universities in the United States and abroad. Dr. Foley also serves as director of the spine fellowship program for the University of Tennessee Department of Neurosurgery, vice-chairman of the Semmes-Murphey Neurologic & Spine Institute, and chairman of the board and medical director for the Medical Education & Research Institute.

Joel P. Freiman, MD, MPH is a doctor of internal medicine and pharmacoepidemiologist with 10 years of experience at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Dr. Freiman received his medical degree from New York Medical College in 1981, became a Diplomate of the American Board of Internal Medicine and was Board Certified in Internal Medicine in 1984. He continued his postgraduate career at the University of Texas School of Public Health, where he received his Masters degree in Public Health in 1989. He served in the capacities of Staff Fellow, Medical Officer and Branch Chief of Epidemiology within FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. During Dr. Freiman's first eight years at FDA, he provided epidemiologic assessments on numerous complex drug safety issues. During his last two years at FDA Dr. Freiman served as a Medical Officer, in the Division of Neuropsychiatric Drug Products, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, where he reviewed and evaluated clinical trial data for safety and effectiveness. Prior to joining the FDA, Dr. Freiman was an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Department of Internal Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas and later served as an Attending Physician in Internal Medicine on the Acute Care Medical Service at the Veteran's Administration Hospital in West Palm Beach, FL. At the VA, Dr. Freiman Chaired the Preventative Medicine Committee from 1995-1997. After leaving the FDA in 2000, he worked for eight years as an independent consultant to the pharmaceutical industry reviewing and analyzing adverse event data and providing expert testimony re: safety of certain pharmaceutical agents. Dr. Freiman then joined Lexicon Pharmaceuticals as a Senior Medical Director of Drug Safety providing comprehensive safety surveillance for all the company’s development programs. Dr. Freiman received the Food and Drug Administration Commendable Service Award in 1994 and the West Palm Beach VAMC Supervisory Physician of the Year Award in 1997. He has numerous scientific publications and peer-reviewed articles, and has offered seminars on pharmacoepidemiology and lectured extensively in his area of expertise across the country. Dr. Freiman's research interest is to understand the predictive and mechanistic factors of adverse drug reactions.

Sonia Friedman completed her undergraduate degree in biology at Stanford University in California and her medical degree at Yale University School of Medicine. She did her medical internship and residency at University of Pennsylvania and her gastroenterology fellowship at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City. She specialized in inflammatory bowel disease during her fellowship and now has a large inflammatory bowel disease practice in the gastroenterology division of Brigham and Women’s Hospital. She has been at Brigham and Women’s Hospital for the past 13 years and is Director of IBD Clinical Trials. Dr. Friedman’s research interests include colon cancer in Crohn’s disease, patient adherence to surveillance colonoscopy and IBD and pregnancy. She is an Associate Editor for Inflammatory Bowel Diseases and is a reviewer for Gastroenterology, Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology, and theAmerican Journal of Gastroenterology. Dr. Friedman has published mainly on colon cancer surveillance in IBD and IBD in pregnancy and also enjoys lecturing on these subjects. Dr. Friedman is immediate past chair of the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation New England Chapter Medical Advisory Committee. She has been elected as “Best up and Coming Gastroenterologist in Boston” in 2004 and also listed as “Best of Boston” in Boston Magazine 2007. Both honors are based upon peer review. She was honored as Humanitarian of the Year by the New England Chapter of the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of America in 2012.

K.GANAPATHY M.Ch.(Neurosurgery), FACS, FICS, FAMS Ph.D is a former Secretary and Past President of the Neurological Society of India and a former Secretary of the Asian Australasian Society of Neurological Surgery. An Adjunct Professor, at the IIT Madras, Tamilnadu Medical University & Anna University, Chennai Dr Ganapathy was formerly Honorary Consultant and Advisor in Neurosurgery Armed Forces Medical Services. A former examiner & Inspector for the National Board of Examinations Ministry of Health, Govt of India he was also an overseas examiner to the Universiti Sains Malaysia and the Royal College of Surgeons Edinburgh. In 1990 he became the first in South Asia to get a Ph.D in neuroimaging. Member of the Editorial Board of 4 International and 3 National Journals in Neurosciences he was the first neurosurgeon from South Asia to be formally trained in Stereotactic radiosurgery in 1995 and later in robotic radiosurgery in 2008 . A pioneer in introducing Telemedicine in India Dr Ganapathy has been working relentlessly from 1999, for the growth and development of Telemedicine in India. A Member of the National Task Force on Telemedicine he is a Co Founder of the Telemedicine Society of India. He was a mentor for MBA scholars Harvard Business School and for the Ross Business School Univ of Michigan, in the field of mHealth He has presented 350 papers in national conferences.140 in International meetings and published 200 scientific papers & 10 chapters in books. President of the Apollo Telemedicine Networking Foundation the largest and the oldest multi speciality Telemedicine network in South Asia he is an immediate Past President of the Telemedicine Society of India and currently President of the Indian Society of Stereotactic & Functional Neurosurgery. He has been on the faculty for several World Federation of Neurosurgical Societies educational programmes and recently facilitated the first multi point ( 8 centres) video broadcast of such a programme. As a member of the hi power Programme Advisory Committee of the Dept of Science & Technology Govt of India he reviews research projects for major funding. Full CV available at http:// www.kganapathy.com

Dr. Richard Garvey received his undergraduate degree from Columbia University, and his medical degree from Georgetown University School of Medicine. He completed his postgraduate training with five years of general and trauma surgery at the Kings County/SUNY Downstate Medical Center, where he served as Chief Resident in General Surgery and was awarded the Golden Apple for teaching excellence. He completed his plastic surgical training at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine/ Montefiore Medical Center, where he received the prestigious Leo Davidoff Award for Teaching and served as Chief Resident in Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery. Dr. Garvey is a Board Certified Diplomate of the American Board of Plastic Surgery and is Chief of Plastic Surgery at the prestigious Lawrence Hospital Center in Bronxville, New York and at the Sound Shore Medical Center in New Rochelle, New York. As a member of the clinical faculty at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine/ Montefiore Medical Center, he has trained scores of future plastic surgeons for the past ten years. He holds many Professional memberships including the American Burn Association, the New York Regional Society of Plastic Surgeons, Westchester County Medical Society, MENSA, and he is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons. He has published and presented numerous research and clinical findings. Dr. Garvey is passionate about music and despite his busy work schedule and rewarding family life, he performs with his rock band, The Scrubs, a group composed of other doctors and rock musicians (and even patients!). The Scrubs have performed at numerous benefits, fundraisers and local venues throughout the tri-state area.

Seth Gendler received his medical degree from Rush Medical College and completed his medical residency at St. Luke’s in New York where he earned a fellowship in Gastroenterology. Dr. Gendler pursued his specialty in ERCP in Belgium and worked with the procedure’s pioneer, Dr. Michel Cremer. Upon returning to the United States, Dr. Gendler was a gastroenterology Attending at St. Luke’s Hospital before coming to Sound Shore Medical Center in 1992. He is an Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine at New York Medical College and was named Chief of Gastroenterology at South Shore Medical Center in 1993. He has twice been selected as Teacher of the Year by the medical residents. Dr. Gendler is widely published and a frequent presenter at national and international conferences.

Dr. German was appointed Founding Dean of the University of Central Florida College of Medicine in December 2006. She leads the development of the new medical college comprised of both the Medical Education (M.D.) program and the Burnett School of Biomedical Sciences. In less than two years the Dean: Gained preliminary accreditation for the college, Built a team of over 200 faculty and staff, Appointed over 800 volunteer faculty, Raised funds to provide full four-year scholarships for the entire Charter class, Oversaw construction of 375,000 square feet of medical school space The new construction is part of the evolving medical city at Lake Nona, located 25 minutes from the UCF main campus. When complete, the College of Medicine will be part of an internationally recognized home to research and education. Deborah German earned her undergraduate degree in chemistry at Boston University and gained her M.D. degree from Harvard Medical School. She was a Resident in Medicine at the University of Rochester in New York. After her residency, she became a Fellow in Rheumatic and Genetic Diseases at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. She was appointed to the faculty at Duke University Medical School and worked in the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, studying adenosine metabolism. She was also Director of the Duke Gout Clinics and Associate Dean of Medical Education while maintaining her own private practice of Internal Medicine and Rheumatology. In 1988, Dr. German joined Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, as Associate Dean for Students and later Senior Associate Dean of Medical Education. She was also the National Chair for the Association of American Medical Colleges’ Group on Student Affairs. While in Nashville, Dr. German served on the Board of Trustees of the Tennessee Medical Association. She also chaired the Tennessee Board of Directors for the Arthritis Foundation. After 13 years at Vanderbilt, Dr. German next served as President and Chief Executive Officer at Saint Thomas Hospital in Nashville. She was also Senior Vice President and Chief Academic Officer for Saint Thomas Health Services. Dr. German led a successful hospital turnaround and initiated service excellence and quality programs at the hospital that received national recognition. Throughout this time she continued to practice medicine. In 2005, Dr. German spent a year at the Association of American Medical Colleges in Washington, D.C. as a Petersdorf Scholar in Residence. She studied the leadership of academic health centers framed in the concepts of chaos theory and complex adaptive system science. Many communities have recognized Dr. German for her contributions. The city of Nashville honored her with the Athena Award and she was inducted into the YWCA Academy for Women of Achievement. She is the recipient of the AAMC Women in Medicine Leadership Development Award. Dr. German was named a Local Legend of Medicine in the National Library of Medicine. In Florida, Dr. German was awarded both the 2008 Business Executive of the Year and 2008 Businesswoman of the Year by co-sponsors Orlando Business Journal and Orlando Health. In addition, Dr. German was recognized by the Orlando Sentinel’s Editorial Board as 2008 Central Floridian of the Year. Dr. German is the mother of two daughters.

Christine M. Glastonbury, MBBS, is Professor of Clinical Radiology & Biomedical Imaging with joint appointments in Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery and Radiation Oncology at the University of California- San Francisco (UCSF). Dr. Glastonbury received her Medical degree (MBBS) at the University of Adelaide in South Australia in 1991. She subsequently continued her Internship and Residency in Diagnostic Radiology at the Royal Adelaide Hospital, followed by a Clinical Fellowship in General Radiology at Hammersmith & Charing Cross Hospitals, London UK and the Royal Marsden Hospital, Surrey, UK, and a Neuroradiology Fellowship at the University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT. Dr. Glastonbury is board certified in Radiology, with an added qualification in Neuroradiology. She also holds the Diploma of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Radiologists. She is the recipient of numerous prestigious honors and awards including the Dr Glastonbury has focused on advancing imaging for the diagnosis and treatment of patients with head and neck cancer. Dr Glastonbury has authored extensively in her field of expertise, including peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, reviews, letters to the editor, and abstracts and is co-author of multiple textbooks on Head and Neck radiology and is Editor-in-Chief of the textbook Specialty Imaging: Head and Neck Cancer, published in December 2012. She is a renowned national and international lecturer in Neuroradiology and has received numerous Radiology and Otolaryngology resident teaching awards and the UCSF Academy of Medical Educators Excellence in Teaching Award. She serves on committees for the American Society of Neuroradiology, American Society of Head and Neck Radiology, Radiological Society of North America and American Roentgen Ray Society and is on the editorial board of the American Journal of Neuroradiology. Dr Glastonbury is Director of the Neuroradiology Fellowship Program at UCSF. As part of the Radiology & Biomedical Imaging Department, she was formerly the Chief of Clinical Quality Improvement for Radiology at the San Francisco VAMC and the Chief Proctor in San Francisco for the American Board of Radiology Diagnostic Radiology written physics and clinical examinations. Currently, she serves on the Department Merit and Promotions Committee as well as the Committee for Mentoring Radiology Faculty Mentors.

Dr. Ziya L. Gokaslan completed his medical education at the Medical Faculty of Istanbul University. In 1984, Dr. Gokaslan returned to the U.S. and worked as the Clinical Director of Sleep Disorders Center of the Department of Psychiatry for 1 ½ years. He then entered General Surgery Residency under Dr. Michael E. DeBakey in 1985. After one year of internship, he joined Department of Neurosurgery of Baylor College of Medicine as Clinical Neurotrauma Research Fellow. In 1988, he became a Neurosurgery Resident under Dr. Robert G. Grossman and completed his training at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston in 1993. He was then accepted into Neurosurgery/Orthopaedic Spine Surgery Fellowship Training under Drs. Paul Cooper and Thomas Errico at the New York University Medical Center in New York. After the completion of his Fellowship Training in Spinal Surgery, Dr. Gokaslan returned to Houston and joined the faculty of Department of Neurosurgery as Assistant Professor at the University of Texas, MD Anderson Cancer Center under Dr. Raymond Sawaya. That is where Dr. Gokaslan specialized in the surgical treatment of spinal neoplasms, published extensively on the topic and developed novel surgical approaches in managing these tumors. In 2000, Dr. Gokaslan became the Director of Neurosurgical Spinal Oncology Section and in 2002 he was appointed as Deputy Chairman of the Department of Neurosurgery and was promoted to Associate Professor. In 2002, Dr. Gokaslan was recruited to Johns Hopkins University, Department of Neurosurgery and became the Director of the Spine Division, Vice-Chairman, and Professor of Neurosurgery, Oncology, and Orthopaedic Surgery under Dr. Henry Brem. Later that year, he was awarded the Donlin M. Long Professorship at Johns Hopkins. Dr. Gokaslan’s clinical practice focuses on the radical surgical treatment of both primary and metastatic spinal tumors, sacral neoplasms and spinal cord tumors. He developed many novel approaches for resection of pancost tumors, spinal neoplasms, as well as sacral tumors, including total sacrectomy and complex spinal and pelvic reconstruction. His basic research focuses on the development of new animal models to study the pathophysiology of neoplastic spinal cord compression and to define the roles of proteolytic enzymes in tumor invasion and to devise novel therapeutic approaches to spinal tumors. Dr. Gokaslan has authored over 200 peer-reviewed papers and has presented over 150 national and international lectures since 1996. He was voted one of the Best Doctors in America in 2005 and garnered Baltimore Magazine’s Top Doctors recognition in 2007. He serves on the editorial boards of top academic journals, including the Journal of Spinal Disorders & Techniques, The Spine Journal, Journal of Neurosurgery: Spine, The European Spine Journal, Nature Reviews in Neurology, Journal of Surgical Oncology, and World Neurosurgery. Dr. Gokaslan is also the Chairman of AANS/CNS Joint Section on Disorders of the Spine and Peripheral Nerves Dr. Gokaslan is a member of numerous prestigious societies, notably the Spine of Neurological Surgeons since 2007. Cervical Spine Research Society since 2003, American Society of Clinical Oncology since 2001, America Association of Neurological Surgeons since 1998, Congress of Neurological Surgeons since 1997, and North American Spine Society since 1994.

Professor Golanov graduated from Moscow’s Second Medical Institute. He was among the first Russian practitioners to introduce the technology of stereotactic radiosurgery, including Gamma Knife. He is an experienced neurosurgeon and for years has been involved in the treatment of glial tumors and using of stereotactic method in the treatment of oncological and functional diseases of the nervous system. Professor Golonov received a second specialization as a radiation oncologist in 2004 and subsequently became the chief of the Department of Stereotactic Radiotherapy and Radiosurgery of the Burdenko Neurosurgery Research Institute, Moscow. He has worked in hospitals in Western Europe and USA, and was awarded a special fellowship by the European Society of Neurosurgeons. In 2011, the Department and personally Professor Golanov became the first Russian winners of awards for Radiation Oncology "In vita veritas". He is active member of many international clinical and research societies, such as WFSFN. EASFN, ISRS, RSS, AANS, WANS, ASTRO, ESTRO and others.

Dr. Michael H. Gold is the founder of Gold Skin Care Center, Advanced Aesthetics Medical Spa, The Laser and Rejuvenation Center and Tennessee Clinical Research Center located in Nashville, Tennessee. Dr. Gold is also Clinical Assistant Professor at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and School of Nursing, also in Nashville. Dr. Gold is also Visiting Professor of Dermatology for Huashan Hospital, Fudan University in Shanghai, China (11/2006) as well as Visiting Professor of Dermatology at No. One Hospital of China Medical University (11/2008) in Shenyang, China. Dr. Gold is a board certified dermatologist/dermasurgeon who oversees the various facets of the Gold Skin Care Center’s operations, a combination of medical and surgical dermatology, cosmetic dermatology, aesthetic services and research endeavors. Dr. Gold has earned a national and international reputation for providing patients with leading edge technological advances and has expertise in all facets of dermatology and aesthetic care. The Tennessee Clinical Research Center is now one of the leading dermatologic research institutions in the U.S. He is the author of over 300 published scientific articles, fifteen textbook chapters and the editor of two textbooks on Photodynamic Therapy and Global PDT. Dr. Gold works as an associate editor with the majority of dermatology journals and actively contributes to the medical literature. Dr. Gold has spent a great deal of his career speaking on the national and international fronts, focusing on dermatology issues related to lasers and cosmetic dermatologic surgery. He has spent time lecturing in Europe, Asia, South America and the Middle East, in addition to activities in the United States and Canada. Dr. Gold is an active member of many of the leading dermatology and laser specialty societies and actively participates in meetings worldwide. Dr. Gold is the Vice President of the International Society of Dermatologic Surgery, as well as the Treasurer of the American Society of Photodynamic Therapy and President of the Tennessee Society for Laser Medicine and Surgery.

David J. Goldberg, M.D. is recognized nationally and internationally for his innovative work with skin lasers, cosmetic dermatology and facial rejuvenation techniques. A board-certified dermatologist who has been in practice since 1985, he has treated patients and taught doctors throughout the world in the use of these cutting-edge technologies. Under his direction, Skin Laser & Surgery Specialists of New York and New Jersey has been a pioneer in making skin laser and cosmetic dermatology technologies available to the public. Dr. Goldberg earned his medical degree from Yale University. He completed his dermatology residency and dermatologic surgical fellowship at New York University Medical Center. He is a clinical professor and director of Laser Research in the department of Dermatology at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. Dr. Goldberg has published over 125 academic papers and has contributed to over 10 academic textbooks. He has authored textbooks on laser dermatology, laser hair removal, laser facial rejuvenation, photodamaged skin and skin wrinkle fillers. He has also co-authored two books for the general public: Light Years Youngerand Secrets of Great Skin. Dr. Goldberg is active in professional societies and was elected president of the American Society for Lasers in Medicine & Surgery. He has also served as chairperson of the Ethics Committees of the American Academy of Dermatology, the American Society for Lasers in Medicine and Surgery and the American Society for Dermatologic Surgery. He has sat on the board of directors of the American Society for Lasers in Medicine and Surgery, the American Society for Dermatologic Surgery and the International Society for Dermatologic Surgery. Dr. Goldberg was recently elected to the board of directors of the American Academy of Dermatology and Secretary to the board of directors of the American Society for Dermatologic Surgery. He also serves as a co-vice-president of the Skin Cancer Foundation. Dr. Goldberg was the first recipient of the prestigious Leon Goldman award, named after the founder of laser surgery. Additionally, Dr. Goldberg was named one of the "Top Ten Laser Surgeons in the U.S." by Self magazine, one of the "Best Doctors in America" by Woodward/White, Inc., a "Best Doctor in America" by Best Doctors Inc. and one of the "Best Dermatologists in New Jersey" by New Jersey Monthly.

Mitchel P. Goldman, M.D. a graduate of Boston University and the Stanford University Medical School, Dr. Goldman is a Volunteer Clinical Professor in Medicine/Dermatology at the University of California, San Diego. Dr Goldman is Board Certified by both the American Academy of Dermatology and the American Academy of Cosmetic Surgery. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Dermatology, American Society for Dermatologic Surgery, American Society for Laser Medicine and Surgery, American Academy of Cosmetic Surgery, American College of Phlebology and the American Society of Liposuction Surgery. Dr. Goldman founded and was the 3rd President of the American College of Phlebology and is also Past-President of the San Diego Dermatologic Society and past Board of Directors member of the American Venous Forum, American Academy of Cosmetic Surgery, American Society for Dermatologic Surgery, California Academy of Cosmetic Surgery and the Pacific Dermatology Association. He is also President - Elect of the American Society for Dermatologic Surgery. Dr. Goldman is an Associate Editor for Dermatologic Surgery, Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology, Cosmetic Surgery and Phlebology Forum. He has authored and/or co-authored 21 Textbooks on Cosmetic Surgery, Sclerotherapy, Ambulatory Phlebectomy, Cutaneous Laser Surgery, Cellulite and Dermatologic Surgery as well as over 300 peer-reviewed publications and textbook chapters. He is a recipient of the American Academy of Cosmetic Surgery’s 21st Century Achievement Award and the American Society for Dermatologic Surgery’s 2009 Presidential Award for teaching and research in dermatologic surgery.

Doctor Goldman is a former Clinical Professor of Medicine, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia. He is presently President of Medical Quarters, Rheumatology Medical Director of the Atlanta Center for Clinical Research and Chief of Rheumatology St. Joseph’s Hospital, Atlanta, Georgia. He is in solo rheumatology, immunology and osteoporosis practice in Sandy Springs, GA. He has been named a Master of the American College of Rheumatology (MACR), a Fellow of the American College of Physicians (FACP) and a Certified Clinical Densitometrist (CCD). He was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, earned his BS in Science at the University of Wisconsin, Madison Wisconsin and his MD at the University of Cincinnati Medical School, Cincinnati, Ohio. He interned at the University of Oregon Medical School Hospitals and Clinics, Portland, Oregon, took his internal medicine residency and fellowship in Immunology at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center, Cincinnati, Ohio. He served as a Major in the United States Army, Medical Corp at Fort Gordon, Georgia before joining the Faculty of Emory University School of Medicine in 1973. In 1982 he went into the private practice of rheumatology in Atlanta, Georgia He is former Chairman of the Southeast Regional Advisory Council, Committee on Rheumatologic Care, American College of Rheumatology; and presently an Ambassador for the REF –Research and Education Foundation of the ACR, Member of the ACR ANA Task Force, Editor of the Osteoflash, online newsletter of the International Society of Clinical Densitometry; Chairman of the Third Party Payors Committee of the Medical Association of Georgia; Previous Co – Medical Director of the Carrier Advisory Committee (CAC) of the Georgia Medicare Carrier CAHABA since 2006 and Rheumatology representative to the Georgia CAC since 1996, Medical Association of Georgia Representative to the Georgia Insurance Commissioner Stakeholder Advisory Committee, Former President and Executive Liaison and CME Chairman of the Georgia Society of Rheumatology, Co-Chairman of the Metropolitan Atlanta Rheumatology Society (MARS) and Co-Chairman of the Atlanta Bone Club (ABC). He has authored more than 50 articles, 35 chapters, and 88 abstracts.

Dr. Gomoll is an Assistant Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery at Harvard Medical School. He is Board Certified in Orthopedic Surgery and Sports Medicine, and currently practices at the Cartilage Repair Center of the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, MA. Dr. Gomoll was born and raised in Munich, Germany, and received his medical degree from Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet. He completed additional training in Orthopaedic and Trauma Surgery in Cape Town, South Africa, and Oxford, UK. Dr. Gomoll completed a research fellowship at Brigham and Women’s Hospital before joining the Harvard Combined Orthopaedic Residency Program at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital. Moreover, Dr. Gomoll is fellowship-trained in Orthopaedic Sports Medicine (Rush University) and specializes in arthroscopy of the knee and shoulder. Dr Gomoll has an active clinical and research interest in cartilage disorders and joint preservation in early arthritis. He specializes in biologic reconstructive procedures of the knee, such as cartilage and meniscal transplants, osteotomies and ligament reconstructions. He is a member of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine, the Cartilage Research Foundation, the European Society of Sports Traumatology Knee Surgery and Arthroscopy, the Arthroscopy Association of North America, and the International Cartilage Repair Society, as well as an editorial board member of the "Journal of Knee Surgery", and the Journal "Cartilage". Dr. Gomoll also serves as a reviewer for several other journals as well as a contributing reviewer for grant submissions. Dr. Gomoll is extremely active in teaching and mentorship roles. He has engaged in numerous national and international invited presentations and course symposia, and has lectured and moderated courses globally. Dr. Gomoll has authored over 100 peer-reviewed articles, reviews and book chapters. He is the recipient, as the Principal Investigator, of several large grants from diverse funding agencies, including the NIH, AANA and the Arthritis Foundation. He also holds a collaborative U.S. patent for nanocomposite surgical materials and methods of producing them. He has been awarded several honors and prizes, including the Young Investigators Initiative from the US Bone and Joint Decade as well as a the Pacific Rim Traveling Fellowship by the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine. Dr. Gomoll serves as a reviewer for several journals as well as a contributing reviewer for grant submissions. He has also been very active in teaching and mentorship roles and has given numerous national and international presentations, course symposia and has lectured and moderated courses globally. Dr. Gomoll has authored over 125 peer-reviewed articles, reviews, book chapters, and abstracts. He is the recipient, as the Principal Investigator, of several large NIH-funded grants and holds a collaborative U.S. patent for nanocomposite surgical materials and methods of producing them. He has been awarded several honors and prizes, including the Young Investigators Initiative from the US Bone and Joint Decade as well as the Pacific Rim Traveling Fellowship by the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine.

Dr. Diego Gonzalez Rivas is a graduate of Santiago de Compostela University and the College of Physicians & Surgeons of Coruña University (MD). He received training in General Surgery, Thoracic Surgery, and lung transplantation at Coruña University Hospital. After completing a year working in Santiago University Hospital joined the faculty at Coruña Hospital and is currently Thoracic Surgeon in Coruña University center and an active member of lung transplantation program. He is the head of minimally invasive thoracic surgery Unit working at Coruña hospital, USP institution, San Rafael hospital and Modelo medical center. Dr Gonzalez Rivas serves on several editorial boards and is active member organizing the annual meeting of Spanish society of thoracic surgery (SECT) and collaborate with educational activities of European Society (ESTS). He is a board European certified surgeon since 2010 (FECTS). He is specially dedicated to minimally invasive thoracic surgery (VATS). He was pioneer surgeon in the world performing uniportal VATS lobectomies and he has published several papers describing this procedure and the results in the most important medical journals. More information about the technique in www.videothoracoscopy.com

Dr. Daniel Green specializes in Pediatric Orthopedic Surgery. While he enjoys the general nature of the field of pediatric orthopaedic surgery and the ability to take care of patients just after birth into early adulthood, he also has a special interest in Pediatric Sports Injuries and Pediatric Knee Surgery. He is currently director of the pediatric sports program for the Division of Pediatric Orthopaedic Surgery at HSS. Dr. Green has practiced as an attending surgeon at Hospital for Special Surgery since 1998. Dr. Green also has an interest in Pediatric Orthopaedic Trauma and provides emergency treatment of pediatric fractures and orthopedic emergencies at New York Presbyterian Hospital, and Hospital for Special Surgery. He recently was appointed Pediatric Trauma teaching faculty to the prestigious AO of North America organization. Dr Green has recently served as the President of the New York County Medical Society, and is a member of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeon’s Board of Councilors. Dr Green is board certified in Orthopaedic surgery and is currently a fellow of the American College of Surgeons, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons.

Louise C. Greenspan, M.D., is an Associate Clinical Professor in the Department of Pediatrics, University of California, San Francisco and a Pediatric Endocrinologist in the Department of Pediatrics, Kaiser Permanente, San Francisco. She also holds the position of Module Leader, Pediatric Specialties with The Permanente Medical Group. Dr. Greenspan received her undergraduate degree in Anthropology from the University of California, Berkeley in 1991, her medical degree from Cornell University Medical College in 1995, and completed her Residency in Pediatrics at UCSF in 1998. She continued her education as a Fellow in Pediatric Endocrinology at UCSF from 1998-2001. Dr. Greenspan is Board Certified in Pediatrics and the Sub-board Certified in Pediatric Endocrinology, and she attended in the Pediatric Diabetes Clinic at UCSF until 2004. Her clinical specialties include pediatric diabetes, obesity and pubertal irregularities. Dr. Greenspan has received numerous honors and distinctions throughout her career including the Barr Fellowship at Cornell University Medical College, and nominations for the UCSF Kaiser Award for Excellence in Teaching, and for the Excellence in Small Group/Lab Instruction Award (UCSF) Dr. Greenspan is a member of several professional organizations, including the Lawson Wilkins Pediatric Endocrine Society, the American Diabetes Association and the Endocrine Society, and she holds positions on a number of services and committees. For example, Dr. Greenspan is the Medical Advisor of the Diabetic Youth Foundation and on Medical Staff at the Bearskin Meadow Camp, Diabetic Youth Foundation, and was a Member of the Resident Subcommittee, Residency Selection Committee, Department of Pediatrics, UCSF. Dr. Greenspan has been dedicated to teaching and mentoring throughout her professional career. Her current formal teaching activities include lectures, courses, and presentations to pediatric residents, nurse practitioners, medical students and physicians at UCSF, Mt. Zion, San Francisco General Hospital, and Kaiser San Francisco, and has been an invited lecturer in widespread national and regional conferences and has been featured in Video CME activities on topics ranging from Human Breast Development During Puberty, Polycystic Ovary Syndrome, Childhood Obesity, Early Onset Diabetes, Early Puberty and Environmental Factors, and Menstrual Irregularities in Adolescents. Dr. Greenspan has been an Investigator or Co-Principal Investigator of large NIH research grants (e.g., The CYGNET Study: Environmental and Genetic Determinants of Maturation of Girls, in collaboration with colleagues in New York and Cincinnati, Parental Influences on Obesity Among Mexican-American Children, Child and Adolescent Hypertension: Diagnosis, Care and Costs, Breast Cancer and the Environment). She has published extensively in her field, including peer-reviewed scholarly articles, book chapters, reviews, and abstracts, and has served as a reviewer for the Journal of Pediatrics. Dr. Greenspan's media appearances in Pediatric Endocrinology (particularly regarding pubertal irregularities and childhood obesity) are many, and include public radio, "The Doctor Oz Show", ABC "Beyond the Headlines", Web MD, KQED "Forum," KPCC "Patt Morrison Show," KCBS News,CBS5 News, and Fit TV.

Dr. Alex Gross is a graduate of the University of South Florida College of Medicine. After earning his M.D. degree, he completed residency training in internal medicine at Emory University and dermatology at Vanderbilt University. He is double board certified in both dermatology and internal medicine and is Medical Director of the Georgia Dermatology Center in Cumming, Georgia. Dr. Gross is a Fellow of the American Academy of Dermatology, the American Society for Laser Medicine and Surgery, the American Society for Dermatologic Surgery, and the American Academy of Cosmetic Surgery. He was appointed to the Georgia Composite Medical Board by Governor Sonny Perdue in 2008, reappointed by Governor Nathan Deal in 2011 and served as chairperson during the 2010 to 2011 session. Dr. Gross was recently voted Chair Elect of the Georgia Society of Dermatology and Dermatologic Surgery. He is an Assistant Clinical Professor of Dermatology and Assistant Clinical Professor of Family and Preventive Medicine at Emory University. In addition to his full time practice at Georgia Dermatology, Dr. Gross is an attending physician at Northside Forsyth Hospital. Dr. Gross is extremely active in government affairs and was influential in drafting and lobbying for the Georgia Cosmetic Laser Services Act that was passed in 2009. He also helped pass the Georgia Indoor Tanning Act in 2010 and co-authored the Georgia Guidelines for Office Based Anesthesia and Surgery that were adopted in 2011. Dr. Gross supports a number of charities and remains active in his community. He has worked extensively with the American Cancer Society for 25 years and served as president of the DeKalb County Unit from 1995-1996. He co-chaired the 2008 American Cancer Society Gala in Atlanta and was the Medical Honoree in 2009. In 2008 he was awarded with a Cancer Control Volunteer of the Year Award. Dr. Gross’s extensive involvement and experience in the field of medicine has led him to many awards and honors. He received an American Medical Association Physicians Recognition Award in 1992 and American Academy of Dermatology Continuing Education Awards in 1992, 1995, and 1998 and 2012. In January 2009 Dr. Gross received The President's Volunteer Service Award in recognition and appreciation for his commitment to strengthening our Nation and for making a difference through volunteer service. He was voted Best Dermatologist in North Fulton and South Forsyth in the 2012 Appen Newspapers opinion poll. His interests outside of dermatology include a passion for of all types of music, watching professional sports, and playing the piano. He serves on the Bosrd of Directors of The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra's Verizon Encore Park Amphitheter. Dr. Gross lives in Dunwoody, Georgia with his wife Joanne.

Dr. Sanjay Grover is a board-certified plastic surgeon located in Newport Beach, California and is the medical director of The Center for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery. Dr. Grover trained in plastic surgery at Stanford University Medical Center followed by fellowship training in aesthetic/cosmetic surgery of the face, nose, breast and body as well as oculoplastic (eyelid) surgery. Dr. Grover has been in private practice for 13 years. Dr. Grover is a member of the plastic surgery staff at Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian located in Newport Beach and Irvine. Dr. Grover is Past-President of the Orange County Society of Plastic Surgeons and is an active member of The American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) and The American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ASAPS). Dr. Grover also serves on the board of trustees of The American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery. Additionally, Dr. Grover sits on the advisory board of New Beauty Magazine. Dr. Grover has been selected by his peers in US News & World Report’s Top Doctors, Castle Connolly Top Doc listing as well as Los Angeles magazine’s SuperDoctors section. Additionally, he was listed in the Orange County Register’s ‘Best of OC.’ He has been featured on many television programs including The Doctors Show, Access Hollywood, BBC, Fox News, and Extra.

Chandan Guha, MBBS, PhD is Professor of Radiation Oncology and Pathology, Vice Chairman and the Director of Translational Research of the department of Radiation Oncology at Montefiore Medical Center, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, NY. His laboratory is investigating the effects of irradiation on normal tissue and stem cells. His group discovered that hepatic irradiation could be used as a preparative regimen for liver cell transplantation to promote repopulation of stem cells and adult hepatocytes in host liver. He has developed strategies for stem cell-based therapies to mitigate and treat radiation injury and to induce regeneration of irradiated organs, such as, liver, intestine and lung. He is currently the Director of the RadStem Center for Medical Countermeasures against Radiation and is the Founding Director of the Einstein Institute of Oncophysics. Dr. Guha is funded by multiple grants from the National Institute of Health and has collaborations with several Industrial partners to develop novel applications of radiation and ultrasound for tumor immunotherapy and regenerative medicine.

Dr HamiltonCraig graduated in medicine from the University of Adelaide, and completed his Honors thesis at Trinity College, Cambridge in cardiac risk assessment. After training in Internal Medicine at St Vincent’s Hospital, Sydney, he was Lecturer in Clinical & Experimental Pharmacology at the University of Adelaide and University of NSW. Cardiology residency/fellowship was at Prince Charles Hospital, Brisbane. He was the inaugural Queensland International Fellowship Scholar in 2009, working at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Rome Italy, in multimodality imaging of coronary microvascular dysfunction. In 2009-10 he was the inaugural Washington-Queensland Transpacific Fellow at the University of Washington, Seattle USA, where he remains on staff with an academic appointment as Assistant Professor of Radiology. He returned to Queensland to complete his PhD in Non-Invasive Cardiac Imaging, and is currently employed as a clinical academic at the Prince Charles Hospital, Brisbane, with academic appointments at the School of Medicine and Centre for Advanced Imaging, University of Queensland. He is chair of the Society of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography for Australia-New Zealand; Vice-President of the Society of Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance (ANZ working group); and foundation chair of Cardiac Imaging Australasia, a not-for-profit dedicated international symposium for education in cardiac imaging (www.cardiacimaging.org.au). In 2012 he was the recipient of the Smart Futures Fellowship Early Career Grant for cardiac imaging research. His interests include the application of imaging technology to clinical practice, advanced cardiac risk assessment, indigenous health, and cardiac imaging education in the Asia-Pacific region.

Frank L. Hanley, MD, professor of cardiothoracic surgery and director of the Children’s Heart Center, was appointed the first holder of the Lawrence Crowley, MD Endowed Professorship in Child Health in December 2004. Hanley also directs the pediatric cardiac surgery programs at two satellite surgical sites—Children's Hospital Central California in Madera and Sutter Memorial Hospital in Sacramento—making the expertise of Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital available to these communities. Hanley earned his BA from Brown University and his MD from Tufts University School of Medicine. He completed a surgical internship at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), where he later became chief resident in both general surgery and cardiothoracic surgery and completed a research fellowship at UCSF’s Cardiovascular Research Institute. Prior to joining Stanford’s faculty in 2001, Dr. Hanley was a tenured professor and chief of the Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery at UCSF. He received the Excellence in Teaching Award in the Department of Surgery in 1994. Prior to joining the UCSF faculty, he was on the faculty at Children’s Hospital Boston and served as associate professor at Harvard Medical School from 1989 to 1992. His research and clinical work focuses on the development of interventional techniques for fetal and neonatal treatment of congenital heart disease, pulmonary, vascular physiology, and the neurologic impact of open-heart surgery. He developed and pioneered the “unifocalization” procedure, in which a single procedure is used to repair a complex and life-threatening congenital heart defect rather than several staged open-heart surgeries as performed by other surgeons. Currently, Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital is a worldwide referral site for patients requiring these procedures. Dr. Hanley is actively involved in exploring new approaches for the surgical repair of pediatric heart disease and is developing evidence-based guidelines for clinical care. He is a member of many professional societies, including the American Heart Association, the American Association for Thoracic Surgery, the Howard C. Naffziger Surgical Society, and the Society of Thoracic Surgeons. Dr. Hanley is a frequently invited guest lecturer, having given more than 75 presentations at regional, national, and international conferences and symposiums, and having published more than 100 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters, and authored or edited three major textbooks.

