Professors Kim Fox and Sir Magdi Yacoub receive top honours - <em>News</em>

By Laura Gallagher
Friday 13 October 2006

Two Imperial cardiology experts from the National Heart and Lung Institute were honoured at the World Congress of Cardiology in Barcelona in September.

Kim Fox , Professor of Clinical Cardiology, was elected President of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC), which represents more than 45,000 cardiology professionals across Europe and the Mediterranean. Its mission is to reduce the impact of cardiovascular disease in Europe.

Professor Fox is interested in all aspects of clinical cardiology. He is particularly interested in the investigation and management of patients with angina, stable angina, and acute infarction.

Heart transplant surgeon Sir Magdi Yacoub   (pictured), Professor of Cardiothoracic Surgery, was awarded the prestigious Gold Medal of the ESC for his contributions to cardiology. Sir Magdi has performed more transplants than anyone else in the world. In 1986, he became the first person ever to carry out a 'domino' operation, installing a new heart and lungs into one patient whose original heart was then transplanted into another patient.

As well as performing surgery, Sir Magdi has also led research into many areas of cardiology including a study looking at organ rejection after transplantation and work to produce a tissue-engineered aortic heart valve.

Professor Sir Magdi said: "It is a great honour as well as a humbling experience for me to receive the Gold Medal of the European Society of Cardiology. I am conscious of the great privilege of being able to work for cardiac surgery, which entails being so close to the community both locally and globally as well as to science. For all that, I remain in awe."

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