Category Archives: Cardiology

Cardiology

How one cardiologist turns to art to be a better doctor – The Philadelphia Tribune

The life of a doctor isn't easy these days. Many are saddled with massive student loan debt, work long hours and continue to deal with the trauma of treating patients during the pandemic.

Doctors, nurses and other front-line health-care workers bore the brunt of the pandemic. Many contracted covid-19, and some even had to intubate their colleagues. Others developed long covid, and some suffered such intense emotional pain that they died by suicide. Doctors who want to seek mental health support are fearful of retribution from state licensing boards.

National Doctors' Day is celebrated every March 30 to recognize the contributions of physicians. The first Doctors' Day was observed by Eudora Brown Almond, the wife of a Georgia doctor who sent notes and flowers to physicians. She chose March 30 because it's also the date in 1842 when anesthesia was first used, a remarkable milestone in patient care. The day became an official holiday when Congress passed a proclamation in 1991.

To celebrate National Doctors' Day, I wanted to highlight the contributions of Shirlene Obuobi, a cardiologist, cartoonist and author, who writes regularly for The Post. Recently, I had the chance to chat by email with her while she was on a short break at the hospital. Here's our conversation.

Q: Did you always know you would become a doctor?

A: I decided I wanted to be a doctor at a really young age. It was a fairly practical decision; my mom is a neonatologist, I grew up in health-care environments, and I was a high-achieving kid who wanted to make her West African parents proud. My reasons got more complicated and personal with age. I find that medicine has the potential to be inherently fulfilling both intellectually and emotionally. I like that my job allows me to be a part of peoples' family, so to speak. Cardiology was a bit different - I joke that I went into it kicking and screaming near the end of my first year of residency. It's notoriously intense, but I love the physiology, the scope and the constant movement in the field.

Q: How did you get into writing and art while you were also being a doctor?

A: I've been writing and drawing for as long as I can remember! I've been creating stories and processing my experiences through art since I was a kid, and continuing to do so during my journey through medicine was a given.

Q: What's your favorite aspect of creating comics or writing?

A: The daydreaming! When I have an experience, I often attempt to translate it into art in my head, or find ways to figure out how I could portray the scenario to someone who doesn't have my context.

Q: Do you think having this outlet helps you connect with patients or process the experience of being a doctor?

A: Absolutely. Maintaining empathy in health care and especially as a trainee requires active effort. People are our work, and they are our work when we haven't slept for multiple days, when we've skipped meals, when our family members are getting impatient with us because we're so rarely present. By revisiting my experiences in art, I'm able to process my own feelings and put myself in the shoes of not only my patients but my colleagues. I think it keeps me from becoming a complete nightmare.

Q: What's the stress level like now that the intense part of the pandemic - and the 7 p.m. cheering every night - is over?

A: Ha! Honestly, I don't think the cheering ever really felt like it had much substance in the early days of covid. Most of my colleagues would say they'd prefer something concrete, like better pathways to loan forgiveness. It's very stressful and usually thankless. But there are the occasional days and moments that make it worth it. Keep in mind, I'm a cardiology fellow. I have a sleep debt about five years deep!

Q: What do you want patients to take away from your columns?

A: I have a couple of missions. I want to humanize medicine and the people in it. There's a lot of dissatisfaction with the American health-care system that I think is misplaced upon the people who are the faces of it. But doctors and other health-care workers are people, privy to the same tendencies and biases as everyone else, and they also are subjected to a considerable amount of primary and secondary trauma that has been totally normalized, even though it has clear consequences on our mental health.

I also want to give people insight into how health care works from the point of view of health-care workers, so that they can better advocate for themselves.

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How one cardiologist turns to art to be a better doctor - The Philadelphia Tribune

Cardiology

Why investors are eyeing these 3 specialties – Becker’s ASC Review

Investors are keeping their eye on gastroenterology, cardiology and orthopedics, according to McDermott Health's "2023 Physician Practice Management" report.