Dr. Odette Harris graduated from Dartmouth College and received her medical degree from Stanford University School of Medicine. She conducted her internship and residency at Stanford University Medical Center and she also earned a Masters of Public Health from the University of California, Berkeley. Upon completing her neurosurgical residency, Dr. Harris was awarded the William VanWagenen Fellowship from the American Association of Neurological Surgeons. She completed her research related to this fellowship at the University of the West Indies in Kingston, Jamaica where she also served as Visiting Consultant in Neurosurgery. Dr. Harris has authored several scientific articles and has won numerous research awards including the Congress of Neurological Surgeons Clinical Fellowship Award, the American Association of Neurological Surgeons Spinal Cord/Spinal Column Injury Award and the Western Neurosurgical Society Resident Award for research on minor traumatic brain injury. Her research efforts have been recognized by the government of Jamaica; where she was awarded the National Road Safety Council Award for outstanding contribution in traumatic brain injury. Currently Dr. Harris is an Associate Professor of Neurosurgery at Stanford University School of Medicine and Director of Brain Injury for Stanford Medical Center where she manages and coordinates the medical and surgical care of all patients suffering from traumatic brain injury that are admitted to the Stanford System. She is the Associate Chief of Staff, Polytrauma at the Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System. As a Polytrauma Center, the Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System encompasses Operations Iraqi and Enduring Freedom, the Polytrauma Rehabilitation Center and Comprehensive Rehabilitation Centers, The Polytrauma Network Sites and the Polytrauma Transitional Program. Dr. Harris is also the Site Director and Principal Investigator of the Defense Veterans and Brain Injury Center (DVBIC). The Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System is one of 5 VA sites. The primary focus of DVBIC is TBI specific evaluation, treatment and follow-up care for all military personnel, veterans and their dependents. This encompasses TBI specific research,training and education. Dr. Harris was previously at Emory University where she served as an Assistant Professor of Neurosurgery, Chief of Neurosurgery Service and Director of the Neuro-ICU at Grady Memorial Hospital. Dr. Harris is a member of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons and the Congress of Neurological Surgeons.

Dr. Hernandez-Richter is a Professor in the Department of Surgery at University of Munich and has also been in private practice as a plastic and reconstructive surgeon since 2003. Dr. Hernandez-Richter did his medical training at the University of Dijon in France as well as advanced studies at the Royal College of Surgeons in Dublin, Ireland and the University of Cologne in Germany. He is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons and is a member of several scientific societies. He has a vast publishing experience in experimental, vascular and plastic surgery.

Dr. Hirano is Professor of Medicine and Director of the Gastroenterology and Hepatology Fellowship Program at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. He attended college at Yale University, medical school at the University of Pennsylvania and completed his medical residency and GI fellowship at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston. He took a faculty position at the West Roxbury VA Medical Center and Harvard Medical School working in esophageal swallowing physiology before coming to Northwestern in 1998. He is currently serving as Associate Chair for the American Gastroenterological Association’s Esophageal, Gastric and Duodenal (EGD) section, steering committee member for the Registry for Eosinophilic Gastrointestinal Disorders (REGID) and the International Gastrointestinal Eosinophil Researchers (TIGERS). Dr. Hirano has written over 60 scientific papers and 20 textbook chapters that focus on esophageal and swallowing disorders. He is an Associate Editor for Diseases of the Esophagus and has been inducted as a fellow to both the American College of Gastroenterology and American Gastroenterological Association. In 2002, he received the Northwestern University School of Medicine Award for Outstanding Achievement in Gastroenterology. Dr. Hirano has been recognized locally as one of the Chicago area’s “Top Doctors” by the Chicago Consumer’s Checkbook and nationally by Best Doctors in America. His clinical and academic interests are in eosinophilic esophagitis, eosinophilic gastroenteritis, gastrointestinal motility and esophageal disorders.

Dina Hirshfeld-Becker is an Associate Professor of Psychology in the Department of Psychiatry at the Harvard Medical School. She is Co-Director of the Child Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) Program at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), which provides psychological treatment for emotional disorders in youth ages 3-24 and offers opportunities for research and training. She also serves as Director of High Risk Studies and Anxiety Research in the Pediatric Psychopharmacology Program at the MGH. Dr. Hirshfeld-Becker is an adult and child clinical psychologist, who did her undergraduate work at Harvard College, earned her doctorate in clinical psychology at Boston University, and completed post-doctoral clinical and research training at the Massachusetts General Hospital. Her research interests focus on identifying early temperamental, behavioral, and familial risk factors for childhood disorders, and on using this information to develop preventative interventions. Dr. Hirshfeld-Becker has been funded by the NIMH to conduct longitudinal studies of children at risk for anxiety disorders, ADHD, major depression and bipolar disorder, as well as to develop and test an early cognitive-behavioral intervention for young (4-7-year-old) children with anxiety disorders. This intervention, the “Being Brave” program, teaches parents to foster adaptive coping and teaches children how to overcome fears, and has shown efficacy in a randomized controlled trial enrolling mainly typically developing chidlren. It is now being piloted for use with young anxious children with autism spectrum disorders as well. Dr. Hirshfeld-Becker also collaborates on imaging studies to understand the underlying basis of temperamental approaches to novelty (behavioral inhibition and disinhibition) and their associations with risk for psychopathology. Clinically, Dr. Hirshfeld-Becker specializes in CBT with children, adolescents and young adults with anxiety and mood disorders, and has particular expertise in treating anxiety in preschool and early elementary school children. She teaches and supervises child psychology graduate students and child psychiatry fellows in cognitive-behavioral therapy, and is the author of over 75 original articles, reviews, and chapters. Dr. Hirshfeld-Becker is also an experienced research mentor, who is also active on committees in the department, hospital and medical school that focus on faculty promotion and on the advancement and mentorship of women faculty.

Craig Hjemdahl-Monsen, MD is currently Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine at Columbia University. He received his medical degree from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in 1980. After completing his internal medicine residency at University Hospitals of Cleveland, he completed a clinical fellowship at Mount Sinai Hospital in NYC. He was the first physician to complete a fellowship in Interventional Cardiology at Mount Sinai, in 1987. He is Board Certified in Internal Medicine, Cardiovascular Disease, and Interventional Cardiology. Prior to joining the faculty at Columbia University in 2011, Dr. Hjemdahl-Monsen was Associate Chief of the Division of Cardiology at Westchester Medical Center, in Valhalla, New York. While at Westchester, he was on the faculty of New York Medical College. He was actively involved in the medical school as a co-course director for Pathology/Pathophysiology for over twenty years. He also organized several cardiology educational conferences. At Westchester Medical Center, he led the design and software development of a multimodality Cardiology Information System, which predated more recent electronic medical record systems, and was highlighted at several national and international cardiology conferences. He also co-directed the Medical Center’s Clinical Pathways initiative. More recently, he established the STEMI workgroup at Westchester to improve treatment of patients with acute myocardial infarction. During his tenure at Westchester, he also became a follower of the quality principles espoused by Edwards Deming. He participated in many aspects of quality improvement. He was the Chairman of the quality committees of the Department of Medicine as well as the Division of Cardiology. His knowledge of process redesign help to establish the cardiac transfer center at Westchester Medical Center. His clinical research interests have mostly centered around treatment of acute coronary syndromes. He has written over 100 abstracts, papers, and book chapters. He has also been an investigator in many multicenter trials. He has been named as a Top Doctor in the Castle Connolly’s guide of Top Doctors.

Dr. David I. Hoffman, is Board Certified in Obstetrics and Gynecology and subspecialty Board Certified in Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility. He has over 25 years of experience in the diagnosis and treatment of infertility, currently serves as a Voluntary Clinical Assistant Professor, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Florida International University as well as a Voluntary Associate Professor, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Miami, Miller School of Medicine. He is affiliated with Northwest Medical Center and the Memorial Health System. Dr. Hoffman joined the Northwest Center for Infertility and Reproductive Endocrinology in South Florida in 1989, and he sees patients at IVF Florida Reproductive Associates. Prior to this, Dr. Hoffman served on the faculty at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, and was Assistant Professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Northwestern University in Chicago, Director of the IVF Program at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, and Section Head of the Division of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility at Northwestern University Medical School. Dr. Hoffman is a native of Pennsylvania, and graduated from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, before attending medical school at Temple University. He completed his residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology and his fellowship in Reproductive Endocrinology at the University of Southern California. Dr. Hoffman has received numerous academic honors and distinctions, including the Distinguished Service Award, granted in 2006 by the American Society of Reproductive Medicine (ASRM). He is experienced in all areas of ART (assisted reproductive technologies) including in vitro fertilization (IVF) and embryo transfer, as well as endoscopic surgery. Dr. Hoffman’s clinical and clinical research interests include treatment of recurrent miscarriage, ectopic pregnancy, diagnosis and treatment of endometriosis, and hormone replacement therapy. He is a member of many Societies and Associations including the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, the Society of Reproductive Surgeons, the Florida Obstetrics and Gynecologic Society (FOGS), RESOLVE, and the Florida Society of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility (FSREI). He was a Founding member of the Southeastern Reproductive Medicine Association, and served as a past president of the Society of Assisted Reproductive Technologists (SART) and the Fort Lauderdale OB/GYN Society, and on the Board of Directors of the International Society for Advancement of Humanistic Studies in Medicine. Dr. Hoffman has published over 70 abstracts, articles, and book chapters and is a well-known presenter both nationally and internationally.

Ralf - Thorsten Hoffmann is Professor of Radiology and the Co-Chairman of the Institute of Radiology at the Carl-Gustav Carus University in Dresden, Germany. Furthermore he is the head of Interventional Radiology at the University hospital of Dresden. After finishing medical school at the University of Erlangen he started his medical training in internal medicine - gastroenterology/oncology. After 2 years he started his training in radiology with a focus on interventional Radiology at the University hospital of Munich. After being board certified radiologist he became the section chief of interventional radiology. His special interest is in minimally invasive tumor therapies esp. thermal tumor ablation, transarterial therapies and radioembolization and awarded his Ph.D. for his work on radiofrequency ablation beyond the liver. During his time at the LMU in Munich he was in close contact with Dr. Muacevic and started several scientific projects regarding radiosurgery in comparison to other minmally invasive tumor therapies. He is author and co-author of more than 70 peer reviewed articles, more than 10 book chapters and a large number of congress proceedings. Furthermore he is reviewer for many well known medical journals.

Dr. Masataka Ikeda is an Assistant Professor of Department of Surgery, Gastroenterological Surgery at Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka University. Dr. Ikeda's surgical interest is the treatment of colorectal carcinomas. Especially, minimally invasive surgery, such as TANKO, and super radical surgery for local recurrence of rectal cancer are currently the two main fierlds of interests. He is also interested in the prevention of venous thromboembolism in such patients.\r\nHe has authored over 50 pier reviewed articles.

Dr. Scharukh Jalisi is currently the Director, Head and Neck Surgical Oncology and Skullbase Surgery at Boston University Medical Center. He completed his medical school and residency at Boston University in Otolaryngology- Head and Neck Surgery. He then completed a fellowship in Head and Neck Surgical Oncology, Microvascular surgery and Skullbase Surgery at Vanderbilt University. He has successfully built one of the largest head and neck surgical oncology and skullbase programs in New England that has consistently achieved the best safety and quality records on the University Healthsystems Consortium benchmarks. He is the director of the Head and Neck Surgical Oncology fellowship at Boston University. His key research interests are improvement in safety, quality and clinical outcomes and cost effectiveness in head and neck surgical oncology. In addition other research are impact of multidisciplinary care on outcomes in head and neck surgical oncology. He has been voted Best of Boston and Top Doctor in the United States since 2010.

For the past decade, Dr. Jeffrey's lab has performed molecular profiling of cancer cells with the goal of identifying tumor-specific therapies for the personalized treatment of cancer. She was a member of the collaborative Stanford/Norway team that pioneered the use of DNA microarrays to measure global gene expression in solid tumors, and was involved in the development of the currently accepted classification schema for breast cancer subtypes based on gene expression profiles- such as low and high proliferation luminal, ERBB2(HER2)-overexpressing, and basal-like breast cancers (which then focused attention on triple negative breast cancers). Her laboratory refined RNA amplification techniques and developed expertise in the transcriptional profiling of tiny quantities of tumor tissue and in RNA isolation from formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded samples. Her research currently involves extracting and profiling circulating tumor cells (CTCs) from blood and bone marrow to shed light on the metastatic process and eventually to help guide selection of appropriate therapies in individual cancer patients. To facilitate this, Dr. Jeffrey and colleagues from the School of Engineering and Genome Technology Center invented a new technology, the MagSweeper, an automated immunomagnetic separation device that isolates live rare cells from blood with high purity and minimal impact on gene expression. Her lab performs high dimensional single cell analyses on CTCs to investigate how transcriptional profiles or mutational status of different CTC populations relate to metastases and drug response, particularly for newer therapies under development or in Phase I/II clinical trials. CTCs being studied include those from patients with cancers of the breast, prostate, lung, pancreas, and liver. Dr. Jeffrey's lab is also funded to perform preclinical testing on patient-derived xenograft models to identify molecular phenotypes of breast cancer that may be targeted by epigenetic pathway inhibitors drugs, working with colleagues at University of Utah to determine how these newer therapies may be best applied to different subtypes of breast cancer. In the past, Dr. Jeffrey worked with Dr. Robert Mah at NASA Ames Research Center to study multiplex in-vivo physiologic attributes of breast tumors in real-time using a multisensor NASA Smart Probe that she co-developed with Dr. Mah. It is hoped that future studies will associate real-time physiological features with tumor and CTC profiles for intelligent drug selection.

Dr. Jesmajian is Chief of Medicine at Sound Shore Medical Center in New Rochelle, New York where he also serves as Program Director of the Internal Medicine residency program. He is a graduate of New York University and received his medical degree from Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He completed his post-graduate training in Internal Medicine at St. Luke’s Hospital-Columbia University. A widely-published physician with over 20 years experience, he is a fellow of the American College of Physicians and a council member of the New York ACP. He is also a member of the Alliance for Academic Internal Medicine. He has particular strong interests in perioperative medicine, medical ethics and graduate medical education. He is board certified in Internal Medicine and has previously served as Assistant Clinical Professor of Medicine at Columbia University. Dr. Jesmajian is currently Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine at New York Medical College where he is also an Associate Dean.

Richard E. Jones, M.D., Ph.D. is an Instructor at the Institute for Advanced Musculoskeletal Imaging, and the Clinical and Translational Research Center of Alabama, Clinic for Rheumatic Diseases, Tuscaloosa, Alabama. He is a Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine (Internal Medicine) at the University of Alabama School of Medicine and a Clinical Adjunct Professor (Pediatrics) at the University of South Alabama College of Medicine, and was previously an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the College of Community Health Sciences, University of Alabama School of Medicine (Tuscaloosa Campus). Dr. Jones received his medical degree (MD) from the University of Alabama School of Medicine in 1994, and his doctorate (PhD) in Immunology/Cell Biology from the University of South Alabama, College of Medicine. Dr. Jones specializes in Internal Medicine, Rheumatology, Immunology education, and new applications of Musculoskeletal Ultrasound. He has been a practitioner at the Clinic for Rheumatic Diseases for the past 11 years. His clinical research interests (where he is a Principal Investigator at the Clinical and Translational Research Center of Alabama) are focused primarily on investigational agents for rheumatologic/autoimmune diseases/bone metabolism applications. Dr. Jones is an active and leading member of American College of Rheumatology, Coalition of State Rheumatology Organizations, and the Alabama Society for Rheumatic Diseases. He is heavily involved in teaching, lecturing, and presenting at the national and international level. He has also published extensively regarding autoimmune and inflammatory conditions and the development of novel interventions for such disorders.

Robert G. Josephberg, M.D., is currently the Chief of the Retina Clinic at Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla, New York. He is also a Daily Instructor of Ophthalmology residents at New York Medical College. He maintains a private practice, while also teaching at New York Medical College and the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. Dr. Josephberg obtained his Bachelor’s Degree at the University of Wisconsin, Madison and went on to medical school at Albany Medical College, where he graduated in 1976. He completed his Internship at Memorial Hospital in Worcester, Massachusetts and a Residency in Ophthalmology at Newark Eye and Ear Infirmary, finishing in 1980, which included training at Wills Eye Hospital at Columbia University. His Fellowship was at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. Dr. Josephberg is certified by the American Board of Ophthalmology. He maintains university appointments at New York Medical College, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, and Westchester Medical Center where he is Chief of Retina. He has hospital appointments at Newark Eye Institute, Westchester Medical Center, St. Joseph’s Hospital, and several others. He is a scientific reviewer for Retinal Cases and Brief Reports, the Journal of Retinal and Vitreous Diseases, and the Indian Journal of Ophthalmology. He has also made a television appearance on the Today Show. In addition, Dr. Josephberg has also been a visiting professor at the Jewish Home for the Blind, and through Project Orbis in Columbia, Peru, Jamaica and Costa Rica. He has been on the Board of Directors the American Diabetes Association and the Jewish Guild. Dr. Josephberg is involved with numerous professional societies and committees including the New Jersey Retina Society, American Academy of Ophthalmology, New York State Ophthalmology Society, and many others. Dr. Josephberg has created three medical commercial devices. He has received many awards, such as the Humanitarian Award through Project Orbis, and the Rhett Butler Award for new instrumentation “Visitrec” in Rome, Italy. He has published and presented extensively in his field.

Neal F. Kassell, M.D. is a Distinguished Professor, Department of Neurosurgery at the University of Virginia. Before moving to Charlottesville in 1984, Dr. Kassell was on the faculty at the University of Iowa for seven years. He received both his undergraduate and medical education at the University of Pennsylvania, and was granted an M.D. in 1972. After internship and two years of neurology and neurosurgery residency in Philadelphia, Dr. Kassell completed his neurosurgical training with Dr. Charles Drake at the University of Western Ontario in 1977. Dr. Kassell is a member of numerous medical societies in the United States and abroad. He has served on many standing and ad hoc committees of the National Institutes of Health and in an editorial capacity for a variety of academic journals, and currently is a member of the editorial boards of Neurosurgery and Stroke. In addition to the UVA Neurosurgery residents, Dr. Kassell has trained more than fifty research fellows from eleven countries. Dr. Kassell has been a recipient of the McKenzie Memorial Award of the Canadian Neurosurgical Society, the Grass Award of the Society of Neurological Surgeons, and the first Van Wagenen lectureship of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons. He has an active clinical practice specializing in patients with cerebral vascular disease, including aneurysms and arteriovenous malformations, and benign basal tumors. His research interests focus on intracranial aneurysms, as well as computing and information technology, and have resulted in more than 450 publications, supported by over $30 million in grants and contracts from NIH and industry. Dr. Kassell was a founder of Interax, Inc., the Virginia Neurological Institute, Multimedia Medical Systems, Inc., the Neuroclinical Trials Center, the NeuroVenture Fund, and MedSpecialists.net. He has served on a number of corporate and not-for-profit boards, and is currently a director of the Virginia National Bank and the La Gesse Foundation.

Sekar Kathiresan, a clinical cardiologist and human geneticist, is the director of preventive cardiology at Massachusetts General Hospital and a genetics researcher in the Broad Institute’s Program in Medical and Population Genetics. Dr. Kathiresan seeks to discover the genes responsible for inter-individual differences in risk for heart attack and use this information to understand biologic mechanisms and to improve preventive cardiac care. His scientific contributions have been four-fold. First, through genetic studies in populations, he and collaborators have discovered 45 gene regions related to risk for heart attack and 95 gene regions related to risk factors for heart attack including blood cholesterol and triglycerides. Second, through genetic studies in families, he has identified a gene responsible for extremely low levels of LDL cholesterol. Third, he has utilized gene variants to show that some means of raising HDL cholesterol may not lower risk for heart attack. Finally, he has identified a panel of gene variants that can be used to assess future risk for heart attack. Dr. Kathiresan is an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. He received his B.A. in history and graduated summa cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania in 1992. He received his M.D. from Harvard Medical School in 1997. Kathiresan completed his clinical training in internal medicine and cardiology at MGH. He served as Chief Resident in Internal Medicine at MGH in 2002-2003. Kathiresan pursued research training in cardiovascular genetics through a combined experience at the Framingham Heart Study and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. In 2008, he joined the research faculties of the MGH Cardiovascular Research Center and the MGH Center for Human Genetic Research.

Ciarán P Kelly, MD, is Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, Director of Gastroenterology Training and Medical Director of the Celiac Center at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, Massachussets. Dr. Kelly earned his medical degree from Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland where he was a Foundation Scholar and recipient of numerous academic awards. Dr Kelly has also received postgraduate clinical and research awards from the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of America, the American Gastroenterological Association and the National Institutes of Health. He is an American Gastroenterology Association Fellow and a Fellow of the American College of Gastroenterology. Dr Kelly has longstanding clinical and research interests in intestinal infection and inflammation. He has been involved in patient care and research in Clostridium difficile infection for more than 20 years and leads an NIH-funded research program on the immune response to C. difficile infection and on potential C. difficile vaccines and other immune-based treatments. His interest in the pathophysiology, diagnosis and management of celiac disease is also longstanding and, as Medical Director of the Celiac Center at BIDMC, which he founded in 2004, he heads clinical, research and educational programs in celiac disease. Dr Kelly has served as a committee member of the NIH, Center for Scientific Review as well as FDA, CDC and NIH committees on celiac disease and C. difficile infection. Dr Kelly is the author of numerous clinical and basic research book chapters, invited reviews, and more than 100 peer-reviewed publications appearing in such journals as Gastroenterology, Journal of Biological Chemistry, Journal of Clinical Investigation, New England Journal of Medicine and Lancet.

Ming-Dou Ker received his Ph.D. degree from the Institute of Electronics, National Chiao-Tung University, Hsinchu, Taiwan, in 1993. He worked as the Department Manager with the VLSI Design Division, Computer and Communication Research Laboratories, Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), Hsinchu, Taiwan. Since 2004, he has been a Full Professor with the Department of Electronics Engineering, National Chiao-Tung University, Hsinchu, Taiwan. During 2008 ~ 2011, he was rotated to be Vice President of I-Shou University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan. Now, he has been the Distinguished Professor in the Department of Electronics Engineering, National Chiao-Tung University, Taiwan. He ever served as the Executive Director of National Science and Technology Program on System-on-Chip (NSoC) in Taiwan during 2010 ~ 2011; and currently serving as the Executive Director of National Science and Technology Program on Nano Technology (NPNT) in Taiwan (2011 ~ 2014). In the technical field of reliability and quality design for microelectronic circuits and systems, he has published over 450 technical papers in international journals and conferences. He has proposed many solutions to improve the reliability and quality of integrated circuits, which have been granted with hundreds of U.S. patents and Taiwan patents. He had been invited to teach and/or to consult the reliability and quality design for integrated circuits by hundreds of design houses and semiconductor companies in the worldwide IC industry. His current research interests include reliability and quality design for nanoelectronics and gigascale systems, circuits and systems for information display, as well as the circuits and systems for biomedical applications. Prof. Ker has served as member of the Technical Program Committee and the Session Chair of numerous international conferences for many years. He ever served as the Associate Editor for the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON VLSI SYSTEMS, 2006-2007. He was selected as the Distinguished Lecturer in the IEEE Circuits and Systems Society (2006–2007) and in the IEEE Electron Devices Society (2008–2012). He was the Founding President of Taiwan ESD Association. Currently, he is the Editor of IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON DEVICE AND MATERIALS RELIABILITY. Since 2012, he has been the Dean of the College of Photonics, National Chiao-Tung University, Taiwan.

Dr. Ali Keshavarzian is a Professor of Medicine, Pharmacology, and Molecular Biophysics & Physiology at Rush University Medical Center. He is Director of the Division of Digestive Diseases, the Josephine M. Dyrenforth Chair of Gastroenterology, and the Vice Chairman of Medicine for Research Affairs at Rush. He graduated medical school in 1976 from Tehran University in Iran, and did his post-graduate training in London and Maryland. He was a faculty member at Loyola University from 1986 to 1999, before moving to Rush. He has published 220 peer-reviewed articles and has been funded by NIH since 1986, and he currently serves as principle investigator or Co-PI on several NIH-funded research grants. He is a clinician scientist with expertise in the management of patients with complex inflammatory bowel disease. Dr. Keshavarzian's primary focus of research is better understanding the impact of environmental factors on intestinal barrier integrity and the role of disruption of intestinal barrier in pathogenesis of intestinal and systemic diseases. More specifically, he has been studying the effects of alcohol on the intestine to determine the mechanisms through which alcohol affects intestinal epithelial cells. He employs a translational research approach using in vitro cell models, in vivo animal models, and human studies to investigate the effects of alcohol on intestinal barrier function, bacteria composition and the mechanism of endotoxemia in alcoholics. His goal is to identify therapeutic targets to prevent and treat gut bacteria-triggered intestinal and systemic inflammatory pathologies.

Dr. Dong H. Kim has been the Director of the Mischer Neuroscience Institute (MNI) since October 2007. He leads the clinical neuroscience efforts for the Memorial Hermann Healthcare System and is a Professor and Chairman of neurosurgery at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. Dr. Kim is noted for his research into the origin, development and treatment of brain aneurysms. He leads basic science efforts, such as identifying the genes that lead to an inherited risk for aneurysms and genetic changes in brain tumors, and translational projects that directly affect clinical practice. He has been honored with numerous awards and was named to U.S. News Top Doctors, America's Best Doctors, America’s Top Surgeons, Marquis Who’s Who and Who’s Who in America. He is the recipient of grants from the National Institutes of Health and the American Stroke Association and has authored studies published in journals such as Nature Genetics, Brain Research, International Journal of Cancer, Neurology, Neurosurgery, Journal of Neurosurgery and Genes, Chrom, Cancer. Dr. Kim is a graduate of Stanford University and the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) School of Medicine. After general surgery training at Harvard, he completed his neurosurgery training under Dr. Charles Wilson at UCSF. He went on to complete a fellowship in cerebrovascular surgery and skull base tumors with Dr. Arthur Day. He has held faculty and hospital appointments at Harvard Medical School, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Cornell University Medical College, The New York Hospital and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Dr. Kim specializes in the following diseases: - Intracranial aneurysms - Brain tumors, benign and malignant - Arteriovenous malformations - Skull base tumors and meningiomas - Carotid disease - Trigeminal neuralgia - Chiari malformations

Dr. Brian M. Kinney is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Plastic Surgery at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, CA, USA, and reputable board certified plastic surgeon. Dr. Kinney earned his bachelor’s degree (Biomedical/Mechanical Engineering) and master’s degree (Mechanical/Electrical Engineering) after completing the Harvard/MIT Health Sciences and Technology program. He then attended medical school at Tulane University and was further trained in general surgery and plastic surgery at UCLA in Los Angeles, CA, USA. Dr. Kinney is a staff member of major hospitals in West Los Angeles, such as Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and St. John’s Hospital and Health Center. He has been affiliated with many professional and medical organizations, which include the following: • Board Certified, American Board of Plastic Surgery • Clinical Assistant Professor, Plastic Surgery, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA • Chairman, Board of Trustees, American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) • Board of Directors, American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) • Past President, Plastic Surgery Educational Foundation (PSEF) of the USA • Deputy Secretary General, Board of Directors Member, International Confederation of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (IPRAS) • Associate Editor, Aesthetic Plastic Surgery Journal (IPRAS Journal) • Associate Editor, Archives of Plastic Surgery (Korea) • Former Board Member, American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ASAPS) • Former Associate Editor, Aesthetic Surgery Journal • International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons (ISAPS) • Former Chairman, Board of Governors, National Endowment for Plastic Surgery (NEPS) • Former Chief, Plastic Surgery, Century City Hospital, Los Angeles, CA, USA • Former Clinical Chief, Hand Surgery, Cedars-Sinai Hospital, Los Angeles • Former Chairman of the Educational Technology Committee of the Plastic Surgery Educational Foundation (PSEF) • Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology Program o Bachelor’s in Mechanical Engineering – Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA, USA o Master’s in Mechanical Engineering – MIT o Research Assistantship • Research Laboratory of Electronics, MIT • Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA • Beth Israel Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA • University of California at Los Angeles, (UCLA), training in general surgery and plastic surgery, Los Angeles, CA, USA • FDA Clinical Trials and Related Work o Botox post approval (cosmetic) launch educational program o breast implant post-approval studies center o breast implant post-approval studies clinical trial data analysis o Puragen Hyaluronic filler for nasolabial folds and lips o Purtox botulinum toxin injectable, one and three year trial o Prevelle Silk post approval launch educational program o Prevelle Lift clinical trial monitor and co-submitter of application o Xeomin post approval launch educational faculty o Belotero post approval launch educational faculty o Kythera / ATX101 post approval educational program A Past President of the Plastic Surgery Educational Foundation of the US and a current Board Member of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, he is Board Certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery and is a member of numerous organizations in medicine, science and engineering, including the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS), the Plastic Surgery Educational Foundation (PSEF), the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ASAPS), the California Society of Plastic Surgeons (CSPS), the International Confederation for Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons (IPRAS), the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ISAPS), the AMA and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAAS). A Clinical Assistant Professor of Plastic Surgery at USC School of Medicine, Dr. Kinney served on the Editorial Board of the Aesthetic Surgery Journal from 1997-2008 and the Aesthetic Plastic Surgery Journal starting in 2009. He has won several awards for his professional work, presents and teaches at national and international meetings, serves as a consultant to biotech and engineering companies, and continues to author articles in many journals and textbooks. Dr. Kinney has appeared on ABC network's Nightline, Fox Network's Extra, CNN, Hard Copy, The Discovery Channel, most of the local Los Angeles news television stations and all of the four major national news networks. He has been featured on radio and in numerous newspapers, including the Los Angeles Times, New York Times, London Times, USA Today and Wall Street Journal. Journalists from Vogue, Glamour, Allure, Newsweek, Spa Magazine and many others have interviewed him about plastic surgery, cosmetic and beauty treatments. He has also presented/interviewed on radio, television and in newspapers in Europe, Russia, China, throughout Asia, South and Central America, and been featured in documentary films. He is well-known in China as肯尼·布莱恩. He has performed live surgery and injections for teaching conferences in worldwide locations, such as Moscow, Nanjing, Guangzhou, Copenhagen, Vienna, Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paolo, Belgrade, Buenos Aires, Dubrovnik and Mumbai (India). During the Bosnian war, Dr. Kinney led surgical relief missions and was received in the Presidential Palace in Zagreb, Croatia. He has also volunteered and organized surgical relief missions in Mexico. With years of experience, he remains sought for teaching at national and international conferences, as well as consulting for various biotech and engineering companies. Dr. Kinney has authored numerous articles for journals, magazines and co-edited a new 2,000 page, standard textbook of Plastic Surgery. His work in the fields of plastic surgery and technology has garnered him many awards and placed him in the group of the world's most well-known top plastic surgeons. He has served as a formal or informal scientific/business consultant to many companies such as Mentor/Ethicon, Sanofi/Aventis, Allergan, Merz, Medicis, Eleme/Smoothshapes and others. A former member of the Board of Directors of BioElectronics Corporation, he has also worked with Electropharmacology, ADM Tronics, Mirror Image Software, Crisalix, KLOX Technologies, ThermiGen and other tech ventures.

Vesa J. Kiviniemi, M.D., Ph.D. is a radiologist, specializing in neuroradiology and a Docent/Adjunct Professor of Diagnostic Radiology at the University of Oulu, Finland. Prior to this, he was the Head of the Radiology Department, Oulaskangas Röntgen, Hospital of Oulaskangas in Northern Finland. Following his graduation from medical school in 1996, Dr. Kiviniemi spent 11 months in the army, 6 months as a lieutenant in the Airforce as a resident physician, and worked at the Tel Hashomer University Hospital in Tel Aviv, Israel as well as a general physician in a health-care center in Rovaniemi maalaiskunta, a Finnish municipality in Lapland (now known as Rovaniemi). Dr. Kiviniemi completed his Residency in Radiology in the Department of Diagnostic Radiology, Oulu University Hospital in 2003, and a Research Fellowship in Biophysics at the Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee (1999-2001). Dr. Kiviniemi’s current research is focused on fMRI and the development of imaging applicability of fMRI in a clinical setting, utilizing a multimodal approach of fMRI to enhance our understanding of baseline brain activity. Dr. Kiviniemi is an active collaborator, both Nationally (e.g., in the Departments of Psychiatry, Neurology, and Opto-Electronics) and Internationally (e.g., in the Chinese Key Laboratory of Cognitive Science, Beijing, in the departments of Neurology at Stanford University, Psychiatry at NYU, Psychiatry and Neuroscience at Cambridge University in England, Clinical Neuroscience at the fMRIB Laboratory, Oxford University, England, and the NEURO-BUREAU, a forum and collaborative initiative that embraces "open neuroscience" and the sharing of innovative ideas therein. Dr. Kiviniemi is currently conducting research including the Detection of resting state sources from BOLD data using ICA (Independent Component Analysis) based tools, Functional alterations in high functioning autism, Resting state activity in pervasive developmental disorders, ICA in resting state brain networks in normal and neuropsychological conditions, Multi-modal analysis of the origin of resting state network activity, Extra-visual light modulation of brain activity, Effects of untreated childhood ADHD in adulthood, Frontotemporal dementia analysis with resting state fMRI, Spatiotemporal variance and resting state networks, and Spontaneous brain activity and risk of schizophrenia. Dr. Kiviniemi defended his doctoral thesis: Spontaneous blood oxygen fluctuation in awake and sedated brain cortex – a BOLD fMRI study in 2009. He has been the principal investigator or co-investigator on numerous grants with multi-disciplinary teams. He has published over 100 original articles, reviews and abstracts and has presented his work extensively worldwide as an invited speaker or presenter at Nordic and International Conventions. He is a reviewer for several Journals including: Human Brain Mapping, NeuroImage, Acta Radiologica, Biological Psychiatry, Brain Research, Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience, Cerebral Cortex, and serves as an Editorial Board Member of Brain Connectivity. Dr. Kiviniemi is fluent in Finnish, Swedish, English, and conversational German.

Arthur A. Kornbluth, MD is Clinicial Professor of Medicine, the Inflammatory Bowel Disease Center at the Henry D. Janowitz Division of Gastroenterology, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, New York. Asher A. Kornbluth completed his medical degree at Downstate Medical Center in New York and completed his postgraduate training in Internal Medicine as both Resident and Chief Resident at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx. He was a gastroenterology fellow at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York. A Diplomate of the National Board of Medical Examiners and the American Board of Internal Medicine (Gastroenterology subspecialty), Dr. Kornbluth holds membership in the American Gastroenterological Association, the American College of Gastroenterology, the American Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, and the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society as both a Clinician and Educator. He has received numerous awards as a medical educator, including the Teacher of the Year for six years at the Mt. Sinai School of Medicine. He has received the William Dock Award for Lifetime Master Teacher Award in Medicine, from the Downstate Medical Center in New York. Dr. Kornbluth has published more than 100 articles, abstracts, and book chapters and is the principal author of all 3 editions of Ulcerative Colitis Practice Guidelines in Adults, published by the American College of Gastroenterology. He has published in and is a reviewer for many peer-reviewed journals, including The New England Journal of Medicine, Annals of Internal Medicine, American Journal of Gastroenterology, Gastroenterology, Alimentary Pharmacology and Therapeutics, Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology, The Inflammatory Bowel Disease Journal, for which he is also an Associate Editor. Currently, he is a principal investigator on a number of clinical trials examining novel therapies in inflammatory bowel disease, the role of new diagnostic techniques and cancer screening in IBD, and outcomes research in patients with severe ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease. Dr. Kornbluth has taught and lectured extensively in the United States and internationally, and he is the founder and annual Course Director of the Mt. Sinai IBD Consultants Course.

Jessica J. Krant, M.D., M.P.H. is a board-certified dermatologist specializing in medical, surgical, and cosmetic dermatology in New York City. After graduating from Harvard College magna cum laude, Dr. Krant attended Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, where she graduated with Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Society Honors, receiving both an M.D. and a Master's Degree in Public Health. Dr. Krant is a Diplomate of the American Board of Dermatology (ABD), Fellow of the American Academy of Dermatology (AAD), a member of the American Society for Dermatologic Surgery (ASDS), and Fellow of the American College of Mohs Surgery (ACMS) for which she completed fellowship training in Mohs micrographic surgery, a highly specialized form of skin cancer surgery. Dr. Krant is a member of the American Medical Association and represents dermatologists and dermatologic surgeons as the Delegate to the AMA House of Delegates representing the ASDS. She also serves on the Professional Conduct Committee of the ASDS and the State Policy Committee of the AAD, and has recently been named head of the New York State Grassroots Advocacy Network for the AAD. In addition to being recently invited to be the only dermatologist on Consumer Reports' newly created Medical Advisory Board, Dr. Krant also serves on the Medical Council of the Skin Cancer Foundation and is the sole dermatology expert for the elder care website Caring.com. Dr. Krant is Founder of Art of Dermatology, LLC, a solo practice in New York City, and teaches on the faculty at SUNY Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn. She tweets at @TheSkinMD and can also be found at www.ArtofDermatology.com.

Thomas M. Krummel, MD is the Susan B. Ford Surgeon in Chief at the Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital and has served in leadership positions in many of the important surgical societies including the American College of Surgeons, the American Pediatric Surgical Association, the American Surgical Association, the American Board of Surgery, the American Board of Pediatric Surgery, the American Board of Plastic Surgery and is currently President of the Halsted Society. He has mentored over 100 students, residents and post docs during their research training and is Program Director of the General Surgery Residency Program at the Stanford University School of Medicine. During his surgical residency he formed what was then the world’s second ECMO team. The success of that team served as a major impetus to more widespread adoption of this now well-established technique. Dr. Krummel helped “jump start” the study of the cellular and biochemical mechanisms of scarless repair in the fetus; his work has been funded by the NIH for 15 years for over $3M. Over the last 14 years he has been a pioneer in the application of information technology to simulation-based surgical training and surgical robotics. Along with Dr. Kenneth Salisbury, Professor of Surgery and Computer Science, Dr. Krummel is the recipient of one of the first NIH Phased Innovation R21/R33 programs to develop a collaborative simulation-based surgical training system. For his work in this arena and in surgical robotics he has received two Smithsonian Information Technology innovation Awards. For the past six years he has partnered with Dr. Paul Yock to direct the Biodesign Innovation Program at Stanford. This program and its training program designed to teach the invention and implementation of new surgical technologies through interdisciplinary research and education at the emerging frontiers of engineering and the biomedical sciences.

