Eduardo M. da Cruz is the Associate Medical Director of the Heart Institute, Head of the Pediatric Cardiac Critical Care Program and Director of the Cardiac Intensive Care Section and Inpatient Services at Children's Hospital Colorado, University of Colorado Denver, School of Medicine. He has had an international life career in Portugal, Costa Rica, France, United Kingdom, Switzerland and the United States of America. He trained in Medicine and then in Pediatrics at the Universidad de Costa Rica and the Hospital Nacional de Niños in San José, Costa Rica, and then pursued a fellowship in pediatric cardiology and intensive care in Paris, France (Hôpital Necker-Enfants Malades, Université René Descartes-Paris V- La Sorbonne). After completing his training, Eduardo stayed in Europe as an attending physician until 2007, when he joined the cardiovascular team at Children's Hospital Colorado in Denver, USA, where he currently holds the title of Tenured Professor of Pediatrics, Pediatric Cardiology & Intensive Care. He has close to 30 years of experience in the medical and perioperative management of neonates, children and young adults with complex congenital or acquired heart disease, including heart transplant, mechanical assistance and quality improvement, safety, clinical effectiveness, stewardship, and crew resource management. He is actively involved in clinical and translational research and teaching in the fields of pediatric cardiology and cardiac intensive care, has delivered close to 300 international lectures, and is a reviewer for 28 peer-reviewed journals, and the Editor or Co-Editor of eight CICU textbooks, including the reference entitled Pediatric and Congenital Cardiology, Cardiac Surgery and Intensive Care (Springer-Verlag UK), a major textbook and e-book/e-reference with 6 volumes and close to 4000 pages (Editor-in-Chief) and the first Textbook dedicated to the Intensive Care of Adults with Congenital Heart Disease (Editor-in-Chief). He has published 80 book chapters and more than 100 manuscripts in peer-reviewed journals. He is the Emeritus Founder of the Working Group on Pediatric Cardiac Intensive Care of the Association for the European Pediatric and Congenital Cardiology (AEPC), Past-Chair and founder of the Section on Pediatric and Congenital Cardiac Intensive Care & Mechanical Circulatory Support of the European Society of Pediatric and Neonatal Intensive Care (ESPNIC), a former Board Member of the Congenital Domain of the European Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery (EACTS), member of the Society of Pediatric Research (SPR), the European Society of cardiology (ESC) and of multiple other international Societies. Eduardo da Cruz is also an Expert Reviewer for the European Commission Horizon 2020 Project, and the President and Chair of the Board of Surgeons of Hope Foundation, a United Nations-affiliated Non-Governmental Organization based in New York, USA. In 2019, he was the recipient of the American College of Cardiology Distinguished Service Award.
Dr. Dunbar Ivy began his medical career at Tulane University School of Medicine following his premedical studies at Davidson College. While at Tulane, he became excited about a career in Pediatric Cardiology under the mentorship of Dr Arthur Pickoff. He then obtained training in General Pediatrics at the University of Colorado School of Medicine in Denver, Colorado. Early mentors in Pediatric Cardiology included Drs. Michael Schaffer and Henry Sondheimer. Interest in altitude related illness and pulmonary hypertension in congenital heart disease were fostered by Dr Robert Wolfe on the clinical side and Drs Steve Abman and John Kinsella in the fetal sheep laboratory while a fellow in Pediatric Cardiology at the University of Colorado. Following fellowship, he became a research instructor under the guidance of Dr Mark Boucek, who encouraged him to pursue a career as a clinician scientist. During his time as a Bugher fellow, he obtained early grants from the March of Dimes and American Heart Association regarding the role of endothelin in the perinatal pulmonary circulation. This work transitioned into a National Institutes of Health K-08 award to continue to study molecular derangements in the endothelin pathway in models of pulmonary hypertension. In 2003 Dr Ivy took the position of Chief of Pediatric Cardiology and Selby's Chair of Pediatric Cardiology. His research focus became more clinical and translational. As Director of the Pediatric Pulmonary Hypertension Program, he began early clinical studies of medical therapy in children, including the use of intravenous epoprostenol, subcutaneous treprostinil, and oral bosentan. He began to work with Dr Robin Shandas regarding measurement of right ventricular afterload in children with pulmonary hypertension in an NIH sponsored Specialized Centers of Clinically Oriented Research grant headed by Dr Kurt Stenmark. Further work on ventricular vascular coupling has continued with NIH funding. Dr Ivy was the inaugural Chairman of the first Pediatric Pulmonary Hypertension taskforce at the World Symposium of Pulmonary Hypertension in Nice, France in 2013. Dr. Ivy is a member of multiple societies, and has published over 250 peer reviewed manuscripts.
Dr. James Jaggers was born and raised in Western Nebraska. He completed medical school at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha Nebraska. He then completed General Surgery at the Oregon Health Sciences University in Portland Oregon and Thoracic Surgery training at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in Denver, where he also completed a Pediatric Cardiac Surgery Fellowship at The Childrens Hospital In Denver. From there, his first Faculty position was as assistant professor of Surgery at Duke University Medical Center where he rose to the rank of Associate Professor with tenure and Chief of Pediatric Cardiac Surgery and Director of the Duke Pediatric Heart Institute. During his time as chief of Pediatric Cardiac Surgery at Duke, Dr. Jaggers directed the pediatric cardiovascular surgery laboratory and mentored many research fellows. He was principal and co-principal investigator on two basic Science NIH grants and one Pediatric Heart Network NHLBI sponsored multicenter study. In 2010, Dr. Jaggers moved to the University of Colorado and Children's Hospital Colorado where he is now the Barton Elliman Chair of Congenital Cardiac Surgery and Professor of Surgery. Dr. Jaggers's Clinical focus is in all areas of Congenital Cardiac Surgery including complex neonatal repairs, single ventricle surgery, heart transplantation and surgery for connective tissue disorders. He has special interest in quality, safety and effective care for children. He is also the program director for the University of Colorado's Congenital cardiac surgery training program. His research interests include Stem cell delivery to improve heart function in children with complex congenital heart disease, and laboratory research in investigation into the protein signaling of aortic stenosis and uncompensated cardiac hypertrophy and myocardial dysfunction. Dr. Jaggers is a member of multiple Societies, and has published over 140 peer reviewed manuscripts, published 30 book chapters and is a reputed national and international educator and lecturer.
