Prof. Alain Cribier, MD, has been for 20 years the Chief of Cardiology at Hospital Charles Nicolle, University of Rouen, France. He is since 2011 Professor Emeritus and Consultant at this University. He graduated from the University of Paris. After a fellowship at Cedars-Sinaï Medical Center in Los-Angeles, he joined the department of cardiology at Charles Nicolle Hospital in Rouen in 1977 and became Director of the Department. He became widely recognized for having performed the first balloon dilatation of the aortic valve for the treatment of calcific aortic stenosis in 1985 and then conceived and developed after 10 years of research, the technique of transcatheter implantation of aortic valves (TAVI), performing the first ever TAVI case in Rouen in 2002. This last innovative technology (Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation: TAVI) has opened a revolutionary less invasive way of treating aortic stenosis in patients at high risk for conventional surgery. The disruptive technology is today recognized by the whole medical community as a breakthrough with a durable impact on the pattern of medical practice. More than 150 000 patients have been treated worldwide, and TAVI has been approved by the FDA in the USA since 2011. He is still strongly involved with the development of new devices for TAVI. Prof Cribier had received many prestigious scientific distinctions and awards in France, Europe, United States, South America, Israel and Asia for his pioneering work, and in 2012, he obtained the most recognized top French national distinction, the Legion of Honour received from the hands of Prof Alain Carpentier, the world famous cardiac surgeon. He has published more than 600 indexed articles in the field of interventional cardiology, PCI, and valvular disease and innovative technologies.

 Transcatheter implantation of aortic valves