Dr. Kálmán Benke, specialist candidate at the Varosmayor Heart and Vascular Centre, received the „Young Investigator Award” at the European Society of Cardiology Congress, which is one of the most prestigious European awards in the profession.
The award-winning specialist presented his abstract and lecture on a microsurgical model of a rat heart transplantation. In Dr. Kálmán Benke’s research, he studied the efficacy of cardiovascular drugs on experimental animal models to see if/how they can then be utilized in various pharmacological pre-treatments in human heart transplantation, and achieve a faster recovery in the donor organ’s function. The young researcher said that he had brought this method home from the Heidelberg Cardiac Laboratory in Germany, where he spent a month pursuing his PhD training.
To encourage research, the European Association for Cardiology-Thoracic Surgery (EACTS) awards prizes to young researchers in the cardiac, thoracic and vascular surgery, and congenital categories every year. Dr. Kálmán Benke, who belonged in the 35 year-and-under category, submitted his application abstract and manuscripts to the European Conference on Cardiovascular Surgery in Milan, which was followed by a discussion session, and finally handed over to an independent committee that was then given authority to decide the award-winner. The young resident has accomplished many professional milestones already, winning the Special Prize of the Ullman Imre Transplant Congress last year, the Excellent Resident Special Prize and the István Kúnos Prize, among others.
Bernadett Bódi
Photo – Kálmán Benke
Translation: Faye Gillespie
