The 1st International Electronic Conference on Healthcare

I would like to welcome you to the 1st International Electronic Conference on Healthcare (IECH). This is a platform for researchers to present their research findings and discuss popular health related topics free of charge as this is an online conference without expensive travel, accommodation, and registration fees.

As this is the first conference on healthcare, sponsored by the MDPI open access journal Healthcare, the topics will be rather general. During the last few years, there have been great achievements on human health and nursing care. The overall aim of the conference is to stimulate scientific exchange and discussion on all aspects that will help to make further great advances in human health.

Throughout this event, we aim to cover the following six topics:

• Health Disparities
• Microbiology, Immunology and Infectious Diseases in Humans
• Public Health Systems
• Cancer Diagnosis and Treatment
• Alzheimer’s and Cognitive Disorders
• Metabolic Diseases

This is a virtual conference held at www.sciforum.net. Sciforum.net is a platform developed and sponsored by MDPI to organize electronic conferences, and to provide our community with the technical support for hosting digital conferences. This platform has been established in response to the high demand from our community whom might not always have the required material and human resources for travelling and participating physically in high quality scientific events.

IECH provides participants with the unique opportunity to disseminate their knowledge and latest research findings in the healthcare field among their peers in an open forum, and immediately receive valuable feedback from the virtual audience towards their future research directions.

Participation is free of charge—both for authors and attendees. Accepted papers will be collated in the proceedings of the conference, and selected papers will be published in the open access journal, Healthcare.

Conference Chair

Prof. Dr. Sampath Parthasarathy

University of Central Florida in Orlando, FL 32827, USA

Dr. Sampath Parthasarathy, Professor of Medicine, University of Central Florida in Orlando, FL 32827, USA, and currently holds the Florida Hospital Chair in cardiovascular Sciences. His research activities are focused on the fundamental mechanisms of the development of atherosclerosis and heart failure. Specifically, he is interested in studying the role of oxidative stress in the development of cardiovascular diseases and associated risk factors, including Type 2 diabetes. In addition, he is interested in both the prevention and cure of cardiovascular diseases using nutritional, pharmacological, and lifestyle modulations.

Several years ago he proposed the oxidative theory of atherosclerosis, which has gained considerable acceptance, and as a result, a substantial proportion of the population now consumes antioxidant vitamins. However, a number of anti-atherogenic behavior traits are themselves pro-oxidant in nature. For example, exercise, a well-known deterrent of cardiovascular disease, is known to induce oxidative changes and deplete tissue antioxidants. Similarly, the consumption of polyunsaturated fatty acids, which are more oxidation labile, decreases the progression of atherosclerosis. Based on recent studies, Dr. Parthasarathy’s team postulated that a threshold oxidative stress might activate arterial wall antioxidant enzymes, and thus could become anti-atherogenic.

Human arteriosclerotic disease is different from that of animals and Dr. Parthasarathy is currently studying the mechanisms involved in the generation of advanced lesions and how calcification and inflammation might affect plaque vulnerability. Some of the ongoing studies in the laboratory include studies on novel mechanistic insights on the cardio-protective role of aspirin, the use of sesame oil to control plaque progression, role of macrophage adherence in plaque development, progression of oxidative stress and aortic calcification, mechanisms involved in heart failure, and the pathobiology of type 2 diabetes.