Why Advocacy is Critical for the Future of Cardiovascular Research & Medicine

As researchers and physicians, many of us got in to our professions to push the scientific enterprise further to ultimately help others. We’ve all trained for an insane amount of years and collectively we work as a unit to uncover the intricacies of the cardiovascular system, develop therapeutics and treat patients. We traditionally think of … Read more

The Unexpected Benefits of Extending Your Training

During my general cardiology fellowship, I developed a special interest in the care of patients with inherited cardiovascular disease. By virtue of the robust clinical activity of my division’s advanced heart failure and electrophysiology programs, I was exposed to clinical dilemmas like risk stratification in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, primary prevention of sudden cardiac death in lamin … Read more

Diabetes Makes Heart Disease Worse

Global awareness has made us cognizant that people with diabetes are susceptible to various disorders involving eye, kidney or nervous system and blood circulation affecting the limbs in the long run. Along these lines, type 2 diabetic patients are more likely to develop heart disease and have a greater incidence of heart attack. According to … Read more

What Can Cardiology Learn from Impressionism?

At the end of three inspiring days at the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions (AHA18) in Chicago, I took advantage of my late night return flight to spend the afternoon at the Art Institute of Chicago. The museum has one of the finest collections of impressionist paintings, and I’m a big fan. Impressionist artists in the … Read more

Practice Change & CME

There are many scientific sessions happening around the globe that issue continuous medical education (CME) credits. Although the AHA Scientific Sessions 2018 covered a wide breadth of topics, I took particular interest in how the new Lipid Management Guidelines apply to women. My previous blog ended by citing a clinic encounter with a female patient. … Read more

Is There An Intervention For Reducing All Cardiovascular-Related Diseases?

What ‘intervention’ reduces risk for all-cause and cardiovascular mortality, cardiac and cerebrovascular events, hypertension, type 2 diabetes, lipid disorders, and cancer of the bladder, breast, colon, endometrium, esophagus, kidney, stomach, and lung? As an interventional cardiologist and outcomes researcher, I would have been happy to attribute this to the latest device/procedure or a cure-all pill. … Read more

Heart Health and HIV: An Opportunity for Global Health Partnership

Slightly over five years ago, I immersed myself in a growing literature that documented the increase in heart disease in people living with HIV (PLHIV). While almost of all of these studies were in well-developed “high income” countries, the conclusion was always the same. The HIV medications worked, and those who had access to them … Read more

Highlights of AHA18 – Bridging Lifestyle Medicine with Contemporary Medicine through Science

This year’s annual scientific meeting of the American Heart Association (AHA) held in Chicago, Illinois November 10-12, 2018 was excellent. The abbreviated 3-day meeting received positive feedback as this allowed practicing physicians to attend the meeting over the weekend and be able to return to their practice early in the work week rather than having … Read more

AHA18 Reminded Me We Need to Do More for Women

On the surface, it doesn’t really seem that surprising men and women develop heart disease differently or experience different symptoms for the same types of cardiac episodes. However, even though heart disease is the number one killer of both men and women, women have traditionally been omitted from clinical trials and female animals have either … Read more

Interview with Roxanne at AHA18

Imagine having an annoying pain that you thought was just a pulled muscle. No, I am not referencing that episode of The Resident, a medical drama prime time series aired by Fox, where a young immigrant was having pains in her side and it ended up being a rare cancer. However, I am referring to … Read more