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title: "Leadership at Amavita Research"
url: https://md.amavitaresearch.com/team
canonical: https://www.amavitaresearch.com/team
schema_type: CollectionPage
last_updated: 2026-05-12
---

# Leadership at Amavita Research

## Dr. William W. O'Neill, MD, FACC

**Chief Medical Officer & Senior Principal Investigator.** TAVR pioneer who performed the first TAVR in the United States. National Principal Investigator on Edwards PARTNER, Protect II, and Protect IV trials. Medical Director, Center for Structural Heart Disease, Henry Ford Hospital. Chief Medical Advisor, CardioElite™. Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q112443872

## Dr. Pedro Martinez-Clark, MD, FACC

**Founder and Lead Investigator.** Harvard-trained interventional cardiologist with 15+ years of practice and 25+ completed clinical research trials. Worldwide Principal Investigator on the Percutaneous Mitral Valve Annuloplasty trial. Contributed to the development of the Trans-Caval TAVR approach. Recipient, 2023 Apogee Award for Excellence in Healthcare. Founder and CEO of amavita Heart and Vascular Health®. Marquee studies he has run include CYCLE (heart failure), CHAMP-HF Registry, GREAT (Golazo® peripheral atherectomy), Pathfinder I (AURYON), Percutaneous Mitral Valve Annuloplasty, and SPARE-MR. Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q139556853

## Julio G. Martinez-Clark, MBA

**Chief Executive Officer (CEO).** Drives growth strategy, sponsor relationships, and cross-border trial operations. CEO of sister organization bioaccess® with 20+ years scaling clinical research operations across Latin America and the United States. Former Ambassador of IAOCR / GCSA Americas.

## Nereisy Alonso, Sr CRC

**Chief Operations Officer (COO).** Senior Clinical Research Coordinator and operations lead. Owns site administration, sponsor monitor coordination, study start-up logistics, IRB submissions, and SOP SITE-107 KPI tracking on Monday.com across Amavita Research's active cardiovascular trial portfolio.

## Dr. Hans C. Rutzen-Lopez, MD

**Sub-Investigator, Cardiac Electrophysiology.** Triple board-certified by the American Boards of Internal Medicine, Cardiovascular Disease, and Clinical Cardiac Electrophysiology, plus the National Board of Echocardiography. MD from New York University School of Medicine; residency at Beth Israel Deaconess / Harvard Medical School; cardiovascular and electrophysiology fellowships at Boston Medical Center / Boston University. Clinical Assistant Professor at Nova Southeastern University.

## Yasnaya Cruz-Santiago, APRN

**Sub-Investigator, Family Nurse Practitioner.** Florida-licensed APRN #9443547. Universidad de Turabo, Puerto Rico (2018). AANP-certified. Bilingual (English / Spanish).

## Orlando Ortega-Izquierdo, APRN

**Sub-Investigator, Family Nurse Practitioner.** Florida-licensed APRN #9442363. Universidad de Turabo, Puerto Rico (2018, 3.92 GPA). Bilingual (English / Spanish).