John H. Krystal is the Robert L. McNeil Jr. Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry at Yale University School of Medicine. He is the Chief of Psychiatry at Yale-New Haven Hospital; Director, NIAAA Center for Translational Neuroscience and the Neuroscience of Alcoholism. Director, Clinical Neuroscience Division, VA National Center for PTSD; Director, VA Alcohol Research Center, and the Medical Director of the Schizophrenia Biological Research Center, Department of Veteran Affairs. Dr. Krystal is a leading expert in the areas of alcoholism, schizophrenia, and post-traumatic stress disorders. His work links psychopharmacology, neuroimaging, and molecular genetics to study the neurobiology and to develop novel treatments for these disorders. Dr. Krystal has published over 400 papers and reviews and has presented his research extensively, across the globe. Dr. Krystal graduated from the Yale University School of Medicine in 1984, where he subsequently continued his Residency training in Psychiatry. He is the recipient of a number of prestigious career awards such as the Kempf Award for Contributions to Schizophrenia Research through Research and Mentorship (American Psychiatric Association), the Anna-Monika Prize in Depression Research (Anna-Monika Foundation, Munich, Germany), the Stanley Dean Award for Schizophrenia Research (American College of Psychiatry), the Joel Elkes Award for translational neuroscience (American College of Neuropsychopharmacology), and the Jack Mendelson Award for Clinical Research (National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism). This year, Dr. Krystal was granted the Exemplary Psychiatrist Award by the National Alliance on Mental Illness. Dr. Krystal currently serves as Editor of Biological Psychiatry; he is a member of the National Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism Advisory Council (NIAAA), the Department of Defense Psychological Health Advisory Committee, and the Institute of Medicine of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, and he is the President of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology.

Percy Lee, M.D. is a specialist in radiation oncology at the UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, Department of Radiation Oncology. He is the clinical director of the Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy (SBRT) Program at UCLA where highly focused and intensified doses of radiation therapy is given precisely in a few treatments (1-5) with excellent tumor control and minimal side effects. His areas of clinical expertise and research interest include lung cancer, cancers of the digestive tract, and hepatobiliary tumors. His expertise also includes the use of PET/CT scans for biologically-based radiation treatment planning, the use of 4-Dimensional CT scans to manage tumor and organ motion, as well as delivering highly precise external beam radiation therapy using intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT). In addition, he is interested in developing novel ways of utilizing SBRT and image-guided radiation therapy to improve radiation treatment outcomes. His research interests are primarily translational: They include developing novel molecular imaging platforms for the use in radiation therapy planning, multi-modality treatments in cancer by combining targeted therapy and radiation therapy, as well as anti-angiogenic drugs for cancer therapy. Dr. Lee attended the Johns Hopkins University and graduated with the highest general and departmental honors, majoring in Biomedical Engineering. He attended Harvard Medical School and the Harvard-MIT Health Science and Technology program where he received his M.D., and graduated Magna cum laude. Dr. Lee completed internship in internal medicine at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. He then completed specialty training in Radiation Oncology at the Stanford University School of Medicine, where he also served as Chief Resident. He currently serves as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Radiation Oncology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. Throughout his training and career, Dr. Lee has earned a number of awards for his clinical and research accomplishments. In addition, he has published in a number of prestigious peer-reviewed journals on topics in his areas of expertise. His primary goals are to provide the highest quality of care for his patients, as well as advancing the current treatment paradigms in cancer therapy. On a personal note, Dr. Lee is a native of Arcadia, California, a suburb of Los Angeles County. It has been his long-time aspiration to practice radiation oncology near his hometown and to serve the communities that he has grown fond of.

Stuart G. Lehrman, MD is a Professor of Clinical Medicine at New York Medical College, and the Director of the Sleep Medicine and Laboratory and the Director of Pulmonary Function and Exercise Physiology at Westchester Medical Center/New York Medical College. He received his medical degree from SUNY Downstate Medical Center and completed his internship and residency at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center at UCLA School of Medicine, where he also conducted a Fellowship in Pulmonary Disease. Dr. Lehrman has held past academic and clinical appointments at the Loma Linda University School of Medicine (where he was the Director of the Pulmonary Division at White Memorial Medical Center) and the UCLA School of Medicine. He also served as the Medical Director of Respiratory Therapy at the Wadsworth VA Medical Center in Los Angeles, CA, and was the Chief of the Pulmonary Division at St. Agnes Hospital/New York Medical College. Dr. Lehrman is Board Certified in Internal Medicine and Sleep Medicine, with subspecialty certification in Pulmonary Disease, Critical Care Medicine. In 2008, he was certified by the United Council for Neurologic Subspecialties in Neurocritical Care. He is a member of both the American Thoracic Society and the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. Dr. Lehrman was also the Associate Medical Director of Clinical Research for Boehringer Inglheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc., in their U.S. headquarters in Connecticut. Dr. Lehrman is currently an Instructor of Advanced Cardiac Life Support, and has been recognized with numerous honors (e.g., since 2004 he has been the annual recipient of the Excellence in Teaching Award, Department of Medicine, Westchester Medical Center/ New York Medical College) reflecting his dedication to mentorship and teaching. Dr. Lehreman has published extensively within his fields of clinical and research interests and specialties of critical care, sleep medicine, exercise physiology and pulmonary disease (asthma, allergies and lung cancer). His research interests include Pulmonary hypertension and Sleep disordered breathing.

Dr. Leonetti is professor, vice chairman and heads the Division of Otology, Neurotology, and Skull Base Surgery in the Department of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery. He received his medical degree from Loyola University Stritch School of Medicine where he completed his residency in otolaryngology. Dr. Leonetti did a clinical fellowship in otology, neurotology and skull base surgery at Barnes Hospital in St. Louis. He also was a research fellow at the House Ear Institute in Los Angeles. Dr. Leonetti is an active member of the American Academy of Otolaryngology/Head and Neck Surgery, American Neurotology Society, American Otologic Society, and past president of the North American Skull Base Society. He is also past president of the Chicago Laryngologic and Otologic Society, and current Board member of the Chicago Hearing Society. He is the author of more than 150 publications pertaining to the petrous carotid artery, acoustic neuromas, facial nerve, glomus tumors of the skull and a variety of otologic topics . He has also lectured nationally and internationally on a variety of basicranial surgical procedures and otologic topics. Dr. Leonetti was the honored guest at the 2008 International Skull Base Society Meeting in Vancouver, Canada. He is the director of the Loyola Cochlear Implant Program and co-director of the Loyola Center for Cranial Base Surgery and the Loyola Center for Facial Nerver Disorders. He has performed more than 6000 Otologic surgical procedures and over 1200 combined Skull Base procedures.

Dr. William Levine is Director of Sports Medicine, Co-Director of the Center for Shoulder, Elbow and Sports Medicine, as well as Vice Chairman, Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery, and Residency Director at Columbia University Medical Center in New York. He has served as Head Team Physician for Columbia University’s 31 Men’s and Women’s Varsity teams for 15 years. Dr. Levine has been named one of New York’s Best Doctors by New York magazine for the last twelve years. He is a member of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine, the American Shoulder and Elbow Surgeons, the American Orthopaedic Association, and the Herodicus Society. Dr. Levine has authored or co-authored over 100 peer-reviewed articles, 50 book chapters, and has edited 11 textbooks and monographs. A native of North Dakota, Dr. Levine received a B.A. in Human Biology from Stanford University and his Doctor of Medicine from Case Western Reserve University. He was a resident in orthopaedic surgery at Tufts Medical Center, and held fellowships at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in Shoulder and Elbow surgery and the University of Maryland in Sports Medicine. He lives in New York with his wife and their two daughters.

Dr. Michael Lim is an Assistant Professor of Neurosurgery and Oncology at Johns Hopkins. Dr. Lim received his medical degree from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He then completed his general surgery internship and neurosurgery residency at Stanford Hospital.\r\n\r\nDr. Lim’s surgical interest is in the treatment of primary and metastatic brain tumors as well as pituitary and skull base tumors. In addition to treatin g spinal tumors, he is an expert in the treatment of brain tumors, arteriovenous malformations, and trigeminal neuralgia with radiosurgery.\r\n \r\nDr. Lim's primary research interest is in developing immune-based therapies again st brain tumors. As the Director of the Brain Tumor Immunotherapy Program, his research focuses on understanding the mechanisms of immune evasion by primary brain tumors with the goal of translation to novel therapies against gliomas. In addition, Dr. Lim has served as the site principal investigator for several immunotherapy clinical trials.

Dr. Steven M. Litinsky is the founder of Delray Eye Associates, PA. He specializes in the medical, laser and surgical treatment of glaucoma. Dr. Litinsky is particularly experienced in difficult cataract surgery, including cases with small pupils and pseudoexfoliation. He performs custom cataract surgery with intraocular lens implants (IOLs). He has been in practice since 1976. Dr. Litinsky received his undergraduate degree in biology from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and his medical degree from Albany Medical College of Union University. He completed both degrees in six years through the accelerated Biomedical Program. Dr. Litinsky received a Master's degree in business administration from Nova Southeastern University. In recognition of his academic excellence, Dr. Litinsky was inducted into the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society and Sigma Delta Beta Honor Society. Dr. Litinsky served a straight medical internship at Michael Reese Hospital in Chicago. He continued his training with a residency in obstetrics and gynecology at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston and was appointed as a teaching fellow at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Litinsky returned to Michael Reese Hospital to serve a residency in ophthalmology. During his residency, he was a glaucoma fellow at the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, University of Miami School of Medicine. Dr. Litinsky completed fellowship training in glaucoma at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), under the mentorship of Drs. Shaffer, Hetherington and Hoskins. Among the many leadership positions Dr. Litinsky has held are Chairman of the Surgery Departments at both Bethesda Memorial Hospital and Delray Medical Center, Chairman of the Data and Safety Monitoring Committee of the Normal Tension Glaucoma Study, Chairman of the Practice Support Sub-Committee of the American Glaucoma Society, member of the Board of Advisors of the Bascom Palmer Eye Care Network, Councilor for the Glaucoma Research Foundation and longtime Board Member of the Bethesda Hospital Foundation. Dr. Litinsky received the Honor Award from the American Academy of Ophthalmology. He is a member of the American Glaucoma Society, the American Academy of Ophthalmology, the Florida Society of Ophthalmology, the Florida Medical Association and the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgeons. He has published and lectured throughout the country on glaucoma. Dr. Litinsky currently holds faculty appointments at both the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine and the Schmidt College of Medicine at Florida Atlantic University.

Brett Litz is a clinical psychologist and Professor in the Departments of Psychiatry and Psychology at Boston University. Dr. Litz is also the Director of the Mental Health Core of the Massachusetts Veterans Epidemiological Research and Information Center at the VA Boston Healthcare System. He is internationally recognized as an expert on military trauma and early intervention for trauma and traumatic loss and devotes his career to evaluating the mental health outcomes associated with military deployments across the lifespan, the assessment and treatment of PTSD using Telehealth approaches, with an emphasis on early intervention for combat and operational trauma and loss. Dr. Litz is also the principal investigator on numerous research grants funded by the Department of Defense and the National Institute of Mental Health and has over 200 peer-reviewed publications.

Dr. Simon S. Lo is Associate Professor of Radiation Oncology at Case Western Reserve University and Director of Radiosurgery Services and Neurologic Radiation Oncology at University Hospitals Seidman Cancer Center, Case Comprehensive Cancer Center. Dr. Lo graduated from the Faculty of Medicine of The Chinese University of Hong Kong and did his residency in Clinical Oncology (Royal College of Radiologists, UK curriculum) at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Hong Kong. He subsequently completed a residency in Radiation Oncology at University of Minnesota and also received a grant from American College of Radiation Oncology (ACRO) for a gastrointestinal radiation oncology fellowship at Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN. He was also a visiting resident at Princess MargaretHospital, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He is currently the chair of the American College of Radiology Appropriateness Criteria Expert Panel in Bone Metastasis and is an expert in brain and spinal tumors, stereotactic radiosurgery and stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT). He has published close to 100 peer-reviewed papers and over 35 book chapters and one comprehensive textbook in SBRT. He has given lectures and training courses on SBRT in American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO), Radiological Society of America (RSNA), and American Thoracic Society (ATS) conferences and in multiple US and international academic centers. He was also a member of both the ASTRO bone and brain metastases taskforce and contributed to the ASTRO guidelines for bone and brain metastases. He is on the editorial board of multiple oncology journals and is also a reviewer for multiple journals including Lancet, Lancet Oncology, Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology, International Journal of Radiation Oncology, Biology and Physics. His areas of research are in radiobiological modeling for ablative radiotherapy, SBRT for lung, liver and spinal tumors, and toxicities associated with SBRT.

Jay S. Loeffler, M.D., is an honors graduate of Williams College and Brown University School of Medicine. He completed his rad/onc training at the Harvard Joint Center for Radiation Therapy & a year of post-doctorial fellowship at Harvard School of Public Health Radiobiology Laborator. He is serving on the faculty at Harvard Medical initially at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute(1986). He was recruited to the MGH in 1996 as Director of the NE Proton Therapy Center.He is currently the Herman and Joan Suit Professor of Radiation Oncology, Harvard Medical School and Chairman of the Department of Radiation Oncology since 2000. He is an authority on the treatment of benign and malignant brain tumors. He is an author of over 200 peer reviewed publications, 180 book chapters & review articles and co-editor of 9 textbooks. He has served as PI on a large program project grant from the NCI concerning proton therapy. He serves on the Editorial Boards of 8 journals

Dr Lois did her Medical and Ophthalmic basic training at the University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain, and obtained her PhD in the same University. Dr Lois undertook further specialised training in Ocular Oncology, at Wills Eye Hospital, Philadelphia, USA, under the direction of Dr's Jerry and Carol Shields; Medical Retina at Moorfields Eye Hospital, London, under the direction of Prof. Alan C Bird; and Vitreo-Retinal Surgery at The Royal Liverpool University Hospital, Liverpool, under the direction of Prof. David Wong. Dr Lois has authored or co-authored over 80 publications in peer review journals; has written 7 book chapters and has co-edited 3 textbooks. Miss Lois serves as Reviewer for 19 ophthalmic peer review journals, is an Editorial Board Member of the Open Ophthalmology Journal and has been guest speaker at numerous national and international meetings.

Dr. Lonser received his M.D. from Loma Linda University Medical School and completed his Neurological Surgery residency training at the University of Utah. During his residency training, he completed a Research Fellowship at the Surgical Neurology Branch in National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) in the National Institutes of Health. He returned to the Surgical Neurology Branch in 2001 and was later appointed Branch Chief. He initiated the NINDS Neurological Surgery Residency Training Program and was its inaugural Program Director. Dr. Lonser was recruited to the Ohio State University (OSU) in 2012. He is currently Professor and Chair of the Department of Neurological Surgery at OSU. He has authored more than 200 scientific and clinical publications. He is on the Editorial Boards of the Journal of Neurosurgery and Neurosurgery, and is Consulting Editor for the Neurosurgery Clinics of North America. He is Head of the Research Subcommittee for the National Football League. His current research is focused on drug delivery for treatment of neurologic disorders, as well as tumor biology and treatment.

Alex Macario is Professor of Anesthesiology and, by courtesy, of Health Research and Policy at the Stanford University School of Medicine. He completed his undergraduate, medical school and business school education at the University of Rochester. He trained in anesthesiology at Stanford University and was chief resident. He then completed a fellowship in heath services research. Dr. Macario is interested in the economics of health care, in particular the tradeoffs between costs and outcomes for patients having surgery and anesthesia. He has completed internationally recognized studies on the management of the operating room suite, as well as pioneering work on the cost-effectiveness of drugs and devices. He is director of a Fellowship in the Management of Perioperative Services, a postgraduate fellowship program which trains physicians in leadership, entrepreneurship, and management science. Dr. Macario is also Program Director of the Stanford Anesthesia Residency which has more than 75 housestaff. Dr. Macario has also authored "A Sabbatical in Madrid: A Diary of Spain," an award winning travel memoir.

George P. Maguire, MD is a Professor of Medicine and Physiology and Chief of the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at the New York Medical College. He has also held the academic appointment of Program Director, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine Fellowship Program at New York Medical College. Currently, Dr. Maguire serves as the Medical Director of the Respiratory Therapy Program, Westchester Community College, Valhalla, New York. He is the Chief of the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Westchester County Medical Center , the Medical Director/Co-Director: Respiratory Care Step Down Unit 6 SW, Westchester Medical Center, and the Medical Director of Respiratory Therapy, Westchester Medical Center Dr. Maguire received his medical degree from SUNY Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn, NY, and continued his post graduate training with an internship and residency in Internal Medicine at Kings County Hospital Center, SUNY Downstate Medical Center and a two-year Fellowship in Pulmonary Disease, also at Kings County Hospital Center, where he was chosen as the Chief Resident in Medicine, Pulmonary Division from 1977-1978. He is Board Certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine in Internal Medicine, Pulmonary Medicine, Critical Care Medicine and Sleep Medicine. Over the course of his career, Dr. Maguire has been the recipient of several prestigious awards including the Preventive Pulmonary Academic Award, National Institutes of Health, the American Lung Association Fellowship (1975-1978); he was appointed a Fellow of the American College of Chest Physicians and a Fellow of the American College of Physicians. He also was awarded the Teacher of the Year Award (1989-1990) in the Department of Medicine, Westchester County Medical Center. Dr. Maguire is a member of numerous medical societies including the American College of Chest Physicians, the American Thoracic Society, the American College of Physicians, the New York Trudeau Society, the Lambda Beta Society; National Honor Society for the Profession of Respiratory Care, and the Eastern Section of American Thoracic Society. He has served and currently serves on a number of Hospital Committees at Westchester County Medical Center, including the Pharmacy Committee, the Credentials Committee, the Resuscitation Committee and the Infection Control Committee. At New York Medical College, he currently serves on the Faculty Senate and Graduate Medical Advisory Committee. Dr. Maguire also spent 7 years on the Medical School Admissions Committee. In addition to the above positions, Dr. Maguire has served on several National (NIH) Committees, including the Preventive Pulmonary Academic Award: Curriculum Committee, Special Review Committee: Tuberculosis Academic Award, and the Workshop on Asthma Outcome Measures. Moreover, following previous roles on the Board of Directors and Vice-President, from 1995-1997, Dr. Maguire was the President of the American Lung Association of Hudson Valley Dr. Maguire has published nearly 100 peer-reviewed scholarly articles, abstracts and reviews in his fields of expertise. He has presented his research as an invited speaker at a number of national conferences. Dr. Maguire has also been an invited reviewer for the following journals: Chest, Archives Internal Medicine, AGE, Complications in Surgery, and Heart Disease.

Mary C. Mahoney, M.D. is Professor of Radiology and Director of Breast Imaging at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center and the Barrett Cancer Center. She is a Magna Cum Laude graduate of Brown University. Dr. Mahoney received her medical degree from the University of Cincinnati, and is a member of its honor society, Alpha Omega Alpha. She completed her residency in Diagnostic Radiology at the University of Cincinnati, where she served as Chief Resident. This was followed by a fellowship in Body Imaging and Intervention, also at the University of Cincinnati. Dr. Mahoney is a fellow of the American College of Radiology and of the Society of Breast Imaging. She is a Trustee of the American Board of Radiology, Chair of the Joint Committee on Practice Guidelines and Technical Standards, and Appropriateness Criteria of the Commission on Breast Imaging for the American College of Radiology, and Chair of the Public Information Committee of the Radiology Society of North America.

Dr. Deepak Malhotra has been a faculty member in the Department of Medicine, Division of Nephrology at the University of Toledo Medical Center since 1997. Professor Malhotra is the Chief of Nephrology and the Program Director for the Nephrology Training Program. Additionally, he is the Medical Director of Renal Transplantation and Medical Director of an outpatient dialysis unit. He earned his B.S. and Ph.D. in macromolecular engineering from Case Western Reserve University. He also received his M.D. from Case Western Reserve University. He completed his Internal Medicine Residency at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, and his Nephrology Fellowship training at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. He is board certified in both Internal Medicine and Nephrology. His clinical interests include general nephrology including dialytic therapies and transplant medicine. His research interests include molecular mechanisms of cellular injury, as well as mechanisms of uremic cardiomyopathy. He also has performed various clinical studies. He is the author or co-author of over 100 publications. He is active with multiple professional societies.

Michael J. Mann, MD, is the Chief of Thoracic Surgery at the San Francisco VA Medical Center. He received his M.D. from Stanford University and was awarded a Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA) Research Training Fellowship through the NIH. Dr. Mann completed his General Surgery residency at Brigham and Women's Hospital/Harvard Medical School and his Cardiothoracic Surgery fellowship at UCSF. He is certified by the American Board of Surgery and the American Board of Thoracic Surgery. Dr. Mann is also an attending surgeon at the UCSF Medical Center. His areas of expertise include lung cancer, mesothelioma, esophageal cancer, sarcoma and minimally invasive (video-assisted) thoracoscopic surgery. He also has expertise in performing cardiac procedures including coronary bypass, valve replacement, and aortic reconstruction. Dr. Mann is widely admired for his teaching skills and is Assistant Director of the Thoracic Surgery Training Program. He holds memberships in numerous professional organizations including the Society of Thoracic Surgeons, American College of Surgeons, American Heart Association, American College of Cardiology and the Massachusetts Medical Society. Highly respected by his peers, Dr. Mann was named to the list of U.S. News "Top Doctors," which denotes the top 10% of physicians within a region practicing a given specialty. He has received numerous awards including the Cardiovascular Medicine Award for Excellence in Research, Dean's Award for Excellence in Research, and William Randolph Hearst Endowment for Young Investigators. Dr. Mann also serves as a scientific reviewer for numerous professional journals. While on the faculty at Harvard Medical School, Dr. Mann founded the Cardiovascular Gene Therapy Group. He also invented several novel drug and delivery technologies and helped pioneer the application of gene regulation and vascular biology principles to the problem of coronary bypass graft failure. This led to one of the first large scale programs to evaluate the integration of molecular therapy into cardiac surgery. Dr. Mann's research in genetic and molecular therapies has been widely recognized. He is currently an Associate Investigator in the UCSF Cardiovascular Research Institute. Dr. Mann also serves as a scientific advisor to the American Heart Association, the NIH Recombinant-DNA Advisory Committee, and to numerous device and pharmaceutical companies. He is extensively published in his field and has presented his work widely on both a national and international level.

Simone Marnitz, M.D., Vice Head of the Department of Radiation Oncology, Charité Campus CCM and CVK and Professor for Radiation Oncology, completed her radiation oncology training at Charité University Hospital and University Clinic Essen. She was serving at Hahn-Meitner-Institute for Proton Therapy for Uveal Melanoma in Berlin. She is an expert for high precision radiotherapy, mainly focussed on gynaecologic malignancies and published numerous papers, book chapters and reviews on interdisciplinary concepts in GYN ONC and radiation techniques. She is PI of an International Multicentric Randomized Study on the impact of surgical staging prior to chemoradiation in patients with locally advanced cervical cancer (“Uterus-11-Study”, ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01049100), sponsored by Deutsche Krebshilfe and a Phase II/III Trial on CyberKnife® Treatment for Brachytherapy Emulation for cervical cancer patients in Germany.

Bento Mascarenhas, M.D., FACP, FACR, is the Director of the Arthritis Center at the Burke Rehabilitation Hospital in White Plains, New York. He is also an Adjunct Professor of Medicine at New York Medical College. He received his Medical Degree in 1961 from Escola Medico-Cirurugica De Goa in India. He completed his internship in Internal Medicine at Lawrence Hospital in Broxville, New York. He was a Resident and Chief Resident at Westchester County Medical Center in 1966 and 1967. He completed fellowships in Internal Medicine at Cornell University Medical College, and in Rheumatology at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York. He has specialty certifications in Internal Medicine and Rheumatology. He is a member of numerous professional societies, and has published and presented widely in his field.

Wayne S. Maxson, M.D., is the founder of IVF Florida Reproductive Associates, and is a skilled infertility specialist. He is subspecialty certified in Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility, board certified in Obstetrics and Gynecology, has over 25 years' experience in the diagnosis and treatment of infertility, and has published over 125 abstracts, articles, and book chapters. Dr. Maxson completed his residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at St. Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston, New Jersey, and went on to complete a fellowship in Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. He served on the faculty of Vanderbilt University Medical Center for five years before entering private practice in 1986. He currently serves as a Voluntary Associate Professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Miami, Miller School of Medicine. He is experienced in all areas of assisted reproductive technologies including in vitro fertilization (IVF), and embryo transfer, superovulation, and intrauterine insemination as well as endoscopic surgery. Clinical interests include treatment of recurrent miscarriage, ectopic pregnancy, diagnosis and treatment of endometriosis, and hormone replacement therapy. Dr. Maxson also holds patents on micronized progesterone and a surgical device. He is a member of numerous professional societies, including the American College of Obstetricians & Gynecologists, American Society of Reproductive Medicine, Society of Reproductive Surgeons, Society of Reproductive Endocrinologists, and the Society of Assisted Reproductive Technologists, and he currently holds or has held leading positions with several national and local professional societies.

Marc Mayberg, M.D. received his bachelor's degree from Harvard University, where he played varsity football. During medical school at Mayo Clinic, he worked in the laboratory of Dr. Thoralf Sundt. Dr. Mayberg did his residency training at Massachusetts General Hospital, where he also did a research fellowship with Dr. Michael Moskowitz. In 1985, he was the Van Wagenen Fellow at the National Hospital for Nervous Diseases in London, England and worked in the laboratory of Professor Lindsay Symon. He joined the neurosurgery faculty at the University of Washington in 1986, where he became Professor. In 1998, Dr. Mayberg became Chairman of the Department of Neurological Surgery at the Cleveland Clinic where he developed one of the first integrated multi-specialty programs in Neurosciences. In 2004, he became the Executive Director of the Swedish Neuroscience Institute, a multi-disciplinary academic program at Swedish Medical Center in Seattle. He has a special clinical interest in acoustic neuromas, pituitary tumors, and cerebrovascular disease. Dr. Mayberg has been active in several national organizations. In 1996-97, he was President of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons. Prior to his election as President, Dr. Mayberg served the CNS as Vice-President, Executive Committee member, Annual Meeting Chair, Scientific Program Chair, and Chair of the Education Committee. He was a Director on the American Board of Neurological Surgery from 2001-2007, including leadership roles as Treasurer and Vice-Chairman. Dr. Mayberg’s national responsibilities in organized neurosurgery have included Joint Officers, Washington Committee, Executive Committee of the Cerebrovascular Section, Co-chair of the Carotid Endarterectomy Task Force, and Chair of AANS/CNS Devices and Drugs Committee. As Chairman of the AANS Endovascular Task Force, Dr. Mayberg was instrumental in establishing the process by which the endovascular training and clinical practice were integrated into neurosurgery. Dr. Mayberg has been active in several national stroke organizations, including the Executive Committee of the Stroke Council of the American Heart Association, which he chaired in 2002-2004. He was a founding member of the Brain Attack Coalition and was directly involved in the development and implementation of national guidelines for the certification of stroke centers. Dr. Mayberg has maintained a research program in cerebral vessel wall biology since his residency, including research in cerebral vasospasm, mechanisms of smooth muscle proliferation, the response of arteries to radiation, and the physiology of blood-brain-barrier in stroke and tumors. His research awards have included the Resident Award from the American Academy of Neurological Surgery, the Young Clinician-Investor Award from AANS, the Neufeld Award, the NIH Clinical Investigator Development Award, continuous R01 funding from NIH since 1990, and Merit Review funding from the VA. He has authored over 180 scientific journal articles and over 50 book chapters. Dr. Mayberg currently serves on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Neurosurgery, was co-editor of Neurosurgery Clinics of North America and serves on the editorial boards of Stroke, Neurosurgery, Perspectives in Neurosurgery, Surgical Research and Journal of Stroke & Cerebrovascular Disease.

Dr. Mayberry completed his Trauma/Critical Care Fellowship at Oregon Health Science University in 1996. Prior to that he had completed a term of military service in the USAF as a general surgeon, including a tour as the Chief of Surgery at the Air Support Hospital, Cairo West, Egypt during Operation Restore Hope to Somalia. He received his graduate training at OHSU General Surgery Residency and School of Medicine and his undergraduate education at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Mayberry is an active member of the Trauma, Surgical Critical Care, and Emergency General Surgery Services and commonly manages a wide variety of urgent and emergent surgical conditions. His primary clinic for surgical follow-up and new referrals is Friday afternoon from 1 - 4 PM in the Physician's Pavilion, referrals accepted at 503-494-5300. Dr. Mayberry is leading the effort at OHSU to develop effective surgical and non-surgical strategies for rib and sternal fractures. He is the lead investigator on several past and present clinical trials.

Dr. Michael W. McDermott is Professor in Residence, Vice-Chairman and Residency Program Director in the Department of Neurosurgery, UCSF. He is the Robert & Ruth Halperin Chair in Meningioma Research and the Co-Director of the Skull Base Surgery & Gamma Knife Radiosurgery Programs. Dr. McDermott completed medical school at the University of Toronto and Neurosurgical Residency at the University of British Columbia. he was awarded a research fellowship in the Neuro-Oncology Program of the Brain Tumor Research Center at UCSF Medical Center. Thereafter he joined UCSF for 2 years as a Neuro-Oncology fellow at the Brain Tumor Research Center (BTRC) and then returned to the University of British Columbia for 2 years. Since 1992 he has been on faculty at UCSF and has clinical interest in skull base and meningioma surgery, and radiosurgery. Dr. McDermott cares for patients with a wide range of conditions including brain tumors, neurological cancers, central nervous system infections and hydrocephalus. He is published in over 200 articles in the peer reviewed literature. Currently his research interests are meningioma cell lines and animal models with Dr. David James in the BTRC at UCSF.

W. Scott McDonald, M.D., is a Plastic Surgeon Certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery. He is a graduate of the Louisiana State University School of Medicine. Dr. McDonald completed his residency in General Surgery there, including a year of research at the Children's Hospital of Los Angeles. He then completed his residency in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at the Institute of Reconstructive Plastic Surgery at New York University. He subsequently returned to the Children's Hospital of Los Angeles for a year of specialty training in Craniofacial Surgery. Dr. McDonald has spent most of his career in academic medicine teaching Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at Tulane University School of Medicine in New Orleans, Louisiana, and the University Of Miami School Of Medicine in Miami Florida. Dr. McDonald has been the principal investigator on a number of grants and the results of his clinical and laboratory research in Plastic Surgery have been published extensively in the most prestigious journals of Plastic Surgery including The Journal of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, The Annals of Plastic Surgery, and The Journal of Craniofacial Surgery. Dr. McDonald has also contributed several books and book chapters to the literature He has given numerous scientific lectures nationally and internationally on Aesthetic Surgery, Breast Reconstruction, Craniofacial Surgery and Wound Healing at major Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery meetings including those hosted by the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS), the American College of Surgeons (ACS), the American Society of Laser Medicine and Surgery (ASLMS, and the American Society of Reconstructive Microsurgery (ASRM). Dr. McDonald has a strong commitment to teaching and community service. Not only has he received teaching awards for Plastic Surgery including the 2010 Resident Teaching Award at The Mt. Sinai School of Medicine Division of Plastic Surgery in New York City, but he has traveled to Columbia, South America, and led mission teams to Gaza, Palestine for Operation Smile. Dr. McDonald has guided groups of the University of Miami medical students to the Central Plateau of Haiti to perform reconstructive surgery on both the children and adults of that country. Most recently he has traveled to Cuba in a teaching and training plastic surgery exchange. Dr. McDonald is an active member of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS), and he has served in the past as the Secretary/Treasurer, the Vice President, and the President of the Miami Society of Plastic Surgeons and as a Board Member to the Dade County Medical Association.

Minesh P. Mehta, M.D., FASTRO, is professor of Radiation Oncology at the University of Maryland and Director, Maryland Proton Treatment Center. Board-certified in Radiation Oncology, Dr. Mehta specializes in the management of patients with benign and malignant tumors, vascular malformations, and other brain conditions such as trigeminal neuralgia, as well as in the area of thoracic tumors. He maintains an active interest in radiation-drug interactions, amelioration of radiation toxicities, incorporation of advanced radiation and imaging technologies, and is keenly interested in expanding the frontiers of personalized care in radiotherapy. Dr. Mehta received his medical degree with highest honors from the University of Zambia, School of Medicine, in Lusaka, Zambia, where he received numerous awards through the course of his medical education. His radiation oncology training was completed at the University of Wisconsin Hospital in Madison in 1988. Following his training, Dr. Mehta was appointed assistant professor of Human Oncology at the University of Wisconsin and joined the staff of the University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics, and served as a consultant at 10 area hospitals. In 1997 he was appointed as the Chairman of the Department of Human Oncology at the University of Wisconsin, and was promoted to Professor with Tenure. He was also appointed as the Chair of the Brain Tumor Committee of the Radiation Therapy Oncology Group. During this timeframe, he led the Imaging and Radiation Sciences Program of the University of Wisconsin Comprehensive Cancer Center, was the PI for a Program Project Grant and led the University of Wisconsin as the PI for the Brain Tumor Consortium Grant. He developed robust clinical research programs in thoracic and neuro-oncology, and also developed a state-wide network of Radiotherapy centers. In 2007, after 10 years as Department Chair, Dr. Mehta stepped down from administrative responsibilities while devoting time to national leadership efforts at the American Board of Radiology, the FDA Radiological Devices Panel, the American Society for Radiation Oncology, the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the International Stereotactic Radiosurgery Society, and the Society of Neuro-Oncology. In 2010, Dr. Mehta accepted the position of Professor of Radiation Oncology at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. During his academic career, Dr. Mehta has lectured all over the world (over 500 presentations), and has authored more than 700 manuscripts, abstracts and book chapters. In 2010, as editor-in-chief, he published what is regarded as the definitive textbook in neuro-oncology. He has also provided leadership for over 100 clinical trials through clinical trials cooperative groups such as ECOG, CCG, COG, RTOG, NABTC, and ABTC, and has also led international, randomized multicenter clinical trials. Dr. Mehta is a fellow of the American Society of Radiation Oncology. He is a member of several national and international medical societies, having provided a leadership role in several of these organizations.

Mark H. Meissner, M.D. is a Professor of Surgery at the University of Washington School of Medicine. He specializes in Vascular Surgery with clinical interests in acute deep venous thrombosis, chronic venous disease and the post thrombotic syndrome, vascular trauma, abdominal aortic aneurysms, long term follow-up care of acute deep venous thrombosis, pharmacological treatment of venous leg ulcers.. He earned his Medical Degree from the University of Colorado. He completed his surgical residency at the University of Washington, where he went on for his fellowship in Vascular Surgery. He is Board Certified in Surgery and Vascular Surgery. His research interests include: Long-term follow-up of acute deep venous thrombosis and its relationship to chronic venous disease, venous thromboembolism in trauma, pharmacologic treatment of venous leg ulcers, coagulation abnormalities in trauma, and ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm. He has published and lectured extensively throughout his field.

Maxwell V. Meng, MD received his undergraduate training from Harvard College, where he obtained his degree in biochemical sciences magna cum laude. He then attended the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine where he was inducted into the Alpha Omega Alpha honor society. Dr. Meng obtained his general surgery and urology training at the University of California San Francisco. Subsequently, he combined his interest in urologic oncology and minimally invasive surgery, completing fellowships in both under the guidance of Peter Carroll, MD, MPH and Marshall Stoller, MD. Upon completion of his fellowships Dr. Meng has continued as UCSF faculty (Associate Professor) specializing in urologic cancers and laparoscopy. He is part of the multidisciplinary urologic oncology team of the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center located at the Mount Zion Medical Center. He also operates at the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center and San Francisco General Hospital. Dr. Meng's clinical interests include the diagnosis and management of genitourinary malignancy, and minimally invasive treatment of benign and malignant diseases. He has experience with robotic surgery and is actively involved in the development of new technologies. Dr. Meng is an active member of the American Urological Association (AUA), an active member of the Western Section of the AUA, and a candidate member of the American College of Surgeons. Dr. Meng teaches laparoscopic techniques at the UCSF Urologic Laparoscopy course, and he has moderated the laparoscopy session at the Western Section of the AUA. Dr. Meng has written over 50 peer-reviewed publications and 9 chapters covering many aspects of oncology, minimally invasive surgery, and renal trauma. In particular, his current research interests include novel molecular therapeutics in bladder cancer, molecular predictors of prostate cancer, and minimally invasive approaches to urologic cancer.

Dr. Doug Mennin received his Ph.D. from Temple University in 2001 and, after 9 years on the faculty at Yale University, joined the Department of Psychology at CUNY Hunter College as an Associate Professor. Dr. Mennin has focused on treating chronic bouts of anxiety and mood disorders. He has highlighted the importance of one’s ability to manage resultant moods in effective rather than maladaptive ways. He is currently examining (1) experimental and ecological delineation of behavioral and biological (neural and physiological) processes that contribute to emotion reactivity and dysregulation in chronic anxiety and co-occurring depression; (2) the development of an integrative, mechanism-based, emotion regulation treatment, which has demonstrated considerable preliminary efficacy, and (3) The examination of biobehavioral mechanisms of reactivity and dysregulation whose changes mediate long term symptomatic and functional outcome as a result of this intervention. He utilizes experimental paradigms centered on presenting emotional stimuli and contexts to individuals with pathological chronic anxiety and depression while examining behavioral (i.e., subjective, task-based), psychophysiological (i.e., EEG/ERP, ECG, EMG, EGG), and neural (i.e., fMRI) indices. His research has been funded by several organizations and institutes, including the National Institute of Mental Health. He has published over 70 peer-reviewed empirical articles, book chapters, and edited books. Dr. Mennin has also given 26 invited lectures and presented over 100 symposia and posters. Dr. Mennin’s work has been recognized by a number of awards including the President’s Fund for Faculty Advancement award and the George N. Shuster Faculty Fellowship Fund from CUNY Hunter College, and the Senior Faculty Fellowship in the Social Sciences from Yale University. He currently serves on the editorial board of six journals and on the executive boards of the APA Division of Clinical Psychology and the Society for a Science of Clinical Psychology, and is a member of the Scientific Council of the Anxiety Disorders Association of America (ADAA).

