Private area for Site Staff of the  Interventional Study

UNIVERSIDAD DE MURCIA

Partner Information

  • Partner Full Name: UNIVERSIDAD DE MURCIA
  • Partner Short Name: UMU
  • Country: Spain
  • Website: www.um.es

The University of Murcia (UMU) is a public university which has an extensive experience in hosting international projects and promoting research excellence in a learning environment. International programmes represent an important source of funding for UMU, which has taken part in 145 projects and actions belonging to those kinds of programmes since 2007.

The Health Sciences Campus has the facilities of Laboratory for Biomedical Research (LAIB), a common space for interaction between researchers from different areas, where they can share knowledge and experiences to solve the pathologies detected at the Hospital Clínico Universitario Virgen de la Arrixaca. UMU is very active on dissemination and communication of the achievements of its institutes and research groups. The Unit of Scientific Culture (UCC Prinum) is devoted to make society know and participate actively in science.

The AFFIRMO research group has already been involved in more than 90 research projects, including randomized trials and prospective observational studies. Our group, studies different aspects of cardiovascular diseases, although mainly atrial fibrillation, including biomarkers for risk prediction/stratification, detection of silent atrial fibrillation with different methods, quality of anticoagulation with VKAs, and efficacy/safety of DOACs. During the last years, and given its multidisciplinary nature, the research team is working actively in health education and in the optimization of the management of cardiovascular risk factors. The purpose is to modify the course of the disease from primary prevention and to improve secondary prevention after a cardiovascular event, through a holistic management of the patient in dedicated rehabilitation programs.

Key persons

Prof. Francisco Marín

MD, PhD. Associated Professor in the University of Murcia and clinical cardiologist in the Hospital Clínico Universitario Virgen de la Arrixaca (Murcia, Spain). Principal investigator of the research group with experience as principal investigator in 70 research projects. He has published more than 350 manuscripts, showing an H-index of 43 and more than 7000 citations. He is one of the main experts in atrial fibrillation in Spain, with nearly 200 articles published in this field. He has also collaborated on different consensus documents, particularly in atrial fibrillation, thanks to his participation in the Scientific Initiatives Committee of the European Heart Rhythm Association. He was the coordinator of the excellence project of the Spanish Society of Cardiology, SEC-Excellence on atrial fibrillation.

Prof. Vanessa Roldán

MD, PhD. Associated Professor in the University of Murcia and haematologist in the Hospital General Universitario Morales Meseguer (Murcia, Spain). She is responsible for the Anticoagulation Unit that covers two health areas, corresponding to 500,000inhabitants. She has focused her research on oral anticoagulation, especially in atrial fibrillation patients. Prof. Roldán has also worked in genetic polymorphisms and thrombotic and haemorrhagic risk factors. She has published more than 200 manuscripts, showing an H-index of 35. She participates in several EHRA consensus documents and the EHRA guideline on Non-Vitamin K Antagonists. She is an editor of Thrombosis and Haemostasis.

Dr. María Asunción Esteve-Pastor

MD, PhD. Clinical cardiologist in the Hospital Clínico Universitario Virgen de la Arrixaca (Murcia, Spain). Her expertise fields are atrial fibrillation, coronary artery disease and thromboembolic markers. She has focused her research on epidemiology and physiopathology of these disorders and the assessment of biomarkers, predictive risk scores or differences in efficacy and safety of oral anticoagulation. She has published 62 scientific manuscripts in high impact journals and has an H-index of 8. She has served as collaborator investigator in several international research projects and as an external reviewer for journals such as Thrombosis and Haemostasis, Europace, or Mayo Clinic Proceedings.

Dr. José Miguel Rivera-Caravaca

RN, MSc, PhD. Postdoctoral research fellow and study nurse. He has collaborated in more than 20 research projects and published more than 60 scientific articles in high impact journals, with an H-index of 8. He has focused his research in the study of atrial fibrillation, especially in the quality of anticoagulation with vitamin K antagonists; the use, predictors and efficacy of direct-acting oral anticoagulants; the role of biomarkers as predictors of ischemic and hemorrhagic risk; and the validation of thrombotic and bleeding risk stratification schemes. He completed a predoctoral stay for 3 months at the Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences (Birmingham, United Kingdom) under Professor Gregory Y.H. Lip supervision.

Dr. Cecilia Lopez-García

RN, MSc, PhD. Research nurse and Study Coordinator. She has participated in several clinical trials and observational studies. She is a nurse with extensive experience in managing and caring for patients with cardiovascular diseases. Dr. Lopez-García previously worked on projects of Health Education, cardiovascular risk factors management, and in the implementation of specialized Nurse-lead clinics.