Session 4: Cardiovascular Issues and other comorbidities

Speakers: Roger Schutgens, Bruna Gigante, Alison Dougall

Bruna Gigante is associate professor of Cardiovascular Epidemiology at Karolinska Institutet and senior consultant in cardiology at Karolinska University Hospital in Stockholm, Sweden. Since many years, she has been doing clinical and cardiovascualr epidemiological research, leading and contributing to studies aimed to discover genes and biomarkers to disentangle the individual predisposition to atherothrombosis published in high ranked journals. She is chair elect of the working group on Thrombosis of the European Society of Cardiology and participates in a regional expert group on anticoagulant treatment.

Roger Schutgens is a Consultant Haematologist at the University Medical Centre Utrecht. His main responsibilities include care, research and education in the area of benign haematology and clotting diseases. Prof. Schutgens is the Head of the Van Creveldkliniek, an international expertise center for rare and inherited benign haematologic disorders, thrombosis and haemostasis. He holds a position at the steering board of Child Health at the UMC Utrecht. He is chair of the EAHAD European Glanzmann Thrombasthenia Working Group. Prof. Schutgens areas of focus include patients predisposed to bleeding, congenital abnormalities of platelets and hypercoagulable conditions and he has published over 270 peer reviewed articles.

Alison Dougall is Dean of the Dental Hospital at Trinity College Dublin and Director of the clinical doctorate programme of Special Care Dentistry. She is a Consultant in Medically Compromised Dentistry with a research interest in bleeding disorders, inclusion health, disability and ageing. She has led the dental service at the National Centre of Coagulation in Dublin for the last 20 years and was the dental subject expert on the most recent WFH Comprehensive Care Guidelines. She has over 50 peer reviewed publications and in 2017 she won the Irish Health Leaders Award for her work designing dental care pathways for people with bleeding disorders. In 2022 she won the John Tomes medal of the Royal College Of Surgeons of England for the global influence and reach of her work. She is a member of the ERIN network of the EHC and a honorary life member and fellow of the International Society of Disability and Oral Health.