Dr. Kathleen Ries Merikangas is Senior Investigator and Chief of the Genetic Epidemiology Branch in the Intramural Research Program at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). Dr. Merikangas received a bachelor's degree summa cum laude in experimental psychology and music from the University of Notre Dame. She received clinical training through an NIAAA-sponsored master's program and internship at the Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, where she continued to conduct clinical research on the Affective Disorders Clinical Research Unit while she pursued a Ph.D. in chronic disease epidemiology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health. Through a Career Development Award from the NIMH, she completed postdoctoral training in population genetics/genetic epidemiology at the Yale University School of Medicine, where she joined the faculty and ultimately became a Professor of Epidemiology and Public Health, Psychiatry and Psychology and the Director of the Genetic Epidemiology Research Unit in the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health. Dr. Merikangas has published extensively (> 250 peer-reviewed articles, chapters and reviews), and is a renowned speaker both nationally and throughout the world. The major areas of Dr. Merikangas' research are: (1) studies of the patterns and components of familial aggregation of mental disorders and familial mechanisms for comorbidity of mental and medical disorders; (2) identification of early signs and risk factors for psychiatric disorders among high and low risk youth using prospective longitudinal high risk studies; and (3) large scale population based studies of mental disorders including high risk designs and prospective longitudinal research. The major project underway in her research group is a community-based family study of affective spectrum disorders and their overlap with other mental disorders, especially anxiety disorders and medical disorders such as migraine and cardiovascular disease. The goal of this research is to identify the endophenotypes that are closer to the biologic expression of genes underlying these disorders and environmental moderators of genetic expression. Findings from this research are likely to have important implications for targets of prevention and treatment of affective illness.

James R. Merikangas, M.D. is a Neuropsychiatrist, co-founder of the American Neuropsychiatric Association and former president of the American Academy of Clinical Psychiatrists. He is a graduate of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and trained in both Neurology and Psychiatry at Yale. He is board certified in each of those specialties. Primarily a practicing clinician, Dr. Merikangas established the EEG laboratory at the Western Psychiatric Clinic of the University of Pittsburgh, where he also established the Neurodiagnostic Clinic and directed the Psychiatric Emergency room. Currently he is Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science at The George Washington University School of Health Sciences and a consultant in research at the National Institutes of Mental Health. Dr. Merikangas has been a dedicated teacher and mentor throughout his career. He has received numerous professional honors, including Elected Distinguished Life Fellow, American Psychiatric Association, Elected Consultant of the Scientific Program Committee, American Psychiatric Association, Elected Representative of District Branch in Assembly, American Psychiatric Association, and Elected Fellow, American Neuropsychiatric Association. Prior to his current clinical and forensic practices, Dr. Merikangas held faculty appointments at several institutions including Yale-New Haven Hospital, Georgetown University Hospital, The George Washington University Hospital, the Suburban Hospital (Bethesda, MD), and the Veteran’s Administration Hospital in Washington, D.C. Dr. Merikangas has consulted extensively to hospitals, universities, and state and federal courts and agencies. In addition to serving as an active member on a number of boards and committees, Dr. Merikangas is currently an Examiner for the National Board of Medical Examiners, American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology. His vast interest in the causes and prevention of violent behavior, has led to the neuropsychiatric evaluation of murderers in 28 state prisons, and pioneering the use of brain imaging in the understanding of violent crimes. Other forensic interests include brain injury, toxic exposures and psychiatric trauma as an expert for both plaintiffs and defense, including for the U.S. Department of Justice. Dr. Merikangas has authored many articles and chapters on these and other topics, served as an editorial reviewer, and has lectured nationally and internationally.

Bruce Scott Miller, MD is an Associate Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery at the University of Michigan Health System. He is a graduate of Harvard Medical School, and was an All-American athlete as a Harvard undergraduate. Dr. Miller completed Residency in Orthopaedic Surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital in 2000, and subsequently completed three Fellowships in 1) Orthopaedic Trauma at Harvard Medical School/Brigham and Women’s Hospital, 2) Shoulder and Elbow Surgery at the North Shore Private Hospital, Sydney, Australia, and 3) Sports Medicine at the Steadman Hawkins Clinic, Vail, Colorado. Dr. Miller is Board Certified in Orthopaedic Sports Medicine and Orthopaedic Surgery. Dr Miller’s current research interests include: Clinical outcomes in sports medicine surgery of the shoulder and knee, cartilage injury and repair and rotator cuff disease. His clinical interests include: Sports injuries of the knee, shoulder, and elbow arthritis surgery of the knee, shoulder, and elbow, rotator cuff surgery and shoulder replacement surgery. Shoulder Replacement Surgery. Dr. Miller is a faculty member of the University of Michigan’s top-rated “MedSport” sports medicine program team of physicians. He is a member of numerous professional associations, has authored more than 50 scientific papers, reviews and chapters, and is a frequent presenter at both national and international conferences.

Irma Moilanen, M.D., Ph.D., is a Professor Emerita of Child Psychiatry, Institute of Clinical Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, University of Oulu, Finland. She was the Chair of Child Psychiatry at the University Hospital of Oulu from 1986 to 2009, and Professor of Child Psychiatry from 1992 to 2009. Professor Moilanen received her M.D. from the University of Oulu, Finland in 1970, and became a Specialist in Pediatrics in 1976. She received her Ph.D. of Medical Science, from the University of Oulu, specializing in Child Psychiatry in 1981. She became an Adjunct Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the University of Tampere, Finland in 1993. Professor Moilanen has served domestically as the Chair of the Executive Committee at the Graduate School of Circumpolar Wellbeing, Health and Adaptation, Oulu, where she is currently the Chair of the section of Health and Healthcare in the North, and as the Vice President of the Finnish Child Psychiatric Research Foundation. In addition, she was the Chair of the Executive Board of the Multiple Birth Foundation in Finland as well as the Vice President of the Child Protection Association: Friends of the Young. Professor Moilanen continues as a Member of several medical funding committees in Finland. She is the direct supervisor and an external reviewer for many doctoral theses. Internationally, she has been the Treasurer of Union Europeénne des Medicins Specialistes, section of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, delegate of Finland, as well as the Chair, Advisor or Executive Member of many scientific boards. Professor Moilanen engages in ongoing research concerning children´s neurological and psychological development. She is the principal investigator (i.e., Research on Autism Spectrum Disorders in Oulu University, currently in its 12th year of longitudinal investigation) or co- investigator on several national and international collaborative studies focusing on child psychiatric disorders. She also conducts longitudinal epidemiological child and adolescent psychiatric studies with collaborators in the US, UK, Germany and Scandinavia. Her work groups are multi-disciplinary teams including geneticists, radiologists, neurologists, psychologists, speech and language pathologists, occupational therapists, and educators at nursery and primary schools. Professor Moilanen has published over 200 original publications in peer reviewed scientific journals as well as numerous review articles and book chapters; she has also presented her work worldwide as a speaker at Nordic and International conventions. Her primary research interests include developmental neuropsychiatric disorders, with a focus on Autism and ADHD (early identification, prevalence, etiology, neuropsychology and neuroimaging), infant psychiatry, psychiatric genetics, cross cultural mental health, and the effects of psychosocial stressors (e.g., familial relocation ) on children’s mental health.

Dr. Moradi specializes in facial plastic and reconstructive surgery in San Diego, CA. Board Certified in Facial Plastic Surgery, Dr. Moradi is an accomplished and compassionate doctor who achieves excellent results using his advanced surgical techniques. In addition, Dr. Moradi’s expertise includes knowledge and skill in both injectables and laser technologies. Dr. Moradi graduated summa cum laude from the University of California, San Diego, where he received Phi Beta Kappa and National Honors Society awards. He went on to complete his medical degree from the same institution. Dr. Moradi continued with surgical training at Duke University Medical Center and obtained his Board Certification in Otolaryngology and later Facial Plastic & Reconstructive surgery. Dr Moradi serves on advisory boards for various pharmaceutical companies including Allergan, Medicis, Merz, and Skin Medica. He is an active member of the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery and serves as Chairman of the Patient Safety and Quality Improvement committee. His work with Cooperative of American Physician includes the privilege of serving on the committee of Education & Patient Safety, Practice Management Services, Claims Review, Finance, Audit, and Compensation, and commmittee Chair of Nominating & Governance Committee. Dr. Moradi is passionate about research. As an undergraduate at University of California, San Diego, Dr. Moradi immersed himself in research with a focus on nasal tumors. Today, Dr. Moradi and Moradi MD have been involved in FDA studies, retrospective studies, and Investigator-initiated studies with leading pharmaceutical companies in the medical aesthetic field. Dr. Moradi is a hands-on surgeon, taking great pride in his private practice, Moradi MD, in San Diego, where excellent results are the standard. Serving the community and his peers is a top priority for Dr. Moradi where his work outside of the practice includes volunteering, speaking, training, and consulting.

Dr. John Morton is Associate Professor of Surgery at Stanford University serving as Section Chief of Minimally Invasive Surgery and Director of both Bariatric Surgery and Surgical Quality. He also heads the Minimally Invasive Surgery fellowship and the Stanford Center for Outcomes Research and Evaluation (SCORE) and is Co-Director of the Stanford Digestive Health Center. Dr. Morton received undergraduate, Masters in Public Health, and Medical Doctor Degree from Tulane University and a Masters in Health Administration from University of Washington. He was the first surgical resident to receive a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar Fellowship in the program’s history at University of Washington and also completed an advanced laparoscopic fellowship at University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He served on Capitol Hill as Senator Bill Frist’s Health Policy Intern. He has published over 80 peer-reviewed articles and 15 book chapters with over 200 national and international oral presentations. His research has focused on quality improvement and bariatric surgery and has published influential articles on patient safety, adolescent bariatric surgery, diabetes and gastric bypass, fertility and birth outcomes following weight loss surgery, probiotics, pre-operative weight loss, family effects of weight loss surgery, effect of weight loss on testosterone, obese disparities in health care, changes in cancer screening tests following weight loss, endoscopy, and impact of gastric bypass upon alcohol metabolism and cardiac risk factors. He led three FDA Pivotal Trials and has received funding from National Institutes of Health, Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and American College of Surgeons. He serves as editor of ASMBS Morbid Obesity: Perioperative Management (2011 Best Medical Book Finalist, British Medical Association), The ASMBS Textbook of Bariatric Surgery, Volume 1: Bariatric Surgery and SAGES Handbook on Quality, Patient Safety and Outcomes. Furthermore, he serves on the editorial boards of Obesity Surgery, Surgery for Obesity and Related Diseases, Bariatric Times, Journal of Surgical Case Reports and World Journal of Gastroenterology. His research efforts have been recognized by the Society for Advanced Gastrointestinal Endoscopic Surgeons (SAGES) receiving the Golden Laparoscope Award as 2008 Young Investigator of the Year. As a teacher, Dr. Morton has received six teaching awards at Stanford University in 8 years including the 2008 Arthur Bloomfield Clinical Teacher of the Year and 2011 Henry J. Kaiser Teaching Award. As Director of Surgical Quality at Stanford University Medical Center, Dr. Morton led efforts to improve the Department of Surgery’s University Health Consortium’s annual ranking from 24/98 to 1/98 and their Annual NSQIP mortality ranking from Average to Exemplary. Among NSQIP Surgical Champions, he was chosen to chair the monthly Surgical Champions forum for the American College of Surgeons. He has been an invited speaker on surgical quality by the American College of Surgeons, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, National Patient Safety Foundation, and American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery and currently serves on the National Quality Forum’s Surgical Steering Committee. He has authored an inter-active online curriculum on Reducing Error in the Operating Room sponsored by Advanced Practice Solutions, Stanford and Harvard Universities. With over 2000 bariatric surgeries performed, he has been recognized as a bariatric surgery leader by Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, RAND, American College of Surgeons, Who’s Who and America’s Top Surgeons. His clinical skills have resulted in being named Castle Connolly’s Physician of the Year for Clinical Excellence in 2012. In June 2012, he was named Secretary-Treasurer of the American Society of Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery. He has also served as President of the California chapter of the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery (ASMBS) in 2010-11 and serves as a member the ASMBS Executive Council and the National Chairman for Access to Care and Data Dissemination for ASMBS and Committees on Public Education, Emerging Technologies, and Research. In addition, he is an invited member of the American College of Surgeons Bariatric Surgery Center Network Advisory Board. He has been an invited speaker on weight loss surgery by the American College of Surgeons, American Society of Bariatric and Metabolic Surgery, The Obesity Society, Digestive Diseases Week and Society of Advanced Gastrointestinal Endoscopic Surgery as well as at Cleveland Clinic, Vanderbilt and Harvard and internationally in the United Kingdom, Mexico, Australia, Portugal, Germany, Taiwan and France. He received top presentation awards from SAGES, ASMBS, and Digestive Diseases Week. Dr. Morton has been featured on the Today Show, Good Morning America, NY Times, National Public Radio, CNN, Fox, MSNBC, BBC, Newsweek, Time, Medscape, Washington Post, LA Times, San Francisco Chronicle, International Herald Tribune, Reuters, United Press International, Wall Street Journal, and Associated Press.

Augustine L. Moscatello, M.D., F.A.C.S., is a graduate of The City College of New York and received his medical degree from The Mount Sinai School of Medicine. Dr. Moscatello completed his Post-Doctoral training as Chief Resident in Otolaryngology at The Mount Sinai Medical Center, New York. Dr. Moscatello is board certified in Otolaryngology/Head & Neck Surgery and has consistently been listed as one of America's, New York's and Westchester's Top Doctors since 1994. Dr. Moscatello specialties include Head and Neck Surgery including Major and Minor Head and Neck Cancer Surgery, Balloon Sinus Surgery, Minimally Invasive Thyroid Surgery, and Pillar Procedures for Sleep Apnea and Snoring. In addition to his clinical appointments, Dr. Moscatello maintains memberships in several professional societies and committees, including: Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honor Society, The American Academy of Otolaryngology/Head & Neck Surgery, American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, New York Head & Neck Society, American College of Surgeons, New York Medical College Admissions Committee, Westchester Medical Center Cancer Committee, Westchester Medical Center Executive Committee, Westchester Medical Center OR Committee and the Medical Faculty Health Alliance Credential Committee Dr. Moscatello's hospital affiliations include: Westchester Medical Center and Maria Fareri Children Hospital, Valhalla, New York, and the Westchester Ambulatory Surgery Center, White Plains, New York Dr. Moscatello is presently the Director of the Department of Otolaryngology/Head and Neck Surgery at the Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla, New York. He is also an Associate Professor and Vice-Chairman of the Department of Otolaryngology/Head and Neck Surgery at the New York Medical College. Dr. Moscatello has given numerous presentations and lectures, and has published articles in his areas of expertise. Dr Moscatello has regular weekly office hours at our Ardsley and Rye Brook offices in Westchester. Of note, before attending medical school, Dr. Moscatello studied film-making and taught photography.

Alexander Muacevic is currently one of the two medical directors of the European Cyberknife Center in Munich, Germany. He holds an academic teaching position at the University of Munich Hospitals. His main clinical and scientific interest is full body radiosurgery using advanced image-guided robotic technology. He is a trained and board neurosurgeon and radiosurgeon. He holds in addition an European Neurosurgery Certificate. He has published over 100 scientific contributions such as full papers, book chapters and congress proceedings. Alexander Muacevic is member of several academic societies and the president of the International Radiosurgery Society which has over 700 members. He is co-founder and the co-chief editor of Cureus.com.

Dr. Gary E. Myerson, M.D., completed his Undergraduate Degree in Biology from Emory University in June 1973, subsequently earning his medical degree at the Far Eastern University, School of Medicine, in Manila, Philippines in 1977. Dr Myerson began his residency training at the Jewish Hospital and Medical Center of Brooklyn, in Brooklyn, New York in July of 1977. He was appointed Chief Resident during his third year, and completed the residency program in June of 1980. He conducted his Fellowship training at Emory University School of Medicine; Department of Internal Medicine; Division of Rheumatology-Immunology; July 1, 1980 through June 30, 1982. Dr. Myerson is Board Certified in Internal Medicine, sub-specialty, Rheumatology. He has been in practice at the Arthritis and Rheumatology of Georgia, P.C., since 1982 and currently is affiliated with Northside and Saint Joseph’s Hospital’s in Atlanta, Georgia. Dr. Myerson has received several Honors and awards, including, Intern of the Year, Department of Medicine, June 1978, Jewish Hospital and Medical Center of Brooklyn; he was awarded with the position of Honorary Fellow of the Atlanta Craniomandibular Society, and he was selected as the Rheumatology Editor for The Journal of Craniomandibular Practice. Dr. Myerson has held numerous professional positions and is currently part of Medical Staff, Team Rheumatologist for the Atlanta Falcons Football Club. He has participated in several invited lecture series, such as the American College of Rheumatology 2009 and 2007 Annual Meeting, “Meet the Professor” in Fibromyalgia, Innovative Theatre Sessions in Fibromyalgia, and “Meet the Professor” in Fibromyalgia, Moderator, Clinical Session “Interstitial Lung Disease in Rheumatic Diseases,” at the American College of Rheumatology 2006 Annual Meeting. He was also on the Planning Committee for Professional Meetings of the American College of Rheumatology, and served on the Professional Meetings Committee of the American College of Rheumatology for a number of years. Dr. Myerson currently has served on the Medical and Scientific Committee of the Arthritis Foundation, Georgia Chapter for over 13 years, and has been an active Member of the Board of Directors of the Lupus Foundation of America, Georgia Chapter for over 22 years. Dr. Myerson is a Founding Fellow of the American College of Rheumatology, and is an active member of the Georgia Chapter of the Arthritis Foundation, the Georgia Chapter of the Lupus Foundation of America, the Sjogrens Syndrome Foundation, the Georgia Society of Rheumatology, the Medical Association of Atlanta, the Medical Association of Georgia, and the American College of Sports Medicine. Dr. Myerson is the Principal Investigator or Investigator of 9 currently ongoing longitudinal or multi-phased/industry-sponsored clinical trials, e.g., “An open-label, randomized study to evaluate the safety, tolerability and efficacy of tocilizumab (TCZ) monotherapy or TCZ in combination with non-biologic DMARDs in patients with active rheumatoid arthritis who have an inadequate response to current non-biologic or biologic DMARDs” (Hoffman La Roche), and “A Phase 3, Randomized, Double Blind, Placebo-Controlled Study of the Safety and Efficacy of 2 Doses of CP-690,550 in Patients with Active Rheumatoid Arthritis on Background Methotrexate with Inadequate Response to TNF Inhibitors” (Pfizer). He has also played in integral role as an investigator in a number of funded clinical research trials that have been completed. Dr. Myerson has authored numerous chapters, articles and reviews and continues to present and lecture in his vast areas of rheumatologic expertise.

Dr. Kari Nadeau is one of the nation’s foremost experts in adult and pediatric allergy, leads translational research and clinical studies at Packard Children’s, and directs the Nadeau Laboratory at Stanford. She is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics, with an affiliate appointment in Otolaryngology at Stanford University School of Medicine. Her medical research and clinical practice, in addition to her accomplishments in drug development in the biotech industry, have given her the tools to manage the complex web of food allergy research. Dr. Nadeau studies the mechanisms involved in food allergies to better understand how to prevent and cure the disease. She has led many clinical research studies of food allergic disorders. She is currently running studies in oral immunotherapy for multiple food allergies, with very promising results, as well as four clinical studies in eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE). Dr. Nadeau’s work has been recognized with numerous grants and awards, and her research is part of a prestigious Clinical and Translational Science Award from the national Institutes of Health (NIH). As a member of a national network of leading allergy researchers, Dr. Nadeau collaborates with colleagues at University of North Carolina, University of Arkansas, Harvard (Children's Boston), Johns Hopkins, Univeristy of Pennsylvania, Northwestern University, and Mt Sinai. She has published well over 100 original articles, abstracts and reviews. She also frequently presents at national and international meetings to share her findings and to exchange ideas with colleagues from around the globe. Dr. Nadeau has received honors and awards from the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology; the American Lung Association; the Clinical Immunological Society; Food Allergy Research and Education (FARE); and the NIH. She has also been recognized with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s STAR Grant Award. Dr. Nadeau received her MD and PhD (Biochemistry and Immunology) from Harvard Medical School. She completed a residency in pediatrics at Children’s Hospital Boston and a clinical fellowship in asthma and immunology at Stanford and UCSF. She has been a faculty member at Packard Children’s Hospital since 2006. She is Board Certified in both General Pediatrics and Allergy and Immunolofy.

Ramana (Ramo) Naidu MD is Assistant Professor in the Department of Anesthesia and Perioperative Care, University of California San Francisco. He serves as one of the lead faculty at the UCSF Pain Management Center for the care of patients with chronic painful conditions. He completed his fellowship in Pain Management at UCSF. He participates in medication management and interventional therapies for patients with chronic pain for both the outpatient and inpatient settings. Dr. Naidu is also Director of the inpatient acute/post-surgical pain service, UCSF Mount Zion Hospital that is focused on the care of post-operative patients with cancer. One of his main interests is the prevention of transition from acute to chronic pain. He is heavily involved in the regional anesthesia services for surgeries at UCSF and has been a key player in bringing ultrasound-guided techniques to regional anesthesia and interventional pain medicine at UCSF. Dr. Naidu completed his medical school at the University of Wisconsin – Madison as a medical scholar (a 7-yr program) in the city where he grew up. He completed his internship at the University of California – Los Angeles, and his residency in anesthesiology at the University of Washington – Seattle. He was a Fulbright Scholar for Public Health research in Copenhagen, Denmark with the World Health Organization European Regional Office. His work involved the surveillance of nosocomial infections in the European Region, and the dissemination of methods for prevention. This background at the WHO has given him a “top-down” perspective on many of the issues that confront our medical system. He is a proponent of transparent and open-source materials in academics and is looking forward to being a part of Cureus.

Dr. Nemeroff was born in New York City in 1949 and educated in the New York City Public School System. After graduating from the City College of New York in 1970, he enrolled in graduate school at Northeastern University and received a Master's degree in Biology in 1973. He received his MD and PhD (Neurobiology) from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His residency training in psychiatry was conducted at both the University of North Carolina and at Duke University, after which he joined the faculty of Duke University. At Duke he was Professor of Psychiatry and Pharmacology and Chief of the Division of Biological Psychiatry before relocating in 1991 to Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia, where he served as the Reunette W. Harris Professor and Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences until 2008. In 2009 he joined the University of Miami Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine as the Leonard M. Miller Professor and Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. His research has concentrated on the biological basis of the major neuropsychiatric disorders, including affective disorders, schizophrenia, and anxiety disorders. His clinical research is focused on the use of genetic, neuroendocrine, neuroimaging and neurochemical methods to comprehensively understand the pathophysiology of depression. In recent years he has uncovered the neurobiological mechanisms that mediate the increased risk for depression in victims of child abuse. He has also contributed to seminal findings in the burgeoning area of research concerning the relationship of depression to cardiovascular disease. Dr. Nemeroff has received numerous honors including the A.E. Bennett Award from the Society of Biological Psychiatry (1979), the Judith Silver Memorial Young Scientist Award from the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (1989), both the Kempf Award in Psychobiology (1989) and the Samuel Hibbs Award (1990) from the American Psychiatric Association, and the Gold Medal Award and the Research Prize (1996) from the Society of Biological Psychiatry. In 1993 he was awarded the Edward J. Sachar Award from Columbia University and the Edward A. Strecker Award from The Institute of Pennsylvania Hospital. In 1997, he was the recipient of the Gerald Klerman Award from the National Depressive and Manic-Depressive Disorders Association and the Selo Prize from the National Alliance for Research in Schizophrenia and Depression. In 1998 he was the recipient of the Research Award in Mood Disorders from the American College of Psychiatrists and in 1999 he received the Bowis Award from the same organization. He was awarded the Menninger Prize in 2000 from the American College of Physicians, the Research Award from the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention in 2001, and the Burlingame Prize from the Institute of Living in 2002. In 2006 he received the American Psychiatric Association Research Mentoring Award and Vestermark Award, and in 2008 The Judson Marmor Award for Research. Dr. Nemeroff served as the Editor-in-Chief of Neuropsychopharmacology from 2001-2006. With Alan F. Schatzberg, MD, he is co-Editor of the Textbook of Psychopharmacology, now in its Fourth Edition, published by the American Psychiatric Press Inc. He has served on the Mental Health Advisory Council of the National Institutes of Mental Health and the Biomedical Research Council for NASA. He is past President of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology and the American College of Psychiatrists. He is currently a member of the Board of Directors of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, and the Anxiety and Depression Association of America. He served as chair of the APA Committee on Research Training. In 2002 he was elected as a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. He has published more than 975 research reports and reviews.

Carola A. Neumann, M.D., is an Assistant Professor at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Cancer Institute and a Vissiting Associate Professor of the Department of Pharmacology and Chemical Biology. She received her MTA (comparable to baccalaureate degree) as Medical Technical Research Assistant, Naturwissenschaftliches Technikum Landau, i.d. Pfalz, Germany, 1989, and her Medical Degree from Ludwig-Maximilian's University, Medical School, Munich, Germany, 1997. Dr. Neumann spent several years as an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Medical University of South Carolina, specializing in Cell and Molecular Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, prior to joining the faculty of UPMC. Dr. Neumann is dedicated to her career in cancer research and is widely published in the field. She is a principal investigator on the BRIDGE research project. Her scholarly interests include Breast cancer, cell signaling and Peroxiredoxin.

David W. Newell, M.D., is co-executive director of the Swedish Neuroscience Institute and is a practicing neurosurgeon with specialties in cerebrovascular neurosurgery, brain aneurysms, spine surgery, stroke, and arteriovenous malformations. Dr. Newell is board certified in neurological surgery and is also certified in Gamma Knife and CyberKnife. Dr. Newell received his undergraduate degree at Boston University in Biology then worked as a medical research assistant at Harvard Medical School in the laboratory of Dr George H.A. Clowes, Jr. He obtained his medical degree from Case Western Reserve University and his residency in neurosurgery at the University. He was the Van Wagenen fellow the University of Bern, in Bern Switzerland. Dr Newell’s research interests have included mechanisms of regulation of cerebral blood flow and the use of ultrasound in the diagnosis and treatment of brain disorders. He was the first neurosurgeon in the United States to perform research and publish results on the use of transcranial Doppler ultrasound in neurosurgical patients and helped introduce this technology in the United States as part of the care and treatment of patients with cerebral aneurysms.

Camran Nezhat, MD has been called the father of modern-day operative laparoscopy which revolutionized modern day surgery. Dr. Nezhat performed extensive procedures by Minimally Invasive Surgery for the first time and collaborated with renowned robotic pioneers, Ajit Shah and Phil Green at Stanford Research Institute in the 1990’s, during the early phases of research and development for the da Vinci robot. Recipient of numerous awards worldwide, Dr. Nezhat has also been chosen by his peers to serve in a variety of leadership roles, including past president of the Society of Laparoendoscopic Surgeons, associate editor of the Journal of the Society of Laparoendoscopic Surgeons, editor of the Journal of Minimally Invasive Gynecology, and editorial board member of the Journal of Fertility and Sterility. Dr. Nezhat is editor of 6 textbooks, and more than 500 published articles.

Brian Nosek received a Ph.D. in from Yale University in 2002 and is an associate professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Virginia. In 2007, he received early career awards from the International Social Cognition Network (ISCON) and the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues (SPSSI). He co-founded and directs Project Implicit (http://projectimplicit.net/) an Internet-based multi-university collaboration of research and education about implicit cognition – thoughts and feelings that exist outside of awareness or control. Nosek investigates the gap between values and practices – such as when behavior is influenced by factors other than one's intentions and goals. Research applications of this interest are implicit bias, diversity and inclusion, automaticity, social judgment and decision-making, attitudes, beliefs, ideology, morality, identity, memory, and barriers to innovation. Through lectures, training, and consulting, Nosek and Project Implicit apply scientific research to improve the alignment between personal and organizational values and practices. He also co-founded the Open Science Framework (http://openscienceframework.org/) to develop infrastructure and create processes that maximize the consistency between scientific values and scientific practices. Dr. Nosek has published over 100 peer-reviewed articles and chapters and continues to present his work nationally and across the globe.

Dr. Oliashirazi, or "Dr. Oli" as his patients affectionately call him, is an orthopaedic surgeon with special interest and expertise in joint replacement surgery, including minimally invasive, computer and robotic-assisted surgery. He is a graduate of George Washington School of Medicine, where he was the Valedictorian of his class. He is the past president of the AOA Medical Honor Society at GWU. Dr. Oli received his post-graduate training in orthopaedic surgery at the prestigous Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons and a Diplomate of the American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery. sHe lectures extensively, and his research has been presented both nationally and internationally. Dr. Oli is currently Professor and Chairman of the Department of Orthopaedics at Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine at Marshall University as well as the Director of the Mary H. Hodges Joint Replacement Center/Program at Cabell-Huntington Hospital.

Dr Steven Ory is a Reproductice Endocrinologist in private practice in Margate, Florida. He has appointments at Florida International University as Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology and the University of Miami as a Voluntary Associate Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology, both in Miami, Florida. He is currently Editor-in-Chief of the International Federation of Fertility Societies’ publication, Surveillance and a former associate editor of Fertility and Sterility. He has served on three other editorial boards and as an ad hoc reviewer for over a dozen additional journals. He is a past president of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, the Society for Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility and the Society for Humanism in Medicine. He has been an examiner for the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology since 1991. His clinical interests include the evaluation and treatment of polycystic ovary syndrome, endometriosis and leiomyomata. He has clinical and research interests in Assisted Reproductive Technology, particularly safety-related issues. He is a graduate of Baylor College of Medicine and trained in Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Mayo Clinic where he also served as chair of the section of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility for 10 years. He completed a fellowship in Reproductive Endocrinology at Duke University. His awards and honors include delivering several named lectureships and inclusion in Castle Connoly’s Top Doctors list for over 10 years and Marquis’ Who’s Who in America and Who’s Who in Medicine and Healthcare.

Dr. Oskouian is a neurosurgeon who specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of complex spinal disorders. Dr. Oskouian received his medical degree from the University of California, Los Angeles. He completed residencies in surgery and neurosurgery at the University of Virginia and a neurosurgery fellowship at the New Zealand National Hospital in Auckland. Prior to joining Swedish Neuroscience Institute, Dr. Oskouian was at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. Dr. Oskouian's research and clinical focus is on on scoliosis, spinal deformities and anomalies, osteoporosis, spinal cord injury, degenerative disc disease, spinal oncology, stereotactic spinal radiosurgery, and minimally invasive spinal surgery.

Dr. Oskowitz, one of the founders of Boston IVF, has been in practice for over 25 years. He received his medical degree from the University of Witwatersrand, South Africa and completed his residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Colorado, Denver. He was a research fellow at Beth Israel Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston in Reproductive Endocrinology. Dr. Oskowitz was formerly the medical director of Boston IVF as well as the president and Founder of the Boston Fertility Society. The Consumer's Research Council of America lists Dr. Oskowitz in America's Top Obstetricians and Gynecologists; Boston Magazine lists Dr. Oskowitz in Boston's Best Infertility Specialists. He received the Lew Millendez Award from the Combined Jewish Philanthropies Health Professionals and the Family Building Award from the American Fertility Association. Dr. Oskowitz also has the distinction of delivering the first In-Vitro fertilization child conceived in Massachusetts. He also achieved the first conception and birth by Gamete Intra-Fallopian Tube Transfer (GIFT) in Massachusetts. Dr. Oskowitz has been teaching Reproductive Biology at Universities for 25 years. He is currently Assistant Professor in Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Biology at Harvard Medical School and is on staff at New England Baptist Hospital and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. He is a member of the Board of Directors of Columbia Labs in New Jersey and is involved with many professional societies such as the Society of Assisted Reproductive Technology and the Society of Male Reproduction and Urology. He has conducted research into the causes and treatment of infertility and written numerous original reports and articles in peer-reviewed journals. He is an accomplished speaker and has a long list of invited presentations and lectures nationally and internationally.

Dr. Vahit Ozmen is a Professor of Surgery at Istanbul University. He conducted his medical school and residency training at Istanbul University then served as a surgeon in the Army at Gümüşsuyu Army Hospital in Taksim. Dr. Ozmen has a distinguished history of academic appointments and was a post- doctoral fellow at Tulane University in the Department of Surgery. He is an expert in breast health having served as Director of the Breast Clinic at Sisli Florence Nightingale Hospital and Presient Elect of the Turkish Federation of Breast Societies among a long list of other positions. Dr. Ozmen is a member of over a dozen national and International societies and decorated with awards and honors beginnig with First Degree in his graduation class and more recently the Estee Lauder Sponsorship and Partnership for Breast Cancer Awareness. In addition to his role as Editor in Chief of the Journal of Breast Health, Dr. Ozmen serves or has served on the board of over a dozen journals. He has taught courses and lectured all over the world and has an extensive list of published papers.

Dr. Ozyar is Professor and Chairman of the Acibadem University, Department of Radiation Oncology and Health Sciences Institute of the same university. He trained in Radiation Oncology at the Hacettepe University in Ankara, Turkey between 1988 and 1993. His main clinical and scientific interest is head and neck cancers, gynecological cancers, stereotactic body radiotherapy, and brachytherapy. He and his team have used new radiotherapy technologies like stereotactic body radiotherapy, volumetric modulated arc therapy, image guided intensity modulated radiotherapy since 2008. Dr. Ozyar has published over 70 manuscripts in radiation oncology.

Dr. Samir Pandya is Assistant Professor of Surgery and Pediatrics at New York Medical College in Valhalla, New York. He is an attending surgeon at the Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital of Westchester Medical Center. He is currently the surgical director of Newborn Surgery, Neonatal and Pediatric Extracorporeal Life Support and Adolescent Bariatric Surgery programs at the Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital. Originally from Kenya, Dr. Pandya pursued a degree in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida. Following that, he decided to pursue a career in surgery to be on the front lines of patient care and medical device development. He completed his medical training at the Medical College of Virginia and surgery residency at the Westchester Medical Center campus of New York Medical College. Subsequently, he pursued subspecialty training in Pediatric General and Thoracic Surgery at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. He specializes in advanced minimally invasive general and thoracic procedures in the neonatal and pediatric population. His clinical interests also include pediatric surgical oncology, biliary atresia, anorectal malformations and Hirschsprung’s disease. His hobbies include photography, target shooting and tennis.

Cary S. Passik, MD, is currently the Chief, section of Cardiothoracic Surgery at the Praxair Regional Heart and Vascular Center at Danbury Hospital of the Western Connecticut Health Network. A native of New York, he graduated from CCNY, Sophie Davis Center for Biomedical Education , summa cum laude, in 1978 and the NYU School of Medicine in 1980. He completed a residency in general surgery at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Montefiore Medical Center, NYC from 1980-1985 and a fellowship in cardiothoracic surgery from 1985-1988 at The Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. From 1988 until the present he is an attending cardiothoracic surgeon at Yale- New Haven Hospital, where he also served as the Associate Section Chief of Cardiac Surgery (2000-2007) and was a Clinical Instructor in Surgery at the Yale School of Medicine. He is now Clinical Assistant Professor of Surgery at the University of Vermont College of Medicine, and Assistant Professor of Surgery at NY Medical College. He also serves as a consultant for Covidien, Ivy Biomedical Corp, Cardiopulmonary Corp., and the Gerson Lehrman Group. He is involved in new technology development with particular interest in wireless transmission of patient parameters for safer patient care. He serves as a PI on the NIH sponsored TRIBE-AKI evaluating new biomarkers in renal dysfunction occurring at the time of heart surgery.

Dr. Emma Patterson is the CEO of Oregon Weight Loss Surgery, and Medical Director of the Legacy Good Samaritan Weight Management Institute. She has performed over 3,000 bariatric surgeries since completing her fellowship at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York. Dr Patterson serves on the Executive Council of the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery, and has published over 100 journal articles, abstracts and book chapters. She trains surgerons nationally and internationally on bariatric procedures, and regularly speaks at conferences. Strongly committed to ongoing research, she serves as the principle investigator on various studies of investigational devices.

Erik K. Paulson, MD, is Professor and Chairman of the Department of Diagnostic Radiology at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas. Born in Durham, North Carolina, raised in Columbus, Ohio, Dr. Paulson earned his medical degree from Duke University School of Medicine in Durham, North Carolina. Following a medical internship at Duke, Dr. Paulson served as a resident and chief resident in Radiology at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, Utah. Following residency, Dr. Paulson served as a clinical fellow in Abdominal Imaging at Duke University. After fellowship, he joined the staff at Duke and progressed steadily through the ranks eventually serving as the Division Chief of Abdominal Imaging and Vice Chairman of the Department. His academic interests include hepatobiliary imaging, percutaneous intervention, and innovations in CT technology. While at MD Anderson, current interests include applications of dual energy CT, implementation of low dose technology in a cancer center setting, and faculty development.

