**Meet the editor**

Professor Akin graduated from the University of Medicine in Hannover in 2004 and completed his clinical training in catheterization laboratory in Chemnitz, University Hospital of Rostock, and the Heart Center at Bad Segeberg. He has specialized in the field of interventional cardiology and has also extensive experience in cardiac device therapy, cardiac electrophysiology, and

the treatment of structural heart disease. Professor Akin was nominated as chief of the cardiac catheterization laboratories at the University Hospital Mannheim in 2013, consolidating the interventional expertise in the treatment of coronary heart disease and structural heart disease in the region. He has maintained an active role in the practice of cardiac electrophysiology and implantation of cardiac devices and, in 2015, was promoted to the additional position of deputy chief of cardiology. His clinical research is primarily relegated to the field of invasive cardiology, with special interests in coronary stent technology, left atrial appendage interventions, modern cardiac device therapies, as well as treatment of patients suffering from cardiac arrest and ion-channel diseases.
