Philippe van de Borne is Professor of Cardiology at the Université libre de Bruxelles (HUB-Erasme). He completed a Fogarty Fellowship at the National Institutes of Health (USA), where he conducted research on autonomic dysfunction in heart failure. His current work focuses on cardiovascular prevention—including diabetes, hypercholesterolemia, obesity, hypertension, and thrombosis—and on cardiac rehabilitation. A former President of the Belgian Working Group on Cardiovascular Prevention and Rehabilitation of the Belgian Society of Cardiology, he has authored or co-authored 294 publications (H-index 60), received several international awards, and is actively involved in European and Belgian cardiology and hypertension societies.

Christophe L. Dubois, MD, PhD.

Christophe Dubois was born on October 12, 1970, in Rocourt, Belgium. He is married with three children. He received his MD from the Katholieke Universiteit of Leuven in 1995 with magna cum laude.

From 1995 to 1998, Prof. Dubois was a fellow in internal medicine at the Imelda Hospital of Bonheiden and at the Gasthuisberg University Hospital of Leuven. From 1998 to 2001, he completed a fellowship in cardiology at the Sint Jan Hospital of Genk and at the Gasthuisberg University Hospital of Leuven, where he graduated as a cardiologist in 2001.

In 2001 Prof. Dubois joined the staff of the department of cardiovascular medicine of the Gasthuisberg University Hospital. During his first years of practice he gained large experience in acute and interventional cardiology. In 2003 he started fundamental research on the potential role of stem cells in the regeneration of cardiac tissue following myocardial infarction, and received his PhD on this topic in 2010. Simultaneously, he focused on complex coronary interventions in bifurcation lesions and the left main coronary artery, and was site principal investigator of numerous clinical trials. In 2008 he set up a percutaneous heart valve program together with his surgical colleagues. To date, he is serving as clinical head of the department of cardiovascular medicine at the University Hospital of Leuven and professor at the faculty of medicine and biomedical sciences of the University of Leuven.

Prof. Dubois has published multiple papers and abstracts in influent peer-reviewed journals as the New England Journal of Medicine, Journal of the American College of Cardiology, Lancet, European Heart Journal, International Journal of Cardiology, EuroIntervention, American Journal of Cardiology, Catheterization and Cardiovascular Interventions and Heart.

Prof. Dubois is Fellow of the European Society of Cardiology and President of the Belgian Working Group on Interventional Cardiology. He also serves as steering committee member of the European Structural Heart Diseases Coalition.

His research group focuses on the rehabilitation of chronic conditions, including respiratory, cardiovascular, metabolic, renal, rheumatological, and oncological diseases. A central aspect of their research is the assessment of physical fitness and physical activity levels, as well as the evaluation of the effects of exercise-based rehabilitation and physical reactivation. Particular attention is given to how these interventions influence disease progression and outcomes, and how they may contribute to the prevention or development of comorbidities, with the ultimate goal of optimizing long-term health and functional capacity in patients with chronic diseases.