Guido Claessen MD, PhD

Prof. Dr. Guido Claessen was trained as a cardiologist and later as a rehabilitation doctor at KU Leuven. He obtained a Ph.D. from KU Leuven on the function of the right heart during exercise. He holds a Master's degree in Pulmonary Vascular Disease from the University of Bologna. After training as a cardiologist, he followed a sports cardiology fellowship at the Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute in Melbourne (Australia) with Prof. Andre La Gerche and started working as a cardiologist at UZ Leuven.

Guido will focus on the development of sports cardiology, cardiac rehabilitation, cardiac imaging, and heart failure at the Hartcentrum Hasselt. He is now also affiliated with UHasselt and KU Leuven, where he is responsible for, among other things, the Bachelor of Medicine course (UHasselt) and the course Physiopathology of sports medicine (KU Leuven). His research focuses on the effects of exercise on the heart and the integration of exercise evaluation in the care of patients with cardiovascular disease. He is also chairman of the Medical Committee of Belgian Cycling and a core member of the Sports Cardiology section of the European Association for Preventive Cardiology.