According to the McDermott Health report, gastroenterology has high utilization of evaluation and management codes, which increased for 2021. Medicare ASC payments for colonoscopies with lesion removals and colonoscopies and biopsies are expected to increase in 2023, according to VMG Health's "ASCs in 2022: A Year in Review" report. These factors put the specialty in an advantageous spot for growth in 2023.

Cardiology is the fastest growing ASC specialty, according to Avanza's "2022 Key ASC Benchmarks and Industry Figures" report. As more cardiology procedures get approved to be performed in outpatient settings, the specialty could become more popular among ASCs and investors.

One private equity firm in particular has taken notice of cardiology's growth potential. In January, Viper Partners announced its plans to open a mergers and acquisitions department specifically focused on deals in the cardiology space. The firm decided to enter the space because of cardiology's low concentration of private equity, aging population, and changes to Medicare and Medicaid rules.

Orthopedic surgeries bring in more revenue than any other specialty nationwide and offer the highest reimbursements to ASCs, according to VMG Health's "Multi-Specialty ASC Benchmarking Study" for 2022. These factors combined with opportunities for value-based care make orthopedics an attractive option for investors.

"I am likely stating the obvious when I say that ASCs with meaningful orthopedic volume stand a much better chance of financial viability and sustainability than those [without]," John Ryan, CEO of OrthoIndy in Indianapolis, told Becker's. "While it is absolutely possible for an ASC to be financially successful without orthopedics, those ASCs with orthopedic procedure volume at or above 25 percent have a far clearer path to navigate the other economic pressures on an ASC's financial health."

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Why investors are eyeing these 3 specialties - Becker's ASC Review

Cardiology

Churchwell named to national list of top Black health care leaders – VUMC Reporter

Andr Churchwell, MD

by KathyWhitney

Andr Churchwell, MD, has been named to Beckers Hospital Reviews 2023 edition of the Black health care leaders to know list.

The list acknowledges that diversity in leadership, particularly at the executive level, lends health care organizations a broader perspective and a deeper understanding of their clients and employees. The leaders featured on this list work tirelessly to advance their organizations and communities.

The list honors Black leaders for their commitment to the health care field; their viewpoints are crucial to the foundation of organizations, programs and partnerships that foster health equity and inclusion.

Churchwell is Vice Chancellor of Equity, Diversity, Institutional Belonging, Community Outreach and Inclusion and Chief Diversity Officer of Vanderbilt University.

He was the first African American chief medical resident at Atlanta-based Grady Memorial Hospital in 1984 while completing his medical training. A few years later, he was among the team of experts from Emory and Georgia Tech in Atlanta that formed a bioengineering center. He has earned several awards for his achievements in cardiology and health equity and dedicated his career to improving diversity in medical trainees and academic medicine. Churchwell is a professor of Medicine (cardiology), a professor of Radiology and Radiological Sciences, and a professor of Biomedical Engineering.

Of note, Churchwells brothers and former Vanderbilt University School of Medicine faculty, Keith Churchwell, MD, president of Yale New Haven Hospital and executive vice president of Yale New Haven Health System, and Kevin Churchwell, MD, president and COO of Boston Childrens Hospital, were also named to the Black health care leaders to know list.

The complete list can be found here.

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Churchwell named to national list of top Black health care leaders - VUMC Reporter

Cardiology

Dr Rajesh Rajan: The harbinger of heart health – Free Press Journal

Dr Rajesh Rajan has dedicated much of his medical career towards clinical cardiology and research in heart failure. His undying devotion towards better healthcare is evident from a number of achievements, and recognition that he has received in his field of cardiology.

Born in Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala, India to Koodal Rajan A.V., an advocate, and P.N Vasanthamma, a teacher, Dr Rajan eventually went on to study Medicine from RUDN University in 2003. Following his interest in cardiovascular diseases, he acquired a fellowship in Cardiovascular Surgery from Bakulev Scientific Center of Cardiovascular Surgery in 2005. By the time he obtained a Postgraduate Diploma in Clinical Cardiology from Kerala Institute of Medical Sciences (KIMS), Dr Rajans life trajectory was set, as he also acquired a Ph. D in cardiology from RUDN University. When he relocated to Kuwait in 2013, Dr Rajan continued his research in heart failure and cardiorenal anemia syndrome.

