About Us: Scientific Advisory Team

	Maurice Buchbinder, M.D., Board Member After graduating medical school from McGill University in Montreal, Canada, Dr. Buchbinder moved to Stanford University where he began his fellowship training in cardiovascular medicine, helping to pioneer the field of interventional cardiology. He has been involved in the development of many devices now used routinely in the practice of interventional medicine. His interest for many years has focused on improving the treatment and outcomes in patients with coronary artery disease. More recently Dr. Buchbinder began a series of innovations in the percutaneous treatment of various valve conditions, looking for effective alternatives to the more invasive open heart surgery. Dr. Buchbinder has been the founder of many successful start-up companies. He has served on the scientific advisory boards of several companies. He brings to MiCardia a unique set of skills and clinical experience along with a deep understanding of the economics in medical start-ups.
	Francis Shannon, M.D. Dr. Shannon is a cardiovascular surgeon with a private practice in southeastern Michigan. Dr. Shannon graduated from Mount Sinai School of Medicine and is a Diplomat of the Boards of General and Thoracic Surgery and an active member of the Society of Thoracic Surgery, American College of Surgeons, American College of Cardiology and the Michigan Society of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgeons. He is a consultant to industry in the development of new products and techniques for cardiac surgery. He is the author of numerous publications in cardiovascular and general surgery, as well as a clinical reviewer for the Annals of Thoracic Surgery. Dr. Shannon is the Principal Investigator in clinical research projects, a member of the steering committee for the Michigan Quality Initiative in Cardiac Surgery, and has been actively involved in Medtronic's Peer-to-Peer training program in mitral valve repair and surgical maze techniques since 2002.
	Ottavio Alfieri, M.D. Ottavio Alfieri is Professor and Chairman of the Department of Cardiac Surgery at the San Raffaele University Hospital in Milan, Italy. His main area of interest is reconstructive surgery of heart valves. He developed the “edge-to-edge” technique for mitral valve repair and the “clover” technique for treatment of tricuspid regurgitation in selected patients. He has contributed to the design of prosthetic rings created to correct functional mitral regurgitation.
	Patrick McCarthy, M.D. Dr. McCarthy is chief of the Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery and co-director of the Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute at Northwestern University. Dr. McCarthy has achieved national and international recognition in the field of complex adult cardiac surgery. He has performed several thousand heart operations, averaging 450 per year. A professor of surgery at the Feinberg School of Medicine, Dr. McCarthy has distinguished himself as both a clinician and researcher in the field of cardiac surgery. He has authored or co-authored more than 300 papers and 30 book chapters. Dr. McCarthy developed the Edwards three-dimensional annuloplasty system for the repair of tricuspid regurgitation. He also recently modified this three-dimensional design concept to develop a ring to repair the mitral valve.
	Steven L. Almany, MD,FACC Dr. Almany is the Corporate Vice Chief of Cardiology at William Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, Michigan. He is an interventional cardiologist and a partner of the Michigan Heart Group. Dr. Almany has been the Principle Investigator for many clinical trials and sits on the Scientific Advisory Board of many medical companies which include Accumed/Innovante, Onset and Sadra. Dr. Almany is a clinical consultant for the Abernathy Group and Longitude Capital. He also has served as a Scientific Advisor to Pequot Capital. Dr. Almany holds two US patents and has authored numerous publications as well as chapters in frequently cited important medical journals and books.
	Nicholas Lembo – Interventional Cardiology, Invasive Cardiology Dr. Lembo is currently an invasive and interventional cardiologist with Piedmont Heart Institute at Piedmont Hospital. He is the medical director of the Interventional Cardiology Center of Excellence at Piedmont Heart Institute. Dr. Lembo received his medical degree from Howard University College of Medicine in 1980 and was inducted into Alpha Omega Alpha in his junior year. He completed his internship and residency at Georgetown University Hospital in 1983. His fellowship in cardiology was at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio, with an additional year of fellowship in interventional cardiology at Emory University, ending in 1987. Dr. Lembo then joined the faculty at Emory University and was co-principal investigator of the NHLBI funded Emory Angioplasty vs. Surgery Trial (E.A.S.T.) and received the prestigious J. Willis Hurst Award for Excellence in Teaching for three consecutive years. He is board certified in internal medicine, cardiology, and interventional cardiology. He is a Fellow of the American College of Cardiology. Dr. Lembo has authored over 50 papers and abstracts including lead authorship in the New England Journal of Medicine, Circulation, American Journal of Cardiology, and Annals of Internal Medicine.
	Stefan Verheye, M.D., Ph.D., F.E.S.C. Stefan Verheye, M.D., Ph.D., has been on the Staff as a Senior Interventional Cardiologist at the Antwerp Cardiovascular Institute, ZNA Middelheim Hospital, Belgium since 2000; having previously worked in Aachen, Germany, Aalst, Belgium and as a Visiting Interventional Cardiologist at the Andreas Gruentzig Cardiovascular Center, Emory University Hospital, Atlanta, Georgia, USA and as Affiliate Scientist, Division of Molecular Medicine for Yerkes Regional Primate Research Center of Emory University. He is a Fellow of the European Society of Cardiology, and is a member of the Belgian Working Group on Interventional Cardiology and the European Association of Percutaneous Cardiovascular Interventions. Dr Verheye has taken an active role in evaluating new treatment modalities in interventional cardiology. He has sat on 'pre-clinical' and 'clinical' advisory boards and served as Principal Investigator in many of the ground-breaking studies in the areas of new technology, including Drug Eluting Stents, Intravascular Radiation, Vulnerable Plaque, Stem Cells and Percutaneous Valves. In addition to his rigorous clinical practice he has also written over 80 peer-reviewed journals, seven book chapters, over 100 abstracts and presented at many International meetings including EuroPCR, ACC, ESC, TCT and AHA. Dr. Verheye graduated from Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium, and received his PhD at the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Antwerp, Belgium.