A hybrid heart for heart failure - how much remains to be done? An interview with Jolanda Kluin

Jolanda Kluin speaks to Julia Titova, Commissioning Editor at Future Cardiology Jolanda Kluin started her medical training at the Erasmus University Rotterdam in 1989 and obtained her medical degree cum laude in 1996. Thereafter, she worked as a PhD student on the project: "Photodynamic therapy for Barrett's esophagus with use of 5-aminolevulinic acid", receiving her PhD degree cum laude in 1999. In 2006 she finished her residency in cardiothoracic surgery. From 2006 to 2014 she worked as a staff cardiothoracic surgeon at the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery of the University Medical Center Utrecht and since 2015 she works at the Academic Medical Center, Amsterdam as congenital cardiac surgeon. In 2018 she became a professor in translational cardiothoracic surgery at the University of Amsterdam. Her main interests are grown ups with congenital heart disease cardiac surgery, mitral valve surgery, and reconstructive surgery of the aortic valve and the thoracic aorta. Alongside her clinical tasks, she has started a new line of research in translational cardiothoracic surgery, including tissue engineering of heart valves, valve pathophysiology and the development of a hybrid soft robotic total artificial heart. She is the current chair of the EACTS Women in Cardiothoracic Surgery Committee.