About the authors

Arturo Garcia-Touchard

Arturo Garcia-Touchard, M.D. is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine in Rochester, Minnesota. He is also a Consultant in Cardiovascular Diseases and Interventional Cardiologist at Puerta de Hierro University Hospital, Madrid, Spain. Dr. Garcia-Touchard was born in Madrid, where he received his M.D. degree from Universidad Complutense in 1995, and also completed his cardiology fellowship training in 2001 at San Carlos University Hospital.

Virend K Somers

Virend K Somers, M.D., Ph.D. is a Professor of Medicine and Cardiovascular Diseases at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine in Rochester, Minnesota. He is a Consultant in Cardiovascular Diseases and serves as Director of the Sleep-Cardiovascular Core Laboratories of the Center for Translational Science Activities. Dr. Somers also serves as the International Director of the International Clinical Research Center in the Czech Republic. Dr. Somers obtained his M.B.Ch.B. degree (M.D. equivalent) cum laude from the University of Natal in South Africa and subsequently obtained his Doctor of Philosophy degree (DPhil—PhD equivalent) from Oxford University in the United Kingdom. He completed his residency in Internal Medicine and fellowship in Cardiovascular Diseases at the University of Iowa in 1993.

Tomas Kara

T Kara, M.D. is Assistant Professor at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine in Rochester, Minnesota, and Director of the International Clinical Research Center, Brno, Czech Republic.

Jiri Nykodym

Jiri Nykodym MSc. is a Technical Manager of the Electronic Test Services, Division of Aerospace, at Honeywell IDC, Brno, Czech Republic. He is also a Research Collaborator in the Cardiovascular and Sleep Laboratory, General Clinical Research Center, at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine in Rochester, Minnesota. Jiri Nykodym graduated with an MSc in Biomedical Engineering at the Electrotechnical Faculty of the Technical University in Brno, Czech Republic.

Abu Shamsuzzaman

Abu Shamsuzzaman, M.D., Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine in Rochester, Minnesota. Dr. Shamsuzzaman obtained his M.B.B.S. degree (M.D. equivalent) from the University of Dhaka in Bangladesh and completed his residency in Medicine and Surgery at Mymensingh Medical College Hospital, and Cardiology Fellowship at the Institute of Postgraduate Medicine and Research in Bangladesh. Dr. Shamsuzzaman obtained his PhD degree from Nagoya University in Japan and subsequently received the Fogarty International Fellowship Award from the NIH.

Paola Lanfranchi

Paola A Lanfranchi, M.D., MSc, is Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Montreal and a Cardiologist at the Hôpital du Sacré-Coeur, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. She is currently a scholar of the Fonds de la Recherche en Santé du Québec and holds grants from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Québec. Dr Lanfranchi obtained her M.D. cum laude in 1989 and subsequently completed her Residency in Cardiology in 1993 at the University of Pavia (Italy). She completed a four year full time research fellowship on sleep and cardiovascular physiology, first with VK Somers at the Mayo Clinic (2000–2002), and subsequently at the Hôpital du Sacré-Coeur in Montreal. She obtained a Master's degree in Biomedical Sciences from the University of Montreal in December 2004.

Michael J Ackerman

Michael J Ackerman, M.D., Ph.D. is an Associate Professor in Medicine, Pediatrics, and Molecular Pharmacology at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine in Rochester, Minnesota. He is a consultant in Cardiovascular Diseases and Pediatric Cardiology, and serves as Director of the Mayo Clinic's Long QT Syndrome Clinic and the Mayo Clinic Windland Smith Rice Sudden Death Genomics Laboratory. Dr. Ackerman was born and raised in Iowa where he earned a B.A. degree in chemistry and mathematics from Luther College, Decorah and graduated summa cum laude in 1988. He received his M.D. and Ph.D. degrees from Mayo Medical School and Mayo Graduate School in 1995 and completed residency (pediatrics) and fellowship (pediatric cardiology) training in the Mayo Graduate School of Medicine in 2000.