EP 38: Martin B Leon on CRF, Mentorship and the Lessons of 2020

Parallax by Ankur Kalra

In the late 1980s, shortly after he left the NIH, Dr Martin B Leon founded the non-profit organisation, Cardiovascular Research Foundation (CRF). At the beginning, CRF had almost no funding or people, but it had a concept of bringing together an academic community to follow the device development cycle from inception to inclusion. Today, CFR is a global entity, and its events are attended by hundreds of physicians/researchers worldwide. In the Season 2 finale, Ankur Kalra is joined by the legendary Martin B Leon, Professor at Columbia University, director of the Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics and chairman emeritus of the CRF. In this in-depth discussion Dr Leon talks about what he believes is behind the success of CRF and the lessons he learnt from disappointments and mistakes along the way. Dr Leon stresses the importance of collaborations on a global scale. He talks about his plans for the future and the issues that were highlighted by the events of 2020. Ankur asks Dr Leon about his role as a mentor and about the qualities he is looking for in a mentee. What makes Dr Martin B Leon tick? What is his message to cardiologists and/or researchers at the beginning of their careers? How did the pandemic and his work as a clinician in New York change his perspective?