Nicolas M Van Mieghem
Personal History
From an early age, Professor Nicolas Maria Van Mieghem decided to pursue a career that would help others. “I enjoy the feeling of being able to help someone or do something important for them. I wanted to enter a profession that would channel my energy— I was always a busy child,” he says.
A budding athlete, he was a member of Belgium’s national swimming team but soon realized that medicine was his true calling. His father was a general cardiologist and one of his biggest influences early in his career.
Professor Van Mieghem initially intended to train as a cardiac surgeon but decided to specialise in interventional cardiology instead, following advice from a mentor. This decision was cemented when he read the first-in-human case report of transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) in Circulation by Alain Cribier in 2002.
His mantra is mens sana in corpore sano (a…
