Prof Maria Dorobanţu is professor of Cardiology at the University of Medicine and Pharmacy Carol Davila Bucharest, Romania, and head of the Cardiology Department of Clinical Emergency Hospital, Bucharest. She has a special interest in the assessment and treatment of acute heart failure (HF). She has been principal investigator in the the phase III RELAX-AHF and RELAX-AHF-2 trials as well as SENIORS and BEAUTIFUL trials. These trials regard the effects of the new agent serelaxin in the patients with acute HF. Between 2008 and 2014 she was member of CPC of ESC, Group of Hypertension.Prof Marco Metra is professor of cardiology at the University of Brescia and directs the Institute of Cardiology of the University and Civil Hospital of Brescia, Italy. Prof Metra has been principal investigator and member of the Executive or Steering Committees of many trials in patients with HF. His research is focused on HF: β-blocker therapy, cardiopulmonary exercise testing andthe assessment and treatment of acute HF. Prof Metra is also member of the Executive Committee or data Monitoring Committee of many major trials regarding the treatment of HF. As board member of the HF Association (HFA) of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) from 2001 to 2008, He has been a member of the ESC’s Committee for Practice Guidelines (years 2004–8), and has been co-chair of the 2008 meeting of the HFA of ESC, held in Milan in June 2008. Prof Frank Ruschitzka is head of the HF and Transplantation Clinic at the University Hospital in Zürich, Switzerland. He specialized in internal medicine, nephrology and cardiology at the Universities of Göttingen and Zürich. In 2003, he was awarded the annual Götz-Preis of the Medical Faculty of the University of Zürich for excellence in clinical medicine and research. He is the President Elect of the HF Association of the ESC. Professor Ruschitzka's research interests focusses on delineating novel targets and therapies in coronary artery disease and HF.