Dr Rajan has the credit of inventing Rajans Heart Failure Risk Score or (R-HF Risk Score). This is a new prognostic risk predicting calculator efficient for heart failure patients with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF). While using this tool, physicians will need to enter only four variables to calculate the risk score. The online version of our heart failure risk score calculator will be available at https://www.hfriskcalc.in.

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Dr Rajan, along with his colleague Kotevski, also proposed a new classification for single coronary artery (SCA): Rajan's and Kotevski TYPE-IV (R-IV-C) modified Lipton's classification. It was defined as type-IV quadfurcation of a single coronary artery from the right aortic sinus.

The Government of India officially invited Dr Rajan as the national president of Indian Association of Clinical Cardiologists (IACC) for a high-power meeting to take decision on cardiac stent prices back in 2018. Dr Rajan advocated for the price reduction strongly, and his requests were implemented during a meeting in Delhi at NPPA headquarters held recently.

Some of Dr Rajans academic achievements include fellowships from the Royal College of Physicians London, Edinburgh, Glasgow & Ireland, European Society of Cardiology, American College of Cardiology, and American Heart Association.

Dr Rajesh Rajan is the Founder President and Chairman Board of Governors of the Indian Association of Clinical Cardiologists, representing the nation's clinical cardiologists to the federal government. He has also been a participant in the Indo-Soviet Cardiology Research Project of KIMS Hospital and RUDN University. His research has been featured in noted national and international medical journals.

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Dr Rajesh Rajan: The harbinger of heart health - Free Press Journal

Cardiology

The Take Home: ACC Scientific Session – Healio

April 06, 2023

10 min read

Healio Interviews

Disclosures: Albert, Lichtenstein, Mitter and Weintraub report no relevant financial disclosures. Coylewright reports receiving funding and consultant support from Edwards Lifesciences. Harrington reports receiving consultant fees/honoraria from Atropos Health, Bitterroot, BridgeBio, Bristol Myers Squibb, Element Science, Foresight and WebMD; having a fiduciary role in Cytokinetics; and receiving research grants from CSL Behring, Edwards Lifesciences and Janssen.

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The American College of Cardiology Scientific Session was held March 4 to 6 in New Orleans. Healio | Cardiology Today was on-site for the latest news in cardiology and experts reactions to it.

Among those who offered their insights were American Heart Association President Michelle A. Albert, MD, MPH, FAHA, from the University of California, San Francisco; Megan Coylewright, MD, MPH, FACC, FSCAI, from Erlanger Health System; Robert A. Harrington, MD, FAHA, from Stanford University; Alice H. Lichtenstein, DSc, from Tufts University; Sumeet S. Mitter, MD, from Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai; and Howard Weintraub, MD, from NYU Langone Health.

Editors Note: All coverage from the ACC Scientific Session can be found here .

Howard Weintraub

Weintraub: This study is relevant and important because it demonstrates the efficacy and safety of bempedoic acid (Nexletol, Esperion Therapeutics), a relatively new nonstatin drug that effectively lowers LDL, and it is well tolerated by patients who are statin intolerant. Further, it shows that when this drug is used in these patients, it was able to reduce the frequency of major adverse CV events such as the need for cardiac surgery, fatal heart attacks, CV death and nonfatal stroke.

The study included 13,970 adults from 1,250 sites across 32 countries who were unable or unwilling to take statins owing to unacceptable adverse effects and had or were at high risk for CVD. At a median of 40.6 months, the primary endpoint of CV death, nonfatal MI, nonfatal stroke or coronary revascularization was lower with bempedoic acid than with placebo (11.7% vs. 13.3%; HR = 0.87; 95% CI, 0.79-0.96; P = .004). Similarly, incidence of CV death, nonfatal MI and nonfatal stroke was lower with bempedoic acid vs. placebo (HR = 0.85; 95% CI, 0.76-0.96; P = .006), as was fatal or nonfatal MI (HR = 0.77; 95% CI, 0.66-0.91; P = .002) and coronary revascularization (HR = 0.81; 95% CI, 0.72-0.92; P = .001).

