Dr. Valentin Fuster serves The Mount Sinai Hospital as Director of Mount Sinai Heart, the Zena and Michael A. Wiener Cardiovascular Institute and the Marie-Josée and Henry R. Kravis Center for Cardiovascular Health. He is the Richard Gorlin, MD/Heart Research Foundation Professor, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Dr. Fuster was the President of Science and is now the General Director of the Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares Carlos III (CNIC) in Madrid, Spain.
Dr. Fuster is the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology (JACC). Among the seemingly countless positions of distinction that he holds are Past President of the American Heart Association, Past President of the World Heart Federation, Member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences where he serves as Chair of the committee on Preventing the Global Epidemic of Cardiovascular Disease, former member of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute Advisory Council, and former Chairman of the Fellowship Training Directors Program of the American College of Cardiology. Thirty-three distinguished universities throughout the world have granted him Honorary Doctorate Degrees.
Dr. Fuster is the recipient of two major ongoing NIH grants. He has published more than 900 research articles on the subjects of coronary artery disease, atherosclerosis and thrombosis, and he has become the lead Editor of two major textbooks on cardiology, ‘The Heart’ (previously edited by Dr. J. Willis Hurst) and “Atherothrombosis and Coronary Artery Disease” (with Dr. Eric Topol and Dr. Elizabeth Nabel). Dr. Fuster has been appointed Editor-in-Chief of the Nature journal that focuses on cardiovascular medicine (Nature Reviews, Cardiology, April 2009) and he is the Editor of the “AHA Guidelines and Scientific Statements Handbook”, which compiles all the latest information.
Dr. Fuster is the only cardiologist to receive the two highest gold medal awards and all four major research awards from the four major cardiovascular organizations: The Distinguished Researcher Award (Interamerican Society of Cardiology, 2005 and 2009), Andreas Gruntzig Scientific Award and Gold Medal Award (European Society of Cardiology, 1992 and 2007 respectively), Gold Medal Award and Distinguished Scientist (American Heart Association, 2001 and 2003 respectively), and the Distinguished Scientist Award (American College of Cardiology, 1993)
In addition, he has received the Lewis A. Conner Memorial Award by the American Heart Association, the James B. Herrick Achievement Award from the Council of Clinical Cardiology of the American Heart Association, and the 1996 Principe de Asturias Award of Science and Technology (the highest award given to Spanish-speaking scientists). In 2008, Dr. Fuster received the Kurt Polzer Cardiovascular Award from the European Academy of Science and Arts. In 2009, he received the Distinguished Teacher Award of the American College of Cardiology and then later that year, the prestigious International Arrigo Recordati Award for his Scientific Achievement in the development of Cardiovascular Imaging
After receiving his medical degree from Barcelona University and completing an internship at Hospital Clinic in Barcelona, Dr. Fuster spent several years at the Mayo Clinic, first as a resident and later as Professor of Medicine and Consultant in Cardiology. In 1981, he came to Mount Sinai as head of Cardiology. From 1991 to 1994, he was Mallinckrodt Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Chief of Cardiology at the Massachusetts General Hospital. He returned to Mount Sinai in 1994 as Director of the Zena and Michael A. Wiener Cardiovascular Institute and most recently, he has been named the Director of the Mount Sinai Heart.
Dr. Valentin Fuster serves The Mount Sinai Hospital as Director of Mount Sinai Heart, the Zena and Michael A. Wiener Cardiovascular Institute and the Marie-Josée and Henry R. Kravis Center for Cardiovascular Health. He is the Richard Gorlin, MD/Heart Research Foundation Professor, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Dr. Fuster was the President of Science and is now the General Director of the Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares Carlos III (CNIC) in Madrid, Spain.
Dr. Fuster is the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology (JACC). Among the seemingly countless positions of distinction that he holds are Past President of the American Heart Association, Past President of the World Heart Federation, Member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences where he serves as Chair of the committee on Preventing the Global Epidemic of Cardiovascular Disease, former member of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute Advisory Council, and former Chairman of the Fellowship Training Directors Program of the American College of Cardiology. Thirty-three distinguished universities throughout the world have granted him Honorary Doctorate Degrees.
