ESVC Oral Abstract Presenters Bio

ESVC-O-1
Giovanni Grosso

Giovanni Grosso – DVM, PhD student
Giovanni Grosso graduated with honours (110 cum laude/110) in 2019 in Veterinary Medicine from the University of Pisa with a thesis on "echocardiographic classification proposal of mitral valve disease in dogs". He had a student traineeship at Teaching Hospital of the University of Pisa where it took part in the Cardiology Service, Internal Medicine Service and Emergency and Intensive Care Unit. He had a visiting period at the AlbaVet Clinic of Glasgow (Scotland) in 2015, a visiting period at the Anicura Istituto Veterinario Novara between 2019, 2020 and 2022, and a visiting period at the Department of Cardiology of the Colorado State University, Virginia Tech and the Ohio State University in 2023. In November 2020 he started the PhD program in Veterinary Cardiology at Department of Veterinary Sciences at the Teaching Hospital of the University of Pisa with a project on “cardiac remodeling in dogs with right heart diseases: clinical aspects and new echocardiographic parameters”. He is the author and co-author of publications in national and international journals and has been author and co-authors of poster presentation and oral presentation at international congress.

ESVC-O-2
Sorawit Phetariyawong

I graduated from the faculty of veterinary science at Mahidol University, Thailand in 2018. I worked at a private veterinary hospital for 3 years. I worked at Chulabhorn Royal Academy, Thailand in 2021 and I got a scholarship from this institute. I started a Ph.D. study at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences in Sweden in 2022.

ESVC-O-3
Maria Josefine Reimann

ESVC-O-4
Marine Lekane

I graduated from the University of Liege in 2018.
In the same university, I completed a rotatory internship, a specialised internship in Cardiology and I am currently in my last year of residency in Cardiology. In parallel, I am doing a PhD on pulmonary thromboembolism in dogs."

ESVC-O-5
Meg Sleeper

Meg Sleeper VMD graduated from the University of Pennsylvania veterinary school cum laude and completed a rotating internship in medicine and surgery at Mid-Atlantic Equine Medical Center. After becoming board certified in cardiology, she worked in the section of cardiology at Penn until 2015 when she became a clinical professor of cardiology at the University of Florida veterinary school. She has published numerous papers including over 80 peer reviewed original papers, over 50 review papers or case reports, and 4 text books. Primary research interests include inherited heart diseases, in particular inherited cardiomyopathies, comparative cardiology and therapeutic gene transfer. She is on the editorial or review board of 11 journals and has served on the research (2008-2011 and 2019 to the 2022) and examination (2005-2008) committees for the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine (Cardiology).

ESVC-O-6
Rachel Carter

Rachel graduated from the Royal Veterinary College, London in 2018 and then worked as a small animal first opinion vet for almost 4 years. She undertook a Junior Clinical Training Scholarship Rotating in Small Animal Studies at the University of Cambridge between June 2022 and June 2023, before beginning a cardiology internship at Cheshire Cardiology.

ESVC-O-7
Francesca Edgerton

Francesca graduated from the Royal Veterinary College in 2020 and spent 2 years in general practice. She completed a Rotating and Cardiology internship at The University of Ediburgh and will begin her Cardiology Residency in September 2023.

ESVC-O-8
Altin Cala

Dr Altin CalaDVM, MRCVS, ECVIM-CA Cardiology Resident Altin graduated with distinction from the University of Tirana (Albania) in 1997.Altin obtained the accreditation of his veterinary degree by the University of Milan in 2003 and has worked as a general practitioner since. He has always nourished a strong interest in small animal cardiology and has been actively involved with the Italian Association of Veterinary Clinical Ultrasonographers as a co-founding member and advisor of their scientific committee. Altin has also been actively involved with the Italian group of feline HCM screening.Altin joined Specialist Veterinary Cardiology Consultancy in November 2020 to undergo a 1-year rotating internship in United Kingdom and he is now an ECVIM-CA resident in cardiology.

ESVC-O-9
Mengmeng Liu

Dr.Mengmeng Liu received her bachelor’s degree of veterinary medicine in China Agricultural University in 2008. During her undergraduate study, she developed a strong interest in small animal cardiology. In 2009 she went to the University of Edinburgh, UK and she did her PhD and post-doctoral there in canine mitral valve disease research. In 2016, she passed the MRCVS exams and qualified as a veterinary surgeon in the UK. From 2017-2019, she did a MVM program in cardiology at the University of Glasgow, where she gained advanced clinical training in small animal cardiology and also began to investigate novel biomarkers for feline cardiomyopathy. After finishing her MVM degree, she shortly worked at CVS Firstvets Bearsden in Glasgow city till late 2019. In 2020, she became a faculty of Veterinary Medicine Department, College of Animal Sciences and Technologies at Hainan University, China. Currently she is lecturing veterinary clinical courses for both undergraduate and postgraduate students. In the meantime, she is also active in training and supporting local veterinarians as well as giving lectures at national veterinary conferences in China. Her research interest is small animal cardiology, particularly in biomarker research for canine mitral valve disease and feline cardiomyopathy.

