Dr. Joseph Rogers

Texas Heart Institute President and Chief Executive Officer Joseph G. Rogers, MD, is a cardiologist and an Adjunct Professor in the Division of Cardiology at Duke University. He is an internationally recognized and widely published thought leader in heart failure, heart transplantation, and mechanically assisted circulation. Dr. Rogers will lead the development of CorInnova’s First-in-Human Trial Protocol.

Dr. George Letsou

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George Letsou, MD, Advisory Board Member, is Professor of Surgery in the Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery at the Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas.  Dr. Letsou graduated with a BA from Harvard University, received his medical degree from Columbia University and completed his residencies in general and cardiothoracic surgery at Yale- New Haven Hospital.  Dr. Letsou served on the medical school faculties at Yale University and the University of Texas, where he was tenured Professor of Cardiac and Vascular Surgery, before rejoining the Baylor College of Medicine as Professor of Surgery.

Dr. William Abraham

Dr. William T. Abraham, MD, FACP, FACC, FAHA, FESC is the independent member of the joint Wellcome Trust - CorInnova Research Steering Group (RSG). Dr. Abraham is director of the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine and a professor of internal medicine, physiology and cell biology at The Ohio State University Medical Center. He also serves as deputy director of Ohio State’s Dorothy M. Davis Heart and Lung Research Institute. Dr. Abraham is an internationally known researcher in heart failure. Dr. Abraham has received grants from the National Institutes of Health, the American College of Cardiology, etc. and has participated as principal investigator in more than 100 multicenter clinical drug and device trials. In addition to authoring more than 600 original papers, abstracts, book chapters and review articles, Dr. Abraham also co-edited Heart Failure: A Practical Approach to Treatment, a leading textbook on heart failure.

Dr. Susan Alpert

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Susan Alpert, Ph.D., M.D. is a member of CorInnova's Board of Directors and Advisory Board.  Dr. Alpert is currently the principal of SFA Regulatory, LLC.  She was Corporate Senior Vice President for Global Regulatory at Medtronic, Inc. and prior to that VP Regulatory Science at C.R. Bard, Inc. She previously worked at the US FDA where she held a variety of management positions in the Centers including Director of the Office of Device Evaluation for seven years. She completed her undergraduate degree at Barnard College, Columbia University in New York City, and is a Pediatric Infectious Disease clinician with a PhD in Medical Microbiology from NYU and an MD from the University of Miami, she has experience in laboratory research and clinical trials.

Dr. Daniel Burkhoff

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Dr. Daniel Burkhoff, MD, PhD, is Senior Scientific Advisor to CorInnova. He is Director of Heart Failure, Hemodynamics and Circulatory Support at the Cardiovascular Research Foundation Clinical Trials Center.  Dr. Burkhoff is the creator of the Harvi simulator, an interactive application that gives healthcare providers a better understanding of the fundamentals of hemodynamics. It was designed to help educate physicians at all levels of traning on hemodynamics and to assist them in predicting the effects of different therapies, as well as aid in patient selection for new device therapies. Dr. Burkhoff has extensive hands-on experience with many cardiac assist technologies, including a prior generation of direct cardiac compression devices.   Dr. Burkhoff is an Adjunct Associate Professor of Columbia University, former Vice President Medical Science of HeartWare, and former Chief Medical Officer of CircuLite (next-gen LVAD company) and Cheetah Medical.

Dr. William Cohn

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William E. Cohn, MD, CorInnova’s former Senior Clinical and Surgical Advisor and now informal advisor and RSG participant, is an internationally known cardiac surgeon, a medical device inventor, and serial entrepreneur.  In particular, Dr. Cohn has extensive experience with other passive cardiac support devices that contact the heart surface. Dr. Cohn was formerly Director of the Center for Device Innovation at J&J Innovation.  Prior to that, he was at Texas Heart Institute (THI) as the Director of  Technology and Innovation and Director of the THI Cullen Cardiovascular Research Laboratory. He is a Professor of Surgery at Baylor College of Medicine.  Dr. Cohn conducted CorInnova’s series of nine preclinical studies at the Texas Heart Institute in a model of acute heart failure.