Diane Ávila graduated in Medicine at the UNESA, Brazil (2013). Clinical doctor, cardiologist and researcher. She completed her Master's degree in Cardiovascular Sciences at the Fluminense Federal University (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 2016). Currently, she is a coinvestigator in the APOLLO B trial, is a coordinator of the amyloidosis center CHN-DASA and a PhD student in heart failure. Dr. Ávila´s research interests include systemic amyloidosis, chronic heart failure, cardiomyopathies, biomarkers, cardiometabolism and COVID-19.
Humberto Villacorta Junior graduated in Medicine at the Federal University of Pará, Brazil (1987). He completed his Master´s degree in Cardiovascular Sciences at the Fluminense Federal University (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 1998) and his PhD in Cardiology at the University of São Paulo (São Paulo, Brazil, 2002). He completed his MBA in Health Management at the Fundação Getúlio Vargas in 2015 (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil). He attendeda Preceptorship on Heart Failure at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School (Boston, USA, 2016) and a Preceptorship Program on Heart Failure at the Hospitals San Carlos, Ramón y Cajal and Puerta de Hierro (Madrid, Spain, 2017). A Fellow of the European Society of Cardiology and of the Brazilian Society of Cardiology. He is a Founding Member of the Heart Failure Department of the Brazilian Society of Cardiology (DEIC). He was the President of the Heart Failure Department, Rio de Janeiro Society of Cardiology (2001-2002 biennium) and is currently the Scientific Director since 2016. He is the Editor of the Biomarker Section in the recently launched Arquivos Brasileiros de Cardiologia, Heart Failure and Cardiomyopathies . He is a member of the Editorial Board of the journal Arquivos Brasileiros de Cardiologia since 2014 and a member of the group responsible for the Brazilian Heart Failure Guidelines (2005, 2012, 2018, and 2021). Prof. Villacorta has been the leader in the cardiology biomarker field in Brazil. He was the first author to publish on natriuretic peptides in Brazil and gave an outstanding contribution to the introduction of such biomarkers in clinical practice. He has served as coinvestigator in the EVEREST trial and in the registries REPORT-HF and ADHERE Registry in Latin America. He has published over 80 articles in medical journals. Currently, he is an Associate Professor of Cardiology at the Fluminense Federal University, working with undergraduate and graduate courses, in the areas of teaching and research. Prof. Villacorta´s research interests include chronic and acute heart failure, cardiomyopathies, biomarkers, bioelectrical impedance vector analysis (BIVA), cardiorenal syndrome, and COVID-19.
