Vedran Velagic MD, PhD

Vedran Velagić was born on April 16, 1981. in Čakovec, where he finished elementary school and high school in science and mathematics. From 1999 to 2005, he studied medicine at the University of Zagreb and graduated as one of the best students of his generation. He spends part of his studies on an international student exchange at the university hospital "Dr. Jose Eleuterio Gonzales", Monterrey, NL Mexico. In 2006, they passed the state exam for doctors of medicine after completing an internship with the KB "Sisters of Mercy". In the same institution, he worked for a year as a scientific trainee at the Clinic for Internal Medicine.

Since the end of 2007, he has been employed at the Clinic for Heart and Blood Vessel Diseases, KBC Zagreb. At the beginning of 2012, he passed the specialist exam in internal medicine, after which he started a subspecialization in cardiology as a department doctor at the Institute for Intensive Cardiac Care, Arrhythmias, and Transplant Cardiology. In the same year, he received the scholarship "Stevo Julius Visiting Scholar Award" and carried out his arrhythmological training with the greats of world rhythmology - Prof. Jalife (basic science) and Prof. Morady (Clinical Arrhythmology) at the Center for Arrhythmia Research, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA. in 2014 receives a scholarship from the European Society for Arrhythmology (EHRA advanced EP fellowship) and spends a year of subspecialization in advanced arrhythmology and catheter ablation at the university hospital in Brussels (UZ Brussel – Vrije Universiteit Brussel) with prof. Brugada. In March 2016, he passed the subspecialist exam in cardiology, and in August 2016, he passed the European subspecialist exam in arrhythmology (electrophysiology) and became an EHRA-certified electrophysiologist.

After passing the exams, he works at the Department of Electrophysiology and Heart Stimulation, where he deals with the entire spectrum of interventional procedures in arrhythmology. He performs catheter ablations (with radiofrequency and cryo energy) of simple and complex arrhythmias, including atrial fibrillation and ventricular tachycardia, and deals with the installation and monitoring of electrostimulators, cardioverter-defibrillators (ICDs) and cardiac resynchronization devices (CRTs). In January 2018, at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Zagreb, he defended his doctoral dissertation with the topic "Inducibility of paroxysmal atrial fibrillation after cryoisolation of pulmonary veins". Since 2019, he has been an assistant professor at the Department of Internal Medicine, University of Zagreb, and is the author and co-author of more than 50 scientific publications with more than 1,500 citations.

He is an active member of the Working Group for Arrhythmias and Electrical Heart Stimulation of the Croatian Society of Cardiology, the European Society of Rhythmology (EHRA), and the European Society for Acute Cardiovascular Care (ACCA).