Dr. Mark A. Peppercorn is a Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and senior consultant for the center for Inflammatory Bowel Disease at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. He is a graduate of Harvard College where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and received his medical degree from Harvard Medical School where he was elected to Alpha Omega Alpha. After completing his residency in internal medicine at the Beth Israel Hospital in Boston, he did research as a clinical associate at the National Institutes of Health and then completed a fellowship in gastroenterology and was Chief Resident in Medicine at the Beth Israel Hospital. His research defined the metabolism of sulfasalazine leading to the development of oral and rectal aminosalicylates and he has been active in many clinical trials studying the safety and efficacy of new drugs for inflammatory bowel disease. Dr. Peppercorn is a past President of the Inflammatory Bowel Disease Forum, a Fellow and former Governor for Massachusetts of the American College of Gastroenterology, a Fellow of the American Gastroenterology Association (AGA), and a past member of the Patient Care Committee, the Research Initiative Committee, and the Drug Therapy Assessment Committee of the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of America (CCFA). He was also a member of the core committee of the AGA sponsored Clinical Teaching Project. Dr. Peppercorn served as a Senior Fellow of the Holmes Society at Harvard Medical School and a Senior Institute Scholar at the Carl. A. Shapiro Institute for Education and Research. Dr. Peppercorn is the author or coauthor of over 230 publications, including peer-reviewed journal articles, books, and book chapters. He was also on the editorial board of the Journal of Clinical Gastroenterology and on the editorial board for Inflammatory Bowel Diseases. For many years Dr. Peppercorn directed the 3rd year medical clerkship at Beth Israel Hospital, and he was awarded the S. Robert Stone Award for Excellence in Teaching at Beth Israel Hospital and Harvard Medical School. He is also the recipient of the Janssen Award for Outstanding Achievement in Clinical Gastroenterology and the AGA Distinguished Clinician Award. He has been chosen several times as Best Gastroenterologist in the Boston Magazine Physician Poll, and has received the Humanitarian of the Year Award and the Joan Cutler Lifetime Achievement Award from the CCFA. Dr. Peppercorn is listed in the Directory of Outstanding Medical Specialist in the United States and in The Best Doctors in America.

Lester C. Permut, M.D. is Associate Professor of Surgery in the Section of Pediatric Cardiothoracic Surgery at the University of Washington School of Medicine. He is interim Section Chief, Surgical Director of Cardiac Transplantation, and Program Director of the Congenital Cardiac Surgery Residency at Seattle Children’s Hospital in Seattle, Washington. Dr. Permut received his M.D. degree from Boston University School of Medicine in 1983. Following General Surgery Residency at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston and Cardiac Surgery Research Fellowship at the National Heart, Lung and Blood, Institute, he completed Thoracic Surgery Residency and Pediatric Cardiac Surgery Fellowship at UCLA Medical Center. He holds certificates from the American Board of Thoracic Surgery in Thoracic and Cardiac Surgery and in Congenital Cardiac Surgery. Dr. Permut’s clinical interests include neonatal cardiac surgery and pediatric electrophysiologic surgery. His primary area of academic interest is Thoracic Surgical education. He is a member of the Congenital Thoracic Surgery Directors Association and developed the first national didactic curriculum for Congenital Cardiac Surgery. Dr. Permut is the author of multiple peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, and abstracts in the field of pediatric cardiac surgery. He is a member of numerous societies including The Congenital Heart Surgeons Society, The Society of Thoracic Surgeons, The Western Thoracic Surgical Society, The International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation, and The World Society for Pediatric and Congenital Heart Surgery. Dr. Permut resides in Mercer Island, Washington with his wife and daughters. Outside interests include fly-fishing, opera, and history.

Dr. Stephen J. Peterson is Professor of Medicine, Pharmacology and Clinical Public Health as well as Executive Vice Chairman for the Department of Medicine at New York Medical College. He is also Director of the Internal Medicine Section at Westchester Medical Center. Dr. Peterson received his B.S. degree from Fairfield University in 1975. He first came to New York Medical College in 1982 to do his residency training in Internal Medicine after completion of medical school in the Philippines. After three years of residency in Internal Medicine, he was selected as the Administrative Chief Medical Resident from 1985-1986. Upon completion of his Chief Residency, he remained on the full-time teaching staff at Metropolitan Hospital Center, an affiliated university hospital of New York Medical College as the Associate Program Director. Two and a half years later he was promoted to Program Director at another of their university affiliated hospitals, Lincoln Medical Center in the Bronx. In that capacity, he also served as Deputy Director of the Department of Medicine and Chief of the Section of General Internal Medicine. Dr. Peterson first came to Westchester Medical Center in November of 1994. He was the fourth general internist in a very small division that has now expanded to 20 full-time physicians and one part-time physician. He served as the Program Director of the Internal Medicine Residency Training Program from 1994 to 2007 where he achieved two five year accreditations without citations. In addition to this, his residency program was recognized with Phase I acceptance into the EIP Program (Educational Innovations Program). He is honored to return as the Program Director on July 1, 2009. Dr. Peterson has been on the faculty at New York Medical College since 1986 and he has received teaching awards from both the Student Senate of New York Medical College as well as his residency program every year that he has been on the faculty. He was also elected to the Robert Goldstein Society of Teachers for a Decade of Excellence in Teaching. He is known as a strong supporter of the students and residents. He was elected to the prestigious Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society in 1997 by the medical students. He is one of the most honored and respected teachers on the faculty. He is highly regarded for his vast knowledge of internal medicine and his unique ability to teach the subject in an exciting fashion. He remains active in clinical practice and is regarded as a “physicians physician”, being sought out by the faculty and administrative staff for the care of themselves and their own families. He has been included in the Castle Connelly Guide for Top Doctors since his arrival on the Westchester campus. He is a member of multiple medical societies, including the American College of Physicians (ACP), the Association of Professors of Medicine (APM), the Association of Program Directors of Internal Medicine (APDIM), Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Society (AOA), the Society of General Internal Medicine (SGIM), the Association of Chiefs of General Internal Medicine (ACGIM) and the Clerkship Directors in Internal Medicine (CDIM). He is a Fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine and a Master of the American College of Physicians. He remains active in both clinical and basic science research on a variety of topics that have yielded over 150 publications. For his community, he has provided medical services to both police and fire fighters. Dr. Peterson was Governor of the Hudson Valley Region from 2004 to 2008. During this time, this region won four Chapter Excellence Awards and four Evergreen Awards. He served as Vice-Chair of the National Membership Committee and was a member of the Chapters Sub-committee. He also served as Parliamentarian for the Board of Governors. He still fervently believes that ACP is the best medical organization an internist could join.

Dr. Petruzzelli received a Bachelor of Science degree with honors in Biological Sciences from St. Louis University in 1981. For the next six years he attended Rush Medical College in Chicago earning both an MD and PhD. In 1988, following an internship in General Surgery, Petruzzelli began training in the Department of Otolaryngology at the University of Pittsburgh. In 1992 he was awarded a Fellowship in Advanced Head and Neck Oncology and Cranial Base Surgery by the American Cancer Society and the Joint Council for Approval of Advanced Training in Head and Neck Oncologic Surgery. In 1993 Petruzzelli joined the Loyola University Medical Center faculty in the Department of Otolaryngology - Head & Neck Surgery as an Assistant Professor. In 1996 he was appointed as the Program Director for Head and Neck Oncology at Loyola’s Cardinal Bernardin Cancer Center and in 2000 was promoted to the rank of Full Professor in the Departments of Otolaryngology and Surgery. He received an MBA in Health Care from Benedictine University in 2001. In August 2001 Petruzzelli became Acting Director of the Cardinal Bernardin Cancer Center and in 2002 became Chairman of the Department of Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery at the Loyola University Medical Center. In December 2006 Dr. Petruzzelli returned to the Rush University Medical Center as the Chief of the Section of Head, Neck and Skull Base Surgery and the Director of the Rush Head and Neck Tumor Clinic. He is currently Physician-in-Chief & Vice-President for Oncology at the Curtis and Elizabeth Anderson Cancer Center, Memorial University Medical Center- in Savannah, GA, specializing in Oncology/Head and Neck, Skull Base Surgery. His main clinical interests are head, neck, and skull base tumor surgery, combined modality treatments for head and neck cancer, reconstruction following major head and neck surgical procedures, and surgery of thyroid tumors. Petruzzelli has collaborated with basic sciences colleagues in the areas of head and neck tumor angiogenesis, tumor induced immuno-suppression, mediators of invasion and metastasis, and cytokine production. His primary research interests include Epidemiology of human papilloma virus-related head and neck cancer; tumor endothelial cell interactions and tumor angiogenesis; functional outcomes in head and neck surgery; functional imaging of primary and recurrent head and neck cancer; quality and process improvement in surgery. Petruzzelli has contributed extensively to the scientific and clinical literature on various aspects of head and neck cancer treatment and research topics. He is Board Certified in Otolaryngology, a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons and a Diplomat of the American Board of Otolaryngology. He is also a member of many academic and subspecialty societies including the American Head and Neck and North American Skull Base Societies. Petruzzelli is on the editorial boards of the following journals: Head and Neck, The American Journal of Otolaryngology, ORL-Journal of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology, and Laryngoscope.

Jeffrey Pfeffer is the Thomas D. Dee II Professor of Organizational Behavior at the Graduate School of Business, Stanford University where he has taught since 1979. He is the author or co-author of thirteen books including The Human Equation: Building Profits by Putting People First, Managing with Power, The Knowing-Doing Gap: How Smart Companies Turn Knowledge Into Action, Hidden Value: How Great Companies Achieve Extraordinary Results with Ordinary People, Hard Facts, Dangerous Half-Truths, and Total Nonsense: Profiting from Evidence-Based Management, and What Were They Thinking? Unconventional Wisdom About Management, a collection of 27 essays about management topics, as well as more than 120 articles and book chapters. Pfeffer’s latest book, entitled Power: Why Some People Have It—And Others Don’t was published in September, 2010 by Harper Business. Dr. Pfeffer received his B.S. and M.S. degrees from Carnegie-Mellon University and his Ph.D. from Stanford. He began his career at the business school at the University of Illinois and then taught at the University of California, Berkeley. Pfeffer has been a visiting professor at the Harvard Business School, Singapore Management University, London Business School, and a frequent visitor at IESE in Barcelona. From 2003-2007, Pfeffer wrote a monthly column, “The Human Factor,” for the 600,000-person circulation business magazine, Business 2.0 and from 2007-2010, he wrote a monthly column providing career advice for Capital, a leading business and economics magazine in Turkey. Pfeffer also was a regular blogger for the Corner Office section of BNET (CBS Interactive), and currently writes for the Harvard Business Review website, Bloomberg Business Week olline and for the “On Leadership” section of The Washington Post. Pfeffer has appeared in segments on CBS Sunday Morning, 60 Minutes, and CNBC as well as television programs in Korea, and has been quoted and featured in news articles from countries around the globe. Pfeffer currently serves on the board of directors of the nonprofit Quantum Leap Healthcare. In the past he has served on the boards of Resumix, Unicru, and Workstream, all human capital software companies, Audible Magic, an internet company, SonoSite, a company designing and manufacturing portable ultrasound machines, and the San Francisco Playhouse, a non-profit theater. Pfeffer has presented seminars in 37 countries throughout the world as well as doing consulting and providing executive education for numerous companies, associations, and universities in the United States. Jeffrey Pfeffer has won the Richard I. Irwin Award presented by the Academy of Management for scholarly contributions to management and numerous awards for his articles and books. In November, 2011, he was presented with an honorary doctorate degree from Tilburg University in The Netherlands.

Maruizio Pieroni, M.D., Ph.D. is currently a cardiologist in the Cardiovascular Department at San Donato Hospital in Arezzo, Italy and holds an appointment at the Institute of Cardiology, Catholic University in Rome, Italy. Dr. Pieroni attended Catholic University of Sacred Heart of Rome, Medical School, where he graduated with honors in 1997. He continued at the Catholic University of Sacred Heart of Rome, School of Cardiology, where he graduated with honors in 2001, and where he also became an Advanced Cardiac Life Support provider. In 2005, he obtained a Ph.D. in Human Pathology from La Sapienza University of Rome. He obtained his medical license in Italy in 1997 and was certified by the Italian equivalent of the Cardiology Board in 2001. Dr. Pieroni is a member of the Italian Federation of Cardiology, the European Society of Cardiology, the Editorial Board of the Italian Journal of Cardiology, as well as other professional associations. He has been a research fellow, as well as a participating investigator or co-investigator on numerous research studies. He is a reviewer for several peer-reviewed journals including Circulation, Journal of the American College of Cardiology, the European Heart Journal, the American Heart Journal, and Journal for the American Society of Echocardiography. Dr. Pieroni received the Scientific Research Award from Aventis Foundation in 2001. He was a finalist at the Young Investigator Award in Clinical Science at the Congress of the European Society of Cardiology, and the winner of the Young Investigator Award in 2005. He is also included in the Highlights Sessions of the European Society of Cardiology in 2003, as well as Scientific Sessions of the Congress of the American Heart Association in 2003. He has over seventy original publications in scientific journals as well as numerous additional publications. He has presented and lectured extensively on an international level.

Dr. Mark Pollack is The Grainger Professor and Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry at Rush University Medical Center. He received his M.D. in 1982 from New Jersey Medical School and completed residency and fellowship training in psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital where he served as Director of the Center for Anxiety and Traumatic Stress Disorders and Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School until 2011. His areas of clinical and research interest include the acute and long-term course, pathophysiology and treatment of patients with anxiety disorders including panic disorder, social anxiety disorder, PTSD and generalized anxiety disorder and associated comorbidities, development of novel pharmacologic agents for mood and anxiety disorders, uses of combined cognitive-behavioral and pharmacologic therapies for treatment refractory patients, presentation and treatment of anxiety in the medical setting, and the pathophysiology and treatment of substance abuse. Dr Pollack has received federal funding from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA) to study the longitudinal course of panic disorder, the application of cognitive-behavioral interventions for the reduction of illicit drug use in drug abusers, the impact of terrorist attacks on the development of PTSD and course of disorder in bipolar patients, changes in brain function as assessed by MR Spectroscopy and neuropsychological testing in patients on methadone maintenance, treatment response and pharmacogenetics in refractory social anxiety disorder, treatment of sleep and examination of biomarkers in PTSD and the and use of d-cycloserine to enhance the treatment efficacy of cognitive-behavioral therapy in social anxiety and panic disorder. He has published over 300 articles, reviews and chapters, and is co-editor of the books "Challenges in Clinical Practice: Pharmacologic and Psychosocial Strategies", “Panic Disorder and Its Treatment,” and “Social Phobia: Research and Practice” and “Ten Minute CBT”. Dr. Pollack lectures widely in national and international forum and serves on numerous editorial and advisory boards. He is on the Board of Directors of the Anxiety Disorders Association of America, and has served as Chairman of its Scientific Advisory Board.

Dr. Ponsky is an Associate Professor of Urology at University Hospitals Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. He serves as the Director of the Center for Urologic Oncology & Minimally Invasive Therapies and Co-Director of the Institute for Surgery and Innovation. Dr. Ponsky has a particular interest in ablative therapies, and has been a pioneer in the evaluation of radiosurgery for prostate and kidney cancers. He has been an invited faculty on numerous courses around the world. He has authored over 50 articles, 10 chapters, and editor in chief of a textbook. He serves as a reviewer for numerous leading Urology journals.

Todd Ponsky is currently Associate Professor of Surgery and Pediatrics and a Pediatric Surgeon at Akron Children’s Hospital. He was previously Director of The Minimally Invasive Pediatric Surgery Center at Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital, Case Western Reserve University. He attended Medical School at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio from 1995-1999, Residency in General Surgery at The George Washington University in Washington, DC from 1999-2005, Pediatric Surgery Fellowship at Children's National Medical Center in Washington, DC from 2005-2007, and an Advanced Minimally Invasive Pediatric Surgery Fellowship at The Rocky Mountain Hospital for Children in Denver, CO from 2007-2008. Dr. Ponsky has a particular interest in pediatric minimally invasive pediatric surgery. He has trained over 150 surgeons in Single Port Surgery. He has written over 50 manuscripts and 10 book chapters. He has a strong focus on surgical education and virtual education and has directed 15 national / international courses. He has won numerous teaching awards including “The Faculty Teaching Award” at Case Western Reserve Department of Surgery in his first year as faculty. He is a reviewer for over 15 medical journals and is on the editorial board of The Journal of Laparoendoscopic and Advanced Surgical Techniques. He is on the leadership of four national societies and was program chair of one of the largest pediatric surgical societies in the world, The International Pediatric Endosurgery Group (IPEG) after only 4 years of being a member. His is involved in both outcomes and animal research with a focus on inguinal hernia physiology and endoscopic repair techniques for pure esophageal atresia.

Dr. Poree is medical director at the Pain Clinic of Monterey Bay and Assistant Professor in the Department of Anesthesia at the University of California at San Francisco where he trains pain fellows in neuromodulation techniques. He also serves on the board of the North American Neuromodulation Society where he co-authored the NANS neuromodulation training guidelines and the S.A.F.E. principles for incorporating neuromodulation technologies in pain algorithms. He received his PhD from the University of California, Berkeley in Toxicology and went on to do a postdoctoral fellowship in biomedical engineering and neuroscience at Johns Hopkins University where he studied spinal modulation of the sympathetic nervous system. He completed medical school and anesthesia residency at Stanford University and his pain fellowship at the University of California at San Francisco.

Dr. Porto graduated in medicine with full honors in 1998 and at Universita' Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Policlinico Gemelli in Rome, Italy, where he also finished his General Medicine and Cardiology residency in 2002. From 2003 for more than 2 years he was Clinical and Interventional Fellow at the John Radcliffe Hospital Oxford (UK), where his research resulted in several high-level scientific publications. His PhD was awarded by Universita 'Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Rome in 2006. In January 2006 he returned to Italy as Interventional Cardiologist at the Gemelli, where he joined the primary angioplasty rota and was responsible for the introduction of new imaging modalities in the cath lab. He also took responsibilities as a Clinical Cardiologist in the Intensive Care unit. His academic duties included teaching and training activities of both undergraduate and postgraduate students, and supervision of many graduation and PhD theses. From December 2011 he has moved to San Donato Hospital, Arezzo, Italy as Interventional Cardiologist in charge of the Cardiovascular Department research program and interventional imaging areas, while maintaining some academic duties at the Catholic University. Dr. Porto has extensive experience performing coronary angioplasty of all complexities, with a particular fondness for the radial approach. During his time in Rome and Arezzo, Dr Porto has managed to maintain an independent research activity with many national and international collaborations, resulting in over 130 publication indexed on Pubmed database, often in high impact factor journals. His current H-index is 22, with more than 1800 citations received. He has won numerous awards and grants (both italian and international), including the Aventis Prize of the Italian Society of Cardiology in 2003, the London Interventional Prize in 2005, and the award for Best Abstract at GISE Congress Bologna 2009 and TCT San Francisco 2009. He also received two major competitive awards based on curriculum vitae: Young Leader Award, CRT congress Washington DC, USA, February 2010 and Best Young Researcher, GISE, Genoa in October 2010. He is a frequently invited speaker at several italian and international conferences in the field of interventional and general cardiology. He is a reviewer for several journals (including Circulation, Circulation Interventions and European Heart Journal), is part of the Editorial Board of Interventional Cardiology, and since December 2011, of the Editorial Board of Giornale Italiano di Cardiologia.

Jason Pozner, M.D., F.A.C.S is certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery, and is a member of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, the largest and most prestigious organization of board-certified plastic surgeons in the world, as well as the American Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery and the American Society for Lasers in Medicine and Surgery. He has been a consultant or investigator for many aesthetic companies and member of several advisory boards. Dr. Pozner graduated from the Horace Mann School, Cornell University and the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York with a Distinction in Research. He trained for five years in an intensive general surgery residency at the Mount Sinai Medical Center. He completed a Microsurgery Fellowship at Montefiore Medical Center in New York and his Plastic Surgery residency at SUNY-Health Science Center Brooklyn (Downstate). Moreover, Dr. Pozner fulfilled an additional fellowship in aesthetic and endoscopic plastic surgery in Maryland, where he was an Assistant Professor of Plastic Surgery at Johns Hopkins Medical Center. He is currently Adjunct Clinical Faculty at the Cleveland Clinic in Florida, Department of Plastic Surgery and an Affiliate Assistant Professor at the Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, Florida. Dr. Pozner is the founder of Sanctuary Plastic Surgery and co-owner of Sanctuary Medical Center in Boca Raton, Florida. He is a highly respected authority on both surgical and non-invasive plastic surgery techniques and his center is involved with numerous clinical trials. Dr. Pozner and his medical partners offer a full range of cosmetic surgery procedures, dermatology services, laser treatments, weight loss assistance, and age management services. The 15,000 square foot facility in Boca Raton and second facility in Palm Beach Gardens serves an international clientele that appreciates being treated like family. Dr. Pozner is widely experienced in the latest and most effective cosmetic procedures, and is credited for inventing the fast-healing Artic Peel laser procedure. Dr. Pozner is licensed in Florida, New York and New Jersey. He has authored several books, along with numerous chapters, reviews and articles; he routinely delivers presentations across the globe to share his knowledge with other physicians.

Deborah Proctor is a gastroenterologist at Yale University where she is a Professor of Medicine (Digestive Diseases) and the Medical Director of the Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) Program. Dr. proctor received her medical degree from the University of Cincinnati, she completed her Internship and Residency in Internal Medicine at Beth Israel Hospital, Harvard Medical School, and continued her training with a Fellowship in Gastroenterology at Beth Israel Hospital, Harvard Medical School. She is Board Certified in Gastroenterology. Dr. Proctor's clinical interests are in caring for complex IBD patients. Dr. Proctor is also the gastroenterologist for the Hereditary Hemorrhagic Telangiectasia (HHT) Center at Yale, where she evaluates and treat patients with HHT who have gastrointestinal bleeding and other gastrointestinal related problems. Her research interests are in IBD (determining the genetics of IBD, correlating genotypic and phenotypic expression in IBD patients, multi-center drug trials for new treatments, association with mood disorders, and assessing patient preference for medication) well as medical education. She was the GI Fellowship Program Director for 10 years at Yale and continues to work on improving medical education at the national level through work with the American Gastroenterological Association and being a member of the Gastroenterology Section of the American Board of Internal Medicine. Dr. Proctor has published extensively within the field of Gastroenterology and has presented and lectured widely both nationally and internationally. She has also been highly involved in community service and humanitarian medical projects, particularly in Honduras.

Anthony L. Pucillo, M.D., is an Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine at Columbia University in New York. Dr. Pucillo obtained his undergraduate degree from Johns Hopkins University his medical degree from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, graduating in 1978. He completed an internship at The Presbyterian Hospital in New York, and continued on as a Visiting Fellow at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. He was a Resident from 1979 to 1981 at The Presbyterian Hospital. He was a Clinical and Interventional Fellow in Cardiology at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center in New York, finishing in 1984. Dr. Pucillo is a Diplomate with the National Board of Medical Examiners, the American Board of Internal Medicine, and the American Board of Interventional Cardiology. He is a member of many professional societies, including the American College of Cardiology, the Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, and the American Heart Association. He has had many hospital appointments, including a prior appointment as the Director of the Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory at Westchester Medical Center. In addition, he has held a variety of teaching positions at Westchester Medical Center, Columbia Medical Center, and others. He has been an Investigator or Co-Investgator in over forty multicenter studies. Dr. Pucillo has received awards such as the Lange Company Award at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine and Teacher of the Year in the Department of Cardiology. He is widely published in his field, with well over 100 peer reviewed papers, case reports and abstracts.

Robert M. Quencer, M.D. is the Robert Shapiro Professor of Radiology at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine and Chairman of the Department of Radiology, a position he has held since 1992. With more than 40 years of clinical experience in New York City and South Florida, he completed his undergraduate studies at Cornell University, his medical degree from Upstate Medical Center, Syracuse (AOA membership in 1966) and his residency at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in New York City. Following his residency, he completed an NIH sponsored fellowship in Neuroradiology at the Neurological Institute of New York. From 1972-1976 he was an Assistant/ Associate Professor of Radiology at the Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn New York. He joined the University of Miami/Jackson Memorial Hospital in 1976 as Chief of Neuroradiology. He became Director of MR Imaging in 1984 and Chair of Radiology 8 years later. In addition to his clinical, academic and leadership roles, he has published over 150 articles and book chapters in many areas of neuroimaging and has authored two books in neuroradiology. His research interest has centered mainly on spine imaging, intraoperative neurosonography, MR studies of CFS flow and spinal cord injury. Dr. Quencer was the PI on one of the sections of a Program Project Grant sponsored by the NIH on the imaging/ histology correlates of spinal cord injury. He has served on many national and international committees in neuroradiology. He is one of the founding members and former President of the Southeastern Neurological Society 1980-1981. Dr. Quencer was President of the American Society of Neuroradiology from 1994-1995 and served as Editor-in-Chief of the American Journal of Neuroradiology from 1998-2005. He chaired the Scientific Program Committee of the RSNA 2008-2010. He has been visiting professor and invited lecturer at many institutions both here and abroad. He was elected as a Fellow of the American College of Radiology in 1994 and was the recipient of the Gold Medal from the Florida Radiology Society in 2008. In 2007 he received the Gold Medal from the American Society of Neuroradiology.

Madhu S. Rangraj, M.D., FA.C.S. is Board certified in Surgery, with a specialty in Bariatric Surgery. He is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons and is certified in Advanced Trauma Life Support. Dr. Rangraj began his pre-med education at Madras University, India and received his medical degree at Grant Medical College, Bombay, India. He subsequently moved to the United States and furthered his medical education by obtaining degrees in Medicine and Surgery and his Doctor of Medicine degree at the State University of New York. He continued his post-graduate training as a Medical Intern and Resident in General Surgery at the New Rochelle Hospital in New York (now Sound Shore Medical Center). He also completed training in RGH Laser Surgery at Rochester General Hospital. Dr. Rangraj intensively pursued his post graduate training in Laparoscopic (e.g., Colon & Rectal and Bariatric) and Lapraroendoscopic Surgery. Dr. Rangraj is an attending surgeon and the Chief of the Division of Laparoscopic Surgery and the Director of Surgery at the Sound Shore Medical Center of Westchester, and the Program Director at Sound Shore Medical Center of Westchester. He is also an Associate Professor of Clinical Surgery at New York Medical College, and a Professor in the Department of Surgery at St. George's University School of Medicine. He specializes in laparoscopic colon and rectal surgery and laparoscopic hernia repair. Dr. Rangraj is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons and a Fellow of the American Society of Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery. He is an active member of the Surgical Society of New York Medical College, the Society of American Gastrointestinal Endoscopic Surgeons, and the New York Minimally Invasive Surgical Society. He is the Past President of Westchester Surgical Society, the New Rochelle Medical Society and the Sound Shore Medical Center O.R. Committee. Dr. Rangraj has presented his work in baratric surgery (laparoscopic and laparoedoscopic techniques) extensively both nationally and internationally, and is widely published in his area of laparoscopic and laparoendoscopic surgical expertise. In 2005, Dr. Rangraj, considered a pioneer in laparoscopic surgery, along with his partner at Sound Shore Surgical Associates, and Sound Shore Medical Center received the highest level of approval for the bariatric program - Center of Excellence for Bariatric Surgery from the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery. He has performed bariatric surgeries for the last six years with good clinical outcomes. The Program has recorded nearly 600 successful bariatric procedures and is a highly-regarded teaching center that offers bariatric and laparoscopic fellowship training. Dr. Rangraj is a three-time recipient of the Surgical Resident’s Attending Teacher of the Year Award at Sound Shore Medical Center. In 2006 he received the Professional of the Year Award from the New Rochelle Chamber of Commerce and has been named by the Westchester WAG as a Most Distinguished Doctor for Bariatric Surgery.

Dr. Steven D. Rauch graduated from Amherst College with a BA cum laude in Biology in 1975 and received his MD from University of Cincinnati College of Medicine in 1979. He did two years of General Surgery training at University of Massachusetts Medical Center and then took his Otolaryngology residency at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, where he has remained on faculty ever since. He is Professor of Otology and Laryngology at Harvard Medical School and a Senior Surgeon on the Otology Service at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary in Boston. He is Associate Chief for Education and Academic Affairs and Co-Chair of Research Training in his department. He is Chair of the Human Studies Committee of the Massachusetts Eye & Ear Infirmary. Dr. Rauch has served as a member of the Advisory Council of the National Institute of Deafness and other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) of the NIH and is now a member of their Board of Scientific Councilors. He serves on numerous other committees and editorial boards. He is past Chair of the Research Advisory Board of the American Academy of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery (AAO-HNS) and past President of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology (ARO). He divides his time between clinical practice of otology, teaching, and research. Dr. Rauch is an expert in the diagnosis and management of human inner ear and balance disorders and in clinical assessment of human balance. His research focus is on combined disorders of hearing and balance, with special attention to Ménière's syndrome, migraine-associated dizziness, and sudden deafness.

Dr. Rawson graduated Tufts Medical School is 1989. After an Internship at Lemuel Shattuck Hospital, he completed his Radiology Residency at New York Medical College in 1994. Dr. Rawson completed his training at the Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology at Washington University with a fellowship in Body MRI. He then joined the faculty at the Medical College of Georgia. Dr. Rawson is the Warren Professor and has served as Chair, Department of Diagnostic, Therapeutic and Interventional Radiology at the Georgia Regents University for over a decade. He is serving his third year as the President of the Adult Division of the Medical Staff at MCG Health. He is a member of the ACR Economic Commission where he chairs the ACR Committee on Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payments (HOPPS) and the Committee on Economic Issues in Academic Radiology. He also chairs the ACR Committee on Governmental and Regulatory Issues in Academic Radiology. Dr. Rawson recently completed a four year term as a member of the CMS APC Advisory Panel where he chaired the CMS Sub-committee on Packaging. He is a Board Member of the Harvey L. Neiman Health Policy Institute.

Dr. Rosenbaum, Psychiatrist-in-Chief at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and Stanley Cobb Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, is recognized as one of the world’s foremost authorities on mood and anxiety disorders, with a special emphasis on pharmacotherapy of those conditions. His research contributions include extensive leadership in the design and conduct of clinical trials of new therapies, the design and implementation of trials to develop innovative treatments for major depression, treatment resistant depression, and panic disorder, studies of psychopathology including comorbidity and subtypes, and studies of longitudinal course and outcomes of those disorders. Dr. Rosenbaum has authored more than 400 original articles and reviews and has authored or edited 20 books. He currently serves on 12 editorial boards of professional journals or newsletters. A particular research focus has been ongoing studies of children at risk for anxiety disorders and depression, which examine behavioral differences, risk factors, longitudinal outcomes, treatment, genetics, and brain structure and function of children of parents with mood and anxiety disorders. At MGH, he directs a department of over 600 clinicians, researchers, and trainees, which has been ranked by U.S. News and World Report as the #1 Department of Psychiatry in the United States continuously from 1996-2011. Also at MGH, the largest hospital based research institution in the world, with over 700 million dollars per year of research funding, Dr. Rosenbaum served as Chair of the hospital’s Executive Committee on Research. Dr. Rosenbaum’s clinical and consulting practice specializes in treatment resistant mood and anxiety disorders, and he consults extensively to colleagues on management of these conditions. He has lectured widely on related topics, addressing many thousands of practitioners over the years in a variety of postgraduate educational venues. He led the development of the MGH outpatient service into a world leading clinical and clinical research center, with 45 specialty clinical and clinical research programs and over 60 million dollars of annual external research funding. The Massachusetts General Psychiatry Academy, founded in 2005 now with over 40,000 members, brings high quality, objective, and curriculum based continuing medical education to physicians and other health professionals across the nation and around the world. Dr. Rosenbaum was the 2007 recipient of the C. Charles Burlingame Award given annually for lifetime achievement in psychiatric research and education by the Institute of Living in Hartford, CT, and the 2011 Massachusetts Association of Mental Health Friend and Leader Award. He currently serves as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. Rosenbaum received his undergraduate degree from Yale College and his medical degree from Yale School of Medicine. He completed his residency and fellowship in Psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Rosenblum is a board certified cardiologist and received his medical degree from Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He completed his residency in internal medicine and fellowship training in cardiology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Additionally, he completed a second fellowship in heart failure and cardiac transplantation also at Johns Hopkins. He has a background in molecular biology and is an avid researcher performing basic laboratory research since high school. After fellowship, he was an attending physician and faculty at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and a member of the Congestive Heart Failure and Transplant Section. While at Pittsburgh he was the recipient of a five year NIH funded study on gene therapy in heart transplantation. In 2001 he became the Director of Heart Failure and Transplantation at Westchester Medical Center/New York Medical College. He was also Director of Pulmonary Hypertension and Co-director of the Adult Congenital Heart program. Currently he is faculty at Columbia University School of Medicine and a member of the Heart Failure and Transplant team at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital. Dr. Rosenblum is author and co-author of numerous publications on heart failure, transplant, gene therapy and pulmonary hypertension that have appeared in scientific journals many of which have been presented at meetings of the Heart Failure Society of America, American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association. In addition, he has written or co-written more than a dozen peer reviewed articles and chapters in three widely used medical textbooks.

Steven I. Rosenfeld, MD, FACS, is a board-certified, fellowship-trained ophthalmologist who specializes in medical and surgical diseases of the cornea, infectious and inflammatory eye diseases, refractive surgery, and cataract surgery. Dr. Rosenfeld has been in private practice with Delray Eye Associates, PA since 1985. He is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons and the American Academy of Ophthalmology, and an Associate Examiner for the American Board of Ophthalmology. Dr. Rosenfeld currently serves as a Voluntary Professor on the clinical faculty at the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, where he has been on the faculty since completing his fellowship. Dr. Rosenfeld, MD, is the Chair of Ophthalmology for Modernizing Medicine, and was involved from the very beginning in the design and implementation of EMA Ophthalmology, a revolutionary cloud-based EMR with adaptive learning. Steven I. Rosenfeld, MD, FACS, earned his undergraduate degree with honors at the Johns Hopkins University and was elected Phi Beta Kappa. He obtained his medical degree at the Yale University School of Medicine, where he was elected into the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society. He completed his medical internship at Yale/New Haven Hospital and his ophthalmology residency at Barnes/ Jewish Hospital at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Dr. Rosenfeld continued his extensive training with a Heed Foundation Fellowship in Cornea and External Diseases at the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute in Miami. Dr. Rosenfeld has authored dozens of textbook chapters and scientific articles on the topics of cataract surgery, PRK and LASIK surgery, corneal transplant surgery, and ocular infections. He has co-authored two recent textbooks — one on Lens and Cataract Surgery and one on Refractive Surgery — under the auspices of the American Academy of Ophthalmology. He is on the editorial review boards of EyeNet magazine and Focal Points Clinical Modules and is a reviewer for Ophthalmology, the American Journal of Ophthalmology, and Survey of Ophthalmology. Dr. Rosenfeld has been honored with numerous awards from the American Academy of Ophthalmology, including the Achievement Award, Senior Achievement Award, Secretariat for Education Award, and Lifelong Education for the Ophthalmologist Award. He is also a recipient of the Physician's Recognition Award from the American Medical Association and is listed as one of the best doctors in Best Doctors in America, Who's Who in America, Who's Who in the World, Top Doctors, and Florida Super Doctors, just to name a few. Dr. Rosenfeld frequently lectures at ophthalmic meetings nationwide. Dr. Rosenfeld is a member of numerous professional associations, including the American Academy of Ophthalmology, the American Society for Cataract and Refractive Surgery, the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology, the Ocular Microbiology and Immunology Group, the Cornea Society, the Society of Heed Fellows, the Eye Bank Association of America, the Paton Society, the International Society of Refractive Surgery, the Florida Medical Association, the Florida Society of Ophthalmology, the Palm Beach County Ophthalmology Society and the Palm Beach County Medical Society. He has been an investigator for various NIH sponsored studies including the Corneal Donor Study and the Fuchs’ Corneal Endothelial Dystrophy Study, as well as numerous trials for the pharmaceutical industry.

Dr. Jack A. Roth earned his medical degree at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in 1971, and then completed postgraduate training in thoracic surgery and research at the UCLA School of Medicine. He was a senior investigator and head of the Thoracic Oncology Section in the National Cancer Institute’s Surgery Branch before joining the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center(UTMDACC) in 1986 as professor and chair of the Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery. He serves as founding director of the W. M. Keck Center for Innovative Cancer Therapies and holds academic appointments in UTMDACC’s Department of Molecular and Cellular Oncology and the Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery at The University of Texas Medical School at Houston. While at the NCI, Dr. Roth completed the first randomized clinical trials of neoadjuvant chemotherapy for squamous carcinoma of the esophagus and open lung biopsy in immunocompromised patients with diffuse pulmonary infiltrates. At UTMDACC, Dr. Roth has initiated and acted as the principal investigator of the first gene therapy trials for lung cancer. Dr. Roth has spearheaded the development of institutional multidisciplinary protocols in thoracic oncology and was the principal investigator of the first randomized trial showing survival benefit with neoadjuvant chemotherapy in stage IIIA resectable lung cancer. Among his landmark achievements, Dr. Roth was principal investigator for the first tumor suppressor gene therapy clinical trials approved by the National Institutes of Health Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Approval for those historic protocols was based on his demonstrating feasibility and efficacy through laboratory and preclinical studies. His team showed that restoration of function for a single normal tumor suppressor gene could mediate regression of human cancers in vivo, helped identify and characterize a number of novel tumor suppressor genes on chromosome 3, and found that systemic delivery of these tumor suppressor genes using a nanoparticle vector could effectively treat disseminated human lung cancer in animal models. These observations led Dr. Roth and colleagues to initiate the first clinical trial using nanoparticles to deliver genes systemically. Cancer gene therapy developed in his laboratory became the first gene therapy to be approved for human use. In addition to being an international leader in developing gene therapy for lung and other cancers, he has trained a new generation of outstanding surgical oncologists and laboratory researchers who are applying his philosophy of excellence throughout the world. Numerous major grants supporting the Roth-directed translational research include an NCI SPORE Grant in lung cancer, the first awarded to a UTMDACC investigator that is shared by faculty at UTMDACC and The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. The joint collaboration has twice been renewed. Roth was responsible for establishing the Keck Center for Innovative Cancer Therapies to serve as an institute without walls to coordinate targeted therapy studies among UTMDACC investigators. He has contributed to more than 500 articles in peer-reviewed journals and 110 book chapters, and been awarded nearly 50 U.S. and foreign patents with another 50 pending. He has received numerous awards including the Lucy Wortham James Basic Research Award, Society of Surgical Oncology; The Best Doctors in America Award for over 18 consecutive years; Award of Excellence, 32nd Annual Congress, Japan Society for Cancer Therapy; the Charles Moetel Lecture, Mayo Clinic; the Gordon Hamilton-Farley lecture, British Association for Cancer Research and British Society for Surgical Oncology; Elaine & Gerald Schuster Distinguished Visiting Lecturer, Harvard Medical School; Inaugural Glick Lecturer, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine; the Claggett Award Lecture, Mayo Clinic; Fellow American Association for the Advancement of Science, and The Otis W. and Pearl L. Walters Faculty Achievement Award in Clinical Research.

