“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication” – Leonardo da Vinci
Alfonso Medina studied medicine at the University of Granada (Spain). After obtaining his MD, he received training in Cardiology at the Fundacion Jimenez Diaz in Madrid and at the Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas. In 1975, he arrived at the Hospital Nuestra Señora del Pino in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (Spain), where he was appointed head of the Department of Cardiology. He worked tirelessly in this hospital (later replaced by the new Dr Negrin Hospital) until he reached retirement age in 2016. There, he developed an intense clinical, research and teaching activity over more than 40 years. He was also a brilliant speaker with a great sense of humour. He was the inventor of very ingenious devices, for instance the coronary variable length balloon catheter (1994) and the adjustable vascular introducer for balloon valvuloplasty (1989). Professor at the University of Las Palmas, he was the master of many generations of cardiologists. In 1987, he started a fruitful scientific relationship with Dr Jose Suarez de Lezo from Cordoba. Together they founded the CORPAL (Cordoba-Las Palmas) group, which made a significant number of important contributions in the field of coronary, valvular and congenital heart disease over a period of 30 years. In 2005, he became a member of the European Bifurcation Club (EBC). While he was attending the first EBC meeting in Bordeaux, his classification of bifurcation coronary lesions was proclaimed as the unique EBC classification by total consensus. Since then, this contribution has been widely used in papers and in cardiology congresses. The article in the Revista Española de Cardiologia (2006) describing the Medina classification has reached a record number of citations (388 according to the Scopus database). For more than 10 years he continued to attend the EBC meeting, contributing original ideas, such as the “eyebrow sign” (IVUS predictor of side branch occlusion) or the SMS technique as an alternative to the kissing balloon. In Valencia (2007), he was honoured by the members of the club for his contributions in the field of bifurcations. Over the following years, he continued participating in and enjoying the EBC meetings until he recently passed away. We will miss him in future congresses, but his legacy will always remain in the ambience of the club.
