COP-AF

David Conen

Scientist

David Conen is a Scientist at PHRI, which he joined in 2016, and an Associate Professor, Department of Medicine, McMaster University. A trained internist and cardiologist from Basel, Switzerland, he obtained a Master of Public Health degree from Harvard University.

His research activities involves the conduct of large epidemiological cohort studies to study risk factors for the occurrence of atrial fibrillation and its consequences, and research into therapies to prevent and treat perioperative atrial fibrillation. David is the Co-Principal Investigator of a large national cohort study to assess the relationship between atrial fibrillation and cognitive decline in Switzerland (Swiss-AF). He has published more than 130 peer-reviewed manuscripts in leading scientific journals as well as several reviews and editorials.

Tina Stegmann

Research Fellow

Tina Stegmann is a Research Fellow at PHRI supervised by PHRI scientist David Conen. Her main research activities at PHRI will focus on the prevalence and distribution pattern of vascular brain lesions and correlating cognitive function in patients with atrial fibrillation compared to patients with high cardiovascular disease burden. A comparative analysis of large clinical trials in collaboration with the study team of the COMPASS-MIND trial is planned. Tina will also be involved in international perioperative clinical trials coordinated from the PHRI (COP-AF and ASPIRE-AF).

Tina obtained her medical degree from the University of Leipzig, Germany in 2017 and is a cardiology resident at the University Hospital Leipzig, Department of Cardiology since 2018.

Her previous work focused on the relationship between heart failure and the comorbidity atrial fibrillation, such as telemedical non-invasive interventions in patients with chronic heart failure compared to usual care. Tina mainly contributed to the Investigator-initiated German study addressing the mechanisms of Sacubitril-Valsartan on heart failure hemodynamics by using noninvasive pressure-volume analysis. Tina is involved in multicenter clinical trials as an investigator.

Michael Wang

Research Fellow

Michael Ke Wang is a Research Fellow at PHRI and an MSc student in the Health Research Methodology Program at McMaster University, supervised by Dr. David Conen. His main interests are in perioperative medicine and perioperative atrial fibrillation. Michael is actively involved in the conduct of large international perioperative clinical trials coordinated from PHRI; he is the project officer of the COP-AF and ASPIRE-AF trials.

Michael is a Clinical Scholar in the Division of General Internal Medicine at McMaster University. He obtained his medical degree from the University of Ottawa and completed his internal medicine residency, general internal medicine fellowship, and perioperative vascular training at McMaster University.

Jessica Vincent

Program Director

Jessica Vincent has more than 15 years’ experience in coordinating and managing large, international clinical trials. As Associate Program Manager, she oversees interventional trials, registries, and observational research studies in the areas of perioperative medicine, cardiac surgery, and digital health.

She holds an Honours Bachelor of Science Degree from Queens University, and a Master of Clinical Epidemiology Degree from the University of Newcastle.