Lars Rydén is Senior Professor of Cardiology at the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden. He is Dr h.c. at Katowice University, Poland, and Honorary Member of the Royal College of Physicians, UK and of several European Cardiac Societies.
Prof. Rydén was the President of the Swedish Cardiac Society and chaired the Scientific Board of the Swedish Heart Lung Foundation. He was the President of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC), and served on the board of the World Heart Federation. He chaired ‘Alert’ (a system for identification and early assessment of new methods in healthcare) for the Swedish Council on Technology Assessment in Health Care.
He specializes in internal medicine and cardiology, focusing on arrhythmias, cardiac pacing, heart failure and diabetes-related cardiovascular disease. He has published around 700 scientific papers.
Prof. Rydén has chaired numerous expert groups in collaboration with the ESC and European Commission and, on their behalf, he chaired the group that produced the European Heart Health Charter and The Chronic Disease Alliance – A Unified Prevention Approach. Prof. Rydén chaired the Task Forces of the 2007 and 2013 ESC/European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) Guidelines for Diabetes, Prediabetes and Cardiovascular Disease.
Dr. Cheng is an Endocrinologist at Trillium Health Partners and Unity Health Toronto and an Associate Professor at the University of Toronto.
She has been involved with the development of the Diabetes Canada clinical practice guidelines since 2003 and served as Chair for the 2013 version. Currently, she is the Chair of the Professional Section of Diabetes Canada and an Associate Editor for the Canadian Journal of Diabetes.
In recognition of her contribution, she has received the national Charles H. Best Award and the Gerald S. Wong Service Award from Diabetes Canada. She is also the creator of The Med Ed Pledge – an initiative to increase Diversity & Inclusion in continuing medical education (www.theMedEdPledge.com).
Dr. Kevin Saunders is a family physician in Winnipeg. He completed his medical training at the University of Manitoba in 1985 and has practiced in Winnipeg since then. In addition to his family medicine practice, he is also the medical director of The Wellness Institute at Seven Oaks General Hospital and the Medical Director of the Middlechurch Nursing Home.
Dr Saunders has participated in extensive phase III clinical trial research with new pharmaceutical agents over the past thirty years. His special interest areas include diabetes, hyperlipidemia, and vascular diseases (both primary and secondary prevention).
At the Wellness Institute he was involved in developing the cardiac rehab program and the diabetes education programs. Dr Saunders has a special interest in family physician CME and has been extensively involved in CME development and facilitation over many years. Dr Saunders is a past president of the medical staff at Seven Oaks General Hospital, a past chair of the Section of Family Practice of Doctors Manitoba, and a past president of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Manitoba.
