Cardionerds: A Cardiology Podcast

Best-selling author Dr. Martha Gulati joins the CardioNerds squad, Carine Hamo, Heather Kagan, Amit Goyal, and Daniel Ambinder for an unbelievable discussion on women's cardiovascular health relevant to anyone taking care of women. Topics discussed include disparities in diagnosis, treatment, and outcomes in women vs men, sex specific risk factors for cardiovascular disease, special considerations for the evaluation of women presenting with chest pain, and cardiac conditions that have a female predominance, how to be a trailblazer in cardiovascular medicine and so much more! Check out the Women's Cardiovascular Health Topic Page Take me to episode topics page Dr. Martha Gulati completed medical school at the University of Toronto, Canada and her internship, residency and cardiology fellowship at the University of Chicago. She previously served as the Sarah Ross Soter Chair in Women’s Cardiovascular Health and the section director for Women’s Cardiovascular Health and Preventive Cardiology at Ohio State University. She currently serves as division chief of Cardiology for the UA College of Medicine – Phoenix. She is also editor-in-chief of ACC’s CardioSmart.  Dr. Gulati has made incredible contributions to researching cardiovascular disease in women. She is the principal investigator of the St. James Women Take Heart Project, a co-investigator on the Women Ischemic Syndrome Evaluation (WISE); previously served as a co-investigator on the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI); a member of numerous advisory boards and societies, including the American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology; and has published articles in The New England Journal of Medicine, Circulation and Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). She is also the best-selling author of Saving Women’s Hearts! References Gulati, M., & Merz, C. (2016). Advances in Lipid Therapy: The Role of Lipid Treatment in Women in Primary Prevention. Progress in Cardiovascular Diseases.Gulati, M. (2017). Improving the Cardiovascular Health of Women in the Nation: Moving beyond the Bikini Boundaries. Circulation, 135(6), 495-498. Lippincott Williams and Wilkins.Wenger NK (2005) Women in cardiology: The US experience. Heart.Douglas PS, Rzeszut AK, Noel Bairey Merz C, Duvernoy CS, Lewis SJ, Walsh MN, Gillam L (2018) Career preferences and perceptions of cardiology among us internal medicine trainees factors influencing cardiology career choice. JAMA Cardiol.Wenger NK, Speroff L, Packard B (1993) Cardiovascular Health and Disease in Women. N Engl J Med.Burgess S, Shaw E, Zaman S (2019) Women in Cardiology. Circulation.

Duke cardiology fellow, Rahul Loungani, interviews Dr. Jonathan Piccini, director of the Electrophysiology Clinical Trials Program and Arrhythmia Core Laboratory at Duke University, about atrial fibrillation management in patients with heart failure. They discuss rate vs rhythm control and strategies for both, new onset AF in the context of critical illness, wearable devices in AF, escalation of therapy in AF, ideal patient for catheter ablation, and AF patients with cardiac resynchronization therapy. On the CardioNerds Heart Failure topic page you’ll podcast episodes, references, guest experts and contributors, and so much more. Take me to the Heart Failure Topic Page Take me to episode topics page Acute Decompensated Heart Failure Primer – Youtube Jonathan P. Piccini, MD, MHS is a clinical cardiac electrophysiologist and Associate Professor of Medicine at Duke University Medical Center and the Duke Clinical Research Institute. His research interests include the conduct of clinical trials and the assessment of cardiovascular therapeutics for the care of patients with heart rhythm disorders. At present, he is the Director of the EP Clinical Trials Program and Arrhythmia Core Laboratory at Duke University. He also serves on the Clinical Working Group of the American Heart Association’s Get With The Guidelines – Atrial fibrillation (GWTG-Afib) registry program. He is an associate editor for the American Heart Journal and serves on the editorial board of Heart Rhythm, the European Heart Journal, and the Journal of Cardiac Electrophysiology. He is the Principal Investigator of the data and coordinating center for ORBIT AF, a 25,000 patient registry focused on quality of care and improving outcomes in patients with atrial fibrillation. He is also the PI of the GENETIC AF clinical trial, the first clinical trial to study genotype-directed rhythm control therapy for atrial fibrillation. He also serves on the steering committees of multiple international randomized trials focused on the treatment of atrial fibrillation.  Dr. Piccini has more than 175 publications in the field of heart rhythm medicine. Clinically, his focus is on the care of patients with atrial fibrillation and complex arrhythmias, with particular emphasis on catheter ablation and lead extraction. Dr. Rahul Loungani completed medical school at the medical university of SC and then traveled to Baltimore for internal medicine training in the Osler Residency Program at the Johns Hopkins Hospital.  Here he fell in love with the management and hemodynamics of critically ill patients. He is currently a third-year cardiology fellow at Duke University Medical Center where he will also be pursuing fellowship in advanced heart failure and transplant cardiology next year. His current interests are in Cardiac amyloid, In particular its arrhythmic manifestations, early diagnosis, and novel therapeutics. He also loves teaching the housestaff and was awarded the Cassell-Saperstein award at Duke,  recognizing the fellow who most demonstrates a commitment to teaching and passion for clinical education. Outside of the hospital loves being a new dad to baby Arya