Dr. Fuster is the recipient of two major ongoing NIH grants. He has published more than 900 research articles on the subjects of coronary artery disease, atherosclerosis and thrombosis, and he has become the lead Editor of two major textbooks on cardiology, ‘The Heart’ (previously edited by Dr. J. Willis Hurst) and “Atherothrombosis and Coronary Artery Disease” (with Dr. Eric Topol and Dr. Elizabeth Nabel). Dr. Fuster has been appointed Editor-in-Chief of the Nature journal that focuses on cardiovascular medicine (Nature Reviews, Cardiology, April 2009) and he is the Editor of the “AHA Guidelines and Scientific Statements Handbook”, which compiles all the latest information.
Dr. Fuster is the only cardiologist to receive the two highest gold medal awards and all four major research awards from the four major cardiovascular organizations: The Distinguished Researcher Award (Interamerican Society of Cardiology, 2005 and 2009), Andreas Gruntzig Scientific Award and Gold Medal Award (European Society of Cardiology, 1992 and 2007 respectively), Gold Medal Award and Distinguished Scientist (American Heart Association, 2001 and 2003 respectively), and the Distinguished Scientist Award (American College of Cardiology, 1993)
In addition, he has received the Lewis A. Conner Memorial Award by the American Heart Association, the James B. Herrick Achievement Award from the Council of Clinical Cardiology of the American Heart Association, and the 1996 Principe de Asturias Award of Science and Technology (the highest award given to Spanish-speaking scientists). In 2008, Dr. Fuster received the Kurt Polzer Cardiovascular Award from the European Academy of Science and Arts. In 2009, he received the Distinguished Teacher Award of the American College of Cardiology and then later that year, the prestigious International Arrigo Recordati Award for his Scientific Achievement in the development of Cardiovascular Imaging
After receiving his medical degree from Barcelona University and completing an internship at Hospital Clinic in Barcelona, Dr. Fuster spent several years at the Mayo Clinic, first as a resident and later as Professor of Medicine and Consultant in Cardiology. In 1981, he came to Mount Sinai as head of Cardiology. From 1991 to 1994, he was Mallinckrodt Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Chief of Cardiology at the Massachusetts General Hospital. He returned to Mount Sinai in 1994 as Director of the Zena and Michael A. Wiener Cardiovascular Institute and most recently, he has been named the Director of the Mount Sinai Heart.
Matthew J. Budoff, MD, FACC, is Professor of Medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine and Director of Cardiac CT at the Division of Cardiology at the Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Torrance, California. Dr. Budoff received his medical degree from the George Washington University School of Medicine in Washington, DC and completed an internship and residency in internal medicine, and a fellowship in cardiology, at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center. Dr. Budoff is chief investigator in several active medical research trials, and is a frequent lecturer on topics of cardiology at symposia, congresses, and annual conferences on every continent. He has authored or co-authored over 400 research papers, six books, and 36 book chapters. Dr. Budoff received the Einstein Award for Scientific Achievement from the International Biographical Centre, Cambridge, UK, and awarded the Top Oral Abstract at the American Heart Association’s 2009 meeting. Most recently, he was named to the U.S. News & World Report list of Top Doctors for 2011.