These findings are significant because they demonstrated that there is a drug that is useful and safe in a population of patients that frequently go untreated. It also demonstrated that even a modest amount of LDL reduction over a 3.5-year period was able to have a very meaningful impact on CV risk. Finally, and very importantly, it was one of the few studies to include a large proportion of women. Women comprised 48% of the participants in this trial, and 46% of the patients had diabetes.

This could be practice changing because many patients are reluctant to use any of the cholesterol-lowering medications due to adverse symptoms with the use of statins. Two important differences were the low incidence of muscle aches and the low incidence of the development of type 2 diabetes. Muscle aches are the most common adverse events from statins, but the development of type 2 diabetes is also reported. There were slightly more patients with elevated liver enzymes, and elevations in uric acid were much more frequent.

In this trial, researchers studied patients who have had prior CV events as well as those at increased risk for an event. Both groups saw a meaningful reduction in the combined endpoint. The population of patients who are statin intolerant or perceived as statin intolerant is not a small number of patients. It would be good to have a drug that has been proved in this population but has been shown to reduce events.

There is also the possibility to combine ezetimibe with bempedoic acid. This is available as a single pill and has been shown in clinical trials to lower LDL by as much as 35% to 38%.

Megan Coylewright

Coylewright: It is really challenging to take care of people with severe tricuspid regurgitation. They suffer, and we have limited medical therapies to offer. Most of these patients are elderly and frail and it is very difficult for them to take high-dose diuretics. We dont typically offer surgery for isolated functional tricuspid regurgitation. This is a huge unmet need.

Cardiologists and physicians are very hopeful that we can make people feel better. In the methods, the authors describe that an improvement in quality of life was 15 points on the Kansas City Cardiomyopathy Questionnaire (KCCQ). We usually define a change of 10 points as a moderate improvement. John Spertus, MD, Suzanne Arnold, MD, and others wrote a JACC State of the Art review in 2020 that walks us through this patient-reported measure, including its use in trials. They note that mean differences can be difficult to interpret, as opposed to the proportion of patients who experienced a benefit, for example.

The primary endpoint of TRILUMINATE a composite of mortality or tricuspid valve surgery, hospitalization for HF and quality of life improvement of at least 15 points using the KCCQ, evaluated at 1 year in a hierarchical fashion was met, demonstrating superiority of transcatheter edge-to-edge repair (TEER) over medical therapy alone (win ratio = 1.48; 95% CI, 1.06-2.13; P = .02).

Results did not show a difference, at 1 year at least, in the outcomes of mortality or need for surgery (TEER group, 90.6%; medical therapy group, 89.4%; P = .75) or HF hospitalization (85.1% vs. 87.9%, respectively; P = .41). We are not seeing a large change in quality of life either. I would say thats counter to some of our own experiences in the clinic after performing this procedure; we really see that patients are feeling a lot better. There is a chance our own experience of people feeling better, and the trial results may be limited by not having a sham control.

One thing were all very curious about is what success looks like for interventional HF trials. Were learning as we go along about how to define success when it comes to quality of life. In interventional cardiology, we have recruited tens of thousands of people and measured mortality or measured receiving another stent. Were now partnering with our HF colleagues to understand a little bit more of this space that is driven by quality of life. When we hear the results from TRILUMINATE, were wondering, is an increase in a KCCQ quality of life score of 12 points meaningful enough to lead to a device approval and therefore a change in our clinical practice? People are excited that it is safe, but we also need to be helpful. If were going to sit a patient down and go through a shared decision-making discussion where we discuss the pros and the cons and listen to whats most important to them, if we cannot communicate that theyre going to feel better, then there wont be an indication to go forward with the therapy.

I dont think this trial means that tricuspid repair is unhelpful. Its 1-year follow-up. We have to look closely at the patients that were included, but we also have to think about whether the ways that were measuring quality of life are adequate. Is the KCCQ quality of life score enough to reflect some of the outcomes of my patients who underwent tricuspid repair, like the ability to reduce diuretic dosing, or the ability to bend over and tie their shoes, or the ability to get out of the car without two grandkids lifting them out? These are life-changing for the patients.

