Dr. Mitchell W. Krucoff, an interventional cardiologist, graduated from Yale University Magna Cum Laude in 1976, obtaining his MD degree and Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honor Society membership from George Washington University Medical School in 1980.  At Duke University since 1988, he is a tenured Professor of Medicine/Cardiology and Director of the Cardiovascular Devices Unit at the Duke Clinical Research Institute.  Since 1990, he has worked as a Special Government Employee for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), including a full tenure as a member of the Circulatory Devices Advisory Panel, for which he received the Distinguished Service Award in 2007. In 2008, he was awarded the honorary Hein JJ Wellens Professorship by the University of Maastricht in the Netherlands. He is a founding Board member of the Academic Research Consortium (ARC) and the founding Co-chair of the American Heart Association Cardiogenic Shock Registry. Dr. Krucoff is Director of FDA-Duke Memos of Understanding for 3 public-private partnerships focused on 1) regulatory landscape with regard to cardiac safety of new therapies (Cardiac Safety Research Consortium), 2) innovative approaches to developing benefit/risk evidence for class III cardiovascular devices  (MDEpiNet PASSION Programs), and 3) international regulatory harmonization (Japan-USA Harmonization By Doing Program).  He has served as principal investigator, study chair, and member of executive, steering, and safety monitoring committees for numerous medical device studies, and has co-authored over 500 peer-reviewed publications.