Prof. Ercole Vellone (Ph.D., RN, FAAN, FESC) is an Associate Professor of Nursing at Tor Vergata University, Rome, Italy and an Adjunct Faculty Member at the Wroclaw Medical University in Poland. Prof. Vellone has substantial clinical experience in cardiovascular nursing and studies of self-care in patients affected by heart failures and other chronic conditions. Also, Prof. Vellone focuses on studying caregiver contributions to self-care in patients suffering from heart failure. On this specific topic, he has developed a psychometric instrument to study caregivers and a situation-specific theory. Prof. Vellone was the Principal Investigator of the MOTIVATE-HF trial, demonstrating the effectiveness of motivational interviewing in improving self-care, symptom burden, quality of life, and mortality in patients with heart failure. Currently, Prof. Vellone is leading the REMOTIVATE-HF trial aimed at improving self-care and several other variables in patients with heart failure using motivational interviewing techniques delivered via video calls. Prof. Vellone is an editorial board member of several cardiovascular nursing journals and the Associate Editor of the European Journal of Cardiovascular Nursing. At Tor Vergata University, Rome, Prof. Vellone is also the Director of the Doctoral Program in Nursing Sciences and Public Health.
Dr. Gianluca Pucciarelli is a Registered Nurse with a Bachelor’s Degree from Sapienza University, Rome, Italy. In 2017, he received a PhD in Nursing Science from the University of Rome Tor Vergata. Subsequently, he was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Department of Biomedicine and Prevention, University of Rome Tor Vergata. He is currently a Research Fellow in Nursing at the University of Rome Tor Vergata. In 2018, he was habilitated for the position of Associate Professor. Currently, he is a Lecturer in Nursing Sciences for undergraduate and postgraduate courses at the University of Rome Tor Vergata and a Lecturer at the Catholic University Our Lady of Good Counsel (Tirana). His research mainly concerns the study of quality of life in Italian families affected by stroke events, using a dyadic approach for interdependence. In addition, he has been studying smartphones’ positive and negative effects on healthcare and the determinants of delirium in adult and pediatric populations. In 2019, he was nominated a member of the CVSN Stroke Nursing Committee, American Heart Association.
