Biography

Professor Thomas Lüscher is a consultant cardiologist at Royal Brompton and Harefield Hospitals, where he treats private and NHS patients.

He studied medicine at the University of Zurich, Switzerland, and obtained board certification in internal medicine and cardiology. He then trained in cardiovascular research and echocardiography at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN, USA.

Professor Lüscher was later a professor of pharmacotherapy at the University of Basel, then an interventional cardiologist and professor of cardiology at the University of Berne.

Following that he became professor and chairman of cardiology and director of the University Heart Centre at the University Hospital Zurich, and director of the Centre for Molecular Cardiology at the University of Zurich.

Alongside his role as a consultant cardiologist at Royal Brompton and Harefield Hospitals, he is also the director of research, education and development.

Clinical expertise

Professor Thomas Lüscher is an active general and interventional cardiologist with a broad clinical scope and large experience in prevention, coronary heart disease, valvular heart disease, percutaneous interventions and heart failure.

He has a broad clinical interest in the entire field of cardiovascular medicine from prevention (hypertension, lipid disorders, diabetes) to coronary artery disease (angina pectoris, myocardial infarction) to heart failure.

He is an expert in pharmacotherapy and a trained interventional cardiologist regularly performing cardiac catheterisations and percutaneous coronary procedures (balloon angioplasty and stenting) as well as non-coronary interventions (percutaneous closure of patent foramen ovale, TAVI and renal nerve ablation).

Professor Lüscher has mentored numerous physicians and scientists from 15 countries.

Research interests 

Professor Thomas Lüscher's research is translational in nature and focuses on vascular disease, specifically:

  • the role of endothelium-derived mediators in the regulation of vascular tone and structure
  • platelet-vessel wall interactions
  • coagulation in ageing
  • hypertension
  • lipid disorders
  • atherosclerosis.

More recently, inflammation and heart disease - particularly in acute coronary syndromes - has been at the centre of his interest.

The Institute for Scientific Information has rated Professor Lüscher in the top 0.5 per cent of most cited scientists worldwide. He has obtained numerous research prizes and prestigious lectureships worldwide.

Publications

Professor Lüscher has published extensively, authoring or co-authoring over 500 original research articles and more than 200 reviews, book chapters and monographs.

He is a member of many editorial boards and from 2004 to 2008 was Associate Editor, Europe, for the journal Circulation.

Since 2009 he has been chairman of the publications committee of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) and an ex-officio member of the ESC board. He was editor-in-chief of the European Heart Journal until September 2020 and he co-authored The ESC Textbook of Cardiovascular Medicine. He is know the senior editor and president elect of the European Society of Cardiology.