Robert A. Harrington

Harrington: NUDGE-FLU is a very interesting study. The researchers looked at whether behavioral nudging would be a viable strategy to boost vaccination update on a population level. More than 964,000 individuals aged 65 years and older (mean age, 74 years; 51% women) in Denmark were randomly assigned to one of nine electronic letters or usual care, which was standard annual correspondence about influenza vaccination from the Danish Health Authority. Communications were delivered before the 2022-2023 influenza season via the countrys governmental electronic letter system.

Subsequent influenza vaccine uptake was higher in two groups: those who received the electronic letter highlighting the potential CV benefits (81% vs. 80.12%; P < .0001) and those who received a reminder letter 2 weeks after the first (80.85% vs. 80.12%; P = .0006).

We did something in our health system a few years ago that was very similar to try to nudge people with different types of contact. That was a localized health system, but this is a much bigger effort. You cant do a countrywide effort everywhere, but in certain health systems, you can. The sheer scope was impressive.

Also impressive was the different types of behavioral nudges, and that the researchers actually got a result that showed that something might be effective. Perhaps not surprisingly, giving people insight into flu vaccine lowering direct risk for CVD was one of the winners. For cardiologists, that felt good. I thought the social-good option might win, given the perception of Scandinavian countries placing a priority on doing things for the social good.

Not surprising from a human behavior perspective is that if you do something repeatedly, you increase the yield.

This is actionable. In the U.S., it may be hard to get this at the national level, but we can get it at the county level. It would be nice to see something like this rolled out in counties across the U.S. I could also see individual health systems doing this. I get texts from my county about road closures; why couldnt I also get one reminding me to get my flu shot?

The one caution is that Danes are more ethnically homogenous in terms of racial backgrounds, experiences, socioeconomics, etc, than we are in the U.S. It would be nice to see more data across difference racial and socioeconomic subgroups, because of the hypothesis that different behavioral nudges may work in different groups.

Michelle A. Albert

Albert: A number of patients from diverse clinical backgrounds still do not get to optimal LDL levels on statins alone. Adding a PCSK9 inhibitor on top of statins allows them to get closer to optimal levels. It is an important alternative for people who cannot get to optimal levels on statins and for people who are intolerant to higher doses of statins. Adding something on top of statins can be very effective.

The study population was at intermediate to high risk for coronary disease and about 55% had diabetes. Despite so many of these patients having diabetes, only 20% were taking a high-intensity statin in accordance with guidelines. A lot more of these patients should have been on high-intensity statins; it should parallel close to the percentage of those with diabetes.

The researchers randomly assigned 381 participants to placebo or one of four doses of the oral PCSK9 inhibitor: 6 mg, 12 mg, 18 mg or 30 mg, all once daily.

At 8 weeks, the differences in least squares mean percentage change in LDL compared with placebo were as follows:

What was very intriguing is that lipoprotein(a) levels in those who took the oral PCSK9 inhibitor were lowered by about 20%, even though that was not what the researchers were looking to study. That is important for the Black population, who have higher Lp(a) levels than other groups.

There were very few Black people in this study, but it was gratifying to see that each assignment group was 17% to 23% Asian, and there were a few American Indian/Alaska Native participants, who are traditionally not well represented in studies.

Sumeet S. Mitter

Mitter: The most important take-home message from the STOP-CA trial is that statins potentially could help attenuate the drop in the EF among patients exposed to anthracyclines for lymphoma.

Unfortunately, with anthracyclines, which patients need to treat their malignancy in lymphoma or breast cancer, sometimes there are off-target effects, such as damage to the heart muscle. Weve been trying to find ways to attenuate the drop in EF and eventual HF events.

Prior to anthracycline treatment, 300 patients were assigned atorvastatin or placebo for 12 months. The primary outcome of the proportion of participants with a decline in LVEF of 10% to less than 55% at 12 months was 9% in the atorvastatin group compared with 22% in the placebo group (P = .002). The likelihood of decline in cardiac dysfunction after anthracyclines was nearly threefold among patients randomly assigned placebo (OR = 2.9; 95% CI, 1.4-6.4).What it means for patients is that potentially there may be a push to start high-dose statins such as atorvastatin 40 mg in this trial to attenuate that drop in EF.

