Prof Iris Baumgartner is a specialist in Internal Medicine and Angiology with extensive expertise in endovascular therapy for the treatment of both arterial and venous diseases, as well as vascular malformations. She holds several certifications, including in Interventional Angiology and Radiation Protection in Angiology. 

Prof Baumgartner is an active member of the International Society for the Study of Vascular Anomalies. Born in Niedersachsen, Germany, 62 years ago, she has worked in various countries such as Ireland, Germany, and the USA, enriching her understanding of diverse healthcare systems. 

After completing her medical studies at the Hannover Medical School in 1986, she moved to Switzerland, where she pursued her career in angiological research and treatment. 

Prof Baumgartner served for 28 years at the University Hospital Bern, including as Chair of Vascular Medicine and Full Professor. In recent years, she has led the development of a specialised centre for vascular malformations, emphasizing individualized patient care in a collaborative, interdisciplinary environment. 

Her clinical research spans multiple aspects of vascular disease and intervention, contributing significantly to the field through more than 350 publications.

France

Fabien Lareyre is Consultant and Head of the Department of Vascular and Endovascular Surgery at the hospital of Antibes, south of France.

His research focuses on the applications of Artificial intelligence in Vascular Surgery and his pioneering works in the field were rewarded by an Academic Award of the French National Academy of Medicine and by a Prize of Excellence from Université Côte d’Azur (France).

He is fellow of the European Society for Vascular Surgery (ESVS) and he is the French representative of VASCUNET, and Committee member of the European Research Hub.

Member of the French and European Society of Vascular and Endovascular Surgery, he presented at national and international conferences and achieved more than 150 publications accepted in scientific and clinical peer review journals. He is Associate Editor of the EJVES VF and board member of the EJVES, Seminars in Vascular Surgery and the Journal of Endovascular Therapy.

Dr Lobato has been a Vascular and endovascular Surgery Consultant in Hospital Universitario de Cruces (Bilbao-Spain) since 2010. Her Department is considered a first line Unit in the Endovascular management of CLTI (particularly in the BTK-BTA segments). She developed her Vascular Fellowship Programme in Hospital Universitario Doce de Octubre (Madrid) and thereafter completed her training with short stages in Hospital du Nord St Etienne (France), Universitäs Spital Zurich. (Switzerland), St Franziskus Hospital Münster (Germany). For the last ten years her activity has been mainly focused on the endovascular treatment of the lower limb, routinely performing complex CTO revascularizations, including any sort of bidirectional access, transcollateral approaches, plantar loop or venous arterialization. She is also a reviewer of the Critical Limb ischaemia Journal, Journal of Endovascular Therapy and Annals of Vascular Surgery since 2024. Her Unit has presented multiple communications in well recognized international symposiums and has published many papers in first line journals of her speciality.

Dr Rhee is an international leader in the treatment of complex aortic diseases. He has extensive experience in both direct surgical and endovascular management of complex abdominal, thoracic and thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysms and dissections. He has been involved with, and has led, significant vascular device trials since 1995  (at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center) and continues to bring state-of-the-art technologies to residents of Brooklyn and NYC (since 2012) by offering the latest minimally-invasive treatment options not generally offered at most local hospitals, including: fenestrated and branched graft aortic endovascular repair. He is the director of the Maimonides Medical Center Aortic Center. Dr Rhee has published over 120 articles in leading journals and textbooks on the topic of vascular and aortic diseases. He has lectured in over 20 countries, while serving on and leading various national committees in the Society for Vascular Surgery, Eastern Vascular Surgery (EVS), and the New York State Society of Vascular Surgery (NYSVS). He has served at the President of NYSVS and EVS.  He serves as both the institutional and national lead investigator of several clinical research trials including his role as the National PI of the recent USA IDE clinical trial on the Gore EXCC endoprosthesis.