Grigory Rozenblit, MD, FSIR, Is a Professor of Radiology and Surgery, Director of Vascular and Interventional Radiology at New York Medical College, Westchester Medical Center. Dr. Rozenblit was born in Odessa, Ukraine, USSR in 1946. In 1953, his family moved to Samara (then Kuibyshev), Russia. He received his MD degree from the Kuibyshev Medical School in 1970. He graduated from the Radiology Training program in 1973 and embarked upon his radiology career. In 1975, Dr. Rozenblit began performing Interventional Radiology procedures within the Department of Cardio-Thoracic Surgery of the same Medical School. In 1977 he received training in cardiac catheterization at the Institute of Circulation in Novosibirsk, and the following year graduated from the Postgraduate Training Program in Cardiovascular Radiology at the Moscow Postgraduate Medical School. After immigrating to the U.S. (1979), Dr. Rozenblit graduated from the Radiology Residency at the St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center in New York in 1984, followed by a Fellowship in Cardiovascular and Interventional Radiology at the New York Hospital-Cornell University Medical Center where he remained as an Assistant Professor of Radiology until 1987. He was in private practice in radiology until moving on to his current position, and receiving his professorship in 2000. Dr. Rozenblit's clinical interests include Peritoneal Urinary Diversion, Transmesenteric Method of Portosystemic Shunting (TIPS), Percutaneous Cholecysto-Duodenostomy, Transcaval Access for Radiation Treatment of Pancreatic Cancer, Percutaneious Microwave Ablation, Trans-arterial Chemo- and Radio-emobilization of Liver Malignancies and Interventional Oncology, and he has published and lectured widely in his field.

Robert Sackstein, M.D., Ph.D., is a bone marrow transplant physician and a leading researcher in adult stem cell therapeutics. He received his undergraduate degree from Harvard College, Summa cum Laude in biology, and his M.D. and Ph.D. (in Immunology) degrees from Harvard Medical School. Dr. Sackstein is widely recognized for developing the platform technology (known as “GPS”) that directs migration of stem cells from the bloodstream to sites of tissue injury. He is a Professor of Dermatology and of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, is the Director of the Translational Research Program of the Bone Marrow Transplantation Unit at the Massachusetts General Hospital, and is a Bone Marrow Transplant Physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (Boston, MA).

Dr. Arjun Sahgal is a radiation oncologist at the University of Toronto, at both the Sunnybrook Health Sciences Center and the Princess Margaret Hospital. His expertise is in brain radiosurgery, spine radiosurgery and spinal cord tolerance to radiation. He obtained his medical degree at the University of Ottawa and trained in radiation oncology at the University of Toronto. He completed a fellowship in radiosurgery at the University of California San Francisco with David Larson. Currently he leads the spine radiosurgery program at the University of Toronto and lead multi-institutional efforts on cord tolerance.

Dr. Saltz has taught and practiced plastic surgery since 1989. He is a board certified plastic surgeon and the Immediate Past President of the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery and Second Vice- President for the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery. He is Former Associate Professor of Plastic Surgery at the University of Utah, and the Past President of the Rocky Mountain Association of Plastic Surgeons. A Diplomate of the American Board of Plastic Surgery and the American Board of Surgery, he is also a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons. Dr. Saltz is the Founder & Chairman of The Image Reborn Foundation of Utah, a 13 year old non-profit organization dedicated to provide free retreats to breast cancer survivors in Park City, Utah. The Foundation has served over 2000 women from US and abroad. He is in private practice in Salt Lake City, Utah where he opened Spa Vitoria, the first medical spa in the Intermountain West. His mission was to provide care beyond surgery and to bring the mountains of Utah an exotic and healing atmosphere that reflects the beauty of his native Brazil. Dr. Saltz has presented over 400 Scientific Presentations at plastic surgery conferences nationally and internationally. He has published over 55 Scientific Peer Reviewed Articles, 38 chapters and has authored six books in Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery, including the newly released textbook, Cosmetic Medicine and Aesthetic Surgery: Strategies for Success (Quality Medical Publishing, 2009). Renowned as one of the early pioneers in endoscopic surgery in the United States, Dr. Saltz has maintained a special interest in facial aesthetic surgery, body contouring, aesthetic breast surgery, breast reconstruction and all aspects of Cosmetic Medicine. He has been quoted in Allure, New Beauty, Bazaar, Plastica & Beleza Magazine, the New York Times, LA Times, Wall Street Journal and many other national and international publications. www.saltzplasticsurgery.com www.brazilian-plasticsurgeon.com

Ricardo Sales dos Santos, MD, has been the Head of Minimally Invasive Thoracic and Robotic Surgery at Albert Einstein Israeli Hospital (São Paulo, Brazil) since 2010. His last appointment was as an Instructor in Minimally Invasive CT surgery at Boston Medical Center, and faculty at the Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM, Massachusetts, USA) Dr. Santos received his medical degree from the Federal University of Bahia in Brazil, and completed his surgical residency at the State University of Campinas, Sao Paulo, Brazil, and also research and clinical fellowships in general thoracic surgery and lung transplantation at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (Pennsylvania, USA) Dr. Santos has published numerous articles on lung and esophageal cancer treatment with an emphasis on minimally invasive surgery as well as innovative surgical technologies such as radiofrequency ablation, interventional bronchoscopy, video-assisted and robotic surgery; and lung transplantation for end stage lung disease. Dr. Santos is an international member of the Society of Thoracic Surgeons, the Brazilian Society of Pulmonary Physicians, as well as a member of Brazilian and Latin American medical societies. He is fluent in Portuguese, English and Spanish, and has been involved in the leadership of several Lung Cancer Initiatives for prevention and early cancer detection in Latin America.

Dr. Santulli obtained his Medical Degree from the University of Naples "Federico II", Italy, where he also completed his residency in Cardiology. His expertise comprises both clinical and basic research topics. Indeed, he has authored more than 100 international publications, including book chapters and reviews, on hypertension, diabetes, angiogenesis, myocardial infarction, heart failure, atrial fibrillation, cardiac hypertrophy and vascular disease. Furthermore, he has maintained an active clinical and research interest in skeletal muscle disease. He is a member of many important academic societies, such as: American Heart Association, European Association of Heart Failure, European Association for the study of Diabetes; New York Academy of Sciences, European Association of Echocardiography, Acute Cardiovascular Care Association, European Association of Percutaneous Cardiovascular Interventions; European Society of Cardiology, Working Groups on: Hypertension & the Heart, Cardiac Cellular Electrophysiology, Myocardial Function, Cellular Biology of the Heart. He serves on the editorial boards of the following medical Journals: Journal of Hypertension Open Access, International Archives of Medicine, Journal of Biotechnology & Biomaterials, World Journal of Translational Medicine, Journal of Diabetes Research and Clinical Metabolism, Journal of Clinical Trials, Endocrinology & Metabolic Syndrome, Interventional Medicine and Applied Science, Internal Medicine Open Access, Journal of Gerontology & Geriatric Research, Journal of Biomedical Graphics and Computing, World Journal of Experimental Medicine, Cell Biology: Research & Therapy. He is also a member of the Editorial Board of WebMed Central (Cardiology Faculty) and WebMed Central Plus. He is currently working at Columbia University Medical Center in the City of New York.

Dr. Shah is a leading cardiovascular, thoracic, and laser surgeon and is the Co-Medical Director of New England – based Americas Vein CentersTM and Americas Cosmetic Surgery CentersTM. He is a graduate of Boston University School of Medicine. He completed his Residency in Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery at Yale University. He completed his Surgical Research Fellowship at Harvard University and Clinical Fellowship in Cardiovascular Surgery at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital under the mentorship of Dr. Lawrence H Cohn, and Dr. Victor Dzau. Dr. Shah is a pioneer in laser-thermolysis and has received international recognition through numerous awards and academic honors for his clinical and scientific expertise and for the development of novel methodologies in both minimally invasive surgery and laser surgery. Among these are the American Association for Thoracic Surgery First Annual C. Walton Lillelei Award, the American College of Cardiology Young Investigator Award in Molecular and Cellular Cardiology, the American Heart Association Travel Fellowship, and the Medtronic Award at Harvard Medical School. He is also the recipient of a number of patents from both the United States and the European Union relating to basic and translational methodologies and applications in gene therapy, minimally-invasive surgery, and laser surgery. Dr. Shah has served as Instructor in Surgery at Yale University, Assistant Professor of Surgery at Boston University, and as Director at the Harvard Center for Minimally Invasive Surgery. He is a diplomate of the American Board of Surgery, American Board of Thoracic Surgery, and American Board of Phlebology. His investigative work spans myocardial energetics, laser revascularization, laser thermolysis, photo-rejuvenation, and transgenic applications in cardiovascular disease. His translational work with Dr. Boris Bergus at Americas Vein CentersTM and Americas Cosmetic Surgery CentersTM relates to the use of stem cells, laser revascularization, and laser tissue rejuvenation. Amercias Vein CentersTM is among the world’s leading practitioners of Complete-Utrasound Guided Foam Sclerotherapy (CUSFGS) as an adjunct to Endovenous Laser Thermal Ablation in the totally minimally-invasive treatment of Reflux Vein disease.

Since his time as a postgraduate student at the Eye Clinic of the University of Munich Dr. Schaller showed a strong interest in ophthalmooncology. He was the first to highlight the use of serologic tumormarkers like \"Melanoma inhibitory activity \" (MIA) for early detection of metastatic uveal melanomas. \r\nDuring his time as a Lecturer at the University of Nairobi, Kenya(2004 - 2005) he worked on epidemiology of blindness in developing countries within the WHO program \"Vision 2020\" and infectious ocular disease. Since 2006 he developed together with the European Cyberknife Center, Munich, a new setup for stereotactic radiosurgery of uveal melanomas. This single fraction treatment helps to treat these patients with minimum of loss of quality of life. \r\nHolding a teaching position at the University of Munich he works currently at the University Teaching Hospital in Augsburg.\r\n Dr Schaller is member of national (DOG) and international scientific societies (e.g. ESOPRS, EACO).

Dr. Glenn Schattman is a specialist in reproductive surgery and in the treatment of pediatric and adolescent problems associated with sexual development. He is board certified in Obstetrics and Gynecology as well as Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility. He is currently an Associate Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Reproductive Medicine at The Ronald O. Perelman and Claudia Cohen Center for Reproductive Medicine (CRM) at Weill Cornell Medical College and at the New York Presbyterian Hospital. While a leading figure in the use of laparoscopic and hysteroscopic surgery, Dr. Schattman is particularly experienced in advanced methods of correcting common causes of infertility including blocked fallopian tubes, adhesions or scar tissue, endometriosis and ovarian cysts. He is one of a handful of gynecologic surgeons performing Robotic Assisted Laparoscopic Surgery for conditions that would normally require an open surgical procedure, including fibroids and reversal of prior tubal ligation. He uses minimally invasive surgical techniques to help patients address severe conditions including pain, bleeding caused by endometrial polyps and fibroids, and other disabling conditions. In children and young adults, he addresses disorders that affect normal sexual development. Dr. Schattman earned a B.S. degree from St. Lawrence University in Canton, New York in 1983. He received an M.D. degree from the State University of New York, Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn, New York in 1987. Dr. Schattman completed his residency at the George Washington University Medical Center in 1991 and went on to the New York Hospital/Cornell University Medical College where he finished his Fellowship in Reproductive Endocrinology & Infertility. He is a member or fellow of numerous medical associations including the American Society for Reproductive Medicine and the American Association of Gynecologic Laparoscopists. He has authored numerous articles and chapters covering various medical topics. Dr. Schattman lectures both nationally and internationally on a wide range of topics in sexual development and reproductive health.

Alan F. Schatzberg, MD, is the Kenneth T. Norris, Jr., Professor and Chairman, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University School of Medicine. Dr. Schatzberg received his M.D. from New York University in 1968. He completed his psychiatric residency at the Massachusetts Mental Health Center from 1969-1972, and was Chief Resident, Southard Clinic in 1971-1972. He was also a Clinical Fellow in Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. After serving in the United States Air Force, he joined the staff at McLean Hospital and the Faculty of Harvard Medical School in 1974. At McLean Hospital, he held a number of important positions including Service Chief, Interim Psychiatrist in Chief, Co-Director of the Affective Disorders Program (with Dr. J. Cole) and Director of the Depression Research Facility. In 1988, he became Clinical Director of the Massachusetts Mental Health Center and Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School but continued at McLean Hospital with his research program on the biology and treatment of depression. In 1991, Dr. Schatzberg moved to Stanford University, where he has remained. Dr. Schatzberg is Board Certified in Psychiatry and with the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology. Dr. Schatzberg has been an active investigator in the biology and psychopharmacology of depressive disorders. He has explored norepinephrine systems in depression as a means of subtyping these disorders. His research has also given us major insights into the biological mechanisms that underlie the development of delusions in major depression and is now opening exciting and innovative therapeutic strategies. Dr. Schatzberg has also been an active investigator in the clinical psychopharmacology of nondelusional depression with a particular interest in chronic depression and pharmocogenetics. He has been involved in several clinical trials including the current investigation: Genetics of Symptomatology and Treatment Response in Psychotic Major Depression and the completed investigation: Clinical and Biological Characteristics of Psychotic Depression. He has authored over 600 publications and abstracts, including the Manual of Clinical Psychopharmacology, whose sixth edition was published in 2007 and which is co-authored by Dr. Jonathan O. Cole and Dr. Charles DeBattista. He also co-edited, with Dr. Charles B. Nemeroff, the Textbook of Psychopharmacology whose fourth edition appeared in 2009. He is Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Psychiatric Research and sits on many other editorial boards as well, including the Archives of General Psychiatry, Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology, Psychoneuroendocrinology, Biological Psychiatry, and others. Dr. Schatzberg is involved in consulting, advising, and clinical research with several pharmaceutical and medical industry organizations. He is a Past President of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology and the Society of Biological Psychiatry, and has been the Secretary-General of the International Society of Psychoneuroendocrinology. He was awarded the 1998 Gerald L. Klerman, MD Lifetime Research Award from the NDMDA, the 2001 Gerald L. Klerman, MD Award from Cornell University Medical College, the 2001 Edward A. Strecker, MD Award from the University of Pennsylvania, the 2002 Mood Disorders Research Award from the American College of Psychiatrists, the 2002 American Psychiatric Association Award for Research, the Forum Award from the 3rd International Forum of Mood and Anxiety Disorders (IFMAD) in 2002, the 2005 Distinguished Service in Psychiatry Award from the American College of Psychiatrists, the 2005 Falcone Award from NARSAD, and the 2007 Chairman’s Distinguished Scientist Award from Brown University. In 2003, he was elected into the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. Dr. Schatzberg also served as the President of the American Psychiatric Association from 2009-2010.

Dr. Schendel graduated from the University of Minnesota Dental School and the University of Hawaii Medical School. He is boarded in both Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery and Plastic Surgery. From 1979 to 1980 he served as a Fulbright Fellow at the University of Nantes in France. The emphasis of this study was cleft lip and palate surgery and dentofacial orthopedics, both under the tutelage of Dr. Jean Delaire. He was also an assistant to Dr. Paul Tessier in Paris, France, where he was recipient of a Chateaubriand French Research Fellowship. He was a full-time member of the faculty of the Division of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at Stanford University Medical School from 1989 to 2008 and is now Professor Emeritus of Surgery. He is the former Chief of the Division of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at Stanford University Medical Center and Surgeon in Chief of The Packard Children’s Hospital where he was Director of Craniofacial Surgery. He is past president of the American Society of Maxillofacial Surgeons and is now in private practice and Director of the California Institute of Craniofacial Surgery in Palo Alto and Face Center Los Angeles. He has published over 110 articles and 20 chapters and four texts. His research interests are computer simulation and regenerative medicine. Dr. Schendel’s main surgical interests are craniofacial and maxillofacial surgery, including facial cosmetic, orthognathic and sleep surgery. He is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons and a Fellow in the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Ellen J. Scherl, M.D. is Director of the Jill Roberts Inflammatory Bowel Disease Center ,the Jill Roberts Associate Professor of Medicine at Weill Medical College of Cornell University/ New York-Presbyterian Hospital in New York, New York and Adjunct Associate Professor of Medicine at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. Her current interests encompass investigational therapies for ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease. She is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians (FACP), American Gastroenterological Associate Fellow (AGAF), and a member of numerous professional societies, including the American College of Gastroenterology (ACG), American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ASGE), and New York Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (NYSGE). She lectures frequently on IBD at local, regional, and national meetings. She is chairperson of the Medical Advisory Committee of the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of America (New York Chapter). She has established an IBD tissue bank and the ELLEN SCHERL/JILL ROBERTS IBD BIOBANK at Weill Medical College of Cornell University/ New York-Presbyterian Hospital, has collaborated with researchers at Cornell University to identify a novel E. Coli associated with Crohn’s disease and continues to collaborate with Weill Medical College of Cornell University/ New York-Presbyterian Hospital researchers investigating the immunogenetics and pathobiology of IBD. She is an editorial reviewer for the IBD Journal, Journal of Clinical Gastroenterology, Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, and Gastroenterology and Hepatology. She is the co-author of Crohn’s Disease of the Small Intestine in Gastroenterology and Hepatology: The Comprehensive Visual Reference. Also, co-editor The Life Cycle of IBD and co-author of An Interactive Dialogue on IBD. co-editor of Ulerative Colitis:The Complete Guide To Medical Management and Crohn’s Disease: The Complete Guide To Medical Management and of The Changing World Of IBD. She has extensive experience as an investigator in many clinical trials and is currently participating in national multicenter trials and investigator initiated trials focusing on both ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease.

Alexander Schlaefer is a computer scientist with a keen interest in medical applications, including medical robotics, image guidance & navigation and treatment planning. Dr. Schlaefer studied computer science at Humboldt-University Berlin and subsequently joined Prof. Achim Schweikard's group at the University of Luebeck, where he received his PhD. After a stay as Postdoctoral Researcher at Stanford University's Department of Radiation Oncology he returned to Luebeck to lead the newly established medical robotics group. Dr. Alexander is an author of more than 70 publications and a member of academic societies in medical physics, computer science and computer assisted surgery.

Thomas E. Schlaepfer, MD is Vice Chair of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy at the University Hospital Bonn, Germany, where he is also Dean of Medical Education; he holds a joint appointment as Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Mental Hygiene at the Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD. He is a fellow of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ACNP) and chair of the Task Force on Brain Stimulation of the World Federation of Societies of Biological Psychiatry. He received his medical training at the University of Bern, Switzerland. He worked as Assistant Professor of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland. Since 1997, he has been Associate Professor of the same department, as well as the Department of Mental Hygiene at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore. Dr. Schlaepfer focused the research of his group on translational, functional neuroimaging and clinical effects of neuromodulation interventions (including repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation, vagus nerve stimulation, magnetic seizure therapy and deep brain stimulation) for treatment resistant major depression. After the first human application in the year 2000 his group developed the clinical use of magnetic seizure therapy (MST) for depression and more recently the hypothesis-guided therapeutic use of deep brain stimulation of parts of the human reward system (Nucleus Accumbens and Medial Forebrain Bundle) in the same disorder. In light of the significance of neuroethical issues of brain stimulation treatments for psychiatric patients Dr. Schlaepfer established the interdisciplinary consortium "Deep Brain Stimulation in Psychiatry Guidance for Responsible Research and Application" aiming to generate ethical guidance in this field.

Dr. Schlemmer is an Assistant Professor of Medical Oncology and Palliative Care in the Department of Hematology and Oncology Medical Clinic III at Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich, Interdisciplinary Center for Palliative Medicine- Grosshadern Campus, Germany. He received his medical degree from the Heinrich- Heine University of Duesseldorf Prior to this, Dr. Schlemmer studied philosophy and theology at the University of Bochum and Passau, Germany. His early experimental research interests comprised morphological changes in myocardium of diabetical rats. He is an active clinical teacher, clinical researcher and Principal Investigator of multiple clinical trials. Dr. Schlemmer is also certified in Good Clinical Practice (GCP). As a member of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) and other international societies, he is a renowned speaker particularly in the areas of sarcomas and GIST tumors. His research emphasis is focused on soft tissue sarcomas and bone sarcomas in the framework of the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC). Dr. Schlemmer’s research group is currently investigating the effect of high dose chemotherapy in patients with soft tissue sarcomas and the combined therapy of chemotherapy and heart transplantation for patients with primary heart sarcoma. Dr. Schlemmer leads the reference center for GIST tumors in cooperation with the Department of Surgery and Radiology of the University of Munich Hospitals. He has published extensively throughout the field of Medical Oncology.

Michael Schulder, MD is the Director of the Brain Tumor Institute and Vice-Chairman of Neurosurgery at North Shore University Hospital, and Professor of Neurosurgery at the Hofstra University School of Medicine. He is the Co-Director of the North Shore LIJ Center for Stereotactic Radiosurgery and Radiation Therapy. Dr. Schulder received his MD degree from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University in 1982. He completed his residency training in neurosurgery at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine subsequently trained in stereotactic neuro-oncology at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Schulder has been the author of many peer—reviwed articles, book chapters, and meeting presentations . He is the editor of the Handbook of Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery. Currently, Dr. Schulder is the editor of AANS Neurosurgeon, an editorial board member of Neurosurgery and Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery, and a reviewer for many other peer-reviewed journals.

James R. Seibold, M.D., is the Principal Member of Scleroderma Research Consultants, LLC which was founded in 2010 to foster advances in care, education and research for persons with scleroderma and related disorders. Dr. Seibold was most recently Professor of Medicine and Chief of the Division of Rheumatology at the University of Connecticut Health Center in Farmington, Connecticut, USA. He had previously served on the faculty of the University of Michigan from 2004-2010 as the Marvin and Betty Danto Research Professor of Connective Tissue Research and Professor of Internal Medicine in the Division of Rheumatology and as the founding Director of the University of Michigan Scleroderma Program. He joined the faculty at Michigan in August of 2004 after 24 years at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey–Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Brunswick, NJ. He served as Chief of the Division of Rheumatology; Director of the Clinical Research Center; and Chair of the Department of Clinical Pharmacology during which he occupied the William H. Conzen Chair of Clinical Pharmacology. The author of more than 300 scientific publications, Dr. Seibold has served on the editorial boards of both Arthritis & Rheumatism and the Annals of Rheumatic Diseases, and as editor of the scleroderma section of the Yearbook of Rheumatology, Arthritis and Musculoskeletal Disease and Editor-in-Chief of Scleroderma Care and Research. He is currently an Editor of Scleroderma Care and Research and on the Editorial Boards of Clinical and Experimental Rheumatology and the International Journal of Rheumatology. His major research interests include systemic sclerosis, Raynaud’s phenomenon, interstitial lung disease, pulmonary hypertension, clinical trial design, and drug development in rheumatology. Dr. Seibold has led or been a key participant in nearly every major interventional trial of scleroderma since 1980 and currently serves as the Lead International Investigator on DETECT, a series of studies of oral treprostinil for digital ulcers and the Scleroderma QuERI. Dr. Seibold has been cited in The Best Doctors in America continuously since the first edition in 1994 and has won numerous awards, including the Arthritis Foundation’s Physician of the Year. He is the founder and a past President of the Scleroderma Clinical Trials Consortium and active in several patient organizations, including the Pulmonary Hypertension Association, the Scleroderma Research Foundation, and serves as Chair of the Medical Advisory Board of the International Scleroderma Network. Dr. Seibold received his undergraduate degree in biochemistry from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, LA, and his medical degree from SUNY at Stony Brook School of Medicine in Stony Brook, NY. He completed postdoctoral training as an intern and resident in internal medicine at Long Island Jewish-Hillside Medical Center in New Hyde Park, NY, and a fellowship at the Division of Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine in Pittsburgh, PA. He is a Fellow of the American College of Rheumatology and the American College of Physicians.

Dr. Sett received his MD from the University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon Saskatchewan, Canada in 1983 and received the Horner prize in Pediatrics. He completed a rotating internship at City Hospital, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada in 1984. He then completed a residency in General Surgery at the University of Saskatchewan and passed the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada fellowship examinations in General Surgery in 1988. Dr. Sett then completed the residency in Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, in 1991 and passed the Royal College of Physician’s and Surgeons of Canada fellowship examinations in Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery in1991. From 1991 to 1993 Dr. Sett was a Duncan L. Gordon Fellow in Pediatric Cardiac Surgery and Research at The Hospital For Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Dr. Sett then returned to the University of British Columbia as a pediatric cardiovascular and thoracic surgeon, British Columbia Children’s Hospital, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada from 1993 until 2004. He was a Clinical Assistant and then Clinical Associate Professor of Surgery, University of British Columbia until 2004. Dr. Sett was an adult congenital cardiac surgeon at St. Paul’s Hospital, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada from1998-2004. From 2004 to present Dr. Sett has been Chief, Pediatric Cardiac Surgery at the Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital at Westchester Medical Center, Valhalla, New York and since 2006 Clinical Professor of Surgery, New York Medical College. One of Dr. Sett’s many areas of expertise is in neonatal myocardial protection. He has received a number of research grants, has given numerous invited presentations nationally and internationally and has a published extensively in his field.

Ola Omar Shahin, M.D. is a Professor of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University in Egypt. She is a Consultant of Child Psychiatry, the Quality Management Coordinator of Health Care, and the Director of the Psychiatric Addiction Unit. Dr. Shahin received her medical degree at Cairo University, Egypt, and completed her training there before becoming a faculty member of the University. Dr. Shahin’s research interests include family and childhood psychiatric disorders, including Autism Spectrum Disorders, Conduct Disorder, and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. She has taught numerous training courses throughout the world (e.g., Intervention of Drug Addiction, adult group therapy and individual psychotherapy therapy as part of Residency training at Cairo University, as well as several courses in quality management at the American University in Cairo School of Business, Economics and Communication. Dr. Shahin is an active member of many medical and professional associations including the Egyptian Psychiatric Association, the Egyptian Association for Drug and Alcohol Combat, the Egyptian Society of Child Neuropsychiatry, the Association of Friends of the National Cancer Institute, the Love to Care association for Breast Cancer, the African Neuropsychiatric Association, the Arab Network for Autism (ANA), the Egyptian Society of Child Neuropsychiatric Association, and the Egyptian Red Crescent association She has been an active supervisor as well as an author of numerous scientific articles. Dr. Shahin is the Principal Investigator or Investigator on several international collaborative grants and community service projects, with a primary research focus on mental health in children and families and child neuropsychiatry. Dr. Shahin’s current activities also involve significant teaching, lecturing and training to undergraduate, graduate and medical students within diverse specialties of Cairo University, including, Medicine, Nursing, Dentistry, Art, and Pharmacy. Her mentor and advisor roles have led to her students’ participation across the globe in scientific conferences. Dr. Shahin remains internationally known for her dedication to clinical research and training physicians as part of the National Council of Maternity and Childhood, and she is a dynamic lecturer and presenter in national and international congresses and workshops.

Dr Reza Shaker is Professor of Medicine, Radiology, and Otolaryngology, Chief of the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Director of the Digestive Disease Center at the Medical College of Wisconsin and senior associate dean and director of southeast Wisconsin Clinical and Translational Science institute. Dr Shaker is an internationally recognized gastroenterologist and investigator in the field of dysphagia, gastroesophageal reflux disease and cerebral cortical control of gastrointestinal sensory motor function. His research has led to some of the seminal discoveries in the area of airway protection against aspiration and has opened new avenues of investigation and treatment for patients with swallowing disorders and gastroesophageal reflux disease. In addition his work has led to the description of the subliminal domain of gut sensory function, allowing investigation of brain-gut axis without the influence of cognitive processes in humans. He was the first to describe that the deglutitive upper esophageal sphincter opening can be increased by strengthening exercises of the suprahyoid muscles. This led to development of rehabilitative exercises for upper esophageal sphincter dysphagia; the Shaker Exercise. This exercise is now part of the clinical armamentarium all over the world and is taught as part of the curriculum in Speech-Language Pathology and Rehabilitation Medicine for deglutition disorders. He developed the field of functional interaction between the upper gut and aerodigestive tract that has resulted in discovery of five previously unrecognized reflexes connecting the upper gut and the aerodigestive tracts and providing an elaborate mechanism for airway protection against aspiration of gastric contents and swallowed material. He developed the ``UES Assist Device`` for increasing the resting pressure of the Upper Esophageal Sphincter in patients with defective airway protection to prevent reflux of gastric content into the pharynx and aspiration. Dr. Shaker has developed the technique of transnasal unsedated upper GI endoscopy (T-EGD) for concurrent evaluation of the aerodigestive and upper GI tracts commonly used in ENT practices worldwide. This is an outpatient procedure, not needing sedation, this procedure reduces the cost of endoscopy as well as the cost to the society due to loss of work on the day of the procedure. He also invented the device measuring dynamic distensibility of the lower esophageal sphincter. This device can potentially guide the surgeons to gauge intra-operatively the tightness of the fundoplication used for treatment of reflux disease thus reducing the rate of complications. He has trained over 60 Gastroenterologists who are currently in practice in 24 states in the United States. He has also trained over 20 Academicians from around the globe some of whom are currently in leadership positions His research has been continuously funded by National Institutes of Health for 20 years, he has published over 220 manuscripts in peer-reviewed journals on scientific findings. He has also published 32 books and book chapters including the co-editorship of now the well referenced GI Motility Online (www.nature.com/gimo) with over 60 contributors, 400 PDF downloadable figures and total of 90 minutes of videos, accessible without charge. He recently co-edited the multidisciplinary book ``Principles of Deglutition`` and ``Manual of Diagnostic and Therapeutic Techniques for Deglutition Disorders``(Springer Publishing). He is the founder of the Dysphagia Research Society a multi-disciplinary society with members from all over the world. This society celebrated its 20th anniversary in March 2012. He is a nationally recognized gastroenterologist and is cited as top doctors in America by US News and World Report. He is currently the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Dysphagia and serves on the editorial board of Journal of Clinical and Translational Science, has served on NIH study sections for 7 years and VA merit review study sections for 5 years.

Jonathon Shapir completed his undergraduate studies at McGill University, where he was in the accelerated 7 year medical degree program. Subsequently, he conducted his Internship and a four year Residency in diagnostic radiology residency at McGill Hospital system. Dr. Shapir has been board certified in diagnostic radiology since1982. He continued is focused work with a Clinical Fellowship in Neuroradiology at the Montral Neurological Hospital. Dr. Shapir went on to work at the University of Chicago as a member of the abdominal radiology section and an Assistant Professor of Radiology. He was then appointed Assistant Professor of Radiology/Associate Radiologist at the Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School in Boston, Since then, Dr. Shapir has specialized in private practice with the Radiology Associates of Hollywood in Florida where he developed their pediatric program in radiology and became Chief of Radiology of the Joe DiMaggio Children's Hospital as well as the Vice-Chief of radiology at the Memorial Regional Hospital. He obtained a Certificate of Added Qualification in Pediatric Radiology in 1994 and joined the Boca Radiology Group in 2007. With the Boca Radiology Group, Dr. Shapir’s clinical interests and expertise lie within oncology, specifically using PET. He has published a number of scholarly articles, has presented at national training sessions and conferences. Dr. Shapir is a member of the Radiological Society of North America and the American Roentgen Ray Society, and has received several honors and awards for clinical and scholarly excellence. He is currently interested in novel treatments of cancer and inflammatory bowel disease.

Dr. Joseph I. Shapiro is currently the Dean of the Joan C Edwards School of Medicine of Marshall University. His appointment in this role was in July of 2012. Dr. Shapiro received his B.A. in Mathematics at the University of Pennsylvania in 1976 and his M.D. from the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey in 1980. Following his Residency in Medicine at Georgetown University (1980-83). He received his Nephrology training at the University of Colorado (1983-86) where he subsequently joined the faculty and was promoted through the academic ranks in the Department of Medicine with a joint appointment in the Department of Radiology; from 1992-97, Dr. Shapiro was also an adjunct professor of Physics at Denver University. Dr. Shapiro joined the University of Toledo (then called the Medical College of Ohio) in 1997 as Professor and Chief of Nephrology. He was selected to be Chairman of Medicine after a national search in 1999, and he was appointed Associate Dean for Business Development in 2006. He recently relocated to Marshall University to serve as Dean for the Joan C Edwards School of Medicine. Dr. Shapiro has had a career which blends education, clinical practice and research. He is board certified in both Internal Medicine and Nephrology as well as licensed to practice in the state of Ohio. Dr. Shapiro is the author or co-author of approximately 200 research papers and book chapters and holds a number of patents; he has also been involved with several start-up companies which were based on these patents. Dr. Shapiro has been well funded throughout his career receiving a number of grants from the NIH, AHA and US Army as well as industrial sponsors. His research interests range from basic and translational science where he studies the effects of renal failure on cardiac structure and function to clinical where he has worked on analgesic nephropathy and renal artery stenosis. He has served on a number of editorial boards as well as the national finance committee for the American Society of Nephrology, and he has received a number of academic honors including election as a Fellow of the American Heart Association as well as the Arnold P. Gold Humanism in Medicine award.

Dr. Jason Sheehan received his B.S., M.S., PhD, and M.D. from the University of Virginia. His B.S. is in Chemical Engineering with the highest honors awarded from the School of Engineering. He performed fellowships at Auckland University and the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Sheehan has written more than 100 peer reviewed papers. Also, he has published a book and numerous invited manuscripts. He reviews manuscripts for the Journal of Neurosurgery, Neurosurgery, Clinical Neurology and Neurosurgery, Nature Clinical Practice Oncology, and Surgical Neurology. Dr. Sheehan has an active laboratory pursuing translational and basic science research, and has received over $450,000 in new funding in the last 2 years. Dr. Sheehan won the University of Virginia Clinical Excellence Award in 2006. He sits on the SANS Wired editorial board and serves on various committees in the Congress of Neurological Surgeons (CNS), World Federation of Neurological Societies, International Radiosurgery Association, and Southern Neurosurgical Society. He is a member of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS), the American College of Surgeons, Leksell Gamma Knife Society, Neurosurgical Society of the Virginias, AANS/CNS Tumor Section, and the American Society of Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgeons.

Dr. Joel Sheinfeld, MD is a board-certified urologic surgeon who specializes in surgery for patients with genitourinary cancers, and the Deputy Chief of the Urology Service; William G. Cahan Chair in Surgery, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. He completed Medical School at the University of Florida, College of Medicine, in Gainsville, FL, his Residency in Urology at Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester, NY, and continued his Fellowship in Urologic Oncology at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, NY, NY. His expertise is in the clinical care and surgical treatment of patients with testicular cancer. Dr. Sheinfeld works closely with colleagues from medical oncology, pathology, radiology, and radiation therapy to provide the most effective treatment for our patients, as well as to establish the optimal multidisciplinary approach for all patients with testicular cancer. Dr. Sheinfeld has developed surgical techniques to preserve patients’ fertility through the use of “nerve sparing” retroperitoneal lymph node dissection (RPLND). This approach is appropriate for most patients who have low-stage disease and for many patients with more-advanced cancers who have completed treatment with chemotherapy. For the past decade he has performed approximately 100 RPLNDs per year. Because of his particular expertise in retroperitoneal surgery, he also works with specialists in other disciplines to surgically manage different types of tumors in the retroperitoneum. Dr. Sheinfeld has written numerous articles and book chapters on testicular cancer care and frequently speak on the topic at national and international forums. As an established leader in testicular cancer he has edited special editions on this disease in Urologic Clinics of North America, theWorld Journal of Urology, the British Journal of Urology, Urologic Oncology, and Seminars in Urologic Oncology. Furthermore, he has written or co-authored the chapter on the surgical management of testicular cancer for the major textbooks in urology (Campbell’s Urology, 8th, 9th, and 10th editions) and oncology (DeVita’s Principles and Practice of Oncology, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th editions). Dr. Sheinfeld serves as faculty director for the course on testicular cancer for the American Urological Association and is a member of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network’s guidelines committee for testicular cancer and kidney cancer. He is an associate editor of Urology and World Journal of Urology and a reviewer for numerous peer-reviewed journals and an active member of the American Association of Urology and the Society of Urologic Oncology (of which he is a former board member). Dr. Sheinfeld also hold an appointment as Professor in the Department of Urology at Weill Cornell Medical College and Adjunct Professor at SUNY Downstate Medical Center.

Hiroki Shirato is Professor of Radiation Medicine at Hokkaido University. Dr. Shirato has investigated “tumor motion” during external radiotherapy. He invented real-time tumor-tracking radiotherapy (RTRT) system fusing radiation science and a real-time pattern-recognition technology and gold fiducial markers near the tumor. Dr. Shirato invented a new concept, “four-dimensional radiotherapy” which is now recognized as a major category of radiotherapy for improving accuracy related to tumor motion. Dr. Shirato has received a large grant as one of the 30 top researchers in Japan for the project to improve proton beam and x-ray therapy. Major textbooks on radiation oncology and medical physics are introducing his RTRT system and findings about tumor motion. Several new radiotherapy devices have been invented based on articles and patents of his team. Now his interest is extending toward comprehensive medical science, tracking motion and function in life, from respiratory motion to molecular motion.

