Download Prof. Karen Sliwa, MD, PhD, FESC, FACC is the Director of the

Prof. Karen Sliwa, MD, PhD, FESC, FACC is the Director of the Hatter Institute for
Cardiovascular Research in Africa (www.hatter.uct.ac.za), University of Cape Town and
Director of the Soweto Cardiovascular Research Unit (www.socru.org), University of the
Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.
In addition she holds is a Professorial Fellow at both the Baker Institute, Melbourne, Australia
and at the Population Health Research Institute, McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada.
Professor Karen Sliwa has been extensively involved in creating worldwide awareness of
Peripartum Cardiomyopathy, one of her main areas of clinical and pathophysiological
research.
Recent progress in understanding underlying pathophysiology enabled by novel
experimental approaches, together with a unique international effort to join forces between
Western countries and developing countries, has led to great progress in awareness and
management of the disease In order to coordinate efforts even better, a Study Group,
‘Peripartum Cardiomyopathy’, of the Heart Failure Association of the European Cardiac
Society, chaired by Prof. Karen Sliwa and Prof. B. Pieske, was formed in 2009. A Position
Statement, highlighting the need for larger awareness worldwide was published in 2010. A
large Registry on Peripartum Cardiomyopathy was approved by the European Cardiac
Society and will commence 2012 in the ESC countries and affiliated regions.
Karen Sliwa has, together with her long-term collaborator, Prof. Simon Stewart, Head
Preventive Cardiology, Baker IDI, Melbourne, Australia, established a population study in
Africa called the ‘Heart of Soweto Study’ to investigate the prevalence, presentation and
management of cardiac disease in an urban African population. This study, on more than
8000 patients, highlighted the high prevalence of hypertension, obesity and cardiac disease
in women of childbearing age. She has recently expanded her population studies ( under the
umbrella of the ‘Heart of Africa studies’) to other African countries, including Mozambique,
Nigeria, Tanzania, Kenya and Sudan. She has designed a number of innovative research
programs and leveraged funding for several major research projects, not only in South Africa
and the rest of Africa, but also internationally.
Karen Sliwa serves on a number of editorial boards and is also an editorial consultant to ‘The
Lancet’. Furthermore, she is the Chairperson of the South African Heart Failure Society
(Hefssa; www.hefssa.org), which was established under her leadership 2005. She also has
been elected serving on the research committee of the World Heart Federation.