Prediman K. (PK) Shah, MD is the Director of the Atherosclerosis Prevention and Treatment Center and of the Oppenheimer Atherosclerosis Research Center at Cedars-Sinai where he leads several studies that focus on heart disease prevention and treatment. Dr. Shah holds the Shapell and Webb Family Chair in Clinical Cardiology at Cedars-Sinai and is a Professor of Medicine and Cardiology. In the early 1990s, he worked in the cardiovascular research laboratory at the Massachusetts General Hospital of the Harvard Medical School in Boston. At that time, the laboratory was under the leadership of Valentin Fuster, MD, PhD. He devotes 60 percent of his professional hours to patient care and the balance of his time among research, administrative, and teaching responsibilities. In 1992, Dr. Shah and his colleagues began studying a mutant gene that was found in a small number of inhabitants of a northern Italian town. Compared to the normal gene (apolipoprotein A-1), the mutant gene (apo A-1 Milano) produces a form of HDL (high-density lipoprotein or “good” cholesterol) that provides greater protection against atherosclerosis and vascular inflammation – processes that lead to clogged arteries, heart attacks, and strokes. In 1994 and 1998, Dr. Shah showed for the first time that intravenous injection of a genetically engineered form of the protein markedly reduced arterial plaque buildup in rabbits and mice fed a high-cholesterol diet. Subsequent animal studies confirmed the potent effects of the apo A-1 Milano protein on prevention and reversal of plaque buildup, and early clinical trials conducted elsewhere found similar results in humans. In preparation for large-scale human trials, additional animal studies are being planned at Cedars-Sinai, and a major pharmaceutical company is developing facilities to produce substantial quantities of the purified Apo A-I Milano protein. Dr. Shah’s work with the Apo A-I Milano protein was the subject of CBS’ 60 Minutes in1994 and 1995. In 2005, Dr. Shah reported that transfer of the apo A-1 Milano gene itself – not just the protein – had been accomplished, also with favorable results. A single injection of a harmless virus engineered to carry the gene enabled mice to manufacture their own supply of the protein produced by the gene. The animals received the protective benefits with a single gene injection rather than repeated protein injections. Safety and efficacy studies are continuing. Animal studies conducted in Dr. Shah’s laboratory and the laboratory of Dr. Shah’s longtime collaborator, Swedish scientist Dr. Jan Nilsson, found that a vaccine created from the low-density lipoprotein (LDL, or “bad” cholesterol) molecule significantly reduced plaque buildup in animals that had high cholesterol levels. Experimental studies on this novel Vaccine for Heart Disease continue and human studies are planned within the next few years. Dr. Shah is the immediate past- president of the American Heart Association(AHA) – Western States Affiliate and a member of the AHA-Western Regional Board. He is a long-time volunteer with the American Heart Association at the national, regional and local levels. He was also president of the Los Angeles Chapter of the AHA in 2001 and 2002, and has served as a memberof the Los Angeles Board and the Western Regional Peer-Review Group. Dr.Shah has chaired the AHA’s Educational Task Force and the Fall Symposium and has been a member of the research committee, national scientific program committee and Young Investigators Award Group. He is also a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Larry King Cardiac Foundation and serves as the National Chairman of the Entertainment Industry Foundation’s National Cardiovascular Research Initiative (NCRI), which was launched in 2001. He was a member of the Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee (RAC) of the National Institutes of Health and serves on the Data Safety Monitoring Board of the Cell and Gene Therapy Trials of the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute of the NIH and the Scientific Publication Committee of the American Heart Association. He was also elected to the European Academy of Sciences. Dr. Shah has edited three books on heart disease and published more than 628 scientific papers, reviews, book chapters and abstracts. He serves on the editorial boards of the peer-reviewed journals: Circulation, American Journal of Cardiology, Journal of the American College of Cardiology, Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology, International Journal of Heart Failure, Indian Heart Journal, Journal of Preventive Cardiology, Reviews in Cardiovascular Medicine, Current Cardiology Reports, andJournal