Dr. Dinesh Singh, Assistant Professor of Urology and Director of Laparoscopy and Endourology at Yale University School of Medicine, specializes in the care of urologic oncology and minimally invasive therapies for urologic disease. Dr. Singh graduated from Columbia University. He then completed his residency in Urology at Harvard Medical School; a research fellowship in Urologic Oncology at The Dana Farber Cancer Institute; and a clinical fellowship in Minimally Invasive Surgery at the Cleveland Clinic. He subsequently joined the staff for a short time at the Cleveland Clinic before being recruited to Yale. He is a Diplomat of the American Board of urology and has contributed numerous scientific articles, abstracts and book chapters to the field of Urology. Dr. Singh has also lectured and/or presented both nationally and internationally. Dr. Singh specializes in laparopscopy, robotic surgery and other MIS for kidney, prostate, and other urologic cancers. He also performs endoscopic minimally invasive approaches to kidney stone disease. Dr. Singh uses minimally invasive techniques to affor tpatients the benefits of decreased pain and blood loss, smaller incisions and scarring, shorter hospital stays, and quicker return to usual activity and work.

Since 1998, Ben Slotman has served as Professor and Head of the Department of Radiation Oncology at Vrije Universiteit Medical Center (VUmc) in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Dr. Slotman received his MD (1985) and PhD (1990) both with highest honor at VU University in Amsterdam, The Netherlands and he was registered as radiation oncologist in 1994. He is presently also chairman of one of the six divisions of the hospital and medical faculty and responsible for the routine and research laboratories, pharmacy, genetics, medical physics, radiology, nuclear medicine and radiation oncology at VUmc. Professor Slotman is the (co)-author of more than 200 peer reviewed publications. His expertise lies mainly in the field of radiotherapy for lung and brain malignancies and the early clinical implementation of new technologies. He has co- organized various international conferences and has coordinated a number of international trials. He is associate editor of the J Radiosurgery & SBRT, serves as a member of the editorial board of J Radiation Oncology and reviewer for many journals. He is an active member of NVRO, ESTRO, ASTRO, ASCO, ARS, IASLC, ISRS and RSS.

Aram Kurt Smolinsky is an active cardiac surgeon for the last 36 years, of which for ten years was director of cardiac surgery in Tel HaShomer, Israel's biggest governmental hospital. Israeli born, grew up, and received most of his education there: Graduated Tel Aviv Sackler Medical School, where his doctoral thesis was published in "Nature", and where he became professor in 1991. Did his residency in cardio- thoracic surgery in Tel- Hashomer hospital, Israel. Received the "Evarts A. Graham memorial travelling fellowship" in 1984. Throughout this time he kept the open heart surgery in Tel- Hashomer on the cutting edge of most fields of open heart surgery; adults and pediatric surgery, aortic aneurysms, CABP, valve repairs and replacements, heart Tx, L-VAD, and minimal invasive cardiac surgery. Dr. Smolinsky is a member of numerous scientific societies including: Israel Medical Association, Israel Surgical Society, Israel Society of Cardio-Thoracic Surgery, Israel Heart Society, European Association for Cardio-thoracic Surgery(EACTS), American Society of Thoracic Surgery(STS),International Academy of Ecology and Life Protection Sciences, (Russia), The International Society for Minimally Invasive Cardiac Surgery. Dr. Smolinsky's volunteer work includes: Co-founder of an open-heart surgery service in the city of Perm, Siberia, Russia. The whole Perm region with its population of three million people had not a single open- heart facility. The intense involvement lasted seven years, and led to an independent 3000 patient a year open heart surgery service. Was nominated then a member of the Russian Academy.

Dr. Jordan Smoller is Associate Vice Chair of the MGH Department of Psychiatry and Director of Psychiatric Genetics. He is Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and Associate Professor in the Department of Epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston. He is Director of the Psychiatric and Neurodevelopmental Genetics Unit in the MGH Center for Human Genetics Research. Dr. Smoller also serves as co-director of the Genetics and Genomics Unit of the MGH Clinical Research Program. At Harvard Medical School, he is Director of the Translational Genetics and Bioinformatics Program of the Harvard Catalyst. He is also Science Director of the Science of Health and Development Initiative at the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University. Dr. Smoller is an Associate Member of the Broad Institute and a Senior Scientist at the Broad’s Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research. Dr. Smoller earned his undergraduate degree at Harvard University and his medical degree at Harvard Medical School. After completing residency training in psychiatry at McLean Hospital, Dr. Smoller received masters and doctoral degrees in epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health. He also completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the NIMH Training Program in Psychiatric Genetics. The focus of Dr. Smoller’s research interests has been the identification of genetic determinants of childhood and adult psychiatric disorders. Dr. Smoller and colleagues have also been studying pharmacogenetic predictors of treatment response and the ways in which advances in genetics may impact clinical practice in psychiatry. He is an author of more than 150 scientific articles, book chapters and reviews; the recipient of numerous research awards; and a principal investigator on NIH-funded studies of the genetics of anxiety and the genetics of bipolar disorder, major depression and schizophrenia as well as brain imaging phenotypes.

Nancy Snidman received her Ph.D. in Learning from the University of California, Los Angeles. After completing a postdoctoral fellowship from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation in the Psychology Department at Harvard University she became Research Director for the Infant Study at Harvard where she conducted research for over two decades specializing in the psychophysiological correlates of infant temperament. She is author with Jerome Kagan of The Long Shadow of Temperament (2004) which traces their 25 years of longitudinal studies of behaviorally inhibited and uninhibited children. She is also Director of EEG Research for TRANSCEND (Treatment, Research And NeuroSCience Evaluation of Neurodevelopmental Disorders) at Massachusetts General Hospital. The focus of this program is to develop profiles of measures for early identification of autism. Dr. Snidman's interests include biological correlates of temperament and individual differences, autism, and socio-emotional development. Her research has included typically developing children as well as studies into the relationship between psychobiology and psychopathology with a number of clinical populations including children of parents who have panic attacks or depression, and children with depression, burn trauma and children of international adoptions. Currently, Dr. Snidman is the Director of Research, at the Child Development Unit, Boston Children's Hospital. Dr. Snidman is widely published, with approximately 75 original peer-reviewed articles in addition to numerous abstracts, chapters and reviews, and is nationally and internationally renowned for her research and multiple collaborations in child development.

Dr. Hany Soliman is an Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto, Department of Radiation Oncology and a staff physician at the Odette Cancer Centre, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre. He also has courtesy privileges at the Credit Valley Hospital. He is a graduate of the University of Toronto and did his radiation training at both Princess Margaret Hospital and the Odette Cancer Centre. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, obtaining his specialty qualifications in Radiation Oncology. He did a fellowship at the Odette Cancer Centre in CNS tumours, radiosurgery and SBRT. His research interests are primarily in central nervous system tumours as well as hematology. At the Credit Valley Hospital he developed the lung SBRT program, and also treated breast and GI patients.

Dr. Sotomayor was born in New York City and currently resides in Syracuse, NY. Dr. Sotomayor is a graduate of the CCNY Center for Biomedical Education and completed his medical degree at the New York University in 1981. He completed his pediatric sub-specialty training at the Upstate Medical Center in Syracuse, NY, under Dr. Frank Oski and did a fellowship in Allergy, Immunology, and Pulmonology at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and the University of Pennsylvania. He then became an attending physician in pulmonology at Wayne State University and was the director of the apnea program and the pulmonary function laboratory. Since 1988, he has been in private practice specializing in pulmonary and asthma diseases in the Syracuse area. He is also a clinical assistant professor in Pediatrics and Allergy at University Hospital and St. Joseph's Hospital. He has been board certified in Pediatrics and Allergy/Immunology since 1987. He belongs to the American Academy of Allergy and Immunology, American College of Allergy and Immunology and the NYS Medical Society as well as the Onondaga County Medical Society. He has also received resident teaching awards in the past. Dr. Sotomayor has published articles on allergy and pulmonary diseases and has recently been active in clinical research studies including seasonal allergic rhinitis, perennial allergic rhinitis, vasomotor rhinitis, asthma, allergic asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Dr. Robert Spetzler received his MD from Northwestern University and completed his neurosurgery residency at UCSF in 1977. In 1980, at Case Western, he received his first major NIH grant-developing a primate stroke model used to test therapeutic treatments for stroke and cerebral ischemia. Since 1983 he is the Chair of Neurosurgery at the Barrow Neurological Institute, an internationally recognized center of excellence, and ais lso its Director since 1985. Contributions include the development of theories on normal perfusion pressure breakthrough and how the size of AMVs is related to their rupture; development of a heuristic grading system of AVMs; advances in the surgical treatment of complex cerebrovascular lesions based on hypothermia, barbiturates, and cardiac arrest; and development of innovative surgical approaches for skull base surgery. To date, he treated close to 5700 aneurysms; published almost 500 articles in refereed journals, 200 chapters, and edited or coauthored numerous books.

Dr. David Spiegel is Willson Professor and Associate Chair of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, Director of the Center on Stress and Health, and Medical Director of the Center for Integrative Medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine, where he has been a member of the academic faculty since 1975. He is Past President of the American College of Psychiatrists, and Past President of the Society for Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, and a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies. Dr. Spiegel received his undergraduate degree from Yale College, his medical degree from Harvard Medical School; he conducted residencies at both the Massachusetts Mental Health Center and Cambridge Hospital and continued his education with a fellowship at the Lab of Community Psychiatry in Massachusetts. Dr. Spiegel is board certified in Psychiatry, and is certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology. He has published ten books, 368 scientific journal articles, and 156 book chapters on hypnosis, psychosocial oncology, stress physiology, trauma, and psychotherapy. His research has been supported by the National Institute of Mental Health, the National Cancer Institute, the National Institute on Aging, the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Fetzer Institute, the Dana Foundation for Brain Sciences, and the Nathan S. Cummings Foundation.

Born in Montevideo Uruguay, September 10, 1953. In 1979 completed his studies in Medicine and received his MD from Universidad de la Republica, Uruguay. In 1980 immigrated to Israel where he resides to this day. Father of three. Resident in Neurosurgery at Chaim Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer from 1982 to 1989. Boad Certified in Neurosurgery, Israel, 1989 Between June 1989 and June 1991 served as Clinical Fellow in Functional Neurosurgery and Radiosurgery, at the University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, working with William A Friedman and Frank Bova who at the time were just starting up their pioneering work in LINAC radiosurgery. Upon his return to Israel, Dr Spiegelman founded the first Radiosurgery facility in the Middle East, at Sheba Medical Center, which opened December 1992. This LINAC based unit has since treated over 3500 patients. Dr. Spiegelmann is a Senior Staff Neurosurgeon at the Department of Neurosurgery The Chaim Sheba Medical Center, and has been very active in functional neurosurgery, during the 1990s doing lesional surgery for movement disorders and now Deep Brain Stimulation. By being the first functional neurosurgeon in the country, Dr Spiegelmann introduced GPI pallidotomy, DBS, SCS, ITB, and a host of stereotactic and open functional procedures to the therapeutic armamentarium in Israel. Dr. Spiegelmann has been very active in the diffusion of radiosurgery both nationally and internationally. He has served for ten years in the Board of Directors of the International Society for Stereotactic Radiosurgery (ISRS) and served as its President between 2007 and 2009. Dr. Spiegelmann is currently a member of the Board of Directors of the World Society of Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery (WSSFN)

Michael Staehler is the Head of the Interdisciplinary Centre for Renal Tumors at the Ludwig-Maximilians University of Munich, Germany. He is Member of the Renal Cancer Workgroup of the German Cancer Society. He also serves as a member of the German Guideline Committee on Renal Cancer. Following medical qualification at University of Munich Medical School and gaining experience in general, vascular and thoracic surgery at the University of Regensburg, the University of California in San Francisco and his training in Urology at the Free University, Berlin, he was awarded a PhD for his work on renal cancer at the University of Munich. After joining the Department of Urology, he was appointed Consultant Urologist at Grosshadern Clinics and founded the Interdisciplinary Centre on Renal Tumors in Germany. He is also Head of the Urological Oncology Service for Advanced Genitourinary Cancer and Kidney surgery. Professor Staehler’s main research interest has been the development of novel therapeutics in renal cell carcinoma, particularly in the area of radiation therapy, surgical therapy and novel targeted agents. He is a Medical Advisor to the German Kidney Cancer Association. On the editorial board of several journals, Professor Staehler has published more than 70 articles on renal cancer and co-authored six textbooks.

Dr. Stancanello received his MSc in biomedical engineering from Politecnico di Milano, Italy, in cooperation with Moscow State University, Russia, with a dissertation on mathematical models of surface particle treatments for biomedical applications. Dr. Stancanello received his Ph.D. in bioengineering also from Politecnico di Milano, with strong focus on medical physics in the field of radiosurgery, defending a dissertation on “morphological and functional imaging in the artero-venous malformation radiosurgery”. He also received his Executive MBA from MIP-Politecnico di Milano Business School with a dissertation on the “competitive advantage in radiation therapy market”, awarded as best dissertation of the year at the business school. Dr Stancanello attended several executive courses at Tongji University, Shanghai, and IMD-MIT in Lausanne, Switzerland, specializing in Driving Strategic Innovation. In the first years of his career, Dr. Stancanello worked in the Medical Physics Department of Vicenza, Italy, with a long experience in medical imaging applied to therapy. Later, he lead the image post-processing section in Bracco Imaging SPA for the development of new MRI contrast agents with special focus on chemical exchange saturation transfer (CEST) and hyperpolarized contrast agents. In the last 5 years Dr Stancanello has been in charge of several responsibilities in Siemens Healthcare Oncology, worldwide headquarters in Erlangen, Germany, ranging from collaborative research to innovation and to business unit strategy. He has developed several points of view to medical products, focusing on clinical needs, scientific and business aspects. He has developed a strong know-how in the strategic process, competitive roadmap, internal innovation and open innovation roadmaps (focusing on collaborative research), value proposition definition, market segmentation analysis - segment targeting - product positioning, intellectual property evaluation, patent filing (inventive steps definition) and contract management. He has also developed strong interaction with sales channels and key customers/opinion leaders to quickly synchronize customer-company expectations and needs. Dr. Stancanello academic appointments consisted of external professor for Mathematical Analysis at Padova University, Italy, and currently as lecturer at University of Heidelberg, Germany, teaching “imaging in oncology”. He is also currently Guest Scientist at the German Research Cancer Centre in Heidelberg, Germany. He has also served as consultant for Politecnico di Milano at several imaging laboratories and at the Consortium for the investigation of chemistry of metals in biological systems, Turin, Italy.

I have been in Academic and Clinical practice with Loyola University Medical Center/Trinity Health since 1980. I am the Professor and Chair of the Department of Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery (ENT) and also the Director of the Nasal Sinus Center at Loyola. Currently, my clinical activities include diagnosis, medical and surgical treatment of nasal sinus disorders. I graduated from the University of Chicago with an undergrad degree in biology and earned my medical degree from the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine in 1974. My residency in Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery was served at the University of Chicago Hospitals and Clinics. I was certified in the ABO in Otolaryngology in 1978. I served a two-year military obligation at the Oakland Naval Hospital in Oakland, CA, where I was also on the faculty of the University of California, San Francisco. In 1985, I started the Nasal Sinus Center at Loyola, the first in the area. I have performed more than 7,000 nasal or sinus procedures and am nationally and internationally recognized for my teaching and clinical research experience and expertise. I have authored more than 200 articles, chapters, and books. I have delivered more than 500 presentations, since 1978, mostly dealing with nasal and sinus disorders. I have been Chair of the Rhinology and Paranasal Sinus Committee, presented instructional courses for over 25 years, been a free paper presenter and miniseminar speaker numerous times, and worked on multiple academic special committees and task forces including the Task Force for New Materials, the Sinus and Allergy Health Partnership (SAHP) supporting the diagnosis and treatment of Sinusitis and Allergy, the Academy Task Force of Chronic Sinusitis, the Home Study Course, Global Service (RBRUS) Task Force, Task Force on New Technology, Rhinosinusitis Task Force, Health Value Systems Tasks Force on Sinusitis and many others helping to create policy, protocols, guidelines, and standards for our practice in Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery.

Dr. Steinberg is Professor and Chair of the Department of Radiation Oncology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. He also serves as the Director of Clinical Affairs for UCLA’s Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center. Dr. Steinberg is Chair of the Electronic Health Record Oversight Board (EOB), which strategically directs the implementation of UCLA Health System electronic health record initiative, Care Connect. In 2012 Dr. Steinberg was appointed by the Dean as Chair of the Clinical Chairs of the David Geffen School of Medicine. His clinical activities are directed towards the treatment of cancers of the GU system, breast, head and neck and the central nervous system. He specializes in the use of novel and technologically advanced treatment modalities such as Stereotactic Radiosurgery (SRS) and Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy (SBRT). Dr. Steinberg publishes and speaks on issues related to health policy including quality of care, patient safety, evidence based validation of emerging technology, healthcare economics and disparity. He served as the PI for a National Cancer Institute Cancer Disparity Research grant and as a health services research investigator and manuscript author at the RAND Corporation. Dr. Steinberg has been influential on a national level in providing input regarding health policy and economic issues on behalf of patients and his specialty through his various leadership roles in radiation oncology. He is the founding Chair of the Health Policy Council of American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) and is currently ASTRO’s President. Dr. Steinberg recently completed 8 years of service as the radiation oncology representative to the American Medical Association's CPT Editorial Panel and two terms on the Medicare Evidence and Coverage Advisory Committee (MCAC). Dr. Steinberg graduated Occidental College Phi Beta Kappa, was elected to AOA at University of Southern California School of Medicine and did his radiation oncology residency and fellowship at UCLA.

Gary K. Steinberg was born on July 31, 1952 in Brooklyn, New York and was raised in Westchester County, New York. He graduated summa cum laude with Honors in Biology from Yale University, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. Before attending medical school he studied classical trumpet on a music study scholarship at the Institute for Advanced Musical Studies in Montreux, Switzerland. He was accepted into the Medical Scientist Training Program at Stanford University School of Medicine and graduated with a MD and PhD in Neurosciences in 1980. He completed his surgical internship and residency in Neurological Surgery at Stanford. During his training he received an NIH NINDS Individual National Research Service Award to investigate aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage, and he spent one year studying cerebrovascular surgery with Charles Drake in London, Canada. In 1987 Dr. Steinberg joined the faculty at Stanford as an Assistant Professor in Neurosurgery, being promoted to Associate Professor with tenure in 1993 and Professor in 1997. He founded the Stanford Stroke Center in 1991 and is currently the Co-Director. He was appointed Chairman of the Department of Neurosurgery at Stanford in 1995 and holds the Bernard and Ronni Lacroute–William Randolph Hearst Endowed Chair of Neurosurgery and the Neurosciences. In October, 2008 Dr Steinberg was appointed Director of the Stanford Institute for Neuro-Innovation and Translational Neurosciences (SINTN). Dr. Steinberg’s experimental research investigates the pathophysiology and treatment of acute cerebral ischemia, as well as methods to restore function after stroke. His laboratory has studied the role of excitatory amino acids, oxidative stress, inflammation and gene expression in experimental stroke, and has explored various therapeutic and restorative strategies such as NMDA antagonists, anti-inflammatory agents, mild brain hypothermia, gene transfer therapy and stem cell transplantation. He has received numerous grants including NIH NINDS R01 and P01 grants, with continuous NIH funding as Principal Investigator since 1987. He was recently awarded a $20 million grant from the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine to investigate neural stem cells for treatment of motor deficits following sub-cortical stroke and translate this into a Phase I clinical trial. Steinberg maintains a busy clinical practice specializing in cerebrovascular surgery, with patient referrals nationally and internationally. His clinical research is focused on developing innovative surgical, endovascular and radiosurgical approaches for treating patients with difficult intracranial aneurysms, complex vascular malformations and occlusive cerebrovascular disorders including Moyamoya disease. He is heavily involved in teaching, serving as Neurosurgery Program Director from 1995–2004 and training more than 130 residents, clinical fellows, post-doctoral research fellows, graduate students and medical students. He has published over 260 peer reviewed articles and 99 book chapters, and edited 3 books primarily related to clinical and basic aspects of cerebrovascular disease. The many honors Steinberg has received include an American Association of Neurological Surgeons Young Faculty Award and Santa Clara County Medical Association, 2010 Outstanding Achievement in Medicine Award. He has been elected to Castle Connelly’s Top Doctors in America, America’s Top Surgeons, National Register’s Who’s Who, Best Doctors in America and International Health Professional of the Year. Dr. Steinberg has been Visiting Professor at various academic institutions and given more than 400 invited talks at scientific meetings throughout the world. He has been a member of NIH NINDS Study Sections, the NIH NASCET Monitoring Committee, and served on the editorial boards of the Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism, Neurosurgery, Cerebrovascular Diseases, the Journal of Stroke and Cerebrovascular Diseases and World Neurosurgery. Dr. Steinberg is married to Sandra Garritano and they have two children, Jeff and Liz.

Dr. Stillman is a Board Certified Reproductive Endocrinologist and is Medical Director of Shady Grove Fertility Reproductive Science Centers, which he joined in April, 1997. Until then, he was a tenured Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Director of the Division of Reproductive Endocrinology, Fertility and IVF Programs at the George Washington having joined the faculty in 1979. He now serves as a Clinical Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Georgetown University School of Medicine. Dr. Stillman was educated at Boston University (B.A., Magna Cum Laude, 1969), Georgetown University (M.D., 1973; AOA Medical Honor Society), Duke University (Residency, Obstetrics and Gynecology 1973-77, Administrative Chief Resident 1976-77) and Harvard University (Fellowship in Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility, 1977-79). He has held faculty and research positions at Harvard University, Children’s Hospital National Medical Center and at the National Institutes of Health. He was certified by the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology in 1979 (with voluntary rectification in 1991) and by the Board’s Division of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility in 1981. He served as an examiner for the ABOG oral certifying examinations in Obstetrics and Gynecology from 1989 – 1998 and was one of the 12 National Examiners for oral subspecialty Board exams in Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility. While at G.W., Dr. Stillman was Director of 1 of 46 nationally ABOG certified Fellowship training programs in the reproductive endocrinology and infertility. Dr. Stillman has been prominent both nationally and internationally in clinical infertility and academic reproductive endocrinology, having authored numerous scientific publications and being awarded competitive research grants. He was elected by his peers as the top doctor in the National Capital Area for infertility in the latest Washingtonian Magazine poll and elected to Top Doctors in America for 1994-97 and Who’s Who in America. He was elected as one of the 16 top infertility doctors nationwide by his peers in the 1996 American Health Magazine poll , selected by Good Housekeeping Magazine in 1997 as one of the nation’s Best Doctors for Women and Best Doctors 2005-6. He is a member of the American Society of Reproductive Medicine, the Society of Reproductive Endocrinologists, the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology, the Society of Reproductive Surgeons, among others, and is a past President of the Washington Gynecological Society. He is now on his 3rd assignment on the Editorial Board of Fertility and Sterility and serves as an ad hoc editor on numerous medical journals. Dr. Stillman has served on the committees of numerous local, national and international societies including the Board of Directors of RESOLVE for the Washington, and Medical Advisory Boards of national Resolve and the American Fertility Association. For the latter, he is a recipient of the national Family Building Award in 2006 and the first person also awarded the AFA Advocacy Award. Dr. Stillman has been an invited lecturer for numerous physician post-graduate training courses and a Visiting Professor at many Universities nationally and internationally. He also was elected to and served on the Board of Directors of the American Society of Reproductive Medicine and Chairman of its Publications Committee.

Shawn D. St Peter, M.D., is an Associate Professor of Surgery at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, the Program Director of the Pediatric Surgery Fellowship Program at Children's Mercy Hospitals and Clinics, where he is also the Program Director of the Surgical Scholars Program and the Director of the Center for Prospective Trials. Dr. St. Peter received his undergraduate degree in Zoology from the University of Idaho, and then continued his education, receiving his Medical degree from the University of Washington School of Medicine. He completed surgical residency at the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale with a year of research at Oxford University in Oxford, England. He finished his training with a fellowship in Pediatric Surgery at Children's Mercy Hospital and Clinics where he has stayed on staff. Along with numerous past national and local professional responsibilities, Dr. St. Peter currently serves on the Outcomes and Clinical Trials Committee, American Pediatric Surgical Association, and the Publications Committee, International Pediatric Endosurgery Group (IPEG) and is the Chair of the Research Committee, International Pediatric Endosurgery Group (IPEG). At Children's Mercy, he currently serves as the program director for the pediatric surgery fellowship as well as the surgical scholar program. Since his initial appointment at Children’s Mercy he has been the Director of the Center for Prospective Trials, which he founded in 2006. Dr. St. Peter is the recipient of several honors and awards, the most recent including the Golden Apple Mercy Mentor Award, the IRCAD Award for the Best Clinical Paper (IPEG), Kansas City Star Top Doctors- Children's Mercy Representative, Rosenkrantz Research Award: Best Clinical Paper (AAP), the Kansas City Surgical Society Research Award, The Children's Mercy Hospital Fellow Research Award and the Best Prospective Trial Design, Clinical Trials Course of ACS. He has received external funding as a principal investigator on Foundation Grants (e.g.," Assessment of Biliary Anatomy After Adult-to-adult Living Donor Hepatectomy", and "Improving Children’s Pain Assessment Following Surgery", as well as numerous prospective trials. The Center for Prospective Trials has initiated over 20 prospective, randomized trials, 11 of which are in print. Dr. St. Peter has published over 200 peer-reviewed original articles, in addition to the extensive publication of reviews, chapters, abstracts, posters, and the national and international contribution of lectures and presentations.

Dr. Dilip V. Subhedar joined Ramapo Anesthesia (R.A.) in 1998. He is the Director of Pain Management at R.A. and provides services at Good Samaritan Hospital in Suffern, N.Y., Bon Secours Community Hospital in Port Jervis, N.Y., St. Anthony Community Hospital in Warwick, N.Y. and Orange Regional Medical Center in Middletown, N.Y. Prior to joining R.A., Dilip served as Associate Chief of the Anesthesiology Department at Metropolitan Hospital in New York for five years. During that time, Dilip was an assistant professor at New York Medical College in Valhalla, N.Y. He was named ‘Best Professor’ in the department for three years. Dilip was also an attending anesthesiologist at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Parkersburg, W. Va. He is Board Certified in pain management, anesthesiology and a certified acupuncturist. Dilip performed his residency in anesthesiology at New York Medical College. Dilip graduated first in his class at G.S.V.M. Medical College in Kanpur, India, earning gold medal awards for his work in anatomy, medicine and surgery. He has delivered speeches at pain management anesthesiology abstracts and presented at hospitals all over the world. He has also been published in various trade journals including the American Journal of Anesthesiology and Anesthesiology News. Dilip resides in Suffern, N.Y. with his wife Sandhya, their daughter Preeti and son Niket.

Deepak Sudheendra, M.D. is an Assistant Professor of Interventional Radiology & Surgery at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. After attending New York Medical College, Dr. Sudheendra completed nearly a full general surgery residency at the Washington Hospital Center in Washington, DC with plans to specialize in cardiothoracic surgery. His interest in cardiovascular disease combined with his interest in practicing cutting-edge medicine led him to the National Institutes of Health where he conducted research in the evolving field of Interventional Oncology under Dr. Bradford Wood. During his Diagnostic Radiology residency at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, he conducted research on carotid artery stenting under Dr. Mark Wholey. At the same time, he continued to work as a surgical critical care intensivist and founded AngioCare, LLC to provide critical care services to Pittsburgh area hospitals. Dr. Sudheendra then completed a Vascular and Interventional Radiology fellowship at the George Washington University Medical Center under the mentorship of Dr. Anthony C. Venbrux. Dr. Sudheendra is Board Certified in Diagnostic Radiology with a Certificate of Added Qualification in Vascular & Interventional Radiology. He has written and published several papers and book chapters in the field of Vascular Interventional Radiology and has presented his research at meetings worldwide. His areas of interest include peripheral arterial and venous disease, including DVT thrombolysis and varicose veins, and interventional oncology. He is devoted to student and resident education and is actively involved with the Society of Interventional Radiology in shaping the training programs of future interventional radiologists.

Uma Sundaram , MD, is the founding director of the West Virginia Clinical and Translational Science Institute. Dr. Sundaram is a gastroenterologist specializing in the care of patients with inflammatory bowel disease and hepatobilliary diseases and in therapeutic billiary endoscopy. Dr. Sundaram has demonstrated a commitment to basic, clinical and translational research dating back to his undergraduate training in Bioengineering at Johns Hopkins University. During this time his research in the National Institutes on Aging led to multiple co-authored publications in blood brain barrier drug entry and distribution modeling. Upon obtaining his MD at the Medical College of Ohio, residency training at the University of Michigan and subspeciality training at Yale University, he has been a clinician scientist with funding for both basic and clinical research. In 2006, Dr. Sundaram established the Digestive Disease Fellowship Training Program at WVU HSC, the only GI fellowship training program in the State. Dr. Sundaram is currently funded by two NIH R01s to study regulation of nutrient and electrolyte malabsorption in inflammatory bowel disease. He has and continues to serve on numerous study sections both in NIDDK and at the Veterans Affairs Merit Review.

Dr. Garnette Sutherland is a Professor of Neurosurgery at the Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Dr. Sutherland is a leader in a collaborative approach to research in the application of magnetic resonance technology to the study of neurological diseases, and pioneer the development of both an intra-operative MRI system and an MR-compatible surgical robot. This work has been internationally and nationally recognized through publications, invited lectureships and prestigious awards including the Order of Canada.

Dr. Sweet is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Surgery at the University of Washington. He completed his General Surgery residency at the University of California San Francisco and his Vascular Surgery fellowship at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center. During his residency, he completed a Master's degree in Clinical Research with the UCSF Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics. Dr. Sweet is board certified by the American Board of Surgery in both General and Vascular surgery. Dr. Sweet's research interests relate to the development of new endovascular therapies for aortic aneurysms involving the peri-visceral aorta, as well as the study of the morphology, natural history and epidemiology of thoraco-abdominal aortic aneurysms. Dr. Sweet has been granted an Investigational Device Exemption from the Food and Drug Administration to perform physician modified branched-fenestrated endovascular repair of thoraco-abdominal aortic aneurysms. He is widely published in his field.

Dr. Jonathan Sykes is a nationally and internationally recognized facial plastic surgeon and a highly respected educator who shares his expertise with surgeons around the world. Since beginning practice in 1983, Dr. Sykes has performed more than 13,500 aesthetic, functional and reconstruction surgeries on patients of all ages. A fellow of the American College of Surgeons, Dr. Sykes is certified by the American Board of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery and the American Board of Otolaryngology (ears, nose and throat). Since 1989, Dr. Sykes has been director of the Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery Department of UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento, California. As director, Dr. Sykes oversees an active medical practice and maintains one of the nation’s most sought-after fellowship programs for facial plastic surgeons seeking advanced training. Dr. Sykes is President of the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery (AAFPRS), the world's largest specialty association. Dr Sykes' dedication to the AAFPRS is an example of his commitment to promote the highest quality facial plastic surgery through education, dissemination of professional information, and the establishment of professional standards. Throughout his career, Dr. Sykes has been a frequent guest lecturer, giving hundreds of presentations to fellow surgeons on facial plastic surgery procedures. In addition, he has published more than 100 professional articles and contributed to three textbooks. He also designed a patented instrument used by surgeons worldwide to simplify the endoscopic brow lift procedure and provide faster patient recovery times. Dr. Sykes frequently travels with charitable organizations to medically underserved areas in order to provide specialized health care services to children with cleft lips, cleft palates and other cranial and facial deformities. His most recent trip with "Smile China" marked the 16th humanitarian mission to train local surgeons and help children in need. In addition to three trips to China, Dr. Sykes has provided free surgical care to children in Mexico, Ecuador, Russia, El Salvador, Bolivia, Korea and Honduras.

Maurizio Trevisan, M.D., M.D., is the Dean and Medical Professor of Community Health and Social Medicine at the Sophie Davis School of Biomedical Education, City College of New York. Dr. Trevisan received his Medical Degree from the University of Naples Medical School, Italy, and a Masters in Science (Epidemiology) at the State University of New York, Buffalo. From 2007 until August 2011, Dr. Trevisan served as the executive vice chancellor and chief executive officer of the Health Sciences System, a statewide collaboration of Nevada higher education health sciences and professional programs. The system, which includes eight different colleges and universities across the state, focuses on coordinating these institutions’ efforts to train and retain physicians and other health care professionals to practice in Nevada. Prior to moving to Nevada, Dr. Trevisan served as professor in the Department of Social and Preventive Medicine at SUNY University at Buffalo and founding dean of the School of Public Health and Health Professions. He joined SUNY Buffalo in 1985 as an assistant professor and since 2007 has held the title SUNY distinguished professor emeritus. Dr. Trevisan’s research interests focus on the role of lifestyle and metabolic factors in the etiology and prevention of cardiovascular disease, with a special focus on the role of diet and alcohol use. More recently, he has focused on the relationship between oral and systemic health, such as ties between periodontal disease and cardiovascular disease and the role of infection and inflammation. As a researcher, he has authored more than 250 publications, which have appeared in such high-impact journals as the “Journal of the American Medical Association,” “Annals of Internal Medicine” and “The New England Journal of Medicine.” He has extensive experience directing and conducting multi-center and international collaborative studies, as well.

Debu Tripathy, MD is Professor of Clinical Medicine, Co-Leader of the Women’s Cancer Program and holds the Priscilla and Art Ulene Chair in Women’s Cancer at the University of Southern California and USC/Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center. He received a degree in Chemical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and then competed medical school and an internal medicine residency at Duke University followed by a Hematology/Oncology fellowship at the University of California at San Francisco. His clinical research focuses on the evaluation and development of novel therapeutics in breast cancer, specifically, growth factor receptor pathway targeting as well as biomarkers that predict sensitivity and resistance. Elucidation of specific mechanisms of resistance and synthetic lethal combinatorial strategies from the laboratory are being applied for early phase therapeutic applications. Similarly, human tissue studies from patients receiving conventional and targeted therapies are being analyzed toward the discovery of novel targets and predictive biomarkers. Dr. Tripathy is also part of a multi-disciplinary team of breast cancer specialists dedicated to patient-centered state-of-the-art and personalized approaches to care, with an emphasis on clinical trials that interface with the basic scientific strengths at USC and external collaborators. Dr. Tripathy has published numerous original laboratory and clinical research articles in the area of breast cancer and serves on several editorial boards, study sections and societies as well as Editor-in-Chief of CURE Magazine. He has previously served as the President of the American Society of Breast Disease and the Society of Integrative Oncology.

Dr. Paolo B. Trubiano is Director of Cardiac Anesthesiology for Ramapo Anesthesia. His diverse background includes experience not only in clinical medicine, but in academics and business as well. Dr. Trubiano has served as the Director of Cardiac Anesthesiology at Good Samaritan Hospital in Suffern, N.Y. since 2007. He also directs the cardiac section at St. Mary’s Hospital in Passaic, N.J. Prior to joining Good Samaritan, he was an attending cardiac anesthesiologist at Albany Medical Center in Albany, N.Y. for over 11 years. During that time, Dr. Trubiano was an assistant professor in the Department of Anesthesiology at Albany Medical College. Dr. Trubiano has presented research projects at meetings of the ASA, SCA and NYSSA and has co-authored peer-reviewed articles published in Anesthesiology, the American Journal of Anesthesiology, Anesthesia and Analgesia, the Journal of Cardiothoracic and Vascular Anesthesia and the Journal of Thoracic and Vascular Surgery. He is Board Certified by the American Board of Anesthesiology and is a member of the American Society of Anesthesiologists, the Society of Cardiovascular Anesthesiologists and the New York State Society of Anesthesiologists. Dr. Trubiano holds a Masters of Business Administration from Albany University's School of Business. His Bachelor of Science degree is from Union College, Schenectady, N.Y. and his medical degree is from Albany Medical College. He was an anesthesia resident and then chief resident at St. Luke's - Roosevelt Hospital in NYC before completing a cardiothoracic anesthesia fellowship at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center. His other fellowship experience was in critical care/burn unit at Jacobi Hospital in the Bronx while a member of the Montefiore Medical Center department of surgery. Dr. Trubiano was named one of the country's best anesthesiologists in the Guide to America's Top Anesthesiologists and has received awards in academic education, graduate education as well as FAER and SAMBA research awards and a nomination to the Beta Gamma Sigma Honor Society.

Professor Anja Tuulonen, M.D., Ph.D., is Head of the Department of Ophthalmology, Tays Eye Centre, Tampere University Hospital, Tampere, Finland. Prior to this position, she was the Clinic Head, Department of Ophthalmology, Oulu University Hospital 1995-1999, 2006-08, and Head of the Institute of Clinical Medicine, Medical Faculty, University of Oulu in 2009. Other leadership roles Professor Tuulonen has held include: Professor, Tampere School of Public Health 2009, Project manager 2009, Tampere University Hospital, Department head, Tampere University Hospital 2009, 2011-present, Head of the Institute of Clinical Medicine, Medical Faculty, University of Oulu, 2008, and Division Head, Surgical Unit, Tampere University Hospital, 2012. Professor Tuulonen completed her medical training, and residency at the University of Oulu, Finland, received her doctoral degree in 1985, also from the University of Oulu, and conducted a post-doctoral Research Fellowship at Tufts NEMC, Boston, USA 1985-1986. She became a Docent of the University of Oulu in 1991, a full Professor in 1995 and received tenure in 2000. Professor Tuulonen's research interests include: Health services research, health economics, secondary research (systematic reviews), and glaucoma diagnostics and therapy. She served as a Visiting Professor in the Health Services Research Unit, University of Aberdeen (Scottish Government) in 2010. She has also been involved in multidisciplinary leadership programs at the Universities of Oulu and Tampere, and the Health Care Leadership Program in University School of Economics in Helsinki, Finland. Professor Tuulonen has held and currently holds positions in Regional, National and International Societies. 1) Regionally, she was an Auditor for the University of Oulu funds from 2002-2008, and was the Chair of the Residency Training Program at the University of Oulu from 2003-2008 and in 2010. 2) Nationally, she has served as both an executive board member and President of the Finnish Ophthalmological Society, President, as an executive board member and Secretary of the Duodecim Association Oulu, was part of the Ministry of Education, Evaluator of Finnish Residency Programs, Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, Research group, Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, Access to Care Group, Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, Advisory Board for health care professionals. Professor Tuulonen was also (and is currently) the Chair of the Fin-EMB Guide line, Evaluator of the Surgical Unit, Kuopio, a Finnish Quality Award Evaluator, and has served on the Quality Council of the Finnish Medical Association. 3) Internationally, Professor Tuulonen is the past and current Secretary of the Glaucoma Research Society; she has served as an executive board member, Treasurer and Current Vice President of the European Glaucoma Society, is an active member of the European Glaucoma Society Health Economic Special Interest Group, and holds a position on the International Advisory Group of the Cochrane Eyes and Vision Group. Anja Tuulonen is engaged in multiple national and international research collaborations; she is dedicating to teaching and mentoring new clinicians, researchers and clinical researchers; she has published extensively in her field and has presented her work to a wide international audience.