ESVC-O-10
Kursten Pierce

Kursten Pierce is an Assistant Professor in Cardiology at North Carolina State University. Following her cardiology residency at Tufts University she completed a two-year fellowship in interventional cardiology at Colorado State University. Her interests include teaching, diagnosis and management of congenital heart disease, exotics cardiology, cardiac biomarkers, and minimally-invasive fluoroscopically guided interventions.

ESVC-O-11
Joao Escalda

Joao graduated from the University of Lisbon, Portugal, in 2014. He moved to the UK in 2017, where he first completed a rotational internship, followed by a cardiology internship. In 2021 he became an RCVS Advanced Practitioner in veterinary cardiology. He is currently a second-year resident in veterinary cardiology at Cambridge University.

ESVC-O-12
Sarah Rogg

ESVC-O-13
Giovanni Romito

He graduated cum laude in 2010 from the University of Bari, where he subsequently obtained a 3-year degree of Specialization. Concurrently, he completed a Rotating Internship at the Istituto Veterinario di Novara referral center, during which he found out his passion for Internal Medicine and, particularly, for Cardiology. He continued his training in this field by completing a Specialty Internship (Cardiology) at the same institution. This was followed by a PhD program focused on Cardiology at Department of Veterinary Medical Sciences (DIMEVET) of the University of Bologna and a Master at the Department of Cardiac, Thoracic and Vascular Science and Public Health of the University of Padova. Subsequently, he completed a Residency in Cardiology under the European College of Veterinary Internal Medicine shared between the Universities of Bologna and Zurich, becoming a Cardiology Diplomate in 2021. In 2020 he also obtained the National Scientific Habilitation for Associate Professor (sector 07/H4). Since 2014 he works at the DIMEVET carrying out clinical, teaching and research activities mainly related to cardiology, currently as Senior Assistant Professor. During his training, Dr. Romito has spent scientific updating periods in Europe and USA. Moreover, he has been speaker at national and international scientific meetings, including congresses, seminars and University Masters, and author and reviewer of scientific publications, including book chapters and peer-reviewed papers.

ESVC-O-14
Sophie Goodrich

Sophie graduated in 2020 from the Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, the University of Edinburgh, followed by work as a small animal general practitioner in London. In 2022 she began a rotating internship at North Downs Specialist Referrals in Surrey, before starting a cardiology internship at the same institution. In the future she hopes to pursue a cardiology residency.

ESVC-O-15
Viktor Szatmari

ESVC-O-16
Wei-Tao Chang

Wei-Tao (Joey), Chang was born and raised in Taiwan. He obtained his DVM degree from National Taiwan University in 2021. Joey has received an award for residency training and clinical research from TACS-Alliance Research Center and is currently a second-year resident (PGY2) in Small Animal Respiratory Medicine/Integrated Cardiorespiratory Care. He is enrolled in a training program under the categorical training track (small animal internal medicine with a focus on subspecialty respiratory and cardiovascular medicine) at National Taiwan University Veterinary Hospital and allied specialty networks. He also participates part-time in a research project supported by National Science and Technology Council, Taiwan. His particular research interests include pulmonary function tests, clinical trials, echocardiography, and therapeutics of respiratory disease in dogs and cats. Outside of work, he loves to spend his spare time with his two dogs, Ralphie and Lumi, and is inspired daily by them.

ESVC-O-17
Tommaso Vezzosi

Dr. Tommaso VezzosiDVM, PhD, Diplomate ECVIM-CA (Cardiology)He graduated in 2011 in Veterinary Medicine from the University of Pisa (110/110 with honors). He completed a rotational internship at the Clinica Veterinaria Malpensa in 2013. In 2014 he carried out a specialist internship in cardiology at the Istituto Veterinario Novara. From 2015 to 2017 he carries out a PhD in veterinary cardiology at the University of Pisa. In 2016 he began an alternative ECVIM-CA residency program in cardiology, in collaboration with the Istituto Veterinario Novara, and he obtained the diploma ECVIM-CA (cardiology) in 2022. He now works as assistant professor at the Department of Veterinary Sciences of the University of Pisa.He attended the cardiology departments of the Virginia Tech University (USA), Bristol University (UK), Ohio State University (USA), University of Murcia (ES) and Royal Veterinary College (UK) as a professional update. He is author and co-author of scientific papers published in international peer-reviewed journals, and he is also active as speaker and instructor in national and international veterinary courses.

