Alexander Cohen is a Vascular Physician and Epidemiologist at Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospital, King’s College, London, UK. Dr Cohen graduated with honours in Medicine and honours in Surgery from the University of Melbourne, Australia, and became a fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians in 1990. He was awarded an MSc in epidemiology from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, University of London, in 1991 with a thesis on the metabolic syndrome in South Asian populations. In 1998, he was awarded an MD with a thesis on the epidemiology of venous thromboembolism and thromboprophylaxis. He is a Fellow of the European Society of Cardiology and a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians.

In addition to his clinical work, teaching and thesis supervision and examining, Dr Cohen is involved in designing, managing and analysing clinical trials from Phase I to IV. He is recognised internationally for his pioneering research in several areas. He is the Chairman and a member of many international steering committees for multicentre trials, epidemiological and pharmacoeconomic studies, and was previously the Director of Clinical Research and an epidemiologist in thrombosis research at King’s College Hospital.

Dr Cohen has written and co-authored over 550 publications and is on the editorial board of several journals. He has over 40 publications in The Lancet and New England Journal of Medicine, as well as over 50 publications in British Medical Journal, Blood, Circulation, Annals of Internal Medicine, JAMA Internal Medicine, Journal of Thrombosis and Haemostasis, and Thrombosis and Haemostasis.

Steven B. Deitelzweig, MD, MMM, FACC, SFHM, FACP, RVT currently serves as the system chairman for hospital medicine and medical director of regional business development at Ochsner Health System in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. He is a Professor of Medicine of the Ochsner Clinical School with the University of Queensland. He is a senior fellow of the Society of Hospital Medicine, fellow of the American College of Cardiology, and a fellow of the American College of Physicians.

Dr Deitelzweig is chairman of the Society of Hospital Medicine’s Key Characteristics Working Group, president of the Gulf States Hospitalist Society, and has served on the Board of Directors for the Society of Hospital Medicine, Anticoagulation Forum and Accreditation Management Board of the American College of Cardiology. He is also a House of Delegates representative to the American Medical Association and Chair-Elect for the Accreditation Oversight Committee of the ACC.

An extensive lecturer, Dr Deitelzweig has presented regionally, nationally and internationally on a variety of topics, such as heart failure, deep venous thrombosis, pulmonary embolism, acute coronary syndrome, atrial fibrillation, and anticoagulation. An accomplished author, he has over 100 abstracts and over 75 peer-reviewed publications. He serves on the editorial board for Hospitalist News and ACP Hospitalist, and is a reviewer for the Journal of Hospital Medicine, Chest, and Thrombosis and Hemostasis. In addition, he has been a principal investigator or sub-investigator on numerous clinical trials.

Jeff Healey is a Cardiologist/Electrophysiologist and Professor of Medicine at McMaster University. He is Yusuf Chair and Director of Cardiology at McMaster University. He is the chair of the Canadian Stroke Prevention and Intervention Network (CSPIN) and past chair of the Canadian Atrial Fibrillation guidelines committee. He is also on the steering committee of the international AF Screen organization.

Dr. Healey was the lead author of the ASSERT trial that demonstrated the increased stroke risk associated with sub-clinical atrial fibrillation (New England Journal of Medicine 2012), and the principal investigator of the ARTESiA trial, which demonstrated that anticoagulation with apixaban reduced the risk of stroke in patients with sub-clinical atrial fibrillation (New England Journal of Medicine 2023). He is also the principal investigator of the LAAOS-4 trial, evaluating the role of left atrial appendage occlusion on top of NOAC therapy for prevention of stroke in high-risk individuals with atrial fibrillation.