Jonathon A Leipsic

The 2019 DeHaan Award for Innovation in Cardiology has been awarded to Jonathon A Leipsic, who is a professor of radiology and cardiology at the University of British Columbia (Vancouver, Canada). The award includes a US$200,000 grant and Leipsic will present the second Dehaan Award Lecture at the Society of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography (SCCT) annual scientific meeting (11–14 July, Baltimore, USA).

A press release report that Leipsic is a past president of the Society of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography (2015–2016) and is also due to receive the SCCT Gold Medal Award in 2019. It adds that he intends to build on past work delving into the mechanisms of bioprosthetic valve failure. The data suggest that the mechanisms and timelines of valve degeneration are consistent across surgical and transcatheter bioprosthetic heart valves and a better understanding of structural valve degeneration can be obtained through combining further histological and novel imaging approaches. Therefore, Leipsic will continue along this path of investigation through the generous support of the DeHaan Foundation Award, which will allow him to perform the needed advanced analyses to help advance understanding of this complex process and potentially develop solutions to this important clinical problem.

Robert Schwartz, chairman of the Board for the Jon DeHaan Foundation, comments: “Dr Leipsic has been a tireless champion, teacher, and leader in cardiac applications of computed tomography (CT) for many years. He has devoted countless hours toward advancing the field, and at the same time has thus touched many patients multiplied by the number of cardiologists who have used his work or who have learned from him directly. It is a great pleasure that Leipsic has been chosen for the Jon H DeHaan Foundation award for cardiovascular excellence in imaging, the purpose of which is to further his work and teaching, thus advancing cardiac CT far into the future.”

The award lecture at the SCCT annual scientific meeting, supported by the Jon Holden DeHaan Foundation, helps promote the knowledge and the use of cardiovascular CT to improve patient outcomes.