of Cardiovascular Pharmacology and Therapeutics. Well respected by his peers, Dr. Shah has been invited to lecture in many areas of the world and has been a Fulbright Visiting Professor to Japan, Taiwan, Argentina, Chile and Brazil. He also has served as visiting professor at highly respected medical and educational centers, including the Cleveland Clinic, Mayo Clinic, Texas Heart Institute, University of Utah, University of Virginia, University of Texas at San Antonio and Medical Branch in Galveston, University of California at San Diego and San Francisco, and Massachusetts General Hospital of Harvard Medical School. Dr. Shah is a fellow of the American College of Cardiology (ACC), the American College of Physicians, and the American College of Chest Physicians. He has been a member of the ACC’s Annual Scientific Program Committee and he has co-chaired the Clinical Cardiology (ClinCard) Spotlight sessions. He has won numerous awards, including the Gifted Teacher Award from the American College of Cardiology, an Excellence in Teaching Award from the dean of the University of California, Los Angeles School of Medicine, and two Golden Apple Awards from the school’s senior medical students. In 2002, he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Los Angeles-American Heart Association and he has received the Heart Saver award from the Save-A-Heart Foundation and Humanitarian Award from the United Hostesses Charities in 1995 and 2006. In October 2007, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center awarded Dr. Shah the Pioneer in Medicine Award, the highest award given at the Medical Center. In 2008, he received the annual distinguished teaching award from the Cardiology Fellows at Cedars Sinai. Also in 2008, Dr. Shah received two very prestigious awards from the American Heart Association during its annual scientific sessions in New Orleans: The James B Herrick Award and The Laennec Society Lectureship Award. In 2012, Dr. Shah was presented with The Steven S. Cohen Humanitarian Award from The Heart Foundation Dr. Shah joined the medical center’s Department of Cardiology staff in 1977 as attending cardiologist, and was named director of Radionuclide Research on the Coronary Care Unit, a post he held until 1984. From 1979 to 1984, Shah served as director of NIH-sponsored Clinical Core of Specialized Center of Research (SCOR) at Cedars-Sinai. He was principal investigator of a study funded by a National Institutes of Health SCOR grant for the application of radionuclides in the evaluation of acute myocardial infarction. He was named chairman of the fourth-year student cardiology training program in 1980, a position he held until 1997. From 1980 until 1995, he served as director of the inpatient cardiology and coronary care units. Dr. Shah received his premedical degree from Sri Pratap College in his hometown of Srinagar, Kashmir, India. He also received his medical degree from Medical College in Srinagar and completed an internship at SMHS Hospital before moving on to New Delhi’s All India Institute of Medical Sciences for a residency in neurology. Following an internship at Mount Sinai Hospital in Milwaukee, Dr. Shah completed two more residencies in internal medicine – one at Mount Sinai in Milwaukee and the other at Montefiore Hospital of Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. After a fellowship in cardiology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine-Montefiore, Medical Center, he came to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in 1976 and completed a research fellowship in cardiology the following year. He was named director of the medical center’s Cardiovascular Fellowship Training Program in 1988 and director of the Atherosclerosis Research Center in 1993. He has held the Shapell and Webb Family Endowed Chair in Cardiology since 1990 and served as director of the Division of Cardiology from 1995 – 2013.
Harvey Hecht, MD is a practicing Cardiologist (Heart Specialist) in New York, NY. Dr. Hecht graduated from Wayne State University School of Medicine in 1968 and has been in practice for 51 years. He completed a residency at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. Dr. Hecht also specializes in Internal Medicine. He currently practices at Lenox Hill Hospital Interventional Cardiac & Vascular Services and is affiliated with Jamaica Hospital Medical Center and North Shore LIJ Lenox Hill Hospital. Dr. Hecht accepts multiple insurance plans including MagnaCare, Great West and Cigna. Dr. Hecht is board certified in Cardiovascular Disease and Internal Medicine. In addition to English, Dr. Hecht’s practice supports these languages: Spanish, Russian and German.