ESVC-O-18
Sheena Wong

Sheena Wong is a veterinary cardiology resident at Atlantic Coast Veterinary Specialists. She graduated in 2015 from the Ontario Veterinary College. After graduation, she worked for a few years in emergency medicine, general practice and shelter medicine. In June 2021, she completed a small animal rotating internship at the University of Saskatchewan.

ESVC-O-19
Anne Ernestine Van de Watering

Anne van de Watering graduated in Veterinary Medicine from the University of Utrecht in 2007, and she then worked in private practice during the following 16 years. She also followed two postgraduate courses to become a certified technician in human echocardiography in 2016 and in general heart function in 2018, which allowed her to work during 6 years as ultrasonographer in the cardiology department of 't Lange Land Hospital in Zoetermeer, the Netherlands. Since 2021 she is a ECVIM-CA (cardiology) resident at the University of Utrecht.

ESVC-O-20
Chris McLaughlin

I am originally from Woostock, New Brunswick, Canada.  I attended the Atlantic Veterinary College, followed by an Internship at the Ontario Veterinary College.  I completed a residency in Emergency and Critical Care from North Carolina State University in 2016, before moving to South Florida to practice in two, large referral hospitals.  During my time as a Director of Emergency and Critical Care, I developed a passion for minimally invasive interventional procedures.  This led me to undertake a second residency in Cardiology at North Carolina State University, which I will complete in July 2023.

ESVC-O-21
Alba Climent-Pastor

My name is Alba Climent-Pastor.I graduated in 2015, from the University of Murcia (Spain).  During 2016-2018, I completed two rotating internships in Spain, the fist one in a private hospital and the second one, in the Veterinary Teaching Hospital Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona (UAB). After both internships, I performed several externships in referral hospitals (Spain and UK) and I worked as a general veterinary surgeon in Spain and later in UK during 1 year. I am currently finishing the second year of cardiology internship with the aim of starting a cardiology residency this year.

ESVC-O-22
Viktor Szatmari

ESVC-O-23
George Kramer

Dr. George Kramer completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Maryland in College Park, MD, where he graduated with honors. After completing a master’s program in molecular biology at Northeastern University in Boston, MA., he entered Tufts University Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine in Grafton, MA, where he earned his Doctorate of Veterinary Medicine Degree in 1986. In 1985-1986 he also served as Physiology Teaching Fellow at Harvard University in Cambridge, MA. After earning his DVM degree, Dr. Kramer completed an internship in small animal medicine and surgery followed by a residency in cardiology and internal medicine at The Animal Medical Center in New York City. Dr. Kramer is board-certified as a Diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine in the specialty of cardiology. He is the founder and medical director of Atlantic Coast New York Veterinary Specialists in Bohemia, NY, where he also serves as Program Director of the ACVIM-approved Cardiology Residency Program. He is also founder and chief operating officer of Ultravet Mobile, a veterinary mobile ultrasound provider and Ultravet Medical Devices. He has professional interests in clinical cardiology, interventional cardiology, internal medicine, and medical device development. In addition to his busy practices, Dr. Kramer has served as ultrasonographer for the Bronx Zoo and Coney Island Aquarium and was appointed Fellow of the Wildlife Conservation Society. New York Magazine has listed Dr. Kramer among the best veterinary cardiologists in the NYC metro area. Dr. Kramer has lectured locally, nationally and internationally including annual forums of the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine, International Symposia of the Veterinary Emergency and Critical Care Society, VIRIES, Veterinary Professional Quest Conferences, Atlantic Coast Veterinary Conferences, Western States Veterinary Conference, Tianjin Agricultural University, Tianjin, Peoples Republic of China, Westchester-Rockland Veterinary Medical Association, New York City Veterinary Medical Association and Long Island Veterinary Medical Association. He has published groundbreaking research on cardiomyopathy, novel interventional techniques and valve disease.

ESVC-O-24
Elisabetta Boz

Dr Boz graduated in July 2015 at the Department of Veterinary Medical Sciences of the University of Bologna.
Before graduating, she completed a four-month internship in the surgery and internal medicine department at the Center Hospitalier Vétérinaire Fregis (Arcueil, France).
In October 2015 she moved to Milan to carry out a six-month period of post-graduate rotational internship at the Clinica Veterinaria Gran Sasso. In May 2016 she starts a one-year period of specialist internship in veterinary cardiology under the guidance of Dr. Claudio Bussadori.
She currently collaborates with the Clinica veterinaria Gran Sasso as a cardiologist and contributes with the preparation of didactic and scientific material for courses and conferences. She is author and co-author of international papers and speaker at national and international conferences.
Since March 2021, she began a residency program in veterinary cardiology under the supervision of Dr Bussadori.