In this new series of podcasts, Dr Denis Xavier (St John's National Academy of Health Sciences, Bangalore) and his guests examine the burden of heart disease in India and a wide range of related topics of interest to Indian cardiologists, researchers, and the broader healthcare community--both at home and abroad.

Xavier is a physician and cardiology researcher from St John's Medical College and Research Institute, Bangalore, India, where he is professor and head of the Department of Pharmacology and Clinical Trials. In additional to his medical and postgraduate training, Xavier obtained a Master's in Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics from McMaster University, Canada.

With his senior colleague Dr Prem Pais (Dean, St John's Medical College), Dr Xavier set up the clinical trials unit at St John's and developed a network of collaboration with over 200 clinical research centers across India. This collaboration has facilitated 35 observational studies and large clinical trials in cardiology on different projects ranging from the polypill to the impact of nonmedical health workers in the prevention of CVD.

Xavier is lead author of the CREATE ACS registry paper (Lancet 2008), project director and coauthor of the Indian Polycap Study (TIPS) (Lancet 2009), and coinvestigator of the Wellcome Trust polypill. He is the primary investigator of the NIH-UH (USA) Center of Excellence at St John's, AMEND, Pfizer Preferred Research Center, as well as the Fogarty International Clinical Research Center.

Xavier has published widely and is a reviewer for numerous prestigious journals.