Konstantinos Farsalinos

Personal details Name: Konstantinos Farsalinos, MD, MPH Date and place of birth: 21 March 1975, Lamia, Greece Family status: Married Citizenship: Greek Tel nr: +306977454837 E-mail: kfarsalinos@gmail.com Physician, Public Health scientist, expert on smoking and tobacco harm reduction. 2 Affiliations  Adjunct Professor, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.  Senior Researcher, Laboratory of Molecular Biology and Immunology, Department of Pharmacology, University of Patras, Greece.  Senior Researcher, School of Public Health, Department of Public and Community Health, University of West Attica, Greece  Senior Researcher, Data & Media Lab, University of Peloponnese, Greece. Education-Training-Medical practice  1992-1998: Medicine, 3rd Medical Faculty, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic.  2000: GP training at Lamia General Hospital, equivalent to S.H.O. grade (3 months)  2000-2002: GP-equivalent practice at rural area of Martino and health center of Atalanti (18 months).  2002-2004: Resident in department of Internal Medicine, Kastoria General Hospital (2 years training in Internal Medicine). 3  2004-2005: Fellow in department of Internal Medicine-Cardiology clinic, Kastoria General Hospital (16 months, duties equivalent to resident).  2006-2007: Military service, working as a physician in military camps in the island of Kos and in Kastoria (9 months).  2007-2008: Resident in Cardiology, Cardiology Clinic of Sitia General Hospital-Crete (7 months).  2008-2011: Resident in Cardiology, Department of Cardiology, Onassis Cardiac Surgery Center-Athens Greece (41 months, completed my training in cardiology).  2011-2020: Research fellow, department of Cardiology, Onassis Cardiac Surgery Center.  2013-2014: Clinical Observer and Researcher, Department of Cardiovascular Diseases, Medical Imaging Research Center, University Hospital Gathuisberg, Leuven-Belgium.  2014-present: Senior Researcher, Laboratory of Molecular Biology and Immunology, Department of Pharmacology, University of Patras, Greece  2017-present: Senior Researcher, Research and Teaching Fellow, National School of Public Health, Athens, Greece (now School of Public Health, Department of Public and Community Health, University of West Attica).  2018: Master of Public Health (MPH), University of Patras Medical School. 4  2019-present: Adjunct Professor, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.  2020-present: Senior Researcher, Data & Media Lab, University of Peloponnese, Greece. Research Interests Main research interests: smoking, tobacco harm reduction, cannabis use, electronic cigarettes, heated tobacco products, cardiology and cardiovascular imaging. In detail  Imaging in coronary artery and valve disease, myocardial function, myocardial deformation, coronary flow velocity, heart transplantation.  Main researcher in “Intervendor Study” (joint project of American Society of Echocardiography and European Association of Cardiovascular Imaging)  Research on smoking and tobacco harm reduction (electronic cigarettes, heated tobacco products), focusing on laboratory, clinical, epidemiological and policy perspectives.  Recognized as one of the most prominent researchers in the field of electronic cigarettes according to a published bibliometric analysis (see: Zyoud et al. Worldwide research productivity in the field of 5 electronic cigarette: a bibliometric analysis. BMC Public Health 2014;14:667).  One of the very few scientists who have performed and published independent (not funded by any commercial interest) research on heated tobacco products.  Outstanding scientific advocate award at GFN 2019 conference, awarded by INNCO.  Highly Cited Researcher 2019 awarded by Web of Science (Clarivate Analytics). Top 0.1% scientist (6200 out of 9 million analyzed) with the highest global impact in scientific research over the period from 2008 to 2018 in 21 science fields. Experience in echocardiography Worked as a cardiology resident and fellow at the 2 nd Echocardiography Laboratory of Onassis Cardiac Surgery Center, under supervision of Dr Dimitris Tsiapras (former president of Echocardiography Working Group of Hellenic Society of Cardiology), for 18 months. The laboratory is involved in imaging of all aspects of cardiovascular disease, and performs transesophageal and stress echocardiograms on a daily basis. Onassis Cardiac Surgery Center is the only heart-transplantation center in Greece.  Experience with the use of GE VIVID 7, GE S6, GE Vivid-i and HP (Philips) SONOS 7500 ultrasound machines. 6  Familiar with the use of Echopac software for offline analysis of echocardiographic exams, including strain and strain rate imaging by 2-D speckle tracking.  Experience with image acquisition and myocardial deformation analysis with Aloka-Hitachi, General Electric, Esaote, Philips, Samsung, Siemens and Toshiba echocardiographic machines and software, and with Tom-Tec and Epsilon vendor-nonspecific software (Intervendor Study).  Performed echocardiographic exams covering all aspects of cardiovascular disease, including heart-transplant recipients and patients with ventricular-assist devices.  Accredited in transthoracic echocardiography by the European Association of Echocardiography (2012).  Member of the European Association of Echocardiography.  Member of the American Society of Echocardiography.  Received scholarship from Hellenic Society of Cardiology for postgraduate education and research, 2013 (worked at Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium). Experience in tobacco harm reduction  Research coordinator and principle investigator in a variety of clinical, laboratory and population studies on electronic cigarettes.  Performed the first ever studies evaluating the acute effects of electronic cigarette use on myocardial and arterial function. 7  Performed the first ever studies evaluating the effects of electronic cigarette aerosol exposure on cultured cells.  Performed the first ever studies evaluating electronic cigarette use topography in experienced consumers.  Performed the largest survey on characteristics, patterns of use, benefits and side effects of electronic cigarette use in dedicated consumers (19,441 participants).  Performed the only published study evaluating the effect of flavors variability in electronic cigarette use perceived experience.  First author in the first scientific literature review on electronic cigarette safety/risk profile (2014).  Coordinated and performed the first and only detailed assessment of electronic cigarette use in the Greek population.  Analyzed major European and US population surveys, focusing on examining patterns of e-cigarette use and smoking (Eurobarometer, National Health Interview Survey, National Youth Tobacco Survey, Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System).  As of late 2020, more than 95 publications in peer-reviewed international scientific journals about smoking, tobacco harm reduction and nicotine products.  H-index: 37 (Google Scholar, as of November 27, 2020). Cited 5779 times since 2015. 8  Handling editor and author of the first scientific book on electronic cigarettes titles “Analytical Assessment of E-Cigarettes”, published by Elsevier.  Author of a chapter in 2 editions of a German book on e-cigarettes.