Dr. Cohn is a 1956 graduate of the Cornell University Medical School, and completed his internship and residency at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston. From 1960 to 1965, he was a cardiovascular research fellow and clinical investigator at Georgetown University and the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Washington, DC. In 1965 he became the chief of hypertension and clinical hemodynamics at this VA Medical Center, and a professor of medicine at Georgetown University. Dr. Cohn joined the University of Minnesota faculty as chair of the cardiovascular division in 1974, and served in this position through 1996. Dr. Cohn is internationally recognized for his numerous contributions to the cardiology field. He fostered applying physiologic principles to the management of cardiovascular disease, pioneered assessing cardiovascular function in patients with hypertension, acute myocardial infarction, shock, and heart failure, and first identified the syndrome of right-ventricular infarction. Dr. Cohn was among the first to advocate bedside hemodynamic monitoring in acutely-ill patients, a concept that led directly to the development of intensive-care units. These seminal discoveries establish Dr. Cohn as a founder of many contemporary therapies for heart disease. Dr. Cohn’s contributions to the study and treatment of heart failure are many and exemplary. His laboratory and clinical research established that left-ventricular structural remodeling is the basis for progressive heart failure, and he was among the first to identify neurohormonal activation in vasoconstriction as a key contributor to this progression Dr. Cohn organized and chaired the first long-term clinical trials in heart failure, the Veterans Affairs Cooperative Study Program on Vasodilator Therapy of Heart Failure (V-HeFT). Known for his leadership in designing and conducting clinical trials that determine the efficacy of potential therapies for heart failure, Dr. Cohn was the first to document and advocate the value of vasodilator drugs in improving left-ventricular function. This discovery led to the development of vasodilating and neurohormonal-inhibiting medications (including nitroprusside, nitrates with hydralazine, and converting-enzyme inhibitors) that are the current standard of care. In 1994, Dr. Cohn founded the Heart Failure Society of America, now the world’s premier organization dedicated to the diagnosis and treatment of heart failure, and served as its first president. He also founded the first journal dedicated to heart failure, the Journal of Cardiac Failure, and was its editor-in-chief. He serves on the editorial boards of many major journals, is the author of more than 700 scientific publications, and is the co-editor of two texts, Cardiovascular Medicine and Drug Treatment of Heart Failure. Dr. Cohn has written extensively on the topics of circulatory physiology, hypertension, vascular compliance, nervous-system control mechanisms in heart failure, and congestive heart failure and its treatment Dr. Cohn’s recent work involves screening asymptomatic individuals for cardiovascular disease, so that therapy can be initiated and disease progression prevented. His innovative early-detection methods include diagnosing stiffening in small arteries. Developed at the University of Minnesota, this methodology is now FDA-approved and marketed worldwide Dr. Cohn holds several patents related to pulsewave analysis for arterial-elasticity measurement, and to the use of hydralazine and isosorbide dinitrate to treat heart failure. He has presented numerous honorary lectures worldwide, and has served as a visiting professor at many national and international universities
Daniel S. Berman, MD, FACC, is Chief of Cardiac Imaging and Nuclear Cardiology at the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute and the S. Mark Taper Foundation Imaging Center. He also serves as Medical Director of the Artificial Intelligence in Medicine Program at Cedars-Sinai as well as Cedars-Sinai’s Biomedical Imaging Research Institute. He is a Professor of Imaging at Cedars-Sinai and a Professor of Medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Considered one of the founding fathers of nuclear cardiology, Dr. Berman one of the early developers of the concept of “multimodality cardiac imaging” – the use of a variety of noninvasive technologies to establish an accurate picture of the heart and its function.
During his career, Dr. Berman has received more than $23 million in research grants and he and his team have been credited with numerous of innovations in the fields of nuclear cardiology and cardiac imaging. His current studies are exploring clinical applications of cardiac PET, SPECT, cardiac CT and cardiovascular MR, as well as developing automated computer-based methods for evaluating medical images.
Dr. Berman established the largest and most extensively studied patient database in the field of cardiac imaging, analyzing information from more than 60,000 patients. Factoring 400 variables per patient, he and his team developed statistical models to predict the likelihood of severe cardiac events. The databases have allowed his team to play and important role in shaping the way cardiac imaging is applied around the world in a wide spectrum of patients with suspected or known coronary artery disease.
Dr. Berman has authored more than 500 original manuscripts, written 110 book chapters and edited or co-edited five books. He is a fellow of the American College of Cardiology, the American Heart Association, the American Society of Nuclear Cardiology, and the Society of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography and has held leadership positions in each of the associated professional societies.
