About Us

Medical Advisory Board

The PFO Research Foundation is pleased to be joined by a diverse group of interventional cardiologists, neurologists and other medical professionals who share in our desire to advance the science and care of PFO related illnesses.

John Carroll

The first eighteen years of John’s life were in a rural Illinois. He then followed Wanderlust to Europe, bought a used Norton motorcycle, and toured. Returning he entered Princeton University where he discovered his love for science and desire to help people. He tentered medical school at the University of Chicago, spent a junior rotation in London and learned that English hospitals stopped functioning for tea time. Then he spent four years in the Boston training trenches at Tufts New England Medical Center.

Bart Demaerschalk

Bart Demaerschalk, MD grew up in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. There he completed a B.Sc. in Cell and Developmental Biology (1991) and an M.D. (1994) at University of British Columbia. He moved to Ontario, Canada to complete Neurology Residency (1999) and Vascular Neurology Fellowship (2001) at University of Western Ontario, Medical Professional Education (2001) at University of Toronto, and a M.Sc. in Health Research Methodology (Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics) (2001) at McMaster University.

David Dodick

David W. Dodick, MD, FRCP (C), FACP, is Professor of Neurology at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and a consultant in neurology at the Mayo Clinic, in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Peter Goadsby

Peter Goadsby obtained his basic medical degree and training at the University of New South Wales, Australia. His neurology training was done under the supervision of Professor James W. Lance in Sydney. After post-doctoral work in New York with Don Reis at Cornell, with Jacques Seylaz in Paris, and post-graduate neurology training at Queen Square in London working with late Professors C David Marsden and W Ian McDonald, he returned to the University of New South Wales, and the Prince of Wales Hospital, Sydney as a consultant neurologist and was promoted to Associate Professor.

Kathryn Hassell

  • Professor of Medicine
  • Division of Hematology
  • University of Colorado School of Medicine
  • Medical Director, Anschutz Inpatient and Outpatient Pharmacy Anticoagulation Services
  • Director, Colorado Sickle Cell Treatment and Research Center

A native Minnesotan, Kathy spent her early formative years in northern Minnesota, up near the Canadian border. The impact was clear – when asked what she wanted to be when she grew up, she would emphatically state: “Canadian”.