Dr. JoAnn Lindenfeld, Director of Heart Failure at Vanderbilt Heart and Vascular Institute, joins fellows Richa Gupta and Jessica Huston for a deep dive into heart transplantation. They explore the intricacies of organ allocation and recipient selection, stressing the need for equitable processes. The discussion also highlights innovative strategies to expand the donor pool, including using hepatitis C positive hearts. Additionally, the team navigates the critical challenges post-surgery, covering the importance of immunosuppressive medications and long-term care strategies.

Carine and Dan delve into left ventricular assist devices (LVAD) 101 with Dr. Steven Hsu, heart failure specialist at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. We get big picture, we get detail oriented and we hit the highlights for the psycho-social-and medical management of our LVAD patient population.

Amit and co-fellow Dr. Kartik Telukuntla discuss advanced heart failure therapies, or salvage therapies, with Dr. Jerry Estep, section head of heart failure at the Cleveland Clinic. Show page: https://www.cardionerds.com/heart-failure-awareness-cardionerds-series/ Dr. Jerry Estep earned his bachelor of arts at the University of Texas, Austin and subsequently received his medical degree from Baylor College of Medicine. He completed internal medicine residency training at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and went back to Baylor for his cardiology and heart failure fellowship training. Prior to joining Cleveland Clinic in 2018 as our section head for the division of heart failure and transplant, Dr. Estep was the Section Head of Heart Failure at Methodist DeBakey in Houston, Texas. Dr. Estep has been involved in numerous clinical trials and co-authored over a 100 peer reviewed articles. He has a special interest in mechanical circulatory support devices and has published heavily on the percutaneous placement of intra-aortic balloon pump in the axillary artery as a long-term  support option to bridge patients to transplant.

Dr. Randall Starling, former section head of Heart Failure at the Cleveland Clinic and past president of the Heart Failure Society of America, shares his expertise on guideline-directed medical therapy for heart failure. He discusses the critical role of beta blockers, the importance of personalized treatment approaches, and the challenges faced in diverse clinical trials. The conversation also touches on the emotional journeys of patients, the significance of education in treatment adherence, and the evolving landscape of heart failure medications.

Dan and Carine chat with cardiomyopathy expert Dr. Ed Kasper with regards to his approach to the new onset heart failure patient. This episode is dedicated to Dr. Kasper's mentor and friend, Dr. Kenneth L. Baughman. Dr. Edward K. Kasper, is a graduate of the Johns Hopkins University with a B.A. in Natural Sciences. He earned his M.D. at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine. His internship and residency in Internal Medicine and assistant chief of service (ACS) of the Thayer service as well as his fellowship in Cardiology, were completed at the Johns Hopkins Hospital, where he then joined the faculty in 1993. He is currently the E. Cowles Andrus Professor of Cardiology and Director of Clinical Cardiology at Johns Hopkins Medicine. Show page: https://www.cardionerds.com/heart-failure-awareness-cardionerds-series/