What we dont know from STOP-CA, and what I think most cardiologists will be wanting from this and looking forward prospectively in further studies, is will this also amount to a reduction in HF events? There is a dichotomy there in what this implies, more so in patients receiving placebo vs. those receiving atorvastatin; we didnt necessarily measure the actual HF syndrome, event, hospitalization or quality of life, here. That is very different from what we interpret on an echocardiogram. Ultimately, the magnitude of difference in the mean EF between two arms is only 1%, which frankly is not that much in terms of clinical meaning.

The future is bright though. If we continue to conduct well-performed studies looking at agents that could help attenuate the drop in EF, we may one day find also a therapy that stops a drop in EF that may result in reduction of HF events, but ultimately will also be associated with a reduction in HF events and overall improvement in survival and quality of life for our patients afflicted with these malignancies.

Alice H. Lichtenstein

Lichtenstein: In a study of 305 participants who followed a keto-style diet and 1,220 who followed a standard diet who were not on lipid-lowering therapy, the overall prevalence of severe hypercholesterolemia (> 5 mmol/L) was higher among individuals who followed a keto-style diet (11.1% vs. 6.2%; P < 001). The risk for incident ASCVD events was more than twofold among patients following a keto-style diet compared with a standard diet (HR = 2.18; 95% CI, 1.39-3.43; P < .001).

The outcome of long-term consumption of a keto-style diet likely depends on the type of foods hence, the type of fat that predominates. If animal fat meat and milk fat predominates, high in saturated fat, it is not surprising the researchers reported a positive association with elevated CVD risk. Given LDL cholesterol levels were higher, that is likely the case in this study. If a person decides to follow a keto-style diet and gets their fats predominantly from plant sources, high in unsaturated fat such as plant oils soybean, canola, corn, olive, nuts and seeds it is very possible the results will be different.

There is a paper that recently came out in Diabetes Care in patients with type 2 diabetes that supports this premise (Hu Y, et al. Diabetes Care. 2023;doi:10.2337/dc22-2310).

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Cardiology

Vincent Figueredo, Blue Bell Cardiologist, Writes Book on the Heart – BUCKSCO.Today

Vincent M. Figueredo, Blue Bell cardiologist, has written a book that chronicles the discovery of the hearts anatomical role. The Wall Street Journal excerpted it.

Figueredos cardiological history dates to 1641 and a shocking medical case in England. Patient Hugh Montgomery had sustained a childhood injury that left his beating heart visible through a gap in his chest.

Montgomery became something of a celebrity, allowing strangers to view his cardiac activity firsthand. He even showed it to King Charles I, who painlessly touched the organ as it dutifully pumped.

That visible evidence started to shift the hearts established view, which was then theorized to be much closer to the activities now attributed to the brain: emotions, passion, intelligence.

The hearts true function moving blood for oxygenation purposes started to emerge.

Harvey ran several experiments to test the heart-as-pump theory. He worked with tourniquets and live subjects (inmates and animals) to confirm that the organ was, indeed, little more than an array of muscles and valves designed to move blood.

At the diastole it was drawn in and retracted; and in the systole, it came forth and was thrust out, read his notes from the time.

More on the evolution of cardiological education from Blue Bells Vincent M. Figueredo is at The Wall Street Journal.

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A history of cardiology presented at University College London.

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Vincent Figueredo, Blue Bell Cardiologist, Writes Book on the Heart - BUCKSCO.Today

Cardiology

Cedars-Sinai Heart Experts Elected to Lead, Join Prominent Medical Societies – Newswise

Newswise LOS ANGELES (April 7, 2023) --Two Smidt Heart Institute experts have been honored for their contributions to medical research by being inducted into select medical societies, while a third expert has been selected for a leadership position.

