CORVITA SCIENCE FOUNDATION - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Certified Advanced Practice Nurse
Carrie Brown is a board certified Advanced Practice Nurse, with fifteen years of experience in cardiology and ten years of experience in electrophysiology. She received her bachelor's degree in nursing from the University of Michigan in 2005, and her master's degree in nursing from Rush University in 2009. Carrie has worked at several renowned academic medical centers during her career and has been working alongside our physicians at CorVita Health & Associates since 2016. In addition to nursing, she works as a preceptor and teacher for advance practice nursing students at Rush University. More recently, Carrie has taken on the role of research coordinator at The CorVita Science Foundation.
Gregory Macaluso, MD, is the Council Chair of Advanced Heart Failure for CorVita Science Foundation (CSF).
Gregory P. Macaluso is an expert in the treatment of advanced heart failure, mechanical circulatory support and cardiac transplantation. He currently serves Heart Care Centers of Illinois as the Medical Director of Heart Failure, Mechanical Circulatory Support and Cardiac Transplantation and is the Program Director for the Advanced Heart Failure and Cardiac Transplant Fellowship at Advocate Christ Medical Center.
Dr. Macaluso's clinical interest include determination of candidates for advanced heart failure therapies, working with a team of Cardiologists and Cardiothroacic Surgeons to manage patients with advanced heart failure and left ventricular assist devices, and performing imaging studies on such patients. Dr. Macaluso's research interest include understanding the implantation strategy and management of patients who have biventricular heart failure and the use of remote monitoring devices for patients with heart failure.
Dr. Macaluso is board certified in Internal Medicine, Cardiovascular Disease, Advanced Heart Failure and Transplant Cardiology, Nuclear Cardiology and Adult Echocardiography.
Job Titles:
- President of the Board of Directors
A former chief of cardiology at a top-tier academic medical center, he is a respected teacher, mentor and academician who has authored and co-authored many articles in esteemed scientific journals. Dr. Burke is a national and international authority in cardiac electrophysiology, with emphasis on the basic mechanisms and clinical applications of cardiac defibrillation. His clinical research interests encompass the treatment of cardiac arrhythmias through intracardiac device and radiofrequency catheter ablation techniques, including atrial fibrillation and ventricular tachycardia, and laser removal of therapeutic devices for cardiac arrhythmias.
Nalini Rajamannan, MD, is the Council Chair of Valvular Disease for CorVita Science Foundation (CSF).
Nalini Rajamannan, MD, is an expert in valvular heart disease, echocardiography and risk factors for cardiovascular disease including lipid disorders and hypertension. She currently serves as the Medical Director at Sacred Cardiology where her goal is to work with patient's personal physician to provide outpatient consultative specialized cardiology services in the fields of valvular medicine, primary and secondary prevention of heart disease. Dr. Rajamannan collaborates with several providers for inpatient hospital testing in the greater Wisconsin area, including Bellin Hospital, Green Bay, WI, and in the city Rochester, Minnesota at Mayo Clinic.
Dr. Rajamannan is a US citizen, born in Minnesota and her Christian faith guides her actions. She received a Catholic education from grade school through college. She completed her undergraduate studies with high honors from the University of Notre Dame, South Bend, IN. Her Medical Degree comes from Mayo Medical School in Rochester MN. Her studies of the heart began in 1987. She trained in Internal Medicine and Cardiology and went on to complete post graduate training in Level III Echocardiography at the Mayo Clinic. She combined her post graduate clinical training with three years of research as a Fellow on the Mayo Clinic's National Institute of Health Research Training program in Cardiovascular Diseases. She maintains her Board Certification in Cardiovascular Disease for the American Board of Internal Medicine.
Dr. Rajamannan has already made a significant impact on the national and international levels as a lecturer on the molecular biology of valvular heart disease. In addition, her research has been acknowledged by the National Institute of Health's (NIH) Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, where she was the Chair of the working group of Valvular Heart Disease (click here).
Her research and clinical interest focus on valvular heart disease, specifically aortic stenosis and mitral regurgitation; use of echocardiography to diagnose and treat valvular heart disease; and evaluating risk factors that are important in the progression of these diseases. She has authored several book chapters and two books in the field of valvular heart disease. One recently published book is the scholarly work Cardiac Valvular Medicine. She also serves on editorial boards, and has published seminal papers in the field of valvular heart disease.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
- Secretary of Treasury
Dr. Ramana specializes in coronary diagnostic and interventional procedures. His special interests include percutaneous therapies for valvular disease, including Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement (TAVR). Currently, he serves as the Medical Director of the Multi-disciplinary Valve Program at Advocate Christ Medical Center and is a lead investigator on a number of national research trials evaluating these newer therapies. Dr. Ramana has published in peer-reviewed original manuscripts and two comprehensive book chapters in cardiovascular medicine textbooks. He has served as faculty and presented at national cardiovascular meetings including TCT, AHA, and SCAI.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
- Member at Large
Dr. Knops is a world renown electrophysiologist whose professional activity revolves around training the next generation of cardiac electrophysiology scientists in the field of cardiac implantable electronic device development and progress. Dr. Knops is a staff scientist in Cardiology at the University of Amsterdam practicing within the Academic Medical Center. His expertise is recognized world-wide and his peer review scholarly activity is highly regarded and significant in the field.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
- Member at Large
Dr. Brouwer recently defended successfully his thesis: S-ICD: The New Kid on the Block and has begun his clinical training in internal medicine and cardiology at the University of Amsterdam Academic Medical Center. Dr. Brouwer has broad interests beyond his thesis and has been peer recognized for his metanalyses and epidemiology work in cardiovascular disease and prevention. Dr. Brouwer is a natural team builder and accomplished scientist. His current scholarly pursuits involve predictive analytics in medication adherence and pattern recognition in electrocardiography.