In conjunction with the 2020 Heart Failure Awareness Week, sponsored by the Heart Failure Society of America the CardioNerds are supporting the society’s efforts to promote heart failure awareness, patient education, and heart failure prevention by launching our Heart Failure Awareness CardioNerds Series.  This series is a tribute to Dr. David Taylor. Dr. Taylor was a heart failure attending at the Cleveland Clinic.  He died early morning of Thursday, February 5th 2020. We remember him for the legend he is. A passionate clinician, skilled educator, devoted mentor. Series page: https://www.cardionerds.com/heart-failure-awareness-cardionerds-series/

Dr. Ron Witteles from Standford university provides an approach to cardiac amyloid and specifically AL (Light-Chain) Cardiac Amyloidosis. The discussion is lead by Amit and Dr. Ashley Bock. This episode is the fourth and final part of our immersive journey into the jungle of beta-pleated sheets in the heart. We focus on AL amyloidosis in this episode. Flutter moment by Lois Adamski. On the CardioNerds Cardiac Amyloid Topic Page you will find podcast episodes, infographic, references, guest contributors, flutter stars, and so much more. Take me to the Amyloid Topic Page Take me to episode topics page Cardiac imaging for Amyloid - Youtube  Dr. Ronald Witteles is a graduate of Northwestern University where he earned his B.A. in Biology, and of the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine, where he earned his M.D. with Honors.  He then moved west to Stanford University where he completed IM residency and Cardiology fellowship training, serving as both Chief Resident and Chief Fellow. He subsequently joined the faculty at Stanford, and is currently appointed as Professor of Medicine (Cardiovascular Medicine). He has served as Program Director for the Stanford University Internal Medicine Residency Training Program for more than 10 years, where he leads a residency program of approximately 140 residents.  He is Co-Director of the Stanford Amyloid Center – one of the nation’s largest centers in the country which specializes in the treatment of patients with amyloidosis, and he leads an active research program in this area. He also serves as Co-Director of the Stanford Multidisciplinary Sarcoidosis Program, and he is a national leader in Cardio-Oncology, serving as Associate Editor for the country’s premier journal dedicated to the field, JACC: CardioOncology.  Dr. Ashley Bock earned her medical degree at the University of Colorado and completed her internal medicine residency training at Duke University.  From there she came to the Cleveland Clinic for general cardiology fellowship and advanced heart failure training. She joins our team today to discuss AL cardiac amyloidosis with Dr. Witelles.

Cardionerds (Daniel Ambinder and Carine Hamo) chat with Dr. Virginia Hahn about her work profiling HFpEF patients via endomyocardial biopsy only to find a significant proportion of patients with unsuspected cardiac amyloid. This is followed by a high yield discussion with Dr. Joban Vaishnav about ATTR cardiac amyloid treatment and management options. Flutter moment by David Ambinder (MS IV). On the CardioNerds Cardiac Amyloid Topic Page you will find podcast episodes, infographic, references, guest contributors, flutter stars, and so much more. Take me to the Amyloid Topic PageTake me to episode topics pageCardiac imaging for Amyloid - Youtube  Dr. Virginia Shalkey Hahn is a fourth-year Cardiology fellow at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, MD. She earned her medical degree from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, where she stayed for residency. She moved to Johns Hopkins for Cardiology fellowship (after a 1 year hiatus as an ICU hospitalist). During fellowship, she completed 2 years on the NIH T32 Training grant and one year as chief fellow. She feels passionate about translational heart failure research and mothering her 2 young children. Dr. Joban Vaishnav completed her undergraduate and medical school training at St. Louis University. She has since been at Johns Hopkins for residency, cardiology fellowship, and advanced heart failure fellowship. Her early research pursuits were in heart failure with preserved ejection fraction. From this, and from her advanced heart failure training, she developed a strong clinical interest and research interest in early diagnosis and treatment of cardiac amyloidosis. In addition to the great discussion on Cardiac Amyloid ATTR treatment, we are excited to have Dan's brother, David, join the Cardionerds cardiology podcast to share a special flutter moment! David Ambinder is a 4th year medical student at the University of Maryland and will be starting urology residency this coming July at Westchester Medical Center. He grew up in New York and graduated from Touro College before heading to Baltimore for medical school. He enjoys spending time with his wife Samantha and 3 lovely children. Carine Hamo, MDDaniel Ambinder, MD