Cardiologist, echocardiographer and clinician-scientistSusan Cheng, MD, director of Cardiovascular Population Sciences in theSmidt Heart Instituteand the Erika J. Glazer Chair in Womens Cardiovascular Health and Population Science, has been elected to the American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI) Council.ASCI is regarded as the most prestigious honorary society in internal medicine, andCheng is one of only two U.S. physicians elected to the council this year.

Cheng leads research programs aimed at uncovering drivers of cardiovascular aging in women and men, why the sexes experience the aging process differently, and how aging leads to different types of heart disease.

Im honored to serve the organization in this capacity, said Cheng, whose term begins April 21,andIm particularly eager to represent Cedars-Sinai on the council as well as to continue my work in the study of sex differences in cardiovascular pathophysiology and disease.

The society also inducted cardiac electrophysiologistEugenio Cingolani, MD, director of the Cardiogenetics Program at the Smidt Heart Institute, for outstanding achievement in academic medicine.

Cingolani, whose most recently published study explored how to create biological pacemakers by reprogramming heart cells to make them beat spontaneously, is among the societys 100 new active and international members from 49 institutions. Cingolani and his peers will be inducted into the society during a special ceremony Friday, April 21, in Chicago at a joint meeting with the Association of American Physicians and the American Physician Scientists Association.

The American Society for Clinical Investigation is a nonprofit medical honor society comprising more than 3,000 physician-scientists from all medical specialties. The society is dedicated to advancing research that extends understanding of diseases and improves treatment; members are committed to mentoring future generations of physician-scientists.

Founded in 1908, the organization is one of the nations oldest medical honor societies and is among the few focused on the special role of physician-scientists in research, clinical care and medical education, as well as leadership positions in academic medicine and the life sciences industry.

Improving heart health through novel research and treatment protocols is among my greatest passions, said Cingolani, also an associate professor of Cardiology and director of Preclinical Research at Smidt Heart Institute, and recognition for that from the ASCI is a career highlight.

Damini Dey, PhD, directorof the Quantitative Image Analysis Program in theBiomedical Imaging Research Instituteat Cedars-Sinai,has been inducted into the 2023 Class of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) College of Fellowsrecognition that is reserved for the top 2% of medical and biological engineers.

Dey, professor of Biomedical Sciences at Cedars-Sinai and co-associate director of the Biomedical Imaging Research Institute, wasnominated, reviewed and elected by peers and members of the AIMBE College of Fellows for her pioneering contributions in artificial intelligence analysis of cardiac images to predict and prevent heart attacks. Dey was formally inducted March 27 in Arlington, Virginia, as part of the groups annual meeting.

TheAmerican Institute for Medical and Biological EngineeringCollege of Fellows honors those who have made outstanding contributions to engineering and medicine research, practice or education and to the pioneering of new and developing fields of technology, making major advancements in traditional fields of medical and biological engineering or developing/implementing innovative approaches to bioengineering education.

What an incredible honor to receive this recognition, Dey said. Ive always been impressed by the mission of the organization, in particular its commitment to accelerating medical and biological innovation. I look forward to continuing my research emphasis on AI and machine learning in cardiac imaging to predict heart attack risk and to precisely quantify the effect of prevention strategies.

Dey is among 140 colleagues who make up the AIMBE College of Fellows Class of 2023. Inductees have previously included Nobel Prize laureates and Presidential Medal of Science and/or Technology and Innovation recipients.

My congratulations to Dr. Cheng, Dr. Cingolani and Dr. Dey on receiving such prestigious acknowledgement from two highly regarded organizations on their incredible clinical and research contributions to our understanding, diagnosis, treatment and prevention of cardiovascular diseases,saidJeffrey Golden, MD, vice dean of Research and Graduate Education and director of the Burns and Allen Research Institute at Cedars-Sinai.The recognition is admirable, as is their commitment to advancements in heart health.

The Smidt Heart Institute is ranked #1 in California and #3 in the nation for Cardiology & Heart Surgery inU.S. News & World Reports Best Hospitals 2022-23.

Read More On The Cedars-Sinai Blog:A New Partner In Heart Disease Prediction: AI

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Cedars-Sinai Heart Experts Elected to Lead, Join Prominent Medical Societies - Newswise