As a founding member of the Society of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography, he has played an integral role in the society’s development, sitting on the board of directors, serving as president in 2008-2009, chairing multiple committees and lecturing at the society’s annual scientific sessions. He also was a founding member of the American Society of Nuclear Cardiology and currently sits on its board of directors.
Formerly an associate editor for the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, Dr. Berman is an associate editor of the Journal of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography, in which he has published many original research, guideline and review articles. He has served on several other journal boards.
Dr. Berman received the American College of Cardiology’s Gifted Teacher Award in 2000. Cedars-Sinai’s medical staff selected him for the prestigious Pioneer in Medicine Award in 2010. In 2012, he received Georg Charles de Hevesy Nuclear Pioneer Award by the Society of Nuclear Medicine for his contributions to the nuclear medicine profession.
Dr. Berman earned his medical degree from the University of California, San Francisco and completed residencies in internal medicine and nuclear medicine as well as a fellowship in cardiology at the University of California, Davis. He is board-certified in internal medicine, cardiology and nuclear medicine.
Tasneem Z. Naqvi, MD is Associate Director of the Cardiac Noninvasive Laboratory and Director of Interventional Echocardiography at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in the Division of Cardiology. Dr. Naqvi is also Assistant Professor of Medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of Los Angeles (UCLA).
She is board-certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine, American Board of Cardiovascular Disease, National Board of Echocardiography and Society of Vascular Technology.
Dr. Naqvi is a cardiologist and researcher specializing in the performance and interpretations of transthoracic echo-Doppler and transesophageal echo-Doppler studies, stress echocardiographic intracardiac, coronary and vascular ultrasound studies.
Her primary research interests focus on depression and heart disease, hypertension and vascular disease, diastolic heart function, ultrasound guidance of device closures of atrial septal defects, as well as newer techniques in echocardiography, such as Tissue Doppler imaging, myocardial perfusion and intracardiac echocardiography.
She is currently conducting studies on Doppler tissue imaging in patients with heart failure to detect appropriate patients for cardiac resynchronization therapy as well as examining the influence of lipid-lowering on vascular anatomy and function.
Dr. Naqvi has published numerous manuscripts, peer-reviewed articles, several invited papers and abstracts for prestigious journals, such as the American Journal of Cardiology, Circulation, Journal of the American Society of Echocardiography, The New England Journal of Medicine and the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. She is a reviewer for several journals, including the Journal of American Society of Echocardiography, Journal of the American College of Cardiology, American Journal of Cardiology, Echocardiography, Archives of Internal Medicine and American Journal of Medical Sciences.
Her research efforts have generated numerous research awards from a variety of organizations. As Associate Professor of Medicine at the UCLA School of Medicine, Dr. Naqvi’s work includes mentoring medical, college and high school students as well as medical residents and fellows. Dr. Naqvi has delivered lectures and presentations nationally and internationally and serves as a consultant for prestigious companies in the pharmaceutical and medical device industry.
Dr. Naqvi is an active member of numerous prestigious professional societies, including the Vascular Strategy Task Force and the Women’s Health Advisory Group at the American Society of Echocardiography; and a member of Cardiovascular Imaging Committee and the Education Committee at the American College of Cardiology. She also has served as President of the Los Angeles Society of Echocardiography from 1999 to 2000. Dr. Naqvi has served on the Board of Directors of the Los Angeles Society of Echocardiography since 1977. She is a member of the Royal College of Physicians in London and a Fellow of the American College of Cardiology and the American Society of Echocardiogray.
Dr. Naqvi obtained her MBBS at the Dow Medical College and her postgraduate education in Internal Medicine at Aga Khan University Hospital and Civil Hospital, in Karachi, Pakistan. While in the United Kingdom, she was Senior House Officer at Lister Hospital in Stevenage and Registrar in Internal Medicine at Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Birmingham. She continued her residency in internal medicine in the United States at Stony Brook University Hospital in New York and her fellowship in clinical cardiology at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.