Professor Karen Sliwa, MD, PhD, FESC, FACC, DTM & H- is the Director of the Hatter Institute for Cardiovascular Research in Africa (www.hatter.uct.ac.za), University of Cape Town, South Africa.
Born in Germany, studying Medicine, undergoing training as a physician and cardiologist in a number of countries, she lives in South Africa since 1992.
Clinically her interests are in heart failure, rheumatic heart disease and all aspects of cardiovascular disease in pregnancy and postpartum.
Her research spans from basic science to clinical studies to population studies.
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. She has published more than 200 articles and her work is highly cited.
In recognition of her work Prof Sliwa has received several prestigious awards.
Karen Sliwa serves on a number of editorial boards and is also an editorial consultant to ‘The Lancet’. Furthermore, she is the past president of the South African Heart Association, serves on the board of the South African Heart Failure Society (Hefssa; www.hefssa.org), which was established under her leadership 2005. She also president-elect World Heart Federation (2017-2019), a member of the European Cardiac Society International Affairs committee and is board member of the Pan African Society of Cardiology. Since March 2017 she is deputy dean research, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Cape Town.