G. Frank O. Tyers is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Surgery, University of British Columbia (UBC); Senior Consulting Staff at the Vancouver General and University Hospitals (former head of the Divisions of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery); member honorary staff at B.C. Children’s Hospital; and Adjunct Cardiac Sciences Faculty member, British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT). Dr. Tyers is a native of Kaslo, BC, Canada, and worked during high school for the B.C. Forest Service, and the Cork Province Lead, Zinc and Silver Mine. While an undergraduate at UBC, he worked summers in construction, as a B.C. Forestry Service lookout, and for a contract forest surveyor. While a medical student, he worked on phosphate transport mechanisms for the Department of Pharmacology. Dr. Tyers earned his medical degree from The University of British Columbia in 1962, during which time he received 8 awards of high distinction, including the Hamish Heney McIntosh Memorial Prize “awarded to the member of the graduating class who, in the opinion of the faculty, presents in every respect, the highest qualifications to practice his profession.” He completed Internship at the Vancouver General Hospital, 1962-63 followed by General Surgery and Thoracic Surgery residencies (1963-68) at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania (Chief Resident 67-68). Dr. Tyers continued his training as a Senior Cardiovascular Surgery resident at the Toronto General Hospital (1968-1969) and the Toronto Sick Children’s Hospital (1969-70). Dr Tyers is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, The American College of Surgeons, and The American College of Cardiology; and is certified by The American Board of Surgery and The American Board of Thoracic Surgery. He has been licensed in the Province of British Columbia and the states of Pennsylvania and Texas. Dr. Tyers is a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Investigative Surgery, (cardiovascular surgery co-editor 1996-2001), and an editorial consultant for The Annals of Thoracic Surgery, The Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, PACE, The Canadian Journal of Surgery and The Canadian Journal of Cardiology. He plays an important role in numerous national and international professional societies including: Member, Board of Directors, World Society of Arrhythmias (formerly International Cardiac Pacing and Electrophysiology Society); Independent Expert Elected Member of the Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation, Cardiac Rhythm Management Device (CRMD) Committee (pacemakers, ICDs, leads & related components) since Nov-06; Expert representative from the Standards Council of Canada to the International Standards Organization/IEC TC 150/SC 6 Joint Working Group 1, Cardiac Pacemakers and Implantable Defibrillators Committee (since 2008), including co-chairman of the ISO working group on the Pacemaker Universal Magnet Mode response; Consultant for Greatbatch Medical Inc regarding design of new CRMD products. Dr. Tyers' current regional and local commitments include part-time consulting and follow-up practice, primarily for patients with complex rhythm and CRMD problems; member BCIT Cardiac Sciences Program Advisory Committee; occasional undergraduate teaching through the UBC Center for Surgical Excellence. His other interests include research follow-up of patients with: co-radial leads, bi-atrial pacing systems for atrial resynchronization and atrial fibrillation suppression, transfemoral and other unusual lead implantation approaches, and extraction of CRMD leads. Dr. Tyers' contributions to medicine are numerous and include the first demonstration of multisite and biventricular pacing as potential treatments for heart failure (1968 Am J Cardiol), the development and human implantation of the first hermetically sealed pacemakers in North America (Circulation 1975) and the development of real time telemetry systems for implantable cardiac devices (ASAIO abstracts 1977). In 1980 he was formally recognized for re-establishing cardioplegia as the myocardial protection method of choice for open-heart surgery, by the originator of the concept Dr. Dennis Melrose. His dedication to teaching is evidenced by academic roles at UBC, and The University of Pennsylvania, followed by Assistant and Associate Professorships at Penn State University Hershey Medical Center, Professor and Head of the Division of Thoracic Surgery at the University of Texas Medical Branch 1977-1979, Professor and Head Divisions of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery at UBC 1979–2000 plus both Chairman of the Resident Education Committee and Director of the Residency Training Program for the UBC Division of CVT Surgery 1979-2000; on the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada {RCPS(C)} Cardiovascular and Thoracic (CVT) Surgery Nucleus Committee for 9 years, on the RCPS Specialty Training Committee for 7 years, and on the RCPSC) CVT Surgery National Examination Board for 6 years. Administrative commitments have included serving: on the UBC Faculty of Medicine Promotions Committee from 1997 through 2000, and on the Administrative Committee of the UBC Employee Benefit Plan 1996-2002; as a member of the British Columbia Ministry of Health Advisory Panel on Cardiac Care from 1989 through 2001; on the BC Cardiac Registry’s Steering and Surgical Research committees, plus their Budget Priorities, and Pacemaker and Defibrillator Planning subcommittees, all from1979-2000; on the Editorial Board of the Annals of Thoracic Surgery for 10 years; for the Canadian Cardiovascular Society (CCS) as Councilor for 5 years, member of the CCS executive committee for 3 years, chair of CCS Medical Devices Committee for 3 years, and as representative on the Federal Bureau of Medical Devices advisory panel on developing a Risk Based Classification System for Medical Device Approval in Canada for 2 years; on the executive Committee of the Canadian Working Group on Cardiac Pacing, on the editorial board of their newsletter, and from 1997-2002 as chair of their National Database Committee; as a panel member for the Rand Corporation Canadian-American Study of Indications and Appropriateness of Coronary Angiography and Revascularization; and as an advisor or consultant to: all the major CRMD manufacturers; the Phoenix Alliance; the SARNS Surgeons Advisory Board; the Thoratec Medical Advisory Board; the Spectranetics Physician Advisory Council; the University of Pennsylvania 1992 search committee for new Thoracic Surgery Division Head; and the Cardiac Care Network of Ontario, assisting their Consensus Panel with the development of long-range recommendations for the delivery of CRMD services for that province. From 1980 until 2002, directed the only nationally and internationally recognized pacemaker and defibrillator lead extraction program in Canada, and in 1996 introduced excimer laser lead extraction to Canada, 2 years before this technology was approved in the US and 5 years before a 2nd Canadian center was established in Ontario (Medical Post fall 2001). By the end of 2001, had removed over 800 leads from more than 400 patients from across Canada and the U.S. Acted as medical legal expert for BC Ministry of Attorney General Legal Services Branch and related parties on a number of Canadian and US Class Actions that have that been successfully certified for the potential recovery of billions of dollars to aid patients, Ministries of Health and hospitals recover some of the additional costs due to injuries etc following implantation of an inadequately tested, high risk, recalled heart valve; and arising from multiple recalled pacemaker, ICD and lead products. The development of a province-wide quality appraisal and improvement program for Cardiac Surgery has been a particularly gratifying accomplishment. At Vancouver General Hospital (VGH) in the early 1980s Dr. Tyers began the annual presentation to medical, nursing and administrative staff, of 30-day operative mortality, length of stay, and complication data for each CV Surgical procedure and surgeon. VGH results were then compared in detail to those of the other Canadian hospital contributors to the Health Medical Records Institute administrative database. That early retrospective program evolved into the current province-wide, on-line entry of demographic, risk factor, operative and discharge data, including complications; calculation of gross and risk adjusted 30-day and in-hospital mortality, and tracking of late outcomes through links with Provincial Vital Statistics. Computerized data transfer to an International Registry originally provided for comparison with other leading North American and European centers and other databases. All of the province’s cardiovascular surgeons and trainees continue to be invited to an annual meeting where each hospital and its surgeons are subjected to detailed analysis. Individual identities are now coded, allowing each surgeon to evaluate their performance relative to all other surgeons in the region. After the meeting hospital Division Heads are given the codes for their members to enable remedial activities when required. Dr. Tyers is a member of 27 national, and international academic, medical and surgical associations, including several with highly selective membership criteria such as The American Surgical Society, The American Association for Thoracic Surgery, The Society for Vascular Surgery, and The Society of University Surgeons. In 1991 received a ten-year Service Award from the Society of Thoracic Surgeons, and in 2003, was awarded Distinguished Fellow status by the Society for Vascular Surgery “for distinction in the art, science and teaching of vascular surgery”. He was a Biographee in Who’s Who in America 1982 to 2002, and founding member of The North American Society for Pacing and Electrophysiology (NASPE). He was awarded an honorary membership in the Canadian Society of Cardiovascular Perfusionists, and The Association of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgeons of Asia where a frequently invited plenary speaker. Was a member of the International Scientific Committees for the XI and XII World Symposium on Cardiac Pacing and Electrophysiology; Secretary General for Canada’s bid to host the XIIIth World Symposium in 2007; a plenary speaker on Lead extraction at the 2005 meeting of the Japanese Heart Rhythm Society, Visiting professor and invited speaker on the US vs. the Canadian Health Care System (Out of the Frying Pan and into the Fire) at Columbia University’s St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center in 2009, frequent invited speaker for the Heart Rhythm Society annual meetings, most recently in 2010 and again for 2012. Dr Tyers has authored 230 scientific papers, and has published 26 books and chapters, and over 190 abstracts. He holds 11 patents in the field of cardiac pacemakers, leads, telemetry and sensing systems, which have generated millions of dollars of income for the Pennsylvania State University, and for Research Corporation a non-profit agency that supports basic science grants. Two recent patents have issued related to protecting CRMDs from RFIDs and several patent applications are in process. He recently completed a magnet mode response standard for all bradycardia and resynchronization pacing pulse generators for the AAMI CRMD Committee. He has presented at over 280 national and international meetings including invitations to speak on high-risk cardiac surgery, myocardial protection, pacing and electrophysiologic surgery, quality appraisal, the Canadian health care system, and extraction of chronic CRMD leads. Using income primarily generated through consulting and industry research project coordination, he established an endowment of over $50,000 for the Residency Training Program of the Division of CV Surgery at UBC. With his wife, endowed a UBC scholarship providing in perpetuity, an annual award of over $1,000 to assist science students from the remote East and West Kootenay regions of British Columbia attend university; and also helped fund a new study hall for UBC medical students.

Dr. Venkataramana is a highly accomplished neurosurgeon and is currently the Director of the Advanced Neuroscience Institute and Vice Chairman of BGS Hospitals. He is also the Founder of the Comprehensive Trauma Consortium (NGO) ANSA Research Foundation. Dr. Venkataramana is the President of the Indian Society for Sterotactic and Functional Neurosurgery in addition to the Chairman and/or Founder of 10 additional organizations and societies. He has performed over 15,000 operations over the past 25 years in addition to a significant track record of publishing both medical papers and book chapters. Dr. Venkataramana also contributes socially where as as Vice Chairman of BGS Global Hospital he planned and established state-of-the-art neuroscience department and trauma center. He also planned and commissioned BGS Global Hospital, spearheading the most modern hospital in Bangalore. As medical activist and thinker Dr. Venkataramana has established comprehensive pre-hospital care for accident victims in Bangalore and established communication, transportation, and networking of hospitals for trauma care. He also started paramedic training programme for nurses, ambulance personnel and police among many other contributions.

Ajay K. Wakhloo, M.D., Ph.D., F.A.H.A., is an internationally renowned Professor of Radiology, Neurology and Neurosurgery and the Director, Division Neuroimaging and Intervention (NII) in the Department of Radiology, University of Massachusetts Medical School. Prior to moving to Massachusetts, Dr. Wakhloo was a tenured Professor of Radiology, Neurological Surgery and Biomedical Engineering in the Department of Radiology at the University of Miami, Miller School of Medicine. He received his medical degree from the University of Mainz, Germany, where he also received a Ph.D. in Endocrinology and Metabolic Disorders. Dr. Wakhloo completed his Internship and Residency in Internal Medicine at the City Hospital of Wiesbaden, Medical School, University of Mainz, and continued his training in Radiology at the City Hospital of Wiesbaden as well as the University of Freiburg, Germany. He conducted a Fellowships in Neurosurgy (University of Freiburg) and Endovascular Surgery (SUNY-Buffalo), as well as Research Fellowships in Neurological Surgery (Barrow Neurological Institute) and in Neurosurgery (SUNY-Buffalo). Dr. Wakhloo has been the recipient of numerous scientific (e.g., Best Computer-assisted Exhibit at the Annual Scientific Meeting of the American Society of Neuroradiology, many Merit Awards for scientific excellence) and clinical (Best Doctors in America, 2005-2012) awards and honors. He was named a Fellow of the American Heart Association and the Stroke Council in 2009. He is a member of The Joint Section on Cerebrovascular Surgery, American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS) and Congress of Neurological Surgeons (CNS), American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS), Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), American Society of Neuroradiology (ASNR), Society of Neurointerventional Surgery (SNIS) American Society of Spine Radiology (ASSR), American Heart Association, Cardiovascular Radiology Council (AHA), American Roentgen Ray Society (ARRS) The Massachusetts Medical Society, The Eastern Neuroradiological Society (ESNR), and he is a Fellow of the International Academy of Clinical and Applied Thrombosis/Hemostasis His primary areas of focus include acute stroke therapy, isolation of intracranial aneurysms and arteriovenous malformations. He has made pioneering contributions to the development of various endovascular procedures which are now established treatments. Dr. Wakhloo has secured significant research funds from private and federal sources as a principal and co-investigator of large grants. He has served on numerous Editorial Boards and is a reviewer for more than 15 Medical Journals, has served in wide capacity on several national and international professional societies and is a member of the Medical Advisory Boards for several Pharmaceutical and Device companies. Dr. Wakhloo has consistently held positions of University and Departmental service, such as Chairman, Department of Radiology Policy Action Committee, Director, Division Neuroimaging and Intervention and Director Clinical Research in Radiology, Director, New England Center for Stroke Research, Department of Radiology which he holds currently at UMASS Medical School. He has served as a key member of national and international professional societies, through lectures, courses, workshops and symposia. He has, throughout his career, been dedicated to teaching and mentoring faculty, fellows and residents as well as supervising doctoral students and serving as a research adviser to individuals throughout their research careers. Dr. Wakhloo holds 5 US patents for vascular and neurovascular devices. He has over 500 publications, presentations and abstracts (including 2 books and approximately 200 peer reviewed articles and chapters).

S. Randolph Waldman, MD, Associate Clinical Professor, University of Kentucky, is a distinguished Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeon. Dr. Waldman received his medical degree from the University of Louisville, KY in 1976 and continued his postgraduate education with Internship at the University of Southern California (LA County), Residencies at the University of Louisville in General Surgery and the Cleveland Clinic in Head and Neck Surgery, and Fellowship at Tulane University in Facial Plastic Surgery. He is dual board certified in both Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery and in Head and Neck Surgery/Otolaryngology. Dr. Waldman is also certified by the National Board of Medical Examiners. He has been a member of the American College of Surgeons and is currently a Fellow of the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery (AAFPRS). Dr. Waldman has held numerous academic, clinical, consulting, industry and business development positions related to his specialty. For example, Dr. Waldman is a consultant/media representative for Allergan, Inc. and on the Advisory Board and/or a Consultant for Ellman International, Inc., Baxter Pharmaceutical, Biofor/Merz, and was a former consultant/instructor for Alderm, Inc. He was a Former Member of the Foundation Board, Member of the Executive Board, Vice President for Public Information, Chairman of the Program Committee and Chairman of the Public Information Committee of the AAFPRS. Dr. Waldman is widely published in his field, including original peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, abstracts and reviews. He has chaired over 30 symposia and has presented his research in facial plastic surgery extensively both nationally and internationally. Specifically, Dr. Waldman has presented over 100 scientific papers/talks at medical meetings over past 20 years on various topics including Hair transplantation, Blepharoplasty, Facelifting, Rhinoplasty, Lip Enhancement/Rejuvenation, Face and Neck Lifting. Dr. Waldman has been interviewed numerous times by national and regional media outlets (including the New York Times, Men’s Health, and NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw); he is the Founder and President of the Multi-Specialty Foundation for Facial Aesthetic Surgical Excellence. The Foundation is dedicated to multi-disciplinary education across the fields of facial plastics, plastics, oculoplastics and dermatology. As part of this Foundation, Dr. Waldman has now chaired the annual Vegas Cosmetic Surgery Symposium for the 7th consecutive year. This scientific conference combines practice management and business with the abovementioned fields, and reflects Dr. Waldman's dedication to research, clinical research, clinical development and emerging technology in the aesthetic surgery field. Dr. Waldman is also the Founder of his current state-of-the-art clinical practice, Waldman and Schantz Plastic Surgery Center, in Lexington, KY.

Stephen Warshafsky M.D. is a board certified internist in private practice and a Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine at New York Medical College in Westchester County, N.Y. Dr. Warshafsky received his medical school degree from New York Medical College in 1989, and then completed his internship and residency training in Internal Medicine at Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla, N.Y. He subsequently joined the Section of General Internal Medicine at New York Medical College as a full time faculty member from 1992 to 2003, where he spent ample time training medical students and residents in outpatient and inpatient medicine, and provided medical services at faculty practice. He also developed his skills in meta-analysis, and in the application of clinical trial and test results to individual patient care. During this period, Dr. Warshafsky collaborated with subspecialists at New York Medical College to produce high quality reviews and meta-analyses on topics such as statins for stroke prevention, antimicrobial prophylaxis for Lyme disease, and garlic therapy for cholesterol reduction. He also assisted residents and faculty members in their statistical analyses for publication, and participated in lectures and workshops on interpreting clinical trial data, on campus and at national/regional society meetings. After a decade as a full time academician, Dr. Warshafsky opened a successful solo practice near New York Medical College, where he prides himself as an all around clinician, still performing hospital rounds and medical consultation at Westchester Medical Center. He continues to teach and collaborate on research projects on a voluntary basis, and has been honored by U.S. News & World Report as one of America’s top doctors and by Castle Connolly as one of Westchester County’s top doctors.

Dr. Irving Waxman is currently the Director of The Center for Endoscopic Research and Therapeutics (CERT) University of Chicago Medical Center. He also holds academic appointments as Professor of Medicine, University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine, Professor of the University of Chicago Cancer Research Center, and Professor of Surgery, University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine. Dr. Waxman completed his undergraduate degree at the Hebrew College "Tarbut," in Mexico City, and completed Certificates in English (Cambridge University, U.K.) and Hebrew (University of Jerusalem, Israel) prior to receiving his medical degree at the Universidad Autonoma de Mexico (UNAM), School of Medicine in Mexico City. He completed his internship and residencies in Internal Medicine at the New England Deaconess Hospital, Harvard Medical School and Fellowships in Gastroenterology at Georgetown University Hospital and VAMC, Washington D.C., the Digestive Disease Branch at NIH, and Interventional GI at the Academic Medical Center, University of Amsterdam. Dr. Waxman's current hospital appointments include Associate Director of the University of Chicago Center for Gastrointestinal (GI) Oncology where he is also the Director of the Center for Endoscopic Research and Therapeutics (CERT). Dr. Waxman is a Diplomate in Internal Medicine as well as Gastroenterology. He has received numerous honors and awards throughout the years, and has been consistently listed among the "Best Doctors in America," "Who's Who in Medicine and Healthcare," " America's Top Doctors in Cancer" since 2003. This past year he was rated "Top 1% Best Doctors" according to U.S. News and World Report. He has numerous memberships, positions and committee assignments in professional societies, a few of the most recent include: appointed, Chair, ASGE International Committee, elected Fellow of the ASGE (FASGE), faculty Member, Faculty of 1000 Medicine, elected member of the Liver and Biliary (LB) Section of Nominating Committee, AGA Institute, invited member of the Technology Assessment Subcommittee, AGA Institute, appointed Vice-President for North America’s region of the SIED (Sociedad Intramericana de Endoscopia Digestiva), invited member of the Practice Management & Economics Committee, AGA Institute (2009-2012), elected member of the Scientific Committee of the SIED (Sociedad Intramericana de Endoscopia Digestiva), and appointed member of the World Institute for Digestive Endoscopy Research-Barclona N.O.T.E.S Team. Dr. Waxman's primary research interests are focused on endoscopic interventional techniques and technologies, especially as they relate to pancreatico-biliary area and stents, minimally invasive methods for diagnosis of pancreatic diseases, and high frequency ultrasound probe sonography. His clinical applications target high resolution endoscopy and its role in identifying early esophageal and colonic neoplasia, and he has been a dedicated mentor to graduate and medical students, residents, and fellows throughout his career. Dr. Waxman is a reviewer or on the Editorial Board of several journals, he has published over 225 peer-reviewed articles, chapters, reviews and abstracts and has spoken at over 225 national and international invited lectures/courses and presentations, and is currently an investigator or principal investigator on 11 grant-funded research projects. He holds three U.S. patents for a flexible surgical needle device, a technique for simplified pancreatic function test, and the method, apparatus and kit for bile or pancreatic duct endoscopy.

Paulette S. Wehner, M.D. is currently a Professor of Medicine at Marshall University Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine in Huntington, West Virginia. She currently serves as the Designated Institutional Official (DIO) and Sr. Associate Dean for Graduate Medical Education and has been involved in GME leadership for over 10 years. Dr. Wehner received her BA in Pre-Med and Psychology at the University of Notre Dame, Medical Degree from Marshall University School of Medicine where she also completed her Internal Medicine Residency, Cardiovascular Medicine and Interventional Cardiology Fellowship Training. Dr. Wehner is Board Certified through the ABIM and Subspecialty Boards in Cardiovascular Disease. Dr. Wehner’s research interests include gender differences in platelet activation and acute coronary syndrome. She has publications in journals such as the American Journal of Cardiology, Circulation, and the International Journal of Obesity and a book chapter on the Cardiovascular System for the AMA, Guides to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment in 2008. She is also an author of the yearly National Board of Medical Examiners/American College of Cardiology In-Training Examination. Teaching awards include Outstanding Clinical Lecturer from the Marshall University Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine at virtually every medical student level and the prestigious Local Legends Award through NHLBI. Dr. Wehner also participated in the Academy of Medical Educators Program at Marshall and presented her EKG Curriculum. Dr. Wehner is presently Governor, West Virginia Chapter, of the American College of Cardiology (ACC). She is also a member of the ACC’s Cardiology Training & Workforce Committee, The Women in Cardiology Council, the West Virginia ACC Council representing Marshall University and is actively involved in the State ACC meeting planning committee. She is the Medical Director of the Women’s Heart Center and Women’s Advisory Board at St. Mary’s Regional Heart Institute, a member of AHA-WV Chapter of the Health Equality Alliance Resource Team “HEART,” and the WV Cardiovascular Health Council Emergency Medicine Services Task Force through the WV Department of Health and Human Services.

Ralph Weichselbaum, M.D. (Harold H. Hines, Jr. Chair) received his undergraduate degree from the University of Wisconsin at Madison in 1967, and his medical degree from the School of Medicine at the University of Illinois at Chicago in 1971. Following a research fellowship in surgical oncology, he completed his residency at the Harvard Medical School's Joint Center for Radiation Therapy in 1975. He then joined the faculty of the Harvard Medical School, remaining a faculty member until 1984 and reaching the rank of Associate Professor in the Department of Radiation Oncology. In 1984 he was recruited as Chair of the Department of Radiation & Cellular Oncology in the Division of Biological Sciences at the University of Chicago. Dr. Weichselbaum's broad research interests range from innovative multidisciplinary clinical programs in head and neck cancer treatments, to laboratory studies of DNA recombination and repair signal transduction, gene-targeted radiotherapy, ionizing radiation and angiogenic therapy, and chemoprevention. He has received many professional awards, honors and recognition for his scientific and medical accomplishments, including the Harold H. Hines Jr. Chair he now holds at the University of Chicago; appointment as one of the only three radiation oncologists at the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences; honorary membership in the Swiss Society of Radiology; and the John B. Little Award from Harvard School of Public Health.

Ruth S. Weinstock, MD, PhD, is SUNY Distinguished Service Professor, and Division Chief and Fellowship Program Director of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism in the Department of Medicine at SUNY Upstate Medical University, Syracuse NY. She is also the Medical Director of the Clinical Research Unit and Medical Director of the Joslin Diabetes Center at Upstate Medical University. She graduated from Smith College summa cum laude with Highest Honors in the Biological Sciences, and received her MD degree from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and her PhD degree in the Department of Human Genetics and Development at Columbia University. Her training in Internal Medicine was at the Presbyterian Hospital in NYC, and fellowship training in Endocrinology and Metabolism was at the Presbyterian Hospital in NYC and Upstate Medical University. She is board-certified in Internal Medicine and Endocrinology and Metabolism. Her research focuses on the study of new approaches for the prevention and management of diabetes mellitus and its complications. This work has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and multiple industry sponsors and not-for-profit organizations. She has >140 peer-reviewed publications. Dr. Weinstock is a member of numerous professions organizations, including the American College of Physicians (fellow), the American Diabetes Association, the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists (fellow), the Endocrine Society and others. She has served on review panels for NIDDK, on the National Board of Directors and numerous committees of the American Diabetes Association, as Associate Editor of Diabetes Care and Section Editor for Endocrinology for the Mayo Clinic Proceedings, on national committees for the Department of Veterans Affairs, as well as on other national, regional and local committees and task forces related to diabetes research and improving diabetes care.

Dr. Robert A. Weiss developed an interest in medical research while an undergraduate at Columbia University, and he graduated cum laude in 1974. Dr. Weiss received his medical degree from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in 1978. Following an internal medicine internship and then one year of radiology residency, Dr. Weiss completed a dermatology residency in 1983 at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He served as a research fellow at the National Institutes of Health before entering private practice. Dr. Weiss is an Associate Professor of Dermatology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Dr. Weiss’ interest and teaching activity in venous disease and dermatologic surgery led to his election to the Board of Directors and ultimately President of the American College of Phlebology. He has served as President of the American Society for Dermatologic Surgery and is presently serving on the Board of ASLMS. He has served on the Board of Directors of the International Society for Dermatologic Surgery. Dr. Weiss has provided dermatology surgery board questions as a past member of the Test Committee for the American Board of Dermatology. Dr. Weiss practices cosmetic dermatology and phlebology at the Maryland Laser, Skin, and Vein Institute where numerous clinical trials on new lasers and pharmaceuticals are conducted. He has conducted trials on botulinum toxins, fillers and dozens of other new anti-aging treatments including lasers and light sources. Dr. Weiss was board certified as a Diplomate of the American Board of Dermatology in 1983, and is a Fellow of the American Society for Dermatologic Surgery, the American Academy of Dermatology, and the American Society of Lasers in Medicine and Surgery. He has also served on numerous committees of the ASDS, AAD and ASLMS. Since 1993, Dr. Weiss has served as Associate or Contributing Editor for the Journal Dermatologic Surgery. He also serves on the Editorial Board for Lasers in Surgery and Medicine. Dr. Weiss is the author of over 150 publications, including dozens of textbook chapters and four textbooks. He has been invited speaker for hundreds of worldwide scientific presentations. Dr. Weiss’ present research consists of evaluation of various lasers and light sources for the treatment of photoaging, vascular lesions and pigmented lesions as well as fillers and botulinum toxins. He has helped to develop new methods of non-invasive varicose vein treatments, lasers for blood vessels and initiated new methods of reversing photoaging by lasers and light sources. His newest project is developing better methods for laser lipolysis.

Jonathan S. Weiss, MD is an assistant clinical professor of Dermatology at the Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia. He also practices at Gwinnett Dermatology, PC, and Gwinnett Clinical Research Center, Inc., in Snellville, Georgia, just outside of Atlanta. Dr. Weiss earned his medical degree from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, where he also served as chief resident in the dermatology department. Clinical dermatology remains the focus for Dr. Weiss, as he maintains a full-time medical, surgical, and cosmetic practice. In addition, he oversees an active clinical trial unit studying a wide range of dermatologic conditions and pharmaceutical compounds, having been an investigator in over 180 studies. He has authored or co-authored over 55 publications in medical and dermatology journals, including JAMA, Pediatric Dermatology, the International Journal of Dermatology, the Journal of Drugs in Dermatology, and the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology. He has maintained an active clinical and research interest in psoriasis, topical and systemic retinoids, photodamage, actinic keratosis, skin cancer, acne, rosacea, infectious diseases, and cosmetic dermatology since the mid-1980s. He is a past president of the Atlanta Dermatological Association and the Georgia Society of Dermatologists, and fulfills a position on the Board of Trustees for the Dermatology Foundation. He is also a member of the American Academy of Dermatology, the American Medical Association and the Medical Association of Georgia.

Vanessa N. Weitzman, M.D., completed her undergraduate work at Boston University in Boston, Massachusetts, where she received a Bachelor of Arts in Medical Sciences in the accelerated seven-year medical program with a minor in Archaeology. Dr. Weitzman received her medical degree from Boston University School of Medicine. She completed her residency training in Obstetrics and Gynecology at St. Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston, New Jersey. Most recently, she completed her subspecialty training in Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility at the University of Connecticut Healthcare Center in Farmington, Connecticut. Dr. Weitzman is also a Voluntary Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Florida International University. As an infertility specialist, Vanessa N. Weitzman, M.D., has experience in the areas of in vitro fertilization, diminished ovarian reserve and advanced laparoscopic surgery. She is also interested in the preservation of future fertility and oocyte cryopreservation (e.g., for patients with breast cancer). She has been involved in research involving factors affecting oocyte cryopreservation and in vitro maturation. Vanessa N. Weitzman, M.D., joined IVF Florida Reproductive Associates in October 2008 after completing her subspecialty training in Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility at the University of Connecticut Health Center, Center for Advanced Reproductive Sciences in Farmington, Connecticut. She is a member of the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology as well as the American Society of Reproductive Medicine and she is board certified in OBGYN and Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertily. She has received a number of prestigious honors and awards, and has published and presented her research widely in her field.

Dr. Wright received a PhD in Immunology from Stanford University School of Medicine in 2001, and an MD in 2002. His graduate work was in stem cell biology in the laboratory of Irving Weissman. During residency in Internal Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, he decided to pursue a career in teaching of clinical medicine. Dr. Wright has been a member of the Inpatient Clinician Educator Service in the Department of Medicine at MGH since its inception in 2005. His academic work is focused on rational utilization of medical testing, consultative medicine, and physical diagnosis. Dr. Wright is on the editorial board of the Journal of Hospital Medicine and is editor of \"Chalk Talks\", which is a monthly feature of \"SGIM Forum\".

David Wright qualified in Medical Physics before medicine and then surgery and started research into venous disease in 1985, initially at Charing Cross Hospital, publishing papers on venous disease epidemiology, measurement of venous function and the management of legs ulcers using the 4 layer compression bandage. He established a clinic dedicated to treating varicose veins where between 1992 and 2000 more than 5000 patients underwent surgical treatment. In 2000 he joined BTG (Provensis) to develop Dr Juan Cabrera’s patented microfoam sclerosant concept. During the last 10 years he has lead the research both clinical and non-clinical into Varisolve™ polidocanol endovenous microfoam (PEM). In recent years he has published and presented on the presence of polidocanol on the surface of bubbles, the impact of bubbles in the cerebral circulation and the prevalence of right to left shunt in varicose vein patients. Over the last 2 years he has lead the medical aspects of an integrated program of Phase 3 clinical trials with the objective of successful approval of PEM with the FDA.

Mark L. Wulkan, M.D. is a Professor of surgery and pediatrics in the Emory University School of Medicine. He is also Surgeon in Chief at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. Dr. Wulkan received his Medical Degree at Emory University School of Medicine in 1989. He did his residency in General Surgery at the University of Miami / Jackson Memorial Hospital Medical Center, and a fellowship in Pediatric Surgical Critical Care at Pittsburgh Children’s Hospital. He is a member of numerous professional societies, and has widely published scholarly research in his field. Dr. Wulkan established Emory’s adolescent bariatric surgery program. He also has introduced the concept of minimally invasive surgery to his colleagues across disciplines including orthopaedics, cardiothoracic surgery and urology.He has received a number of prestigious awards; Dr. Wulkans areas of interest include pediatric minimally invasive surgical techniques, endosurgical education, and medical informatics.

Bill Yee, M.D., the Medical Director of Reproductive Partners Medical Group, Inc., started the In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) program at Long Beach Memorial Medical Center in 1986. Dr. Yee is internationally recognized for his expertise in the field of Reproductive Medicine. His work resulted in the first successful frozen embryo transfer resulting in a healthy baby in the United States. Dr. Yee is well known for his expertise in microsurgical, laparoscopic, and hysteroscopic surgical techniques. He is the lead author of Transvaginal Sonography in Infertility and co-authored Atlas of Gynecological Surgery. His pioneering IVF work also produced the first frozen embryos in the lowland gorilla. Recently, he completed a three year term on the Board of Directors of The American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM), the national and international leader in multidisciplinary information, education, advocacy and standards in the field of reproductive medicine. Dr. Yee also served on the RESOLVE National Board of Directors. RESOLVE is the National Infertility Association, established in 1974, dedicated to providing education, advocacy and support to men and women facing infertility issues. Dr. Yee's commitment to quality IVF care has led to the positions of President of the Society for Reproductive Technology (SART), Deputy Commissioner of the College of American Pathologists (CAP) for Reproductive Laboratory Accreditation, and Director of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine. Numerous publications have recommended him as one of this country's top doctors, including Ladies' Home Journal, Good Housekeeping, and Top and Best Doctors in America. He is the longest sitting member on the Executive Council of SART, since 1994. Dr. Yee also co-founded the Pacific Rim Society for Fertility and Sterility.

Dr. Yu is one of the leading radiation oncologists in China. He is President of the Shandong Cancer Hospital and Professor of the Department of Radiation Oncology. His professional appointments include positions in Shandong, Harvard University and Eastern Virginia Medical School. Dr. Yu completed his residency and graduate studies at the Shandong Cancer Hospital and Institute in China after he completed medical school at Weifang Medical School. His clinical interest is focused on high precision radiotherapy of selected tumor entities. His research interest is image guided radiation therapy and target definition of lung cancer. He is an active academic teacher and sits on multiple editorial boards. He has published well over 60 peer-review papers as first or last author.

Craig H. Zalvan, M.D., F.A.C.S., is currently the Medical Director of the Institute for Voice and Swallowing Disorders at Phelps Memorial Hospital Center in Sleepy Hollow, New York. He is an associate professor in Otolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery at New York Medical College / Westchester Medical Center, where he is also the Residency Coordinator. Dr. Zalvan has hospital appointments at Westchester Medical Center and Phelps Memorial Hospital. Dr. Zalvan obtained his undergraduate degree at Brandeis University, and went on to obtain his medical degree at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. His post graduate education included training at New York Hospital, Department of Surgery. His Otolaryngology training was at Manhattan Eye, Ear, and Throat Hospital, and New York Presbyterian Hospital, which included training at Memorial Sloan Kettering, St. Lukes/Roosevelt Hospital, and Lenox Hill Hospital. His Laryngology Fellowship training was with Dr. Andrew Blitzer at Roosevelt Hospital in New York City. A Board certified Laryngologist with specialty training in voice and swallowing disorders, Dr. Zalvan’s areas of expertise include benign vocal fold disorders, neurolaryngology, vocal fold paralysis, spasmodic dysphonia, pediatric voice and swallowing disorders, the aging voice, adult swallowing disorders, laryngopharyngeal reflux disease, chronic cough and laryngeal cancer. Dr. Zalvan has a particular interest in the professional voice user, including singers, actors and other professional speakers. Dr. Zalvan has participated as an investigator in multiple research studies at New York Medical College, Dana Farber Cancer Institute, and Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He serves and has served on various committees, including his current position on the Medical Executive Committee at Westchester Medical Center. He is involved in community outreach in his field, both in and out of the United States. Most recently, he participated in a Surgical Mission in Ecuador entitled “Healing the Children.” He is involved in numerous professional societies including The American Laryngological Association, The American Broncho-Esophagological Association, The New York Laryngological Society and the Blitzer Society. Dr. Zalvan is a diplomat of the Board of American Board of Otolaryngology. Dr. Zalvan has been named “Top Doctor” by Westchester and New York Magazines for each of the last six years. Dr. Zalvan has presented and published extensively in his field.

Joseph D. Zuckerman, M.D., is the Walter A.L. Thompson Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery at New York University (NYU) School of Medicine and Chairman of the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at NYU Hospital for Joint Diseases (HJD). Dr. Zuckerman graduated from Cornell University and received his medical degree from the Medical College of Wisconsin and was elected for membership in the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Society. He completed a residency in orthopedic surgery at the University of Washington Affiliated Hospitals, a fellowship in adult reconstructive surgery and arthritis research at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and was a visiting clinician in shoulder surgery at the Mayo clinic. Dr. Zuckerman recently served as President of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS), the world’s largest professional orthopaedic association. He has also served as President of the American Shoulder and Elbow Surgeons, and Chair of the Council on Education for the AAOS. He has received the “Teacher of the Year Award” five times from HJD orthopaedic residents, and in 2011 he was selected as a recipient of the Distinguished Teaching Award from New York University. He serves on the editorial boards of several medical journals and has authored 14 textbooks, 81 book chapters and over 300 scientific articles. Dr. Zuckerman maintains an active clinical practice in shoulder surgery and hip and knee replacement, performing over 300 procedures annually. He is married to Janet Rivkin Zuckerman, Ph.D., a clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst practicing in Mamaroneck, New York. They have two sons – Scott, age 26, a resident in Neurosurgery at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and Matthew, age 23, an architect living in New York City.