Just more than a month away, Medical World Americas has lined up a top emergency response commander with the U.S. Coast Guard, a pioneering researcher in cardiology at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine and a leader in genomic medicine at MD Andersen Cancer Center as a few of the 80 speakers.

 
The launch event, which will bring together more than 2,000 health care professionals from across the Americas to showcase knowledge and innovation in the medical field, will be held April 28-30 at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston.

The organizers of MEDICA, the world’s largest medical conference run by Messe Duesseldorf, partnered with the Texas Medical Center and the Greater Houston Convention and Visitors Bureau to create the first annual MEDICA event in North America.

Medical World Americas also will align with the strengths of the Texas Medical Center - including cardiology, oncology and hospital disaster preparedness to name a few - to showcase knowledge and innovation in these specialized categories.

 
“We set out to create a world-class conference program for Medical World Americas, and thanks to the hard work and expertise of our Executive Advisory Committee, I believe we are well on our way to doing just that,” said Dr. Robert Robbins, CEO of the Texas Medical Center.

He added, “We are eager to welcome attendees and exhibitors from across the globe and we are confident that this conference will create new opportunities and showcase the Texas Medical Center, Houston’s major medical institutions, and, of course, the city itself.”

Attendee registration continues to grow as the conference draws near with doctors, nurses and other professionals from 22 different states and 18 countries already signed up. Currently, more than 30 percent of registrants are from outside the U.S., with 10 percent coming from Mexico alone.

 
On the exhibitor side, there are eight different country pavilions and more than 100 exhibitors at the show.

“Medical World Americas is a continuation of our efforts at the Greater Houston CVB to help build conventions and events around Houston’s core industries,” said Greg Ortale, president and CEO of the GHCVB.

He added, “This partnership with the organizers of MEDICA has enabled us to capitalize on the strength of our health care sector and craft a conference that will become a ‘must attend’ for medical professionals across the Americas.”

 
More than 80 leaders in medicine and emergency response will present during the inaugural conference. Roughly half of the speakers hail from the Texas Medical Center, with the remainder coming from other leading institutions around the U.S.

Here are three of the many speakers of note:

• Joseph J. Leonard Jr., M.E.P., Commander, U.S. Coast Guard  
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Commander Leonard is a 28-year veteran of the United States Armed Forces and is currently the Chief of the Planning Department/Deputy Incident Commander for the U.S. Coast Guard Incident Management Assistance Team based in Norfolk, Virginia. He has led Coast Guard teams during a number of major emergency response operations, including those for Tropical Storm Allison; Hurricanes Isabel, Rita, Ike and Sandy; and the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

• Lynda Chin, M.D., Chair, department of Genomic Medicine, Division of Cancer Medicine, The University of Texas MD Andersen Cancer Center
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Dr. Chin serves on the scientific steering committee of the International Cancer Genome Consortium. She has made multiple scientific discoveries spanning the fields of transcription, telomere biology, mouse models of human cancer, oncogenomics and personalized cancer medicine. As a leader in translational genome medicine, she has enlisted new cancer gene discoveries into productive drug discovery efforts. Chin co-founded cancer biotechnology company AVEO Pharmaceuticals in 2002 and, most recently, she founded Metamark Genetics, a cancer diagnostics company.

• Robert O. Bonow, M.D., Goldberg Distinguished Professor of Cardiology at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and Director of the Center for Cardiovascular Innovation

Dr. Bonow is recognized for his research and teaching in a variety of cardiac diseases, including coronary artery disease, valvular heart disease, and heart failure. He has authored or co-authored 475 published papers and 108 book chapters. He serves on the editorial boards of 12 medical journals and is one of the four editors of Braunwald’s Heart Disease: A Textbook of Cardiovascular Medicine. Dr. Bonow is past-President of the American Heart Association, a Master of the American College of Cardiology and a Master of the American College of Physicians.