Dennis T. Mangano
Ph.D., M.D.

More than 100 million patients undergo surgery each year throughout the world, with costs equaling nearly 40% of the world's healthcare budget. More than 25% of these, or 25 million patients annually, are at risk for perioperative ischemic complications, including myocardial infarction, stroke, and renal failure. Of these, approximately 8% or 2 million patients suffer such complications, costing an additional $40 billion annually. This problem, though recognized, has only been rigorously addressed over the last decade, and no therapy for prevention or treatment of perioperative myocardial infarction, stroke, or renal failure has been approved.

In 1987 I founded the Ischemia Research and Education Foundation to focus on these significant medical and scientific issues, and to build a large-scale research capacity commensurate with the enormity and complexity of the inquiry required. One of the early decisions was to create the Multicenter Study of Perioperative Ischemia (McSPI) Research Group, which has proven instrumental in our ability to conduct high-quality, independent research quickly in a number of sites simultaneously. The impacts of the IREF/McSPI collaboration have exceeded even my expectations, as our research and publication results attest. The broad IREF/McSPI Investigator Network, including McSPI, is now composed of nearly 300 research centers around the world, representing leading institutions and scientists. The good will and collaboration of these centers over time allows us to provide a cohesive matured system for the accumulation of large-scale databases, as well as rapid commencement, conduction, and completion of complex U.S. and global clinical trials. Our ongoing role is to remain committed to addressing in new ways the most pressing healthcare issues of our time, and ultimately, to save and extend lives and improve the quality of healthcare worldwide.

Dennis T. Mangano, Ph.D., M.D.
Principal Scientist, Founder