During my first year of general cardiology fellowship, our program underwent an exciting transition – our incoming fellowship class increased from 6 fellows the previous year to 10 fellows in my class, nearly doubling the size of the fellowship. This growth was necessitated by the welcome addition of the West LA VA as a rotation … Read more
Tech in Cardiology On a recent flight from San Francisco, I found myself sitting in a dreaded middle seat. To my left was a programmer typing way in Python, and to my right was an oncologist flipping through a slide set on chemotherapy trials. While this may sound like the beginning of a bad joke, … Read more
As a cardiologist who trained in a quaternary care hospital, I am used to treating the sickest patients, such as those with large heart attacks, shock and cardiac arrest. When I go to my weekly clinic, I have to suddenly shift my focus. Much healthier people walk through the door and we spend the majority … Read more
Cardiovascular disease is famously known as a disease that “rose from relative oblivion to the uno numero killer worldwide.” Globally, there were an estimated 422.7 million cases of cardiovascular diseases (CVD) and 17.92 million deaths in 2015. Over the past 50 years, significant efforts have been made to suppress or even eradicate cardiovascular diseases. The … Read more
Featuring an Interview with Dr. Stacey Rosen recipient of the American Heart Association (AHA) 2018 “Women in Cardiology Mentoring Award” Lack of Females in the Cardiology Field Over 36% percent of Internal Medicine residents are females. Despite this fact, females account for less than 20% of the Adult Cardiologist workforce in the United States … Read more
Last month I wrote about the January is for Advocacy AHA initiative and discussed the importance of physicians and scientists getting involved in science advocacy. Since I mentioned I wanted this New Year’s resolution to stick, I am continuing this theme for February because there are so many different ways to get involved with our … Read more
One of the most challenging clinical scenarios to a cardiologist is the patient presenting with symptoms suggestive of obstructive coronary artery disease (i.e. angina), in whom coronary angiography reveals patent coronary vessels. Due to the seemingly ‘normal’ arteries, current clinical practice tends to underestimate the impact of these presentations, but there are subsequent difficulties in … Read more
The growth and use of social media have grown exponentially over the last decade with an eight fold increase since 20051. Social media is generally defined as an Internet-based platform that allows individuals and/or communities to gather virtually to communicate ideas, collaborate, share information, share pictures and videos, either as a direct message or general … Read more
Thirteen years ago in my first anatomy class of Med School, the instructor asked us to make sure our learning is “deep.” “You need to memorize the names of every single tiny nerve and muscle, because they all will be on your exam. One day you could be surgeons and if you cut out the … Read more
There were several exciting developments in 2018 with regards to cardiac imaging. The role of the cardiac imager is becoming increasingly relevant in today’s cardiology practice environment and bridges across several subspecialties in Cardiology, such as electrophysiology with the use of transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) in the placement of left atrial appendage closure devices. These devices … Read more