Dr Allan Jaffe
Dr Allan Jaffe is a graduate of the University of Maryland School of Medicine. He received his house staff and Cardiology training at Washington University and continued there for 24 years, rising to the rank of Professor of Medicine and Director of the Coronary Care Unit. He then moved to the State University of New York where he was Chair of the Cardiovascular Division, Associate Chair of Medicine for Academic Affairs, and Professor of Medicine. After four years he moved to Mayo Clinic where he is presently Professor of Medicine in the Department of Cardiovascular Medicine and Professor of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, and the Wayne and Kathryn Preisel Professorship for Cardiovascular Disease Research. He is a noted authority on biomarkers of cardiac injury, inflammation, hemodynamic disturbance, and coagulation and particularly their clinical utility. He has published a large number of original manuscripts, book chapters, reviews, and sits on most of the prestigious editorial boards and guideline committees in the Cardiology and Clinical Chemistry communities. He has been a principal for the Universal Definition of MI group. He has received a distinguished teaching award from the American College of Cardiology and an IFCC award for contributions to cardiovascular diagnostics. He was selected as a Mayo Clinic Distinguished Alumnus in 2025.
Prof Catherine Ross
Professor Catherine Ross is the Chief Scientific Officer for Scotland
Catherine is a Chartered Scientist and Chartered Biologist and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology, the National Institute of Prevention and Cardiovascular Health in Ireland and the European Society of Cardiology, and Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists and the Academy for Healthcare science. She is a Visiting Professor at Edinburgh Napier University, Manchester Metropolitan University, Ulster University and Honorary Research Consultant in NHS Lothian. Catherine is a non-executive director of the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust, Northern Irelands largest health trust.
Catherine holds a number of senior leadership positions Nationally and Internationally. She is the current President of the Science Council, the awarding body of Chartership in Science, having previously held the role of Vice-Chair of the Board and Chair of the Policy Advisory Committee. She has previously served as the President of the Professional Body for Cardiac Scientists. Catherine is currently a Board member of the Association of Cardiovascular Nursing and Allied Professions within the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) and is the Chair of Allied Professionals National Societies Committee and Chair of the European Society of Cardiology Taskforce on Allied Professionals. She represents Scotland on the International Federation of Medical and Biological Engineering (IFMBE) Board and is a member of the International (IFMBE) scientific programme committee. In recognition of her work supporting women leaders has been an invited delegate for the UK UN Women delegation on the UN Commission on the Status of Women.
Dr Freddy Thurston
Dr Freddy Thurston is a Clinical Research Fellow at the University of Edinburgh, studying for a PhD. in Cardiovascular Sciences. His research focuses on harnessing the potential of the data captured during NHS care to improve the diagnosis of acute cardiovascular conditions, ranging from the contemporary epidemiology of myocardial infarction to optimisation of acute care pathways with novel biomarkers and machine learning techniques. He is supported by a British Heart Foundation Clinical Research Training Fellowship. When not at his laptop, he can usually be found on his bike or up a mountain.
Tonje R. Johannessen
Tonje R. Johannessen, MD, PhD, is a postdoctoral researcher and university lecturer at the Department of General Practice, Institute of Health and Society, University of Oslo. Since 2016, her research has focused on emergency primary care, with particular emphasis on acute coronary syndromes, high‑sensitivity cardiac troponin assays, biomarker‑based diagnostics, and rapid strategies to improve chest‑pain assessment outside the hospital. She also works clinically as a senior primary care physician at the emergency primary care clinic in Oslo.
Johannessen completed her medical degree at the University of Oslo in 2011 and her PhD in 2022, where the ESC 0/1‑hour algorithm for hs‑cTnT was validated in an emergency primary care cohort (OUT‑ACS study). She is now the project manager for the Norwegian multicentre OUT‑POC study, which introduces a 0/1‑hour rule‑in/rule‑out protocol using the TriageTrue hs‑cTnI point‑of‑care assay in emergency primary care.
Viola Thulin
Viola Thulin, MD, is an emergency medicine resident at Haukeland University Hospital and a PhD candidate at the University of Bergen. Her doctoral research examines the clinical implementation and impact of point-of-care high-sensitivity cardiac troponin testing in the emergency department, based on the WESTCOR-POC randomised controlled trial. Her research interests centre on emergency department efficiency and clinical decision-making in patients presenting with chest pain. She also serves as Chair of the Norwegian National Committee for Residents in Emergency Medicine.